
Asciinema 2.0 - troydavis
http://blog.asciinema.org/post/two-point-o/
======
kichuku
If the developer of asciinema is here, I just want to thank you for this
amazing application. It is so useful and so easy to use. When I am learning
something new in Linux, I research a lot and finally achieve something, only
to forget how I did it a few months later. But with asciinema, I don't have
this problem. I am able to record the stuff whenever I am doing anything new
in Linux. Really glad to know about the 2.0 features especially that we don't
lose the recording if it is interrupted.

~~~
yorwba
If you just want to record, you could also try the _script_ command, which
comes preinstalled with most Unices. Asciinema's file format is more
convenient for sharing and other niceties, but you probably won't have it
installed everywhere. If you want to automatically record all SSH sessions on
your server, _script_ is the tool of choice.

I've also used it to fool programs that refuse to go into interactive mode
when their input is not a TTY, but that's more of an abuse of _script_ 's
purpose.

~~~
pankajdoharey
I have been a big supporter of script command, infact i never understood the
drive for asciinema and others like it written in various languages. I see
asciinema as a dependency to be installed by users to record a session.

~~~
sickill
script was main inspiration for asciinema. I read its source code many times,
and in the very first version it was used for recording. However on BSD based
systems (and so on macOS) the shipped version of script doesn't support
writing to a timing file, which pretty much killed it there.

Anyway, if you're only interested in replay inside a terminal, and you don't
care about sharing the recordings on the web then reaching for script first is
my recommendation. However, if we forget about the web part, there are still
useful things for local workflow, like idle time optimization,
pausing/stepping through recording and a single recording file instead of 2
(if you record timing info with script).

------
aoloe
I'm looking for a solution for creating short and clean screen casts for
teaching programming.

I want to be able to prepare my scripts in advance and then play them when
recording (or directly converting to something i can put in a webpage).

The best solution I've found to time is [https://github.com/gu-
fan/autotype.vim](https://github.com/gu-fan/autotype.vim) ... but in my tries
it was flickering a bit too much.

Does anybody know a good, lightweight and free software solution that allows
to move the cursor during the editing?

~~~
aoloe
So nicely inspired by this thread /me is trying to create his first Atom
package...

------
Corrado
Is there any way to edit these files? I know they are just JSON and you can
change the content of the files, but the timelines get kinda messed up.

Also, is there a way to capture the mouse input? I tried to make a simple demo
for one of my projects but my cursor highlighting didn't show up.

Finally, is there a way to convert these into a animated GIF, like with
ttygif?

~~~
boomlinde
_> Also, is there a way to capture the mouse input?_

This, AFAIK, only captures terminal output and timing.

 _> I tried to make a simple demo for one of my projects but my cursor
highlighting didn't show up._

The cursor highlighting is a feature of the terminal, and is not part of the
stream of text and terminal control codes that this tool captures, much like
it won't capture the particular font or colors you may have configured. That
said, some terminals allow mouse input, which is handed as control codes to
the program connected to it. The program could use that to implement text
marking.

~~~
Crespyl
That said, if you use a multiplexer like tmux, I think it would be able to
capture the internal highlighting it uses, which can be mouse driven.

~~~
boomlinde
That's a great idea!

------
dennisdamenace
If I understand - with the piping you could share a read only terminal over
the net?

My team has been using Atom and Teletype to pair - but no lightweight method
to share the test console. Could this be it?

~~~
jpineman
I also understand it to be read only. Any reason why screen or tmux session
sharing can't handle your use case?

On-topic: Great 2.0 release! Asciinema is great software for tutoring or
showing off a terminal app, I use it a lot!

~~~
dennisdamenace
We have used tmux session sharing in the past over Vagrant share - none of us
are on the same network. But I can’t say it is seemless. Tmate.io looks like a
great solution.

~~~
taddeimania
I've used tmate for this purpose and it worked well.

------
adarshr
Few months ago I was desperate for a tool that recorded the terminal and
allowed me to save the animation as a GIF. While asciinema (at least at that
time) didn’t have any straightforward way to do this, I looked elsewhere and
found [https://gifox.io](https://gifox.io) and must admit have been very
impressed with it.

~~~
sickill
You can use
[https://github.com/asciinema/asciicast2gif](https://github.com/asciinema/asciicast2gif)
to turn asciicast into GIF animation.

------
iamcreasy
Kudos to the developer. Is there any windows version planned for it? Or any
other similar software for Windows?

~~~
sickill
There's no native support for Windows due to completely different way of
terminal is implemented in Windows and Unix-like systems. But there are some
options to have it working, see this thread:
[https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema/issues/150](https://github.com/asciinema/asciinema/issues/150)
(use a fork, or run asciinema in WSL bash).

------
landr0id
This is the first I've read of the JSON Lines format. What problem does this
solve?

*answered my question shortly after posting by re-reading the blog post: "enables incremental writing and reading of the recording."

So it makes streaming data a lot easier.

~~~
hanbura
JSON lines is fairly common in cases where you don't want to hold the entire
file in memory.

------
aphexcx
Chrome refuses to load this due to an HSTS error. Any mirrors?

~~~
sickill
Oh, that's a bummer. I'll fix that!

------
skookumchuck
Oh rats. I thought this was going to be the Star Wars movie rendered in ASCII!

~~~
nevster
You mean this one?
[http://www.asciimation.co.nz/](http://www.asciimation.co.nz/)

~~~
skookumchuck
Best version ever! Love the use of @ for Leia's cinnamon rolls.

But I had thought it might be an actual ascii rendering, like people used to
do for photos. Essentially, regard the tty screen as an 80*25 set of 'pixels'.
Then pick the closest match ASCII character and foreground/background color
for each 'pixel'.

~~~
Piskvorrr
I think VLC can do that: [https://techcrunch.com/2009/09/25/output-video-as-
ascii-art-...](https://techcrunch.com/2009/09/25/output-video-as-ascii-art-in-
vlc-on-this-lazy-friday/)

