<!-- GitHub doesn't support line-height style in markdown, so I can't use inline HTML for the screenshot without seams between rows of text. But I can include the HTML inside <foreignObject> in an SVG file and include that as an <img> element. -->
<!-- GitHub doesn't support figure/figcaption in markdown, so I have to use a table. -->
<tr><tdalign="center">This screenshot of Textual Paint is the terminal's screen buffer copied as HTML, wrapped in SVG, placed in HTML inside Markdown.<br>This might not render correctly in your browser.</tr></td>
- [x] Warnings when overwriting an existing file, or closing with unsaved changes
- File formats:
- [ ] PNG (.png)
- [ ] Bitmap (.bmp)
- [x] ANSI (.ans)
- Note that while it can load the files that it saves, you may have limited success loading other ANSI files that you find. ANSI files can vary a lot and even encode animations!
- [x] Efficient screen updates and undo/redo history, by tracking regions affected by each action
- You could totally use this program over SSH! Haha, this "what if" project could actually be useful. Of course, it should be mentioned that you can also run graphical programs over SSH, but this might be more responsive, or just fit your vibe better.
- Undo/Redo doesn't work with text. Ctrl+Z will delete the textbox. (Also note that the Text tool works differently from MS Paint; it will overwrite characters and the cursor can move freely, which makes it better for ASCII art and worse for prose.)
- The selection box border appears inside instead of outside (and lacks dashes). For the text box, I hid the border because it was too visually confusing, but it should also have an outer border.
- Pick Color can't be cancelled (with Esc or by pressing both mouse buttons), since it samples the color continuously.
- Pressing both mouse buttons stops the current tool, but doesn't undo the current action.
- Help > Help Topics isn't very helpful. I thought it would be funny to include the command line usage, but it doesn't even describe the options, unlike running with `--help`.
- Clicking the Zoom submenu doesn't always work. You just have to click it a few times before it opens. <!--(It may be technically open but positioned off screen, or lacking width/height, or infinitely sized. I don't know. It seems to explode in size before disappearing.)-->
- Loading and saving a file without making any edits can change color values slightly, e.g. 128 → 127. The Color Eraser feature compensates for this with a slight tolerance, but the fill tool does not.
`--clear-screen` is useful for development, because it's sometimes jarring to see error messages that have actually been fixed, when exiting the program.
`--inspect-layout` lets you middle click to visualize the layout breakdown by labeling each widget in the hierarchy, and coloring their regions. The labels affect the layout, so you can also hold Ctrl to only colorize, and you can remember how the colors correspond to the labels, to build a mental model of the layout.
`--restart-on-changes` automatically restarts the program when any Python files change. This works by the program restarting itself directly. (Programs like `modd` or `nodemon` that run your program in a subprocess don't work well with Textual's escape sequences.)
The first thing I did in this project was to collect possible characters to represent all the tool icons in MS Paint, to gauge how good of a recreation it would be possible to achieve, starting from looks.
The default symbols used may not be the best on your particular system, so I may add some kind of configuration for this in the future.
### Cursor
A crosshair cursor could use one of `+✜✛✚╋╬`, but whilst that imitates the look, it might be better to show the pixel under the cursor, i.e. character cell, surrounded by dashes, like this:
- [Playscii](http://vectorpoem.com/playscii/), a beautiful ASCII/ANSI art editor. This is also written in Python and MIT licensed, so I might take some code from it, for converting images to ANSI, for example. Maybe even try to support (or piggy back off of) its file format.
