Linux Candy

Linux Candy: Ternimal – animated lifeform in the terminal

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, zany, and idiosyncratic.

For this article in the Linux Candy series, we’re looking at Ternimal. That’s not a typo. It’s called Ternimal. Think of the name as a hybrid of terminal and animal.

Ternimal simulates a lifeform in the terminal using Unicode block symbols. It’s a script written in Rust. It has no dependencies and consumes very few resources.

Installation

The developer doesn’t provide any official packages for Linux distributions. Instead, you can clone the project’s repository, and run the software with the following shell commands:

$ git clone https://github.com/p-e-w/ternimal.git
$ cd ternimal
$ rustc -O ternimal.rs

There’s a package available in the Arch User Repository.

Ternimal is cross-platform support. It works under Linux, macOS, and Windows.

Next page: Page 2 – In Operation

Pages in this article:
Page 1 – Introduction / Installation
Page 2 – In Operation
Page 3 – Summary

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Guy PROUST
Guy PROUST
5 years ago

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