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