v2.3.4 fixes a sed compatibility issue, fixes a progressbar bug

Minor patching update:

• Some fringe implementations of sed do not expand escape character, so we need to expand it before passing it to sed. This caused arttime to not center colored art on OSes that used such sed, that is now fixed.
• Fixes a progress bar bug that would show up only when user paused and unpaused multiple times during a sprint. It made the progress bar shrink and then expand at a faster rate. That is now fixed.

v2.3.2 enhances performance for slow systems and updates documentation; minor update

Minor patching update:

• Given users are now trying arttime even on raspberry pi, it's time to refactor for improved performance. Tested to improve UI responsiveness on slow systems, users on fast systems (laptops/desktops) would most likely not notice any difference (updating is still recommended).
• Updated manpages to make description clearer.

v2.3.0 enables silent remote updates for exciting information feeders, adds manpages, new options, new deb package, etc

Updates:

• Added ability for silent updates to arttime's screen from a remote process. Among other things, this allows arttime to cleanly display dynamic feed of information like system metrics, news headlines, weather, stock market feed, current song being played on computer, etc. The GIF at the bottom of the page shows a dynamic feeder feeding fake weather data to arttime.
• Added new keybindings for script mode: A, B, G, M, and Z. They are to do remote updates to a-art, b-art, goal time, message under art, and timezone respectively.
• Added new fully rewritten and illustrative man pages, including a section that explains how arttime can be used as a dynamic information feed. It has a specification for coding feeders to display dynamic information like news, weather, etc.
• Added new options -m and --man to open arttime manual even on systems that don't have man-db installed.
• Added shorter --help strings as we now have a separate longer manual.
• Updated zsh completion functions.
• Reverted the behavior of --random to be a switch again, it doesn't take a value anymore.
• Changed default behavior of artprint, so it doesn't add vertical padding by default. This would make it more intuitive for new users who want to try what it is for. The old behavior can be invoked by using artprint --height "term".
• Added a .deb package. Please check the assets below to download. Steps to install .deb package:

mv arttime_2.3.0-1_all.deb /tmp
sudo apt install /tmp/arttime_2.3.0-1_all.deb

Fixes:

• Not expanding a symlink in code caused arttime to crash on a Debian machine if executable was itself symlinked to /bin/arttime, fixed that.
• Fixed a problem where pager would immediately close after launch.
• Fixed a problem with using arttime's online installer. Previously, it tried to merge with user's git clone of arttime (if there was one). Merging could have failed, causing upgrade to fail... Now the installer does everything from temp directory, doesn't merge, so it's guaranteed to upgrade.
• Removed similar art from curation, so random selection is slightly fairer.
• Other minor fixes.

Installation/Upgrade:

• Please run the following command or run ./install.sh from a clone of arttime. For more information, please read: installation instructions. apt users should prefer installing from attached .deb package, please check the .deb install instructions in listing above.

zsh -c '{url="https://gist.githubusercontent.com/poetaman/bdc598ee607e9767fe33da50e993c650/raw/d0146d258a30daacb9aee51deca9410d106e4237/arttime_online_installer.sh"; zsh -c "$(curl -fsSL $url || wget -qO- $url)"}'

Feeder example:

• Following GIF shows an external feeder program feeding dummy weather data to display in arttime. Much more can be done with such feeders, such as dynamically changing art along with text. To start writing your own feeders, please read arttime's new manual. Try either arttime -m (preferred) or man arttime after installing this release. Here's an example that shows how line of text under art can be remotely updated to show "Hello World":

$ printf 'MHello World\n' >/path/to/some/fifo/arttime/is/listening

It might take a few seconds for the GIF to become visible below...

v2.1.3: Two changes, one triggered by Apple's change to macOS Sonoma

Two updates:

1. In macOS Sonoma (released a day ago), Apple has changed symlink /etc/localtime to point to .../zoneinfo.default/... directory instead of .../zoneinfo/... which broke changing timezones. Code has been updated to make it work with such non-standard names.

Note: On maOS, resolved path of /etc/localtime seems to be hard linked in two places, and your usual ls might still print what it did on prior version of OS, but other tools might print another path. Happy Appleing!

