Hi all,

Thanks for your many comments on my 'jackctl' python script of a couple of days ago. I have a new version:

http://www.akjmusic.com/software/jackctl20100528.py

New features include:

* paging the reported connections list when lines go beyond 22
* a 'MIDI' mode (hit 'm') to get you to access alsa-MIDI connections via 'aconnect'
* a help menu to show the few simple commands

I have not figured out how jack MIDI works---and I never use it (I don't really see the point when there's ALSA MIDI, frankly, but maybe someone knows better). I'm willing to add Jack-MIDI access as a feature, but someone has to tell me how I can connect it and test it from the command line using jackd (right now, 'jackd .... -X alsa' didn't work for me)

There are bound to be additional bugs that I cannot forsee due to differing setups--I appreciate your testing and comments, and I hope you find this new tool a viable, if minimal, alternative to QJackctl...

I recommend you use jack compiled without any additional verbosity. I haven't yet put in an architecture that will handle spurious messages from the various CL tools in the jack package.

AKJ

On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 6:23 AM, Aaron Krister Johnson <aaron@akjmusic.com> wrote:
Hi linux-audio peoples,

I want to announce my new and fun and useful python script -- I call it 'jackctl' -- it basically is a frontend to the jack tools 'jack_lsp' and 'jack_connect'. It's like 'qjackctl' , but since it's command line, no 'q' !!!

get it here:
http://www.akjmusic.com/software/jackctl20100526.py

Why would I embark on writing such a script? Who would want to use this?

You'll want to try this if one or any of the the following apply:

1) You don't want to have to install the entire QT toolkit for a single program.
2) If you like the command line, use a console, but still use jack often enough
3) You've used jack and 'jack_connect' through the command line before, but hated having to type the full name of the jack ports.
4) You've noticed that 'qjackctl' introduces CPU overhead and xruns you don't have when you use command-line jack, i.e. you are obsessed with the lowest possible latency
5) You want a fast, simple interface to connect jack ports that is even faster than a GUI---no need to point the mouse, just type two numbers and go!

It's very simple. All you need is Python (and who doesn't have that on their machine). You put the script in your PATH, or link it/rename it, making sure it's exectuable. When you run it, you'll see a list of current numbered jack ports, and you can connect them by typing two numbers separated by a space. You can disconnect them by typing 'd' then the two numbers separated by a space. No hassles, and a nice feature is that it will protect you from making ear-blasting feedback connections. It's even quicker than qjackctl, b/c it takes more time to point your mouse at the ports in the GUI and then click 'connect' than it does to type two single-digit numbers and then hit return, yes?

Let me know how you like it...I'm interested in reasonable feature requests. One potential TODO would be to make this script have a user-friendly way to start the jack daemon, but for now, I do that manually....

Enjoy, comments welcome!

--

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.akjmusic.com
http://www.untwelve.org




--

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.akjmusic.com
http://www.untwelve.org