Slicky 1.2 — calmer

He was hopping too often, and too far. Fixed.

Update from 1.1 — About Slicky → Install and Restart, or
brew upgrade --cask --greedy slicky. Fresh install:

brew tap ananthasharma/tap
brew trust ananthasharma/tap
brew install --cask slicky

Calmer

Hop distance used to be measured in absolute points, which meant the same
slider position produced wildly different behaviour depending on how big he
was. At his smallest size an 820pt setting is nine of his own body lengths,
every time — frantic rather than playful. Trips now scale with his size, so
a Guppy goes a shorter way than a Whale does.

Distance is also drawn from a weighted roll instead of a flat one, so most moves
are short and the long ones stay rare enough to be worth watching. And about one
wait in four is stretched, so he settles rather than paces — a pet that moves on
a metronome isn't restful to have around.

At one reporter's settings the median hop went from 530pt to 167pt without them
touching a slider.

The default wait is now 75 seconds, up from 25. A minute and a quarter is
noticeable without being an interruption. Existing installs keep whatever you
set; the slider is in Behaviour.

Also

The README now says he's on Homebrew before you have to scroll for it.

Slicky 1.1 — he walks now

He walks now. That's the headline.

Update from 1.0 — his eyes turn to > and _ when a new version is out.
Right-click → Update to 1.1…, or About Slicky → Install and Restart. Fresh
install: download Slicky.zip, unzip, drag to /Applications.

Signed and notarised. Requires macOS 14 or later; universal.

Walking

Roughly half his moves are now a lateral stroll instead of a hop — legs
alternating, leaning into it, antenna trailing behind, eyes on where he's going.
His stride is keyed to the distance actually covered rather than to a clock, so
his feet never skate.

He only walks sideways. He has not been told this is a limitation and would be
embarrassed to learn it. Turn it off in Behaviour if you prefer a robot fully
committed to the thruster lifestyle.

Three themes seeing summer off

Sunflower for the late sun, petals with seed-dark hands. Linen for the
picnic blanket you still haven't put away. Sky for one more clear afternoon.
He does not know summer is ending. Don't tell him.

Sliders that know where they are

Size and hop distance still go anywhere you drag them, but points along each one
now have names that light up when you land on them, and you can click a name to
snap to it.

Size is measured in fish: Guppy, Trout, Mermaid, Whale. Yes, one
of those is not a fish. Take it up with him.

Distance is measured in places from the Guide: Traal, Damogran,
Krikkit, Magrathea. He has been to none of them.

Smaller things

• The randomised wait is now ±π seconds, so he sometimes turns up early. π
  isn't just a good reason, it's a great reason.
• Buy me a coffee and Star him on GitHub now live in the settings footer,
  visible from every tab instead of buried in About.
• The small print got bigger. It was too small to read, which is a poor quality
  in small print.

Slicky 1.0

Slicky's first release. He floats above your windows, hops around on a
randomised timer, watches your pointer, and opens the apps you hand him.

Install — download Slicky.zip, unzip, drag Slicky.app to /Applications.
Signed and notarised, so it opens like any other app. Requires macOS 14 or later;
universal (Apple Silicon and Intel).

He starts in the bottom-right of your main screen. There's no Dock icon and no
menu bar item to look for — walk over and right-click him.

What he does

• Click and double-click open the apps you bind to them, with the app's
  icon held over his head and a ring of light so you can see it coming
• Drag an app onto him to rebind: he scribbles out the old entry, tears the
  page off a notepad and eats it. Plain drop sets click, ⌥ sets double-click,
  ⌘ adds to his right-click menu
• Right-click for the menu — apps, jump, say hi, take a selfie, settings
• Seven colour presets, or pick his shell, accent and glow yourself
• Selfies: a transparent cut-out of him alone, saved to ~/Downloads
• Optional typing dodge — he hops aside when the text cursor lands under
  him. Off by default; needs Accessibility permission, uses only the fact that
  a key was pressed, never what
• Updates himself from these releases, and only accepts builds signed by the
  same developer

He has no Dock icon and no menu bar item — the robot is the interface. Idle
drawing runs at 15fps and stops entirely when he's hidden behind something.

Source, and a longer story about why transparent windows and drag-and-drop
fight each other, in the README.