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#Widgets

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Bash csh zsh ksh tksh fish are powerful CLI tools

Entire networks can be controlled and build with them.

Let's take for example command line tools to control media output

For me e.g mplayer and vlc -I cli are much more interesting when it comes down to standard control of media playback. I prefer to use MOC (mocp) Music 🎼 on Console, instead of bulky RAM hungry programs, which go on the internet to _fetch data that I never asked for$ and thus burn bandwidth

The memory footprint of Music on Console is so low that you can use it on a system which has been built more than two and a half decades ago.

The only graphical media playback program I know that can do that also has been written by my friend Andy Loafoe and that is alsaplayer

Andy programmed alsaplayer when he saw Delitracker playing on my Amiga systems
We're talking the period when Linux was barely moving in Xwindows when you had window managers like fvwm & twm and few others.
The alsa audio interface was also just born.

It is within this context that Andy envisioned alsaplayer. It should be modular just like Delitracker Amiga, it should be lightweight Delitracker runs on an Amiga A500 with just half A megabyte of chip ram
That should still be memory left to do other the things so straight calls were made to widget libraries which explains the simplicity yet great usability of the UI. For as far as I remember Andy has also written an API for Alsaplayer

Within a few weeks to a few months of coding alsaplayer came out of Alpha and went Bèta in code stability.

Because everything was written with efficiency in mind and it was programmed as portable as possible, alsaplayer can still be used many decades after It has been written, one of the main reasons is that it has been coded by a command line programmer

For me working on the command line has always been logical, graphic user interfaces were only used when absolutely necessary think about GEOS on the C64

I started coding on the Casio FX 700p programmable calculator. I went so far to make program code that was in the book more efficient by crunching all the commands with two letter abbreviations.

The power of the Command Line something the Young Ones should Learn

Alsaplayer manpage

https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=alsaplayer&sektion=1&apropos=0&manpath=FreeBSD+6.0-RELEASE+and+Ports

man.freebsd.orgalsaplayer(1)
#programming#Bash#csh
Continued thread

While we await proper details about the "on device" #AI models that #Apple mentioned during the macOS segment of the #WWDC keynote, here is what I am most excited about from Apple's 2026 operating systems.

Cross-OS features:
- #LiveTranslation (finally)
- #Polls in the #Messages!
- #HoldAssist? TBD

#macOS
- #Spotlight actions (with #QuickKeys)
- #Clipboard history
- New #Shortcuts (and "Intelligent actions")
- Custom folder colors!
- Now with the #Phone app!
- More control center customization

#iPadOS
- See post above
- Mac's red-yellow-green window control buttons
- Also getting the Phone app!

#watchOS
- The #WristFlick gesture? We'll see.
- Configurable #widgets? Maybe.

My current workflows probably won't benefit from
- the "liquid" or "glass" aesthetic
- a #WorkoutBuddy (no more voices talking to me during workouts, please)
- the #Games app
- anything #tvOS, #visionOS, #emoji

What excited you?

What disappointed you?

What surprised you?

What was missing from your wish list?