node symbol overlap on Windows with hyper #724

Comments

darkristy commented Aug 30, 2019

Current behavior

Registering double symbols I do not know why it is doing this. I uninstalled everything nothing fixes it.

Expected behavior

Display information normally.

Relevant Zsh configuration ( .zshrc )

Environment

Spaceship version: (3.11.1)
Zsh version:
Zsh framework: (oh-my-zsh)
Zsh plugin manager: (NPM)
Terminal emulator: (Hyper)
Operating system: (Windows)

Screenshot

Provide a screenshot that shows your issue.

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salmanulfarzy commented Aug 31, 2019 •

Spaceship-prompt is not tested for Windows and we can’t guarantee everything works perfectly, primarily because we don’t use Windows. It would be awesome if someone is willing to contribute on Windows support.

In this issue, There seems some color overlaps between sections, apart from symbol rendering. Older version of Zsh tends to cause such issue, What is your Zsh version ?

darkristy commented Aug 31, 2019

riyacchi commented Aug 31, 2019

Having the same issue on a normal Ubuntu 18.04 install using WSL. My zsh version is also at 5.4.2.

This setup has worked beautifully in the past and didn’t exhibit any issues whatsoever, but just now recently broke.

salmanulfarzy commented Aug 31, 2019

Common denominator on both cases is the operating system, Windows. We need someone with similar setup to help you, Sorry for that.

This setup has worked beautifully in the past and didn’t exhibit any issues whatsoever, but just now recently broke.

What has changed since then to cause this ?

riyacchi commented Aug 31, 2019 •

What has changed since then to cause this ?

In my case, zsh pushed an update, which broke it for me. Prior to the 5.4.2 update I’ve used spaceship w/ WSL for a good year and haven’t had any issues whatsoever.

Might be a bug with zsh and WSL.

EDIT: It might be worth noting that other zsh themes haven’t broken (so far).

darkristy commented Aug 31, 2019 •

Another thing when I load up the terminal in vscode it doesnt do that.

riyacchi commented Sep 1, 2019

After some digging and debugging myself I found the issue:

It seems to be a problem with applications using xterm.js as their terminal. Xterm seems to fail at rendering double-width unicode emojis (e.g. the package icon). Visual Studio Code and Hyper for instance both using xterm.js exhibit this issue.

Other terminals like Windows Terminal do not have this problem.

Reality of glass (or some sort of transparent composite) windows on spaceships

In the relatively realistic (hopefully), near future, scifi book I am writing I am at a point where I am describing the observation deck of a large ship belonging to a wealthy «business man» (see space-age mob boss). The idea is that his private yacht/destroyer is unique because the observation deck is a ring that wraps around the ship externally, with roughly half of its exterior surface being essentially transparent. This would give the effect that while inside the observation deck the floor is completely clear and an external view of space would be visible downward as well as through several front and rear facing windows (think Space Needle or Sears Tower).

This is also unique, because in my book most of ship design is very submarine-esque. There is no artificial gravity, so crew still uses simulated gravity through rotating rings (meaning no «gravity generator» or «gravity plates» BS). The design of the ship hasn’t really changed too much from a 2001 Space Odyssey type design, except that the entire ship has a sort of armor shell around it, giving it that submarine look.

My main concern is:

Would radiation and/or heat build up be a concern for having so much of the ship not behind some sort of protective shielding?

My current understanding is that existing designs for glass (or transparent composites) on spacecraft isn’t great at reducing these risks, therefore the windows are small (and possibly have removable covers) to block as much heat and radiation as necessary. I could be wrong about that of course though.

Some secondary questions might be:

Is current glass/window technology at a point where it is able to effectively resist these forces?

If not, what sort of limits would I have on spaceship window placement and/or design?

Also, no energy fields or radiation deflector hocus-pocus. I am actually planning to use handwavium to get this appearance anyway, but I would prefer it be a unique aspect of the ship, rather than something that is totally normal and relatively achievable with known engineering standards.

