boxes/_posts/2024-02-17-boxes-v2.3.0-released.md

---
layout: post
title: "New release: boxes v2.3.0"
date: 2024-02-17 14:00:00 +0100
release: v2.3.0
---

Adds support for UTF-8 box designs, and color in box designs.<!--break-->

This is the biggest change to the code base since the original implementation. Although we literally added hundreds
of new tests, it is still quite possible that some bugs slipped in. Please bear with us, and take the time to
[report](https://github.com/{{ site.github }}/issues) (and maybe even fix!) them.

#### Functional Changes

- The *boxes* config file is now UTF-8 encoded, which allows for lots of new box designs based on UTF-8 characters.
  Some examples are among the newly added designs below. This includes characters that take up more than one column
  in a terminal, such as Chinese script. [#72](https://github.com/{{ site.github }}/issues/72)
- ANSI color codes are now allowed in box shapes (see
  [colored box shapes]({{ site.baseurl}}/config-syntax.html#colored-shapes)). It's a bit technical, because you
  need to write ANSI color codes, but quite powerful and versatile.
- In order to properly support colors in every terminal, we now depend on the
  [ncurses](https://invisible-island.net/ncurses/) library.
- The new command line options `--color` and `--no-color` can be used to force whether colors are printed by *boxes*.
  The default is to print colors if the terminal is color-capable.
- Add long options capability to command line. Every existing option stays the same, but can now also be written in
  long form, for example `--mend` instead of `-m`. The complete list is on the
  [man page]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/boxes-man-1.html) and in the output of `boxes --help`.
- [Alias definitions]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/config-syntax.html#box-design) are now active in the config
  file for some designs. We have "lua-cmt" and "sql-cmt" as aliases for
  "[ada-cmt]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#ada-cmt)", and "lua-box" and "sql-box" for
  "[ada-box]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#ada-box)".
- We dropped the (mostly unused) fields `created`, `revision`, and `revdate` from the *boxes* config file. They were
  introduced when Git hadn't been invented yet and *boxes* was versioned with RCS. Today, a look into Git tells us all
  about when stuff was created or modified, so we felt this was the time to shed some ballast.

#### Technical / Internal Changes

- Add MacOS to GitHub Actions workflow and support all test categories on MacOS
  by <span class="atmention">[@mathomp4](https://github.com/mathomp4)</span>
- Removed linker `--wrap` option so unit tests can run on MacOS by
  <span class="atmention">[@chorpler](https://github.com/chorpler)</span>
- Speed up GitHub Actions runs by no longer calculating the coverage per test. Instead, we calculate the overall
  coverage. If you need coverage per test you can get it by calling the test runner with `--coverage-per-test` instead
  of `--coverage`.

#### New Box Designs

- New box designs
  "[ansi]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi)",
  "[ansi-dashed]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-dashed)",
  "[ansi-double]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-double)",
  "[ansi-heavy]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-heavy)",
  "[ansi-heavy-dashed]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-heavy-dashed)",
  "[ansi-rounded]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-rounded)", and
  "[ansi-rounded-dashed]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-unicode.html#ansi-rounded-dashed)"
  by <span class="atmention">[@chorpler](https://github.com/chorpler)</span>, all taking
  advantage of Unicode box drawing characters
- New Box designs
  "[info]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-color.html#info)",
  "[warning]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-color.html#warning)", and
  "[critical]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-color.html#critical)"
  by <span class="atmention">[@tsjensen](https://github.com/tsjensen)</span> as examples of colored Unicode boxes.
  The "critical" box design even colors its box contents. In the
  [design list]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs-color.html), colored designs feature a little moon
  icon that you can hover over in order to try out a dark background.
- New box design "[dragon]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#dragon)"
- The box designs
  "[stark2]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#stark2)",
  "[sunset]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#sunset)",
  "[whirly]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#whirly)", and
  "[xes]({{ site.baseurl}}/{{ page.release }}/box-designs.html#xes)"
  received some default padding, hopefully making them appear nicer by default.

[[Release History]({{ site.baseurl}}/releases.html)]