ref: a6c91a809a43fe78cf7f556aa035734a80e7fba4
dir: /orca.man/
.TH ORCA 1
.SH NAME
orca \- an esoteric programming language designed to quickly create procedural sequencers
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B games/orca
[
.I -i
] [
.I -p
] [
.I -bpm bpm
] [
.I -s WxH
] [
.I -r random_seed
] [
.I -c cursor
] [
.I file
]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I Orca
is not a synthesizer, but a flexible livecoding
environment capable of sending MIDI, OSC & UDP to your audio/visual
interfaces.
.PP
Every letter of the alphabet is an operation, where lowercase letters
operate on bang, uppercase letters operate each frame. Extensive
documentation of the language is available on the project's GitHub web
page, see
.B SOURCE
section.
.PP
There are a number of options:
.TP
.B -i
By default Orca uses "dark" theme.
Use
.B -i
to invert the colors.
.TP
.B -s
Sets the initial dimensions of the grid to
.IR W
x
.IR H .
.TP
.B -p
Starts
.I Orca
in paused state.
.TP
.B -r
Starts with a specific random seed.
.TP
.B -b
Sets initial "beats per minute" value.
.TP
.B -c
Set the cursor character.
.PP
.SH KEYS
.TP
.B '
Enter rectangle
.I selection
mode, use arrows to extend it.
.TP
.B Ctrl+i Insert
Toggle between
.I append
and
.I insert
(overwrite) mode.
.TP
.B Escape
Return to normal mode or deselect.
.TP
.B ´ ` ~
Toggle
.I slide
mode, use arrows to move the selected text around.
.TP
.B Space
Toggle pause.
.TP
.B Ctrl+r
Reset frame counter.
.TP
.B Ctrl+f
Forward one frame, useful in paused mode.
.TP
.B Ctrl+c Ctrl+x
Snarf/cut the selected text.
.TP
.B Ctrl+v
Paste from the snarf buffer.
.TP
.B Ctrl+u Ctrl+l
Convert selected text to upper/lower case.
.TP
.B Ctrl+a Ctrl+e
Jump to the beginning/end of the line.
.TP
.B Home End
Jump to the first/last line.
.TP
.B Delete Backspace Ctrl+h
Keys to remove text.
.TP
.B #
Comment/uncomment selected text.
.TP
.B Ctrl+k
Enter a command. See
.B COMMANDS
section for more information.
.TP
.B Alt+arrow
Move selected text.
.TP
.B Shift+arrow
Extend the selection. Works only in drawterm.
.TP
.B Ctrl+arrow
Jump by the number of cells set for the rulers.
.TP
.B < >
Adjust BPM.
.TP
.B ( ) _ +
Adjust grid size.
.TP
.B [ ] { }
Adjust rulers.
.TP
.B Ctrl+s
Save to file.
.SH MOUSE
Mouse buttons works as one expects it. Left button selects a
rectangle on the grid. Snarf and paste are available by the usual
means. Right button held opens a menu.
.SH COMMANDS
Commands can be entered into Orca either manually with
.B Ctrl+k
or with a
.B $
operator.
.PP
Any command can start with
.I ,
(comma) to select the entire grid before executing the command.
.TP
.B |cmd arg...
Pipe the selected text to a shell command and paste its output back
into the grid. Dots are replaced with spaces before feeding the input
to the command, and the other way around when it comes to command's
output.
.TP
.B <cmd arg...
Execute a shell command and paste its output into the grid. Dots are
replaced with spaces.
.TP
.B >cmd arg...
Pipe the selected text to a shell command. Dots are replaced with spaces.
.TP
.B play
Resume.
.TP
.B stop
Pause.
.TP
.B run
Forward one frame.
.TP
.B bpm NUMBER
Set new BPM value.
.TP
.B apm NUMBER
Animate BPM to the value.
.TP
.B frame NUMBER
Set frame value.
.TP
.B skip NUMER
Increase frame value.
.TP
.B rewind NUMBER
Decrease frame value.
.TP
.B print
Print selected rectangle to
.I stdout .
.PP
.I Orca
treats
.I stdin
as a stream of commands, you can run it like so:
.EX
aux/listen1 -t tcp!127.0.0.1!49161 games/orca
.EE
.PP
Then start the following in a separate "command" window:
.EX
telnet tcp!127.0.0.1!49161
.EE
.SH SOURCE
https://github.com/hundredrabbits/Orca