readchat

a simple program to display twitch chat in your terminal

note this doesn't require an oauth token.

---

usage:

readchat some_channel

readchat 0.4.2

description:
    simply read-only client for a single twitch channel's chat

usage:
    readchat <channel>

flags:
    -h, --help             prints this message
    -v, --version          prints the version
    -d, --debug            use simulated debug stream instead
    -t, --transcribe       log this channel to a file (when not in debug mode)
    -l, --log-dir          print the log directory and exit

optional flags:
    -n, --nick-max <int>   the max width before truncation of nicknames
    -b, --buffer-max <int> the number of messages to keep in the redraw queue
    -m, --min-width <int>  if window size is below this, use a compact view
    -s, --timestamp        render timestamps of messages, in the compact view

arguments:
    <string>               the twitch channel to join

---

keybinds:

key	action	remarks
ctrl-c	quit	---
ctrl-r	force a redraw	---
ctrl-d	delete a line	press ctrl-d to exit this mode without deleting
<	shrink name column	minimum is 5 columns
>	grow name column	maximum is 30 columns
t	toggle the timestamps	only applicable in compact mode

deleting:

when you press ctrl-d the view will change to:

press the cooresponding letter on the bracket (the left most column) to delete that message. such as C.

if you don't want to delete a message, just press ctrl-d again to exit this view.

design decisions:

while the 'mark view' is active. rendering is paused, but messages are still buffered.

this makes it easier to pick a line without the chat scrolling. but the downside is that when you exit the view all of the new messages are inserted instantly.

the 'marks' are generated in reverse order because the most commonly deleted messages are new ones. so.. A then backward to Z.

if you have more than 26 lines, the total available marks are: A-Z0-9a-z.

NOTE the numerals are in the middle so its easier to see the separation

---

demo mode:

pass the --debug flag (e.g. readchat --debug)

you can set these env vars to configure this mode

var	description	default
READCHAT_UNIQUE	how many unique chatters to generate	5 (names)
READCHAT_DURATION_LOWER	lower bound of random range between messages	150 (milliseconds)
READCHAT_DURATION_UPPER	upper bound of random range between messages	1500 (milliseconds)
READCHAT_LENGTH_LOWER	lower bound of characters per message	5 (letters)
READCHAT_LENGTH_UPPER	upper bound of characters per message	300 (letters)