Edit: I guess I hadn’t thought to take speed of the craft into account so I would say it takes about 3 to 4 months to reach the heliopause from the inner planets (Venus, Earth, Mars). I probably did my math wrong, but thats roughly 1 million km/h max speed (I think we will go metric in space). I know thats 22000 times faster than the space shuttle has ever gone, so I suppose I’m gonna have to handwavium that one. Thanks for pointing out a huge flaw in my physics though.

Edit: I think I may already know my answer, but I am adding a little more just to further the discussion some before I make a choice. I am avoiding the projected screens and specifically looking for actual windows. The reasoning being that this is the unique feature of the ship. For all the reasons not to do so, that’s why I want to. It’s like the mob boss is showing off that he doesn’t fear the risks of attack, and to give it a kind of «see with my own eyes» kind of feel. Like arguing that vinyl records sound better than MP3s despite the many reasons they are more convenient.

Why would spaceships still have acrylic/glass windows when force fields are cheap and reliable?

Force field technology has come a long way. The latest energy-efficient engines can guarantee stable energy output in any situation, making force fields extremely reliable and very cost effective compared to acrylic and glass. Power failure is a thing of the past. Force fields eliminate the need for decompression chambers because the fields can allow both organic and inorganic objects to pass through unharmed while preventing air from escaping. Given such a future, why would any spaceship still have acrylic/glass window?

9 Answers 9

The short answer is that they wouldn’t, but not for the reasons stated in the question. Longer answer is as follows;

First of all, even assuming that power is ultra-reliable, it’s good engineering practice to build things where the safety position is in the ‘power off’ mode. Modern nuclear power plants (for example) don’t need power to insert the control rods that slow down the reaction; they need power to retract them. When the power cuts out, the control rods fall back into place, effectively shutting down the reaction while there is no power, and therefore no monitoring or control.

A window is the perfect ‘power off’ safety solution in your case; if the ship is the first one in 100 years to lose internal power, then your crew is still safe from suffocation, at least in the short term. With force fields, they would instantly be sucked out into the vacuum of space to suffocate. That’s not a good ‘power off’ scenario and no-one in their right mind would build a ship like that no matter how reliable the power supply appears to be.

Second, it should be pointed out that with the exception of airlocks, they probably wouldn’t use glass windows anyway; they’d most likely have display screens on the inside and closed circuit cameras on the outside. This has 2 advantages. The first is that there is no structural weakness in the ship caused by putting a window into a solid bulkhead. The second is that you can look through every ‘window’ from a single display screen, making it more versatile a system.

As for airlocks, you’d still have a blast door that you’d shut for the majority of the time because of the ‘power off’ safety consideration, even if it was only for the psychological comfort of your passengers and crew.

Finally, there is no such thing (even in the future) as a ‘reliable’ power source. EVERY power source either contains or generates power and releases it in a controlled fashion. It’s that control which often generates the issues and when the control is less than optimal, the power can be released in an uncontrolled fashion. Think Fukashima or Chernobyl; in both cases, massive energy releases occurred because of unforeseen (read as unplanned for) circumstances.

What if your ship takes longer to get where it’s going? Runs out of fuel? Runs into an asteroid? Gets attacked? Something can always go wrong with a power source. People who think of something as reliable (IMHO) just don’t have good imaginations.

Bottom line is that you don’t want the power to go off on one of these things for the first time in centuries to be the one time that you get asked why you put a permanent hole in the side of your ship in the first place.

Why would spaceships still practice venting precious air?

Despite advancement in air filtration and recycling technology, many spaceships still keep the practice of manually venting air from unoccupied enclosure within the ship. Such practices had been condemned worldwide due to rising in accidents and fatality reports, heavy fines and lengthy jail terms doesn’t seems to be effective in curbing such dangerous practice. I am wondering why would someone attempt to illegally mod a spaceship with air vent?

11 Answers 11

The same reason why some ships keep illegally washing their tanks in the open sea instead that in the certified facilities: because it’s cheaper.

