Last Updated on May 25, 2022
Who loves eye candy? Don’t be shy — you can raise both hands!!
Linux Candy is a new series of articles covering interesting eye candy software. We’re only going to feature open-source software in this series.
I’m not going to harp on about the tired proverb “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”. But there’s a certain element of truth here. If you spend all day coding neural networks, mastering a new programming language, sit in meetings feeling bored witless, you’ll need some relief at the end of the day. And what better way by making your desktop environment a bit more memorable.
In the first of the series, I picked WallGen, a marvelous HQ wallpaper generator. My next recommendation in the candy stakes is ASCIIQuarium. It’s the embodiment of candy.
ASCIIQuarium is a short Perl script that lets you embrace aquatic nature from your terminal. It’s an aquarium/sea animation in ASCII art.
Installation
Having a section titled “Installation” for ASCIIQuarium is probably a bit grandiose. After all, ASCIIQuarium is a single file. Place it anywhere convenient, make the file executable, and just run it.
Actually, you do need a couple of Perl modules to get the script running. Your system needs the Term::Animation module installed, as ASCIIQuarium uses that module as its framework to produce the ASCII art animations. And Term::Animation itself depends on the Curses module. You’ll probably find both modules are available as a package in your distro, but if not, head over to CPAN.
Next page: Page 2 – In Operation
Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Summary
What and where is CPAN? It would be helpful if you would add a link. This is, after all, a Linux Links article!)
We’ve added a link to CPAN.
CPAN is the Comprehensive Perl Archive Network, a huge collection of Perl software and documentation.
Here’s a tip Angus. Google is your friend.
Actually, I put a link in my comment.
Yes, but we generally don’t allow links in comments.
Well done for promoting the lighter side of Linux. I’m looking forward to more in this ‘Candy’ series.
I like that some of the programs are just a welcome distraction