terminal-screen (A Terminal Screen Renderer)

This project implements a terminal screen renderer using OCaml. It parses a stream of binary-encoded commands and renders graphical instructions in a terminal. This is achieved by interpreting the commands to setup a virtual screen, draw characters, lines, and text, manipulate the cursor, and clear the screen.

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Below are the links to the proposal and corresponding UML Diagrams:

Project's proposal

Below is the project's proposal in PDF format.

Project Proposal (PDF)

Use Case Diagram

Below is the use case diagram in PDF format:

Use Case Diagram (PDF)

Sequence Diagram

Below is the sequence diagram in PDF format:

Sequence Diagram (PDF)

Flowchart Diagram

Below is a flowchart diagram in PDF format:

Flowchart Diagram (PDF)

MVP: Making Progress

This section outlines the progress of the project as of 9/12/2024. Below is the document in PDF format:

MVP: Making Progress (PDF)

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Features

• Screen Setup: Initialise a virtual terminal screen with customisable dimensions and colour modes.
• Draw Characters: Place individual characters at specific coordinates.
• Draw Lines: Render straight lines between two points with specified characters and colours.
• Render Text: Display strings of text starting at a given position.
• Cursor Movement: Move the cursor without rendering.
• Screen Clearing: Reset the screen content.
• EOF Handling: Terminate rendering upon receiving an end-of-file command.

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Binary Command Format

The program processes a binary input with the following structure:

Command Byte	Length Byte	Data Bytes
1 byte	1 byte	Depends on the command

Command Specifications

Command	Code	Description	Data Format
Setup Screen	0x1	Initialise screen dimensions and colour mode.	Byte 0: Width, Byte 1: Height, Byte 2: Colour Mode
Draw Character	0x2	Draw a character at specific coordinates.	Byte 0: x, Byte 1: y, Byte 2: Colour, Byte 3: ASCII
Draw Line	0x3	Draw a line between two coordinates.	Byte 0-4: Coordinates, Byte 5: Color, Byte 6: ASCII
Render Text	0x4	Display text starting at a given position.	Byte 0-2: Position & Colour, Byte 3-n: ASCII text
Cursor Move	0x5	Move cursor to a specific position.	Byte 0: x, Byte 1: y
Draw at Cursor	0x6	Draw at the current cursor position.	Byte 0: ASCII, Byte 1: Colour
Clear Screen	0x7	Reset the screen.	No data
End of File	0xFF	End of the binary stream.	No data

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Project Structure

terminal-screen/
├── README.md
├── bin/
|   ├── main.ml
├── lib/
│   ├── *.ml
│   ├── *.mli
├── test/
│   ├── test_module.ml
├── .gitignore
├── .ocamlformat
├── dune-project
├── library.opam
├── AUTHORS
└── Makefile

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Getting Started

Prerequisites

Installation

1. Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/terminal_screen.git
cd terminal_screen

2. Install dependencies:

sudo apt get opam
opam install . --deps-only -y

3. Activate the environment:

eval $(opam env)

Build the Program

• To build the program in an executable:

opam exec -- dune build

Running the Program

• To execute the program:

dune exec terminal_screen_app

Running Tests

Execute all unit tests:

opam exec -- dune runtest

Authors

Boniface Munga - Github / X