2. Some rare 'terminal' applications seem to maintain different cursor state in alternate screen mode, and containing civis/cnorm within alternate screen is taken well by them. Minor change just reorders sequences.

v2.1.2: Couple bug fixes for shell completion [minor release]

This is a minor bug release that fixes two issues with shell completion code

• Bypass the quirk of completion system that wouldn't trigger on first tab after command name if completion was routed via a function. Having a function seems to invoke completion in two steps, and we don't need a function anyway.
• Disabled printing debug log for completions. Users who have been using zsh completion with arttime would want to delete file ~/trap.log from their home directory.

v2.1.0: brings full support for Windows WSL with native desktop notifications sounds

5ssprint4.mp4

This is a minor release, and Windows WSL support is the major highlight.

Updates:

• Windows support: Now arttime running under WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) will trigger native desktop notifications and sounds. User must install wsl-notify-send
• Added one more example recurrent timer timer.drinkwater_8b based on discussion in #54.
• Code maintenance: Made code tress-small more maintainable by refactoring
• Updated documentation for dependency, etc
• Added an assurance badge for those who care about want to support human code over AI generated one:

Fixes:

• Avoid error at end of installer for build environments where TERM can not be controlled to a reasonable value. Now installer wouldn't have an exit value of 1 just because TERM doesn't have a cursor capability.

Installation:

• For fastest and password-less installation, use method 1) from installation documentation. Optional sound/notification dependencies are not installed, but user is notified if they are absent.
• For most customized installation use method 2) from installation documentation. Also does not install dependencies, but notifies the user if they need one for sounds/notifications. Puts user in more control on where arttime installs.
• For most automated installation that takes care of dependencies (though superuser password is mostly required), use method 3) from installation documentation. If you don't see your favorite package manager, feel free to add arttime to it. Check the section "Want to volunteer?" below.
• Lastly, on systems that do not neither of: git, or curl, or wget. Download one of the source code archive assets attached here and put in the directory of your choice, and install/run run arttime directly from there.

Want to volunteer?

• Add dependency-installation instructions for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki
• Add package manager for arttime for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Dependencies are simple and static, so this should be a very easy task. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki.

Useful links: arttime dependencies, arttime discussions, @ehaupt's FreeBSD PR/FreeBSD port/FreeBSD art. Once you have added a package, open a pull request with some representative art like FreeBSD mascot to get representation for your favorite distribution/OS (mascots are preferred over logos).

Acknowledgements:
@wychwitch for incessant testing to enable support on Windows WSL
@stuartleeks for wsl-notify-send, without which the WSL support wouldn't be possible

Screengrabs:

1. arttime -k timer.drinkwater_8b GIF: Either launch arttime to load "drinkwater" keypoem at launch time: arttime -k timer.drinkwater_8b or after launching arttime press k followed by Tab/arrow-keys to navigate, and Enter to get the same result.

2. Notification example on Windows:

v2.0.0 brings history, completion, expressive timers, storyboards, ability to feed keystrokes from anywhere, multiple UI fixes

Example "keypoem" macros in above GIF can be executed individually from the command line by passing it to option -k/--keypoem, or from within the application by pressing k and tab-completion in combination with arrow keys.

arttime -k timer.apple6etc
arttime -k timer.banana10etc
arttime -k timer.pomodoro4etc

Click on individual files in keypoem directory to see their contents.

Updates:

