Make Braille platform-dependent default.

[Datseris]

Platforms that Braille plotting works:

• Juno
• Linux and Mac REPL

Platforms that fail:

• IJulia
• Windows REPL
• MkDocs, but I assume also fails in plain Documenter
• General Markdown

---

I urge you to consider using this piece of code:

if isdefined(Main, :IJulia) && Main.IJulia.inited
    # Always use ASCII in IJulia until this issue is fixed:
    # https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/issues/4354
    asciidef = (canvas = DotCanvas)
elseif isdefined(Main, :Juno) && Main.Juno.isactive()
    asciidef = (canvas = BrailleCanvas)
else # If not Juno or Jupyter, it is REPL
    if Sys.iswindows()
        asciidef = (canvas = DotCanvas)
    else
        asciidef = (canvas = BrailleCanvas)
    end
end

to use platform-dependent defaults for e.g. scatterplots. Here the argument asciideff in my case is given to scatterplot.

(EDIT: I've just tested: border = :solid works in every platform. It is the canvas that messes up things)

[Evizero]

I disagree to an extend. The main utility of UnicodePlots is for working in the REPL; particularly over SSH on some remote server. While I am sad to hear that doesn't work properly on windows, it does work perfectly on OSX and Linux, which are the main systems when considering terminal work in general. I would alsoargue that for things like Jupyter and Markdown documents, one is better served using a graphical plotting package.

That all said, I am sympathetic to finding a better solution for those failure cases. My main point in this reply is that I don't think making DotCanvas the default is the solution to go for.

[Evizero]

To answer your question

why aren't the plots of the README plain text but they are linked images?

1. to show that it really is just output in a terminal
2. to show off the color support
3. because of the bad formatting of braille characters in the markdown rendering on github

The last point (which is very valid) is what I guess you are hinting at, but even if that worked perfectly I would still use images.

---

UnicodePlots is not advertised as a general purpose plotting library that plots in text, it explicitly says in its description and readme:

Unicode-based scientific plotting for working in the terminal

Advanced Unicode plotting library designed for use in Julia's REPL.

While I am happy to see people using it in other avenues as well, the use case of working in a terminal is first priority and should yield the best possible experience

[Datseris]

Alright, thanks for clarifying.

[Datseris]

Well, I've reconsider this. This issue should be open. Even if the initial scope of UnicodePlots is REPL-based plotting, mainly for Linux and Mac, this shouldn't stop anyone from expanding and improving this.

In the first comment I've added the code I currently use to have better platform-dependent defaults for my scatter plots.

As you can see, this code should be generally useful and you should consider using it as the code that decides what the defaults should be. The code I attach uses Braille in Linux/Mac REPL and in Juno but uses ASCII elsewhere.

[Evizero]

That seems like a sensible solution to me

---

Although i am not sure what exactly asciidef = (canvas = DotCanvas) is supposed to accomplish, why not simply chose one variable name such as asciidef = DotCanvas ?

note that (foo = 1) is not the same as (foo = 1,) if thats what you were going for

julia> (foo = 1)
1

julia> (foo = 1,)
(foo = 1,)

[Datseris]

Haha no sorry, I sloppyly re-formed my actual code that has more than one keyword argument. I pass asciidef... to scatterplot.

In our discussion I think the best is to simply define a function:

function defcanvas()
  if isdefined(Main, :IJulia) && Main.IJulia.inited
    # Always use ASCII in IJulia until this issue is fixed:
    # https://github.com/jupyter/notebook/issues/4354
    DotCanvas
  elseif isdefined(Main, :Juno) && Main.Juno.isactive()
    BrailleCanvas
  else # If not Juno or Jupyter, it is REPL
    if Sys.iswindows()
      DotCanvas
    else 
      BrailleCanvas
    end
end

(or maybe you want to modify it further so that it gives AsciiCanvas for lineplots)

[ChrHorn]

Note that this is no longer a problem on Windows with the new terminal.

[xanfus]

Note that this is no longer a problem on Windows with the new terminal.

Which "new terminal"? Powershell?

[ChrHorn]

This one: https://github.com/microsoft/terminal

[t-bltg]

Related: https://github.com/JuliaPlots/UnicodePlots.jl/issues/9.

[t-bltg]

Closing, as there is nothing more we can do here, see the latest spacing fixes (https://github.com/JuliaPlots/UnicodePlots.jl/pull/167).

For IJulia, use the border=:dotted trick on a BrailleCanvas. Windows seems to work (https://github.com/JuliaPlots/UnicodePlots.jl/issues/98#issuecomment-640058854), not tested.

[t-bltg]

For reference: https://github.com/JuliaPlots/UnicodePlots.jl#know-issues.