x11tunes

8 Feb 2005

At work, because the iBook keyboard is bad for me and the iBook can’t drive a display higher than 1024x768 (I know you can hack some iBooks, but not the one I have), I use my linux box most of the time, and run some X11 apps on my iBook displayed on the linux box. This is quite a nice way of getting apps that I can’t ask support to install on my linux box up and running (e.g., the gaim IM client) with no pain about installing in weird directories. Anyway, I still use iTunes at work, with my headphones plugged into the iBook, so I have to use the iBook to drive that, which is annoying - or it was until a few minutes with python, the python gtk bindings, and applescript provided me with a solution:

On the left is my prog in normal mode - just sits there providing the three functions I typically need. On the right is the tool tip that comes up if you hover over it to tell you what the current track is. Just run this on your mac and set the display to wherever you want, and bingo, a simple, no fuss X11 controller for iTunes.

I suspect this is one of those esoteric needs that no one else really has, but just incase, the below links to the script.

Link: x11tunes.py