terminalist.py

A command line tool to help you remember to use different command line tools.

This tool exists as a little script to help you try to use alternative command line tools. terminalist.py creates symlinks for command line tools that have alternatives that you choose, and, instead of running the old tool, reminds you to run the new tool, and gives you some tips for translating command line arguments. It exists as a way to break habits and form new ones.

For example, the tool fd (https://github.com/sharkdp/fd) is a modern take on the venerable find. In order to learn how to use fd, it is beneficial to start using it daily. But, muscle memory from years of using find makes it difficult to remember to use something new. That's where terminalist.py comes in. It works by making itself a symlink to find, so that if you type find, it runs this script instead. Running find then reports how to use fd instead, offering translations for (a subset of) the find command line arguments that you specified. In this way, this tool acts as sort of an interjection between the "old" tool, the user, and the alternative tool.

Requirements

terminalist.py is designed to work wherever python3.6 (and above) exists. It has no dependencies and is a standalone file.

Installation

1. You must have a $HOME/bin/ directory, and it must be first in your $PATH. (How to do this varies by systems and by shells. For bash, see askubuntu. For zsh, see stackoverflow. For fish, see docs.)
2. Download terminalist.py and put it in your $HOME/bin. Make sure it's executable.

   $ curl -o $HOME/bin/terminalist.py https://github.com/dshahbaz/terminalist/terminalist.py
   $ chmod +x $HOME/bin/terminalist.py
   

3. Run terminalist.py and follow the instructions there for setting up tool alternates.

Usage

List installed interceptions

This will print the installed interceptions (ie, the symlinks that point to the terminalist.py script).

terminalist.py --list-installed

List available interceptions

terminalist.py --list-available

Add a new interception

Add an interception. This example will create a symlink from find -> terminalist.py in the same directory that terminalist.py resides (namely, $HOME/bin/). Note that it will not overwrite any files.

terminalist.py --install find

Of course, the argument above must be one of the handled interceptions listed with --list-available.

Remove an existing interception

Remove an installed interception. This simply removes the symlink created with --install. Note that this does not remove any files that are not terminalist.py managed symlinks.

terminalist.py --remove find

Updating

From time to time, there may be additional interceptions added to the upstream version of the script. Run this to update:

terminalist.py --self-update

Development

Adding new alternative mappings can be done by adding global register_alternative() calls. See terminalist.py code for where this happens (about the middle of the file).

Adding additional command line argument subtstitutions for existing alternatives can also be done there.