Action Plan: New release

Hi from the Berlin Hack Weekend April 2026.

I would like to try my best to release a version 0.4.0. The previous 0.3.1 has been release on Feb 18, 2020, but the project is still cool and repeatedly get high rankings on Hacker News. This is hopefully the ground work for bringing cool new features in the future.

• Verify that we and others can self-host tiles from OpenFreeMap.
• Review and merge #155 to update the map source
• Migrate to TypeScript where possible
  • Use Uint8Array in favour of Buffer, if possible
  • Don't rip out support for MBTiles, if possible (even though the library isn't compatible with TypeScript)
• Update all dependencies as much as possible
• Have someone test it on Windows
• Contact @rastapasta about
  • Hosting the OpenFreeMap tiles on mapscii.me
  • Updating the telnet service on mapscii.me
  • Being ok with a new release

Side goals

• Keep it running with NodeJS - no Bun or Deno, even though I love them more
• Don't break it for Windows users
  • This comment suggests that the PR #155 isn't working on Windows

Out of scope

While I would love to have many of the other enhancements that have been wished for years, the map update and TypeScript refactoring are my top focus.

The following are explicitly out of scope for this weekend:

• Fixing any rendering issues, e.g. freezing or weird lines
• Changing anything about the interface or making it run inside of other terminal libraries
• Adding geo support or new CLI params
• Keeping support for NodeJS versions below the latest (NodeJS 25)
  • e.g. many Uint8Array functions have only been introduced in NodeJS 25
• Migrating to Shortbread or Versatiles
  • Cool but likely too complicated for this weekend