the.com/ansi escape codes
the secret handshake that lets plain text move, blink, and paint your terminal in color.
means invisible byte sequences starting with escape that tell a terminal to move the cursor, change colors, or clear the screen instead of printing letters.
from born from teletypes and video terminals in the 1970s, standardized by the american national standards institute so every terminal maker could stop inventing its own private codes.
starts withthe escape character, byte 27, then a bracket
still everywherepowers every colored npm install and git diff
vt100 legacynamed after a 1978 dec terminal nobody owns anymore
security footgunmalicious logs can hijack your terminal cursor
for instance
vt100 — dec's 1978 terminal that defined the codes everyone copied
bash prompt colors — ps1 variables stuffed with escape sequences for green usernames
htop — redraws its whole colorful dashboard using cursor-position codes
neofetch — ascii logos in rainbow color entirely via escape sequences