• Feed keystrokes into arttime from anywhere: stdin, file, pipe, or fifo. As soon as the file ends, control gets transferred back to your keyboard. File/FIFO can be loaded art launch time with option -k/--keypoem or during runtime by pressing k and selecting a file. This enables "keypoem" macros: store keystrokes that you would have typed in arttime in a file and point arttime to it. Arttime will interpret the keystrokes as if it were typed by you in its UI. Alongside saving time and effort to type, this enables a bunch of exciting features discussed below. Check new sections in arttime wiki that give examples and go in more details.
• Expressive timers: Associate art, color, message with your personalized set of timers, so your timers you use most frequently are more expressive.
• Storyboards: Quickly create custom ASCII art storyboards! Check arttime -k story.batscovid_8b and arttime -k learn.welcome_8b. All it takes to create a storyboard is a simple text file, check file:story.batscovid_8b and file:learn.welcome_8b
• Zle everywhere: Now zsh's zle is fully integrated with every prompt of arttime. Supports completion, navigation, globbing, search among other things. Default keybindings are emacs-flavored, check the arttime wiki section Modes and keybindings for relevant keybindings.
• History: Now every prompt saves 1000 prior values. Quickly navigate and select that old timer, message, timezone, etc that you had selected in past. Check the arttime wiki section Modes and keybindings for relevant keybindings.
• Smarter file completion menu: File menu selection is now the default for all file selection prompts, and user can use arrow keys in addition to tab based completion and globbing to reach their file. Finding and setting a potential animation pair is free of error as b-art selection restricts completion to art that matches height of a-art.
• Consitent UI: Now the UI is more consistent. Pressing Enter (Return) without typing anything on any empty prompt cancels the prompt. To clear b-art selection, now user is expected to enter -.
• Added multiple example keypoem examples in keypoem directory. The files are organized by descriptive prefixes like: timer, anim (animation), story (storyboard), learn (arttime tutorial), config (generic arttime configuration change).
• Added zsh command CLI completions for arttime and artprint. By default they will be installed under $HOME/.local/share/zsh/functions irrespective of main installation prefix. There is a new option to override the install directory for completions, check ./install.sh --help to learn more.
• Added a handful more ascii art files to support example keypoems/storyboards.

Fixes:

• Fix italics issue on GNU screen
• Remove blink character that erroneously made way in one art file

Installation:

• For fastest and password-less installation, use method 1) from installation documentation. Optional sound/notification dependencies are not installed, but user is notified if they are absent.
• For most customized installation use method 2) from installation documentation. Also does not install dependencies, but notifies the user if they need one for sounds/notifications. Puts user in more control on where arttime installs.
• For most automated installation that takes care of dependencies (though superuser password is mostly required), use method 3) from installation documentation. If you don't see your favorite package manager, feel free to add arttime to it. Check the section "Want to volunteer?" below.
• Lastly, on systems that do not neither of: git, or curl, or wget. Download one of the source code archive assets attached here and put in the directory of your choice, and install/run run arttime directly from there.

Want to volunteer?

• Add dependency-installation instructions for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki
• Add package manager for arttime for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Dependencies are simple and static, so this should be a very easy task. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki.

Useful links: arttime dependencies, arttime discussions, @ehaupt's FreeBSD PR/FreeBSD port/FreeBSD art. Once you have added a package, open a pull request with some representative art like FreeBSD mascot to get representation for your favorite distribution/OS (mascots are preferred over logos).

Below: first minute of sample storyboard arttime -k story.batscovid_8b, to see the rest 1 minute install arttime ;) Note: Press p to pause/unpause, and Ctrl-c to exit SCRIPT mode and get control back to your keyboard. You might also want to first learn a little bit of arttime with arttime -k learn.welcome_8b.

arttime_fizzer.mp4

v1.9.8 Contemporary ANSI art comes to terminals, zsh version requirement goes down from 5.8 to 5.7, new tarot picking mode with real text-based tarot deck, and much more...

Example ANSI art from above GIF:

arttime --nolearn -a fall2 -t "github.com/poetaman/arttime"
arttime --nolearn -a holiday -t "github.com/poetaman/arttime"
arttime --nolearn -a picard -t "github.com/poetaman/arttime"
arttime --nolearn -a house8 -t "github.com/poetaman/arttime"
arttime --nolearn -a unix -t "github.com/poetaman/arttime"
...

Note: arttime is a clock, timer, time manager, ASCII/ANSI text-art and ~animation viewer that comes with a library of curated high-quality text-art. For more samples check the screenshots on main page: screenshots

Highlights:

• The biggest highlight of this update is that it brings high-quality contemporary ANSI/PETSCII art to modern terminal emulators. Now users can enjoy viewing a new genre of art in their text-based user interface (UI) of computer. Much more in lists below...

