Show HN: Plain Text Cryptocurrency Prices (opens in new tab)

(plaintextco.in)

63 pointsguillaumec4y ago45 comments

45 comments

40 comments · 17 top-level

sodality24y ago· 5 in thread

Getting a 504 :(

An intriguing failure mode (response body seems truncated)

  $ curl -i https://plaintextco.in/
  HTTP/2 504 
  date: Tue, 14 Jun 2022 14:13:44 GMT
  [more headers]
  cf-ray: 71b3ab17fc7254d5-MAN
  
        <!DOCTYPE htm

guillaumecOP4y ago

I think the server code has a concurrent access bug that makes it crash in the middle of a request. Unfortunately due to the current charge I can't even restart it at the moment.

1 more reply

rapiz4y ago

Got this just now (2022-06-14T22:36:26+08:00)

guillaumecOP4y ago

Yeah the server is not handling the load at the moment... I am trying to restart it.

KyleBerezin4y ago

The curse of Hacker News attention

1 more reply

j_leboulanger4y ago· 5 in thread

Here is an extract of what happens in terminal :

curl https://plaintextco.in/coins/bitcoin

<!DOCTYPE html> <title></title> <meta name="description" content="Plain text cryptocurrency prices"> <style> @font-face { font-family: 'dejavu-sans-mono'; src: url('/static/DejaVuSansMono.ttf') format('truetype'); } * { font-family: 'dejavu-sans-mono'; font-size: small; line-height: 120%; } </style>

<h1>plaintextco.in</h1>

<pre> Bitcoin (BTC)

     <span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fe971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fe971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fc961a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fc961a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fd971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #ff971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span>      Price                    $22,183
  <span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fd971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;background-color: #ff9a1b;"></span><span style="color: #f79319;background-color: #fa941a;"></span><span style="color: #f79217;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f79116;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f9a239;background-color: #f79116;"></span><span style="color: #f9a53f;ba

It's impossible to read :(

jasonjayr4y ago

Elinks in a terminal with 256 color + utf-8 renders it pretty decently.

https://imgur.com/a/NPsN5N5

guillaumecOP4y ago

Actually it also supports a black and white mode using only utf8 characters. I haven't exposed it yet though.

paulnpace4y ago

Lynx looks great.

izzydata4y ago

This is what I get when trying it on any terminal on Windows.

JakDrako4y ago

I got something readable on Windows by calling it from the "Git bash" terminal (installs with git)

tiborsaas4y ago· 4 in thread

I get randomly HTML and ASCII in the terminal, otherwise cool product.

It would be nice to configure a list of coins to be displayed. Something like:

    https://plaintextco.in/collection/btc+tezos+near

Also, you could reduce the HTML size significantly by using <i> instead of <span> and create a classnames for the colors.

guillaumecOP4y ago

Yes, since I got too many requests from HN, I had to enable the CDN. I didn't realize it would cache both html and terminal request together. I tried setting "Vary: User-Agent" but it didn't work. You can add: "?term=true" to make it work in terminal for now.

weird-eye-issue4y ago

I think Vary: Accept-Encoding or similar is the solution for this but not sure

alainchabat4y ago

looks like OP implemented it ( https://plaintextco.in/about ) :

   https://plaintextco.in/?ids=bitcoin,ethereum,mina-protocol,avalanche-2

tiborsaas4y ago

oh cool, it's now ready for bookmarking :)

jokestir4y ago· 2 in thread

That's awesome.

Some things that can be improved:

- The UI is left justified on my mobile browser. It will look better if it is centered.

- The font is too small. Perhaps you could increase font size so users don't have to zoom in.

Also, did you a framework to generate plaintext front-end or is it hand crafted?

guillaumecOP4y ago

Thanks for the comment! I wanted to keep the html and css as simple as possible so I didn't put much layout. If it gets traction I will improve that. Same thing for the font.

It's all hand crafted. My first time using golang so the code is probably not as efficient as it could be.

1337shadow4y ago

Really? It even renders ascii and colors properly in a terminal with curl !!!

\xe2\x94\x82\n\xe2\x94\x94\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x80\xe2\x94\x98\n

paulnpace4y ago· 2 in thread

Interesting. I wasn't aware that you could use a Cloudflare IP address along with a different name server.

lxgr4y ago

Maybe they're using something like an ALIAS record instead of a CNAME setup?

captn3m04y ago

Cloudflare Worker perhaps

lazyvar4y ago· 1 in thread

Some small feedback if I may: Could you separate the link and the text on the main page? My first thought was: "This isn't text. I can't highlight or copy anything. It's actually the opposite of what the title says." But everything was as advertised when viewing an actual coin.

Cool site! Cheers!

guillaumecOP4y ago

You are probably right. I should also probably add a link to a 'true' plain text version that returns a pure txt.

olalonde4y ago· 1 in thread

Pretty cool, I noticed it works both in the browser and command line. I suppose you are using the User-Agent header to detect which version to serve? Which library did you use for the interface?

guillaumecOP4y ago

It's all done by hand in go. Yes it uses the user agent to guess if the request comes from a terminal.

bluetidepro4y ago· 1 in thread

HN hug of death, I assume.

matthewcford4y ago

I assumed the prices were 0, hence the empty webpage.

rabuse4y ago· 1 in thread

All I see is a white page.

memorable4y ago

Same here. Hug of death.

weird-eye-issue4y ago· 1 in thread

Is this white page some sort of satire or is it down?

memorable4y ago

It's down ATM. I found a Wayback Machine snapshot for proof.

https://web.archive.org/web/20220614131126/https://plaintext...

danuker4y ago

This is awesome! I will be able to check the prices without spinning up my old laptop's fan.

