A terminal text display tool with optional styling, typewriter effects, and alignment. By default behaves like echo.

Installation

go build -o dist .
# or install to PATH
go install

Usage

dist [flags] [file | text]

CLI Flags

Flag	Type	Default	Description
-align	string	left	Alignment: left, center, right
-type	bool	false	Enable typewriter effect
-form	bool	false	Enable forging/construction animation
-speed	int	50	Typewriter speed (ms per character)
-cursor	string	block	Cursor style: block, bar, underline, none
-blink	bool	false	Blinking cursor
-wrap	string	off	Word wrap: on, off
-color	string	(none)	Text color
-w	int	0	Terminal width override (0 = auto)
-h			Show help

Color Options

Basic: black, red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, white

Bright: bright-black, bright-red, bright-green, bright-yellow, bright-blue, bright-magenta, bright-cyan, bright-white

Special: bold, reset

File Directives

Place /c/ commands in a file to control behavior. Directives override CLI flags and persist until overwritten.

/c/align left|center|right
/c/type
/c/notype
/c/form
/c/noform
/c/speed <ms>
/c/cursor block|bar|underline|none
/c/blink
/c/noblink
/c/wrap
/c/nowrap
/c/color <name>
/c/color reset
/c/delay <ms>

Directives can appear multiple times and change behavior throughout the file. They persist until explicitly changed by another directive.

Examples

Basic echo

dist hello world
# Output: hello world

Centered text

dist -align center -w 60 "Hello"
# Output:                             Hello

Typewriter effect

dist -type -speed 30 "Typing..."

Colors

dist -color red "Error message"
dist -color bright-green "Success!"

From file with directives

dist myfile.txt

Where myfile.txt contains:

/c/type
/c/speed 20
/c/color cyan
Hello
/c/color reset
/c/delay 500
World

Forging animation

dist -form -speed 60 "FORGE"

Or in a file:

/c/form
/c/speed 60
/c/color cyan
FORGE

Terminal width override

dist -w 40 -align center "Fixed width centered"

Behavior

• Inline text: Behaves like echo — no padding, no wrapping
• File input: Uses all styling options from /c/ directives
• Piped stdin: Processes piped content with current flags
• Terminal width: Auto-detected from $COLUMNS or stty. Falls back to /dev/tty when stdin is piped, so alignment works even in pipes.

Behavior

• Inline text: Behaves like echo — no padding, no wrapping
• File input: Uses all styling options from /c/ directives
• Piped stdin: Processes piped content with current flags