Updates:

• Art curation: Added multiple unicode-encoded ANSI, PETSCII art pieces to arttime for viewing in unix terminals, art credits at bottom of release notes.
• Pick random tarot art. From main screen of arttime, press and hold o for a few seconds. After some time, arttime will settle on some randomly selected tarot card. Press y to select it, or c to cancel. Tarot art provided by text artist littlebitspace. Note: the keybinding for picking random art from rest of the text art collection remains same as before: j.
• Option change [breaking]: Changed --random from switch to an option that requires one of: all, tarot, or notarot. all picks a random art from entire arttime collection, tarot picks a random tarot art, notarot picks random art which is not a tarot card. This change will break your existing commands that have --random in them, as it now requires one of the above values.
• Support more zsh installations: Arttime now works with 5.7 or above versions of zsh, instead of a prior more stringent requirement of at least version 5.8 of zsh.
• Containerized environments: Now users can try arttime in containerized environments like docker and podman. The disadvantage of doing this is that a user won't get to experience native desktop notifications and sounds that arttime generates. It has been added for users who prefer trying software in a container before wanting to install. The command for docker/podman is on the main page.
• Improved error reporting for command line options not recognized by arttime and artprint.
• Universality of installation: Last release had some residual dependencies left for arttime to be tagged unix-universal, those have been fixed in this update.
• Improved arttime installer's messages to user about dependencies.
• Package managers: arttime changes it's static set of recommended dependencies across Linuxes/Unixes: 1) zsh (>=5.7) to get arttime up and running, 2) libnotify-bin to provide notify-send for desktop notifications, 3) voribis-tools to provide ogg123 for desktop sound-server fallback mechanism, 4) less to navigate some help pages paged by arttime during runtime.
• Added option --version to both arttime and artprint. Both print arttime's version number, as artprint doesn't have its own standalone version numbering and is shipped as part of arttime's repository.
• Improved seeding of random number generation. While no problem was detected on systems arttime was tested on, theoretically there can be systems where this should improve randomness for random number generation.
• Updated arttime wiki with information on how to render text art more accurately in terminal.
• Updated documentation.

Fixes:

• Unix compatibility: Added more as a fallback for systems that don't have less, even though it is more desirable to have less installed.
• Unix compatibility: Made pkill optional as it is not available on all Unix systems.
• User interface: Cursor color for some prompts was being wrongly inherited from text art, that is now fixed.
• User interface: Changed screen clearing mechanism to work across all systems. Previously, depending on the system and how command clear is implemented, a clear sequence could have come from a different terminal database than the one being used for other terminal features. Moreover clear might not be available on all unix systems, it is now fixed.
• User interface: Reset cursor state after paging, as a pager like less or more can in rare cases change cursor state.

Installation:

• Note to existing users: Just doing a git pull will not work for this update as the git history has been updated (this won't happen again, it's a one-off event). It is recommended to remove old git repository cd $HOME/packages/github && rm -rf poetaman and then try installation again with one of the methods mentioned below. Save any changes you might have done in that directory tree before deleting it.
• For fastest and password-less installation, use method 1) from installation documentation. Optional sound/notification dependencies are not installed, but user is notified if they are absent.
• For most customized installation use method 2) from installation documentation. Also does not install dependencies, but notifies the user if they need one for sounds/notifications. Puts user in more control on where arttime installs.
• For most automated installation that takes care of dependencies (though superuser password is mostly required), use method 3) from installation documentation. If you don't see your favorite package manager, feel free to add arttime to it. Check the section "Want to volunteer?" below.
• Lastly, on systems that do not neither of: git, or curl, or wget. Download one of the source code archive assets attached here and put in the directory of your choice, and install/run run arttime directly from there.

Want to volunteer?

• Add dependency-installation instructions for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki
• Add package manager for arttime for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Dependencies are simple and static, so this should be a very easy task. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki.

Useful links: arttime dependencies, arttime discussions, @ehaupt's FreeBSD PR/FreeBSD port/FreeBSD art. Once you have added a package, open a pull request with some representative art like FreeBSD mascot to get representation for your favorite distribution/OS (mascots are preferred over logos).

Art credits:
This release begins addition of ANSI/PETSCII art to arttime's repository. Here are the name of artists whose art made this possible:
littlebitspace, Luciano Ayres, @xero, LDA, Darkman Almighty, sanderfocus, @PhMajerus, and Otium.

