'a' like alias or like abrégé

Command line made easy.

CLI for improving developer experience (DX).

The problem

Using git, docker, kubernetes, etc. command line is sometimes difficult, because of lack of consistency in their syntax.

In other words, if you don't want to bother remembering all git, docker, etc. command lines by heart, you can be interested by this tool.

The proposed solution

All usability tricks that can help you to remember.

1. REST style: think in resource and CRUD verbs
2. Abbreviate, use short command line.
3. HATEOAS : getting the resources gives you the command syntax you may expect to do.
   • Just read the screen! Do not use your short term memory, think about the [Miller number], or read the Suzan Weinschenk thing #23.(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two).
4. Extensibility: everyone can add its plugins and share them on github and npm.
5. Power of habit : -h, -v, help, etc.

We want this software to be developed by doing a lot of user testing with all kind of developers.

• people that regularely use a command line.
  • people that knows git
  • people that do not know git
• people that are not used to the command line.

Install

npm i -g @jlguenego/a

Use

Let's start!

$> a
Current mode: git

a branch
a commit
a modified
a remote
a repository

By default the software is in git mode. So this will list all git specific resources. You can change the mode to docker using:

$> a -m docker

You can list the modes by doing:

$> a -m

To come back to the git mode:

$> a -m git

The -m options is in fact an alias on a core resource called .mode.

All the core resources are hidden but always accessible. They all with a dot character ".". You can list them by doing:

$> a -c

Core resources:

a .config
a .mode
a .plugin
a .tutorial

The generic syntax is:

$> a <resource> <verb> <args...>

where:

• <resource> is an abbreviated or fullname of a resource,
• <verb> is an abbreviated or fullname of a verb,
• `<args...> are arguments sometimes needed given the resource and verb.

Verbose info

To switch on verbose info:

$> a .config set verbose true

The tool will print more info to help you when using it.

To switch off verbose info:

$> a .config set verbose false

Tutorial

For you the most interesting should be the tutorial resource.

All resources and verbs can be disambiguated while using abbreviation, so this very short command would work:

$> a .t

If you prefer typing the full resource name and verb, the equivalent of the above is:

$> a .tutorial list

When the verb is not specified, the list verb is assumed. This is like in REST style architecture.

You should learn intuitively the rest in the tutorial. It is its purpose.

Issues

Technical and Usability issues are welcome. Please go to https://github.com/jlguenego/a/issues.

Author

Jean-Louis GUENEGO [email protected] (https://jlg-consulting.com)

Special thanks to:

• Dany PHENGSIAROUN (https://github.com/dphengsiaroun)