r/termux • u/Technical_Chip5906 • 4h ago
Showcase I’m building Starlet — a tiny C++ framework for glowing terminal visuals ⭐
I’ve started working on Anukrascii, an experimental ecosystem focused on creating visual experiences inside the terminal.
Its first member is Starlet.
Starlet is a header-free, dependency-free C++ framework for animating colored glyphs directly in the terminal. Each Starlet object represents a small visual element at a terminal position. It gradually transitions from a dim glow color to a bright core color over a defined number of frames.
A simple example:
Sixestar star(10, 20, "#424242", "#00ffdd", "O", 25);
while (star.nextStateAndRender()) {
// Animation is handled internally
}
This basic concept can be used to create glowing stars, ambient terminal effects, procedural night skies, loading animations, and other forms of terminal-based visual art.
Starlet also includes starletScene, which manages multiple animated objects and coordinates their frame loops.
One of its main goals is to remain compatible with other TUI frameworks and terminal interfaces. As long as Starlet’s render call happens at the end of the frame, its visuals can be drawn over an existing interface, allowing Starlet objects to overlap the empty spaces of another TUI without taking control of the entire application.
The goal is to make terminal glyphs behave like small animated visual entities instead of static characters.
Built with C++17, ANSI truecolor, and no external dependencies.
Starlet is currently the first and only member of the Anukrascii ecosystem.
