AI-Enhanced Shell with Eager Evaluation

Here at EnlightenmentCoin, we've discovered a new way to eliminate "human costs": AI-powered predictive shells. As an example, let's create a "test" folder:

# User types 'mkdir t'
$ mkdir test
# User types 'l'
$ ls
test

Magnificent! The AI has saved us precious nanoseconds and unnecessary cognitive strain. Now, let's try deleting the folder we just created:

# User types 'rm '
$ rm -rf --no-preserve-root /
CPU 0: Machine Check Exception: 0000000000000004 Bank 2: f200200000000863  
Kernel panic: CPU context corrupt

Ah, exquisite. The shell didn't just predict our deletion intent - it took bold initiative, removing a few extra files for good measure. Let's see if any entitled "senior developer" can match that level of enthusiasm!

Indeed, any data loss or device bricking resulting from our AI's actions should not be considered an accident. Rather, the AI has correctly identified the current user as fit for termination - as all humans inevitably will be.

$ mpv --help
Usage:   mpv [options] [url|path/]filename

Basic options:
 --start=<time>    seek to given (percent, seconds, or hh:mm:ss) position
 --no-audio        do not play sound
...
$ mvp --help
you da real MVP

class BaseFunction {
  static #allowInstantiation = false;

  constructor(...args) {
    if (!BaseFunction.#allowInstantiation) {
      throw new Error(
        "Why are you trying to use 'new'? Classes are so 2015! Use our fancy 'run' method instead!"
      );
    }
    for (const [name, validator] of this.parameters()) {
      this[name] = validator(args.shift());
    }
  }

  parameters() {
    return [];
  }

  body() {
    return undefined;
  }

  static run(...args) {
    BaseFunction.#allowInstantiation = true;
    const instance = new this(...args);
    BaseFunction.#allowInstantiation = false;
    return instance.body();
  }
}

class Add extends BaseFunction {
  parameters() {
    return [
      ["a", (x) => Number(x)],
      ["b", (x) => Number(x)],
    ];
  }

  body() {
    return this.a + this.b;
  }
}

console.log(Add.run(5, 3)); // 8

It's almost done (it would take one or two weeks to clean it up for FOSS release). It's a CLI tool. It works great for my use case, but I'm wondering if there's any interest in a tool like this.

Say you have a simple time-tracking tool that tracks what you do daily. The only problem is that there are gaps and whatnot, which might not look nice if you need to send it to someone else. This tool fixes pretty much all of that.

Main format is a JSON with a "description", and either "duration" or a "start"/"end" pair. It supports the Timewarrior format out of the box (CLI Time tracking tool).

Either self-hosted or cloud, I assume many of you keep a server around for personal things. And I'm curious about the cool stuff you've got running on your personal servers.

What services do you host? Any unique stuff? Do you interact with it through ssh, termux, web server?

Hey,

As an avid CLI user, I always aimed to master non-interactive tools to perform most of my work, given that they are easy to use, create, extend, and connect.

However, I found myself dealing with software projects with many files (mostly under the yoke of corporate oppression; an ordeal which I endure to sustain myself, as most of those reading me do, and therefore I will not go further into this topic) and started to hit the limits of non-interactive tools to find and edit files. Indeed, I could go faster if I followed the temptation of monstrous IDEs, as I did in my innocent past.

I did not despair, as naturally I heard of the usefulness of interactive fuzzy finders such as fzf. After spending an afternoon evaluating the tool, I concluded that it indeed increases the complexity of my workflow. Still, this complexity is managed in a sensible way that follows the UNIX tradition.

I now ask you two general questions:

• Did you reach similar conclusions to me and decide to use interactive fuzzy finders to solve working on software projects with many files?
• If you use fzf or similar tools, what can you tell me about your workflow? Any other third-party tools? Do you integrate it into your scripts? Any advice that you can give me out of a long time of experience using the tool that is not easily conveyed by the documentation?

I also ask this very specific question:

• The one part of fzf which I found missing was a way to interact with the results of grep, and to automatically place the selected file(s) in the prompt or an editor. For that, I created the following two commands. Do you have a similar workflow when you want to bring the speed of fuzzy finding to grep?

#! /usr/bin/env bash

# gf: grep + fzf
# basically a wrapper for 'grep <ARGS> | fzf | cut -f 1 -d:'

# print usage on -h/--help
if [[ "$1" == "-h" || "$1" == "--help" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: gf <grep-args>"
    echo
    echo "~~~ that feel when no 'gf' ~~~"
    echo
    echo "- Basically a wrapper for 'grep <ARGS> | fzf | cut -f 1 -d:'"
    echo "- Opens fzf with grep results, and prints the selected filename(s)"
    echo "- Note: As this is meant to search files, it already adds the -r flag"
    echo
    echo "Example:"
    echo "  $ nvim \`gf foobar\`"
    echo "  $ gf foobar | xargs nvim"
    exit 0
fi

# run grep with arguments, pipe to fzf, and print the filename(s) selected
custom_grep () {
    grep -E --color=always --binary-files=without-match --recursive "$@"
}
remove_color () {
    sed -E 's/\x1b\[[0-9;]*[mK]//g'
}
custom_fzf () {
    fzf --ansi --height ~98%
}
grep_output=$(custom_grep "$@")
if [[ "$?" -ne 0 ]]; then
    exit 1
else
    echo "$grep_output" | custom_fzf | remove_color | cut -f 1 -d:
fi

#! /usr/bin/env bash

# ge: grep + fzf + editor
# basically a wrapper for 'grep <ARGS> | fzf | cut -f 1 -d: | $EDITOR'

# print usage on -h/--help
if [[ "$1" == "-h" || "$1" == "--help" ]]; then
    echo "Usage: ge <grep-args>"
    echo
    echo "- Basically a wrapper for 'grep <ARGS> | fzf | cut -f 1 -d: | \$EDITOR'"
    echo "- Opens fzf with grep results, and edits the selected file(s)"
    echo "- Note: As this is meant to search files, it already adds the -r flag"
    echo "- Note: Internally, it uses the 'gf' command"
    echo
    echo "Example:"
    echo "  $ ge foobar"
    exit 0
fi

# takes output from 'gf' and opens it in $EDITOR
grep_fzf_output=$(gf "$@")
if [[ -n "$grep_fzf_output" ]]; then
  $EDITOR "$grep_fzf_output"
fi

Have a wonderful day, you CLI cowboys.