I just wanted to say this is absolutely gorgeous. I don't know if I have a use for this, but I love it and please keep doing this. It's mesmerizing and beautiful.
TTE reminds me of Compiz window manager from eons ago, the thing that got me to ditch Windows for Linux, except for the terminal.
Is there a way you can add something like TTE to tmux or vim as a screen saver or something that would trigger occasionally but not all the time? Do you pipe it? Make aliases?
How do you typically use it? What was your intent when you first wrote it, and what do you use it for now?
Keep it up!
> Is there a way you can add something like TTE to tmux or vim as a screen saver
I'm not a big vim user, but anywhere you can run a shell command, you should be able to run TTE. As long as ANSI control sequences are respected, the animation should play. TTE will accept piped text or a file input.
> How do you typically use it?
The most common invocation method is either piped text from some other command or passing a text file via command line arg. It also works as a library and can be imported into existing Python applications to produce animations and animated prompts.
> What was your intent when you first wrote it
A post here on HN featured an animation of the Sneakers terminal decryption effect and I thought, I can do that in Python. I wrote a handful of simple effects and really enjoyed the process of writing effects and upgrading the engine to support new features. The effect requirement -> engine feature loop is very satisfying. So, I keep working on it when I have free time.
> what do you use it for now?
It's really more of a toy, and the delay it causes requires some thought when using it, but I've had people reach out with some interesting use cases. Shell startup / SSH motd is pretty common. It can be imported and used as a library, so you may find it as a splash screen or animated prompts in scripts. A few people have shared examples of using it as an animation tool to create advertisements or background animation for electronic music displays. Framework computers recently tweeted a video of TTE running on boot for one of their laptops.
Eventually, I'd like to fully document the API from an effect writing perspective and produce some tutorials. I won't consider the project 'finished' until that happens. I don't want to abandon it before people are able to write their own effects.
* ... Compiz [...] the thing that got me to ditch Windows for Linux [...] *
I thought that was the role of Enlightenment [1] but I guess I'm just old. :)
[1]: https://www.enlightenment.org/
Compiz. Beryl. Compiz Fusion. Unlocks some fun memories.
Also this video has some 6 million views now: https://youtu.be/xC5uEe5OzNQ?si=GOvwOTHV-RVQnxWv . I remember watching it and being awed by the cube effect.
That's certainly a trip down memory lane...
Coming from Windows XP, Compiz Fusion was nothing short of revolutionary. If Linux had a game ecosystem back then, it would have beaten the pants off of Windows. It was so much cooler than Windows.
It was also buggy as hell, but it was fun watching windows jiggle like jello.