Discuss feasibility of 7-segment digits

[manoelpqueiroz]

Hi guys,

I was looking at the documentation to check if the Textual Digits widget could display 7-segment digits, like:

I was looking at the implementation of the Digits widget in #3073 and it seems the original proposal from #2990 geared towards this style, but ultimately could not be represented in the terminal.

Could there be a way to display the Digits widget with this style:

• Natively, using CSS styles?
• Through a development that could use the Unicode 7-segment characters (could they be "scaled" using Textual, perhaps?)?
• Through a font which uses glyphs, like this application?
• Through some other Unicode characters that could simulate the style of 7-segment digits though a combination like ASCII art?

I think it would look nice if terminal applications could employ this style in a more faithful way, would love to hear your input on that!

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[TomJGooding]

The problem with the Unicode 7-segment characters is they will only be as large as your terminal font (and aren't that widely supported).

It really depends how closely you want to emulate the 7-segment style. If you imagine trying to split the digits into separate glyphs, I don't think you'll find some characters anywhere in Unicode:

[TomJGooding]

Here's a quick example using only Block Elements. This requires four lines and obviously looks strange without those 'corner pieces'.

Text to copy

 ▄▄        ▄▄   ▄▄        ▄▄   ▄▄   ▄▄   ▄▄   ▄▄  
█  █    █    █    █ █  █ █    █       █ █  █ █  █ 
▄  ▄    ▄ ▄▀▀   ▀▀▄  ▀▀▄  ▀▀▄ ▄▀▀▄    ▄ ▄▀▀▄  ▀▀▄ 
▀▄▄▀    ▀ ▀▄▄   ▄▄▀    ▀  ▄▄▀ ▀▄▄▀    ▀ ▀▄▄▀  ▄▄▀ 

[manoelpqueiroz]

I had an inkling that having a faithful recreation of 7-segment style would be difficult. I think I'll stick with the Unicode variants.

Thanks anyway for your help!