Devlog #05

Hi eveyrone, I hope you are all doing great ʕ•ᴥ•ʔ
Andddd we are shipping soon!

This update of SkyCanvas was mainly focused on finishing the remaining major feature before release. I spent this time implementing the export system, improving the CLI experience, and fixing a lot of small bugs.

Export System

The biggest addition in this update was the new export functionality.

SkyCanvas can now export constellations directly into image files using:

skycanvas --export <target> <format>

Supported formats: JPG, PNG, SVG and BMP

Exported files are automatically saved to:

~/SkyCanvas/Exports/

with timestamps included in their filenames.

The export system keeps the same visual style as the terminal version.
The tonight target is also supported, allowing SkyCanvas to export every currently visible constellation into separate files automatically.

Honestly, I had a lot of problems implementing export feature, even though this command might seem like an overkill, I think it is useful is some cases.

Bug Fixes & General Polish

Fixed issues related to:

• Export generation
• SVG formatting
• CLI argument handling (callback just wasn’t working)
• Duplicate console output
• Rendering behavior
• Various smaller bugs across the project

What went good

The export system integrated surprisingly well with the existing renderer. Since the rendering pipeline was already separated from the CLI logic, adding new output formats was much easier than expected.

What was hard

The biggest challenge was making exported images look exactly like the terminal version. Keeping the same proportions, colors, and Braille-style rendering outside the console required a lot of “adjustments”.

SkyCanvas is now really close to the first public release 🤍

The remaining steps are:

• Writing full README
• PyPI preparation
• Publishing version 0.1.0
• Writing files like pyproject.toml and requirements.txt

I will update on those steps too!