CapCapa

Continuing to explore AI and code, I wanted to make a super simple app that would take a screen shot every 5 seconds and save them in a folder chronologically. While this is already a feature built in to mac's screen recording feature set, it allowed me to explore a bit and even customize or branch out. It's a great way to create quick videos of how-to's, and working time-lapse videos to show progress via After Effects. I also wanted to take it a step further than having to run it through terminal, so I had to find a way to create a stand alone app I could keep on my desktop.

PYTHON CODE GENERATION VIA JULES

Using jules, I immediately jumped in giving it a prompt with my general desired result:

Create the code for a stand alone app on my mac computer that takes a screen shot every 5 seconds. I should have the ability to start and stop the app at any time. Each screen shot should be named chronologically and stored in a folder on my desktop.

Jules went to work building the code.

LOCAL TERMINAL

Using the generated code I could open the terminal and run the saved file locally to test it. Using this method I was able to make tweaks super fast, such as updating questions, reformating, etc.

ChatGPT Advice and Plan

From here, I was able to ask ChatGPT:

how do i go from having a python app run in the terminal to having a stand alone app i can launch from an icon on my desktop on a mac

This gave me multiple options to move forward with. I chose the automater.

AUTOMATER

After asking ChatGPT how I could take the code from running in the terminal to a stand alone app, it suggested using Automater. Automater allowed me to create a simple application by giving it the file path and running it in a virtual environment.

GITHUB REPOSITORY

Like my other code projects, I want to keep track of my progress and share it with others that might be interested so I created a new repository on Github with the raw code. Anyone interested in using it could edit the code to their liking and create their own application.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Once the app was working I quickly created an icon via ChatGpt to include the word "CAP" in a comic book style.

CAPCAPA IN ACTION

The program ended up working exactly how I wanted it to. Super simple and easily accessible. Future modifications might include the option to select how many seconds between each screenshot, file naming, etc.

Try it out: