https://github.com/nojvek/matrix-rain

The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters in a terminal
https://github.com/nojvek/matrix-rain

Last synced: 1 day ago
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The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters in a terminal

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/nojvek/matrix-rain
• Owner: nojvek
• License: mit
• Created: 2015-12-24T23:26:23.000Z (almost 9 years ago)
• Default Branch: master
• Last Pushed: 2023-07-21T01:33:53.000Z (over 1 year ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-10-28T04:19:52.424Z (8 days ago)
• Language: JavaScript
• Homepage:
• Size: 189 KB
• Stars: 435
• Watchers: 5
• Forks: 37
• Open Issues: 2
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md

Awesome Lists containing this project

• fucking-awesome-web-effect - matrix-rain - The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters in a terminal (🚀 A series of exquisite and compact web page cool effects / Rain & Snow)
• awesome-web-effect - matrix-rain - The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters in a terminal (🚀 A series of exquisite and compact web page cool effects / Rain & Snow)

README

        
# Matrix Rain

The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters in a terminal with node.

## Installation

```

npm install -g matrix-rain

```

## Usage

```

usage: matrix-rain [-h] [-v] [-d {h,v}]

                [-c {green,red,blue,yellow,magenta,cyan,white}]

                [-k {ascii,binary,braille,emoji,katakana}] [-f FILEPATH]

The famous Matrix rain effect of falling green characters as a cli command

Optional arguments:

  -h, --help            Show this help message and exit.

  -d, --direction {h,v}

                        Change direction of rain. h=horizontal, v=vertical

  -c , --color {green,red,blue,yellow,magenta,cyan,white}

                        Rain color. NOTE: droplet start is always white

  -k, --char-range {ascii,binary,braille,emoji,katakana,picto}

                        Use rain characters from char-range

  -f, --file-path FILEPATH

                        Read characters from a file instead of random

                        characters from char-range

```

## Screenshots

![Vertical Matrix](https://media.giphy.com/media/NA5S7F2dikADu/giphy.gif)

![Horizontal Matrix](https://media.giphy.com/media/uSV1MnXz3RM3u/giphy.gif)

## Story Time

On 2016 christmas eve, I watched the The Matrix (1999) and was inspired by the matrix rain effect. I was curious to see if I could replicate this effect in nodejs.

There's [blessed](https://github.com/chjj/blessed) and [node-ncurses](https://github.com/mscdex/node-ncurses) which would have helped but rather than using the library I wanted to learn how console cursor manipulation works behind the scenes. I browsed through the source code of [colors.js](https://github.com/marak/colors.js/) and got a few pointers. On that day I discovered terminal escape codes [VT100 ANSI codes table](http://ascii-table.com/ansi-escape-sequences-vt-100.php). There is also the comprehensive xterm control sequences documentation [ctlseqs](https://invisible-island.net/xterm/ctlseqs/ctlseqs.html).

Node's process.stdout has a columns and rows property. It also fires resize events like the browser. With escape codes I can treat the terminal as a canvas and paint on it. I discovered a new medium to show my art.

In general its very possible to build interactive terminal apps with great UX that are lightweight and blazing fast. I'm on that journey.