bl
e2e643cbc8
- Replace Bold/Dim attributes with explicit colors that survive light themes (Reverse instead of hardcoded black/white for cursor/selection). - Only redraw cells that actually changed each frame instead of a full clear, and center the field within the live viewport. - Add orca-c's ruler-snapped grid resize keys (( ) _ +) and its fancy ruler-frame corners, ported from tui_main.c. - Add ~/.config/orca-rs/config.toml for a default MIDI port name.
orca-rs
A Rust port of Orca-c, the livecoding environment for procedural sequencing.
Install
On Arch Linux:
yay -S orca-rs
Build
cargo build --release
Requires ALSA headers on Linux (alsa-lib) for MIDI support.
Run
orca-rs [options] [file.orca]
With no file, edits save to untitled.orca. A named file that doesn't exist
yet is created on first save.
| Option | Effect |
|---|---|
--bpm <n> |
Tempo (default 120; one tick = one 16th note) |
--seed <n> |
Random seed for the R operator |
--udp-port <n> / --udp-host <h> |
Send ; strings over UDP (host defaults to 127.0.0.1) |
--osc-port <n> / --osc-host <h> |
Send = messages over OSC |
--no-midi |
Disable MIDI output (on by default) |
--midi-name <s> |
Connect to an existing MIDI port whose name contains <s> |
--list-midi |
List MIDI output ports and exit |
MIDI is on by default: orca-rs creates a virtual ALSA sequencer port named
orca-rs, which PipeWire exposes through its Midi-Bridge — connect it to a
synth with qpwgraph/Helvum, or find it under wpctl status.
A default MIDI port to connect to (instead of creating a virtual one) can be
set in ~/.config/orca-rs/config.toml:
midi_name = "IAC Driver"
--midi-name on the command line overrides it.
There is also a headless runner, equivalent to orca-c's cli:
orca-cli -t 60 file.orca # simulate 60 ticks, print the grid
Keys
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Arrow keys | Move cursor (Alt+arrows: leap by 8) |
| Shift+arrows | Grow/shrink selection |
| Ctrl+arrows | Resize grid by 1 cell |
( / ) |
Resize grid width, snapped to the nearest ruler division |
_ / + |
Resize grid height, snapped to the nearest ruler division |
0-9 a-z A-Z ! : ; = # * . ? |
Place glyph (fills selection) |
| Backspace / Delete | Erase selection |
| Space | Play / pause |
| Ctrl+F | Step one frame (while paused) |
| Ctrl+R | Reset frame counter |
< / > |
BPM −1 / +1 |
| Ctrl+Z or Ctrl+U | Undo |
| Ctrl+X / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V | Cut / copy / paste selection |
| Ctrl+S | Save |
| Esc | Collapse selection |
| Ctrl+Q | Quit |
Layout
src/sim/— the VM: all operators, ported from orca-c'ssim.csrc/tui.rs— terminal UI (crossterm), counterpart oftui_main.csrc/io.rs— UDP / OSC / MIDI event outputsrc/config.rs—~/.config/orca-rs/config.toml(default MIDI port)src/bin/orca-cli.rs— headless runner, counterpart ofcli_main.c
Releasing
Releases are cut with cargo-release
(cargo release patch|minor), which bumps Cargo.toml and aur/PKGBUILD and
pushes a v* tag. The Gitea Actions workflow then builds x86_64 and aarch64
tarballs, attaches them to the Gitea release, and pushes the updated PKGBUILD
to the AUR. Required repo secrets: GITEA_TOKEN, AUR_SSH_KEY.