Linux Candy: Lolcat++ is a rewrite of the popular LOLCAT

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.

I’ve previously included LOLCAT in this series, but it hasn’t seen any development for the past 5 years. And I recently saw the release of Lolcat++, a rewrite of lolcat. The original is written in Ruby, whereas this rewrite is in C++ which should help shave execution time.

Installation

I evaluated Lolcat++ with Manjaro. That’s an Arch-based distribution. I often used Manjaro as it offers access to the Arch User Repository (AUR), a community-driven repository for Arch Linux users that contains package build scripts (PKGBUILDs) for software not in the official repositories.

There’s a couple of packages for Lolcat++ in the AUR. I went with the binary release.

No issues to report with installation. The developer also provides a binary for Linux, macOS, and Windows.

In Operation

lolcat concatenates files, or standard input, to standard output, and adds rainbow coloring to it. If you start lolcat with just the command, it’ll add rainbow coloring to the text you type. But it’s more fun to pipe some text to it. Here’s an example using misfortune and boxes.

misfortune | boxes -a c -d parchment | lolcat

As you can see, lolcat++ has added a colorful, rainbow-gradient effect to the text.

Other features include:

• Animation: Animate the colors using the -a option.
• Customization: It offers options to control animation speed (-s), duration (-d), and rainbow spread (-p).
• Piping: It’s good with pipes, offering the ability to colorize other commands, and not just standard input.

Summary

lolcat+_ has the same options as the original lolcat, so you shouldn’t need to rewrite any init scripts you have that use it already. The image below shows the available options.

The reason for lolcat++ is to offer quicker speed and therefore a better fit for init scripts and such like. I’ve replaced lolcat with lolcat++ in the Linux Candy table.

Website: github.com/lolcatpp/lolcatpp
Support:
Developer: Love Billenius
License: BSD 3-Clause “New” or “Revised” License

Lolcat++ is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Complete list of articles in this series: