xspin 0.6.0

Python module for creating terminal spinners.

xspin

Python module for creating console spinners.

Spinner runtimes

There are two types of spinner's based on the kind of program being run.

• SyncRuntime

This is the base class for spinners running in a blocking program. They run in a separate thread. These include Xspin and CustomSpinner

• AsyncRuntime

This is the base class for spinners running in an async program. They run in a separate thread. These include Axspin and CustomAspinner

Running spinners.

There are three ways in which a spinner instance can be run. These are implemented by the runtime base classes hence apply to any of their subclasses.

• start and stop

These are methods used to start and stop a spinner.

spinner = Xspin(label="Loading ...")
spinner.start()
do_work()
spinner.stop("Done!")

For async spinners, these methods have to be awaited.

async def main():
    spinner = Axspin(label="Loading ...")
    await spinner.start()
    await do_work()
    await spinner.stop("Done!")

• Context manager

The runtimes also implement the context manager protocal. For sync spinners,

with Xspin("Loading ...") as sp:
    do_work()
    sp.echo("Done!")

For async spinners,

async def main():
    async with Axspin("Loading ...") as sp:
        await do_work()
        sp.echo("Done!")

• Binding the spinner to a function.

When a spinner is bound to a function, it returns a method which when called runs the spinner in the background as it executes. The function being bound must take in the spinner instance as the first argument. This is useful for ensuring the spinner is accessible from inside the function if logging is required.

sp = Xspin("Doing work ...")

@sp.bind 
def do_work(sp: Xspin, some_arg: str, other: int ):
    sp.echo(f" {some_arg} {other}")
    ...
    sp.echo("Done!")

do_work("Some arg", 1 )

Async spinners should be bound to async functions.

sp = Axspin("Doing work ...")

@sp.bind 
async def download(sp: Xspin, url: str, file: str):
    sp.echo(f" * Downloading <{other}>")
    ...
    sp.echo(f" * <{other}> -> {[file]}!")

async def main():
    await download("https://www.example.com/image.png", "image.png")

Interfacing with the runtimes.

When inheriting from a runtime base class, the runtime expects the render method to be defined. This is the function that is called on each update. It should return an iterable of integers which when summed returns the lines the text takes up in the terminal. This is rarely required since the module provides preconfigured classes that implement the render method automatically. These are

• Xspin and Axspin

These spinners use python's format templating to define the frames of the spinner. The format should contain the keys symbol and label. The symbols are cycled over and formated based on the format specified.

sp = Xspin(label = "Loading ...", format="{symbol} {label}",symbols=r"\|/-")

The symbols are just an iterable of strings.

NOTE If the generator is not a builtin collection, list is called on so the values are reused. Doing things for infinite iterables like itertools cycle may lead to memory errors.

• CustomSpinner and CustomAspinner

When inheriting from these base classes, they rely on the frames being implemented to return an iterable of strings representing the spinner frame. You can define it as a generator and store the spinner state in the instance itself.

class MySpinner(CustomSpinner):
    def __init__(self, count: int):
        super().__init__(delay=50)
        self.count = count

    def frames(self):
        for i in range(self.count):
            yield f"Count {i}"

with MySpinner(30) as sp:
    ... # do something
    sp.echo("Done!")     

Unix Tingz

When the spinner runs, it disables keystrokes from being echoed so they don't interfere with the spinner being rendered. Ubuntu Terminal Demo: Shows the spinner running in a typical Ubuntu terminal environment with keystrokes disabled.

Windows Tingz

On windows, virtual terminal mode is enabled in order for colors and ansi escape codes to work. This allows for the spinners to be rendered even on the old conhost.exe emulator. Windows Conhost Demo: Demonstrates how the spinner runs with virtual terminal mode enabled on Windows' old conhost.exe.

The spinner also uses escape codes specified here to enable progress indication on windows terminal's titlebar and taskbar. Windows Terminal Demo: Demonstrates the titlebar and taskbar progress inditcation when the spinner runs.

License

MIT