Tiny ANSI: Design & Technical Research

An in-depth exploration of a minimal C/C++ library for terminal styling

Abstract

This research documents the design decisions, implementation techniques, and evaluation of Tiny ANSI, a header-only C/C++ library for styled terminal output. The goal is to enable readable, maintainable, and minimalistic terminal output in CLI applications.

Introduction

ANSI escape codes provide control over text color, background, and effects in terminals. While powerful, using them directly can make code unreadable. Tiny ANSI addresses this problem by offering a concise, predictable API while maintaining full flexibility.

Problem Statement

Developers often struggle with terminal output readability. Existing libraries can be heavy or complex, introducing dependencies or abstractions that are unnecessary for small tools or experimental code.

Design Goals

Implementation Details

Tiny ANSI exposes a set of constants and helper functions for:

Example usage:


#define TINY_ANSI_IMPLEMENTATION
#include "tinyansi.h"

int main() {
    tansi_init();

    tansi_println("Hello, Tiny ANSI!", TANSI_GREEN);
    tansi_log(TANSI_WARN, "Low memory warning");
    tansi_fatal("FATAL", "Critical error occurred", __FILE__, __LINE__);

    return 0;
}

Evaluation

Tiny ANSI was tested across multiple terminals and platforms. It successfully enabled styled output without any external dependencies and maintained predictable behavior. Minimal code changes were needed to integrate into existing projects.

Conclusion

Tiny ANSI demonstrates that a small, well-structured library can provide expressive terminal styling while keeping code clean and maintainable. Its header-only, zero-dependency approach makes it suitable for small tools, experiments, and system utilities.

References & Links