Linux Candy: ascii_moon – displays the moon phase

Linux Candy is a series of articles covering interesting eye candy software. We only feature open source software in this series.

Some of the programs in this series are purely cosmetic, frivolous pieces of fun. Candy at their finest. But we also include some programs that aren’t purely decorative.

There’s a diverse range of programs included in this series. Programs such as eDEX-UI and Variety are actually highly practical programs. ASCIIQuarium has soothing and relaxing qualities for your desktop. Other programs included in this series (such as lolcat, cacafire) are included purely for their decorative qualities. And then there’s some really fun software that just raises a smile or two.

ascii_moon is a small TUI program that displays the moon phase in ASCII art. It’s a small single native binary that’s free and open source software.

Installation

I evaluated ascii_moon with Manjaro, an Arch-based Linux distribution.

There’s a package in the Arch User Repository which installs with Pamac, Manjaro’s rather nifty GUI installer, seamlessy.

The program is actually trivial to install whatever Linux distro you’re running.

In Operation

Issuing the command $ ascii_moon launches the program in its interactive mode. It displays an ASCII art representation of the moon’s phase for the current date.

Waning Gibbous is a moon phase occurring after the Full Moon and before the Third Quarter, where the moon appears more than half-illuminated but the lit portion is decreasing (“waning”), looking like a shrinking, “hump-backed” shape as it moves towards the New Moon

ascii_moon is a TUI program. Use the arrow keys to show the moon’s phase for forthcoming and previous days. In the example below, I’ve gone back a few days.

I like that you can turn on lunar features:

There are other keyboard shortcuts available.

• Cycle through multiple languages for labels (English, Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish) with the ‘L’ key.
• Toggle hiding the unlit (dark) part of the moon with the ‘d’ key.
• Toggle the information panel with the ‘i’ key.

Summary

Unlike some software featured in the series, ascii_moon is more than just a candy program. But it certainly can liven up a MOTD for your terminal too. It certainly makes for an interesting MOTD when used in its non-interactive mode.

This is cross-platform software running under Linux, macOS, and Windows. No dark side of the moon puns are necessary.

Website: github.com/rockydd/ascii_moon
Support:
Developer: rockydd
License: MIT License

ascii_moon is written in Rust. Learn Rust with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Complete list of articles in this series: