How to run streamripper and mplayer in a split-screen X terminal, via a single script

Question

I want to run streamripper in its own X Terminal (window), then split the terminal horizontally, and then run mplayer in the lower half.
This is simple enough to do manually, but getting a script to do it eludes me.

• start a new terminal window
• run streamripper http://radio.net:8000 -r 8000
• split the terminal window horizontally
• run mplayer http://localhost:8000 in the bottom panel.

mplayer cannot be allowed to run immediately. It needs to wait for stream data, so a test for this would be better than "wait x seconds" (which is effectively what the manual method does.

If the terminal is significant to this, anything will do, but I currently have installed konsole, gnome-terminal, and terminator (in Ubuntu)

Answer 1

Although some terminal programs have support for splitting, you won't be able to access this functionality from the shell which is running in a different layer and doesn't have access to the software displaying it.

What you can do is use a terminal multiplexer such as GNU Screen or tmux that allow you to run multiple shells in "panes" inside a console.

Screen has been around since the dawn of time and works, but lately the project has falled into dis-repair and it's not being well maintained. Tmux is kind of a new player on the scene but the code is very clean and mature, it has a few more features than screen, and it's a good deal easier to learn and configure. Even though I still use screen out of force of habit, I highly recomend you use tmux for this.

You should be able to write a script that launches a tmux session, runs your streamripper code in one pane, waits for a condition, then adds another pane to the same session, displays it as a split screen, then runs mplayer in the new pane.