cicero

Unicode tool with a terminal user interface.

Usage

$ cicero -h
Cicero: A Unicode Tool 0.2.1 (Unicode Version 13.0.0)

USAGE:
    cicero.exe [FLAGS] [OPTIONS] [INPUT]

FLAGS:
    -u                           Parses INPUT as comma separated code points,
                                 same as '--input-type=code-points',
                                 ignored if '--input-type' is specified
    -g, --generate-flamegraph    Generate Flamegraph for all Unicode Planes,
                                 which can be loaded by Chrome's tracer UI (about:tracing)
    -h, --help                   Prints help information
    -t, --tui                    Shows Terminal UI
    -V, --version                Prints version information

OPTIONS:
    -i, --input-type <TYPE>         Specifies input type, 'string' by default,
                                    valid values: string, code-points
    -o, --output-format <FORMAT>    Specifies output format, 'text' by default,
                                    valid values: text, json

ARGS:
    <INPUT>    a string or comma separated code points

Supported Platforms

Cicero is tested on GNU/Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Installation

Homebrew Tap

The easiest way to install Cicero is via homebrew tap.

$ brew install eyeplum/tap/cicero-tui

Or alternatively:

$ brew tap eyeplum/tap
$ brew install cicero-tui

AUR

cicero can be installed from available AUR packages using an AUR helper. For example,

$ yay -S cicero

If you prefer, you can clone the AUR packages and then compile them with makepkg. For example,

$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/cicero.git
$ cd cicero
$ makepkg -si

Building From Source

You can also build Cicero from source.

Rust

Make sure the latest stable Rust toolchain is installed. See rustup.

fontconfig and freetype (macOS and Linux only)

Cicero requires fontconfig and freetype libraries to build on Unix platforms.

• On GNU/Linux (Tested on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)

  # Assuming a C/C++ compiler and CMake are installed
  # This installs shared libraries for both fontconfig and freetype
  $ sudo apt install libfontconfig1-dev

• On macOS

  # Assuming homebrew is installed
  $ brew install pkg-config fontconfig

Building

Building cicero should be as easy as:

$ git clone https://github.com/eyeplum/cicero-tui
$ cd cicero-tui
$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/cicero --version
Cicero: A Unicode Tool 0.1.0 (Unicode Version 13.0.0)

You could also copy the final product to somewhere in your PATH, for example:

$ cp target/release/cicero $HOME/.local/bin/

Configuration

A settings.toml file can be created to configure character previews of Cicero.

Note: The configuration file is required on Windows in order to preview characters.

The file is read from the following locations:

• On Unix platforms, the file is read from $HOME/.config/cicero/settings.toml
• On Windows, the file is read from C:\Users\<username>\.config\cicero\settings.toml

The configuration file has the following format:

# Whether to use fontconfig for font discovery.
# True by default.
# Ignored on Windows (as fontconfig is only available on Unix platforms).
use_fontconfig = false 

# Paths for recursively searching for fonts.
# Required on Windows in order to preview characters.
# Must be absolute paths.
# Ignored if fontconfig is set to true.
font_search_paths = ["<path>"]

# Preview fonts configuration.
# Optional. If omitted all discovered fonts are used in character preview.
# Multiple entries can be defined, the final fonts used in character preview
# are a union of all fonts matched by all entries.
[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "<range>" # Code point range to apply this entry, supported formats:
                             # - An inclusive range of Unicode Code Points, e.g. "U+0020..U+00FF"
                             # - Unicode Block name, e.g. "Basic Latin"
                             # - Unicode Plane name, e.g. "Basic Multilingual Plane"
                             # This filed is optional, if omitted this entry will be applied
                             # to all Unicode characters.
font_name = "<font>" # Name of the font to be added to the preview list.
                     # The name is partially matched to the font's family name and full name.

settings.toml Examples

Unix

Use fontconfig

This config file has the following behaviors:

• Use fontconfig for font discovery
• Use Noto Sans for displayable ASCII characters
• Use all fonts with CJK in their name for characters in the CJK Unified Ideographs block
• Use all discovered fonts for other characters

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "U+0020..U+007E"
font_name = "Noto Sans"

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "CJK Unified Ideographs"
font_name = "CJK"

Don't use fontconfig

This config file has the following behaviours:

• Don't use fontconfig for font discovery
• Search fonts recursively in ~/Fonts/ and ~/Documents/Fonts/ directory
• Use Noto Sans for displayable ASCII characters
• Use all fonts with CJK in their name for characters in the CJK Unified Ideographs block
• Use all discovered fonts for other characters

use_fontconfig = false

font_search_paths = [
  "/home/<username>/Fonts", 
  "/home/<username>/Documents/Fonts"
]

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "U+0020..U+007E"
font_name = "Noto Sans"

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "CJK Unified Ideographs"
font_name = "CJK"

Windows

• Search fonts recursively in C:\Windows\Fonts and C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Fonts directory
• Use Noto Sans for displayable ASCII characters
• Use all fonts with CJK in their name for characters in the CJK Unified Ideographs block
• Use all discovered fonts for other characters

font_search_paths = [
  "C:\\Windows\\Fonts",
  "C:\\Users\\<username>\\Documents\\Fonts",
]

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "U+0020..U+007E"
font_name = "Noto Sans"

[[preview_fonts]]
code_point_range = "CJK Unified Ideographs"
font_name = "CJK"

License