I gotta say, I adore the fact that we're still using something very similar to 1980s "graphics characters" / "MouseText" / "Petscii" in 2026

(No, the QR code won't work for you, it's just an example :)

~ $ qrcp something.png 
Scan the following URL with a QR reader to start the file transfer, press CTRL+C or "q" to exit:
http://192.168.1.27:34909/send/gegg
█████████████████████████████████████
█████████████████████████████████████
████ ▄▄▄▄▄ █ ▀▀█  ▄▄▀█▄█▀█ ▄▄▄▄▄ ████
████ █   █ █▀▄▄▄ █▀▀▄█▀▀▄█ █   █ ████
████ █▄▄▄█ ██▄▀▄▀▀▄▀ ▄▀▀▀█ █▄▄▄█ ████
████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█ █ ▀ █▄▀ █▄█▄█▄▄▄▄▄▄▄████
████ ▀▄ ▀ ▄▄█▄▀ █ ▀ ▄ █ ▀▀ ▀▀▄█▄ ████
█████ █  ▀▄██ ▀  ▄██▀ ▀█ ▀█▀▄▀▄▄▀████
████▄▄█▄██▄█ ▀▀ ▀█ ▄█  █ ▄▀▀ ▄▄▀▀████
████▀▀█ █▄▄ ▀ ▀▄▄▄▀▄█ ▀▄▄▀ █▀▄▄ ▄████
████▄█ ▀▀ ▄█▀▄▀▀▄█ ▀ █▀█▀  ▄▄█▀ █████
████▄██ ▀▀▄█ █ ▀▀  ▀▄ ▀▀█▀▄▀▄▄ ██████
█████▄████▄█ ▄▄▄ ▄▄██▄█  ▄▄▄   ▀▀████
████ ▄▄▄▄▄ █ █ ▄ ▀  ▀██▀ █▄█  █ █████
████ █   █ █▀▄ ▀█▀█ ▄▀ █▄▄  ▄▄▀██████
████ █▄▄▄█ █▄  ▀  █▄█ ▄ ▀█ ▄ ▄█▀▄████
████▄▄▄▄▄▄▄█▄█▄██▄▄█▄████▄▄█▄█▄▄█████
█████████████████████████████████████
▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀▀
~ $ 

#MouseText #Petscii #Unicode

@webshinra @nixCraft

Yes it is. Go and read about #MouseText.

@nixCraft

Of course, Apple showed us how to have buttons and frames and menus (and even a mouse pointer) on a text display many years ago, and Unicode 13 has made that system possible once again.

#MouseText #VirtualTerminals

I've just re-done some doco, based upon what's coming up in the next release. I posted screenshots of what this looks like, #MouseText and all, a little while ago.

I still have to physically resurrect the Debian development/test/build machine, with its dead hardware, before I can do a release. Those with GOPHER access can follow along, though, as the development source archive is up to date.

http://jdebp.info/Softwares/nosh/guide/virtual-terminal-login.html

#nosh #login #envuidgid #VirtualTerminals

The with-PAM flavour only prompts for one thing at a time, even though PAM has the capability for multiple messages in one go. The 7-segment digit characters are in the same Unicode block as most of the MouseText.

#nosh #login #MouseText #Unicode

I'm sick of the terminal login on my computer using "glass TTY" semantics from 1968, when cursor addressability for character mode terminals has been around since the 1970s and pseudo-graphics have been around since the 1980s (and have been in Unicode since 2020).

Yes, I intentionally ran the without-#PAM flavour. Yes, terminal emulators capable of UTF-8 have been around for decades. This is Microsoft Terminal with the #unscii font, as it happens.

#nosh #login #MouseText

@viznut

I've had this test chart hanging around for some while, and I don't remember whether it was a modification to yours that I knocked together. Did you do a Mouse Text test? I suspect that it was me. (-:

#Unscii #MouseText

@asie

MobaXTerm fares somewhat better, getting REP of non-BMP characters right.

But conversely it seems unable to comprehend unscii-16, and insists upon unscii font glyphs being only 8 lines high, resulting in massive gutters between rows.

And only unscii has the glyphs for MouseText. They're not in Cascadia Mono, for example.

#MobaXTerm #MouseText #Unicode #ECMA48

Microsoft Terminal goes badly wrong when REP is combined with characters outwith the BMP. Microsoft Terminal Preview is better, but still goes wrong sometimes when (as in the second image here on the bottom scrollbar) told to REP a character.

#MicrosoftTerminal #MouseText #Unicode #ECMA48