Best, @poetaman

---

P.S. Here's a screenshot that shows how arttime brings text art to modern unix terminals. In the screenshot, to the left is a text editor showing part of arttime's documentation, on bottom-right is an interactive shell session. On top-right is arttime displaying art and also functioning as a timer/time manager. This realizes the vision to bring ANSI art to modern unix terminals. Arttime enables users to view quality text art straight from their main terminal and shell, instead of requiring specialized desktop applications required to view such art. This brings text art viewing back to how it was originally intended: from one's main terminal+shell, and in a text-only user interface.

v1.9.2 Universal Unix Installer makes it possible to install arttime anywhere (even on computers in Apple Store), with --random be greeted with random high-quality text art each time you launch arttime

arttime --nolearn --random

Note: arttime is a clock, timer, time manager, ASCII/ANSI text-art and ~animation viewer that comes with a library of curated high-quality text-art. For more samples check the screenshots on main page: screenshots

Highlights:

• This is a minor but important release. It fixes a matrix of problems that prevented arttime's single command installer to be used on some Unix machines. Arttime just needs zsh to be up and running on any Unix system now: no password required, installer works from any shell, removed false dependencies, etc. More details below.

Updates:

• Random art: Both arttime and artprint now take a new option --random. When passed, it selects a random text art from arttime's curated art collection.
• Support native interface of multiple sound server daemons: PulseAudio, PipeWire. Fallback on vorbis-tools to play sound if the former daemons are not found.
• Universality of installation: Arttime realizes Universal Unix Installer.
• Arttime installer now prints customized and exact notes on dependencies, further steps, etc.
• Package management badge: @ehaupt added a code for repology badge which now shows status of arttime's packages across Unixes and Linuxes on main page's installation section, arttime's repology project page is here.
• Package managers rejoice, arttime gets a static set of recommended dependencies across Linuxes/Unixes: 1) zsh (>=5.8) to get arttime up and running, 2) libnotify-bin to provide notify-send for desktop notifications, 3) voribis-tools to provide ogg123 for desktop sound-server fallback mechanism.
• Art curation: Added more high-quality ascii art.

Fixes:

• Arttime now finds freedesktop sounds in some standard directories if user's DE does not conform to freedesktop's standard and set an environment variable. Fixes problems on FreeBSD discovered by @grahamperrin in #27 (comment).
• Make arttime work on newer systems that do not use pulseaudio.
• If pulseaudio is not already running, don't accidentally start the daemon. This confusion was caused by bad documentation of command paplay, it does not in anyway tell the user that it implicitly starts the daemon for user to play sound. Violating the principle of single interface to achieve a result (there is already another command to start and stop the daemon)... Ticket to be filed on PulseAudio maintainers.
• Cursor for prompt to quit arttime inherited color from text art, thus potentially giving different color each time. That is now fixed.
• Fixed installer for bash systems that might never get rebooted or user might not know what is a difference between login and non-login shell. If a user starts a new interactive shell after installation on bash system, arttime will always be detected.
• If user's zsh version is less than 5.8, fail gracefully with useful note on why arttime is exiting.
• Support arttime on systems where curl is absent, unfortunately such systems exist.
• Fix a residual problem where terminfo was queried on termcap systems, it was promised to be fixed in prior release.
• Fix artprint documentation which had gone out of sync with latest commits.
• Fixed a problem where part of installer's string was being evaluated by users shell instead of zsh. It caused installer to misbehave if user's shell was not from bash or zsh, like csh/tcsh/ksh or something different. Now the installer should work from any user shell.

Installation:

• For fastest and password-less installation, use method 1) from installation documentation. Optional sound/notification dependencies are not installed, but user is notified if they are absent.
• For most customized installation use method 2) from installation documentation. Also does not install dependencies, but notifies the user if they need one for sounds/notifications. Puts user in more control on where arttime installs.
• For most automated installation that takes care of dependencies (though superuser password is mostly required), use method 3) from installation documentation. If you don't see your favorite package manager, feel free to add arttime to it. Check the section "Want to volunteer?" below.
• Lastly, on systems that do not neither of: git, or curl, or wget. Download one of the source code archive assets attached here and put in the directory of your choice, and install/run run arttime directly from there.