Keeping a working filtering and recycling system for air in space is expensive. Dumping polluted air in space is cheap. And in space there will be nobody complaining about some tar patches killing endangered birds or staining some tourist’s foot.

You might be carrying something other than air.

It can be handy to fill a cabin space with chlorine. Cleans and sterilizes well, chlorine does. But you don’t want it in your air filter. Or you might fill a space with water, or nickel carbonyl, or helium-4. And you might want to get rid of that stuff later when you could sell it, or you needed an opaque blob in space that sort of looks like a ship, or you needed the room to smuggle a princess.

The air filter / recycler is a temperamental diva with your life in its hands. You want it on a pure air diet. Spaces you sometimes use for moving other gases need a separate mechanism to handle those gases.

Air is heavy.

You don’t want to move it if you have a choice. You only want as much as you need to breathe. Unless the fines for venting are less than the cost of moving it, it’s a simple calculation, complicated only by the factor that you might not even have to pay the fines.

Air contains evidence

Trace molecules of whatever you were smuggling remain in the air. Venting it removes that, and vacuums up much of what was on the surface.

Indeed, some spaceships use it as the cheapest regular cleaning technique, which means that venting is itself merely evidence toward, not proof of, smuggling.

Air sustains fire and corrosion.

You don’t want air around combustibles or things that can be corroded. To be sure, you have to limit it to things not harmed by vacuum, but all safety measures are trade-offs.

One of the most dangerous things in space is fire. You have an enclosed space, likely an oxygen-rich atmosphere, and since there is no gravity, there are no convection currents either so fires will burn hotter. Uncontrolled fire is pretty much the worst possible thing to happen in a spacecraft. So maybe every pressurized compartment comes with a vent that can be used to quickly smother any fire before it becomes an inferno.

The moisture in the vented air condenses into a beautiful crystal cloud. Before reclaiming air from air locks became commonplace, this cloud always coincided with important events of space flight, such as arriving at the destination spaceport. Watching it from the windows was a very common way to celebrate a successful flight.

Just like shooting into air on Earth, old habits die hard. Government spaceports now monitor for ships puffing clouds, but outer space is still a wild place. Some passengers just won’t feel like the trip is complete without the crystal cloud, and the ship owners want their passengers to be happy.

If you are left-wing, then EvilCorp has somehow secured a perpetual (or practically perpetual) patent on air recycling systems. If you are right-wing, then the Air Recycling Technicians’ Union has an absolute monopoly on all servicing and repair of ships’ systems. If you’re just cynical, then it’s both and they are working together.

Via their initial control of such a necessary resource at a crucial moment in the past, this monopolist has exerted significant political power to ensure that patent-busting or union-busting legislation cannot affect their stranglehold (in fact the reverse: over time they have strengthened property/labour laws to suit themselves). Furthermore, they have leveraged their position in ship maintenance/supply to become an organised crime syndicate / de facto local government in space facilities.

All that guff about the so-called danger of venting air into space is vastly exaggerated. Very few people are aware, but many of the «accidental fatalities» were in fact the mob disposing of their opponents and blaming it on illegal venting. Nobody has run the stats, but it’s astonishing the proportion of victims of those accidents who happened to be technicians capable of building and maintaining an unsanctioned scrubber. But somehow it seems to be the non-fatal ventings where the law comes down like a tonne of pre-fabricated construction material units.

The real reason it is so illegal, is that loading your ship up on bottled air and venting as you go would allow people to avoid their exorbitant monopoly. The reason people do it anyway, despite the absurd inefficiency of venting an otherwise perfectly-good atmosphere when it hits 0.2% CO2 (0.5% if you don’t mind feeling physically ill much of the time), is that fixing a broken recycling system doesn’t just run up a massive bill, it exposes you to contact with the mob that you’d rather avoid. Especially if the problem hits when you’re away from your home port, where at least you’d personally know the mobster you’re dealing with.

OK, a political situation this abusive is probably unstable long-term. So, enter the plot.