A terminal weather app with ASCII animations driven by real-time weather data
Embrace the retro-tech aesthetic with "weathr", a new terminal application that brings real-time weather data to your command line. It cleverly combines functional utility with nostalgic ASCII animations for rain, snow, and even flying airplanes. This project appeals to Hacker News' love for well-crafted command-line tools and creative technical implementations.
The Lowdown
Weathr is a unique terminal-based weather application that distinguishes itself with animated ASCII art representations of current weather conditions. It pulls real-time weather information from Open-Meteo.com and displays it directly in your terminal, offering a blend of practical utility and visual charm.
Here's a breakdown of its key aspects:
- Real-time Data and Animations: Fetches live weather data and visualizes it with dynamic ASCII animations, including rain, snow, thunderstorms, day/night cycles, and even flying airplanes.
- Automated Location Detection: Can automatically detect your approximate location using IP address via ipinfo.io, though this feature is optional and can be disabled for manual coordinate input.
- Customization: Users can configure units (temperature, wind speed, precipitation), hide the Heads Up Display (HUD), or run silently. It also supports simulating various weather conditions for testing purposes.
- Installation: Available via Cargo (Rust's package manager), building from source, and specific package managers like AUR for Arch Linux and Nix flakes for NixOS.
- Privacy and Control: Offers explicit control over location detection for privacy-conscious users and respects environment variables like
NO_COLORfor accessibility. - Roadmap and Licensing: Future plans include support for additional weather APIs and more interactive key bindings. The project is open-source, licensed under GPL-3.0-or-later, with credits to Open-Meteo for data and various artists for ASCII art.
Overall, "weathr" stands out as an artful and functional command-line utility, perfect for those who appreciate both the efficiency of the terminal and a touch of animated flair in their daily tools.