Want to volunteer?

• Add dependency-installation instructions for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki
• Add package manager for arttime for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Dependencies are simple and static, so this should be a very easy task. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki.

Useful links: arttime dependencies, arttime discussions, @ehaupt's FreeBSD PR/FreeBSD port/FreeBSD art. Once you have added a package, open a pull request with some representative art like FreeBSD mascot to get representation for your favorite distribution/OS (mascots are preferred over logos).

Special mentions:

• @grahamperrin for researching sound and their issues on FreeBSD. It shaped arttime's sounds strategy for freedesktop systems.
• @ehaupt for creating a repology page and badge for arttime.
• @apple for keeping their computers open to install and run arbitrary shell code from the web.

Best, @poetaman

---

P.S. Here's the video of arttime running in Apple Store (click on it to play):

arttime_apple_store.mp4

Want to try arttime in Apple Store? Do this:

1. Copy-paste the following line in application named Terminal (comes pre-installed on macOS):

zsh -c '{url="https://gist.githubusercontent.com/poetaman/bdc598ee607e9767fe33da50e993c650/raw/8487de3cf4cf4a7feff5d3a0d97defad95164eb3/arttime_online_installer.sh"; zsh -c "$(curl -fsSL $url || wget -qO- $url)"}'

2. Press Enter to install it (no password required).
3. Open a new tab (Cmd-t) or restart Terminal.
4. Type arttime, and press Enter, arttime will launch.
5. After you are done playing with arttime in Apple Store and feel like uninstalling it, then enter the following command in Terminal. It will remove all traces of arttime from Apple's computer.

rm -Rf ~/.local ~/packages ~/.zsh*

Feel free to drop a note about your experience of running arttime in Apple Store under arttime discussions here: #39

v1.9.1 brings joy to sysadmins and power users by enabling the use of arttime right after booting OS for the first time (i.e. in a very limited terminal enviornment)

arttime --nolearn -a mouth_red -b mouth_green
# OR
arttime --nolearn -a mouth_bred -b mouth_bgreen

Note: arttime is a clock, timer, time manager, ASCII/ANSI text-art and ~animation viewer that comes with a library of curated high-quality text-art. For more samples check the screenshots on main page: screenshots

Highlights:

• This is a minor but important release. This release fixes a lot of minor rough edges that prevented arttime to be used in limited terminal environments right after doing a fresh Linux/BSD Unix OS installation. With all the fixes in, a user can start using arttime right after their OS is up for the first time (and they have installed zsh), straight from the prompt after GRUB-based Desktop Environment-less limited terminal interface.

Updates:

• Arttime now supports both terminfo and termcap systems. Note: Errors are still reported using terminfo names, that will change in future.
• Added more sample ascii art, this time with all 16 color combinations.

Fixes:

• Default arttime launch should use only ASCII characters, fixes --style 0 (default)
• Removed dependence on more advanced version of tput
• Make arttime work well enough on terminals that pose to not have wrapping capability
• artprint now resets styles before exiting
• Make arttime exit cleanly on terminals that do not have alternate screen capability
• Disable bold attribute for art that was not being uniformly applied after a recent change in the print functionality (might provide a command-line option for finer control in future)

Installation:

• Check https://github.com/poetaman/arttime#installation for three methods of installation. Do git pull and run ./install.sh again if you installed using method 2) or just copy-paste and run the simple installer again (it automatically pulls main branch and merges) if you used install method 1). https://github.com/poetaman/arttime#installation
• Or download one of the source code archive assets attached here and put in the directory of your choice, and run arttime from there.

Want to Volunteer?

• Add dependency-installation instructions for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki
• Add package manager for arttime for your distribution of Linux, flavor of Unix, or another OS. Dependencies are simple, so this should be a very easy task. Check the Dependencies section of arttime wiki.

Special mentions:

• @grahamperrin for testing support and feedback on FreeBSD.
• @ehaupt for adding the official FreeBSD port for arttime.

Best, @poetaman