My preference for time is much longer-term. Trading too often can lead to ruin due to transaction fees (and/or emotion).

I'd use the 1 day, 30 day, and 365 day price changes instead of 1h, 24h, 7d.

Another small issue: I can't use autoscroll in Firefox because the whole page width is a link.

memorable4y ago

https://web.archive.org/web/20220614131126/https://plaintext...

KyleBerezin4y ago

Firefox 101.0.1 on Windows didn't seem to render it correctly. I was going to compare it to chrome but then the server died. Very cool page though.

Update: the server is back up and it looks fine on Firefox now. false alarm

rkagerer4y ago

Oh. From the headline I was hoping for something easily parseable.

giantrobot4y ago

I got a blank page...did crypto prices drop that much today?

julianeon4y ago

This is really nice. Great work.

_eht4y ago

Plaintext and ascii art are in this year and that’s cool to me. Nice work.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

45 comments

40 comments · 17 top-level

sodality24y ago· 5 in thread

Getting a 504 :(

Retr0id4y ago

An intriguing failure mode (response body seems truncated)

  $ curl -i https://plaintextco.in/
  HTTP/2 504 
  date: Tue, 14 Jun 2022 14:13:44 GMT
  [more headers]
  cf-ray: 71b3ab17fc7254d5-MAN
  
        <!DOCTYPE htm

guillaumecOP4y ago

I think the server code has a concurrent access bug that makes it crash in the middle of a request. Unfortunately due to the current charge I can't even restart it at the moment.

1 more reply

rapiz4y ago

Got this just now (2022-06-14T22:36:26+08:00)

guillaumecOP4y ago

Yeah the server is not handling the load at the moment... I am trying to restart it.

KyleBerezin4y ago

The curse of Hacker News attention

1 more reply

j_leboulanger4y ago· 5 in thread

Here is an extract of what happens in terminal :

curl https://plaintextco.in/coins/bitcoin

<h1>plaintextco.in</h1>

<pre> Bitcoin (BTC)

     <span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fe971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fe971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fc961a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fc961a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fd971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #ff971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;"></span>      Price                    $22,183
  <span style="color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #fd971a;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f7931a;background-color: #ff9a1b;"></span><span style="color: #f79319;background-color: #fa941a;"></span><span style="color: #f79217;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f79116;background-color: #f7931a;"></span><span style="color: #f9a239;background-color: #f79116;"></span><span style="color: #f9a53f;ba

It's impossible to read :(

jasonjayr4y ago

Elinks in a terminal with 256 color + utf-8 renders it pretty decently.

https://imgur.com/a/NPsN5N5

guillaumecOP4y ago

Actually it also supports a black and white mode using only utf8 characters. I haven't exposed it yet though.

paulnpace4y ago

Lynx looks great.

izzydata4y ago

This is what I get when trying it on any terminal on Windows.

JakDrako4y ago

I got something readable on Windows by calling it from the "Git bash" terminal (installs with git)

tiborsaas4y ago· 4 in thread

I get randomly HTML and ASCII in the terminal, otherwise cool product.

It would be nice to configure a list of coins to be displayed. Something like:

    https://plaintextco.in/collection/btc+tezos+near

Also, you could reduce the HTML size significantly by using <i> instead of <span> and create a classnames for the colors.

guillaumecOP4y ago

weird-eye-issue4y ago

I think Vary: Accept-Encoding or similar is the solution for this but not sure

alainchabat4y ago

looks like OP implemented it ( https://plaintextco.in/about ) :

   https://plaintextco.in/?ids=bitcoin,ethereum,mina-protocol,avalanche-2

tiborsaas4y ago

oh cool, it's now ready for bookmarking :)

jokestir4y ago· 2 in thread

That's awesome.

Some things that can be improved:

- The UI is left justified on my mobile browser. It will look better if it is centered.

- The font is too small. Perhaps you could increase font size so users don't have to zoom in.

Also, did you a framework to generate plaintext front-end or is it hand crafted?

guillaumecOP4y ago

Thanks for the comment! I wanted to keep the html and css as simple as possible so I didn't put much layout. If it gets traction I will improve that. Same thing for the font.

It's all hand crafted. My first time using golang so the code is probably not as efficient as it could be.

1337shadow4y ago

Really? It even renders ascii and colors properly in a terminal with curl !!!

paulnpace4y ago· 2 in thread

Interesting. I wasn't aware that you could use a Cloudflare IP address along with a different name server.

lxgr4y ago

Maybe they're using something like an ALIAS record instead of a CNAME setup?

captn3m04y ago

Cloudflare Worker perhaps

lazyvar4y ago· 1 in thread

Cool site! Cheers!

guillaumecOP4y ago

You are probably right. I should also probably add a link to a 'true' plain text version that returns a pure txt.

olalonde4y ago· 1 in thread

Pretty cool, I noticed it works both in the browser and command line. I suppose you are using the User-Agent header to detect which version to serve? Which library did you use for the interface?

guillaumecOP4y ago

It's all done by hand in go. Yes it uses the user agent to guess if the request comes from a terminal.

bluetidepro4y ago· 1 in thread

HN hug of death, I assume.

matthewcford4y ago

I assumed the prices were 0, hence the empty webpage.

rabuse4y ago· 1 in thread

All I see is a white page.

memorable4y ago

Same here. Hug of death.

weird-eye-issue4y ago· 1 in thread

Is this white page some sort of satire or is it down?