Cryptic Resolver in NodeJS

This command line tool cr is used to record and explain cryptic commands, acronyms and so forth in daily life. The effort is to study etymology and know of naming conventions.

Not only can it be used in the computer filed, but also you can use this to manage your own knowledge base easily.

Default Sheets

• cryptic_computer
• cryptic_common
• cryptic_science
• cryptic_economy
• cryptic_medicine

Install

npm install cryptic-resolver -g

Tested well on Ubuntu and Windows 11.

Why

The aim of this project is to:

1. make cryptic things clear
2. help maintain your own personal knowledge base

rather than

1. record the use of a command, for this you can refer to tldr, cheat and so on.

Usage

$ cr emacs
# -> Emacs: Edit macros
# ->
# ->   a feature-rich editor
# ->
# -> SEE ALSO Vim 

$ cr -u 
# -> update all sheets

$ cr -u https://github.com/ccmywish/ruby_things.git
# -> Add your own knowledge base! 

$ cr -h
# -> show help

Implementation

cr is written in pure Ruby. You can implement this tool in any other language you like(name your projects as cr_python for example), just remember to reuse our cryptic_computer or other sheets which are the core parts anyone can contribute to.

Sheet layout

Sheet is the knowledgebase. Every sheet should be a git repository. And each should contain these files(we call these dictionarys):

1. 0123456789.toml
2. a.toml
3. b.toml
4. ...
5. z.toml

Dictionary format(File format)

In every file(or dictionary), your definition format looks like this in pure toml:

# A normal definition
#
# NOTICE: 
#   We MUST keep the key downcase
#   We use a key 'disp' to display its original form 
#   Because the case sometimes contains details to help we understand
#
#   And 'disp' && 'desc' is both MUST-HAVE. 
#   But if you use 'same', all other infos are not needed.   
#
[xdg]
disp = "XDG"
desc = "Cross Desktop Group"

# If you want to explain more, use 'full'
[xxd]
disp = "xxd"
desc = "hex file dump"
full = "Why call this 'xxd' rather than 'xd'?? Maybe a historical reason"

# If there are multiple meanings, you should add a subkey to differ
[xdm.Download]
disp = "XDM"
desc = "eXtreme Download Manager"

[xdm.Display]
disp = "XDM"
desc = "X Display Manager"

We have more features than above

[jpeg]
disp = "JPEG"
desc = "Joint Photographic Experts Group"
full = "Introduced in 1992. A commonly used method of lossy compression for digital images"
see = ['MPG','PNG'] # This is a `see also`

[jpg]
same = "JPEG" # We just need to redirect this. No duplicate!

[sth]
same = "xdm" # If we direct to a multimeaning word, we don't need to specify its category(subkey).

["h.265"]
disp = "H.265"
desc = "A video compression standard" # The 'dot' keyword supported using quoted strings

Name collision

In one sheet, you should consider adding a subkey to differ each other like the example above.

But what if a sheet has 'gdm' while another also has a 'GDM'?

That's nothing, because cr knows this.

But what if a sheet has two 'gdm'?

This will lead to toml's parser library fail. You have these solutions

1. Use a better lint for example: VSCode's Even Better TOML
2. Watch the fail message, you may notice 'override path xxx', the xxx is the collision, you may correct it back manually.

cr in NodeJS development

This is built in NodeJS v16.13.1

Notice: NodeJS v14.17.2 can't pass all tests because of the lack of some APIs.

maybe you need sudo access

• npm install to install dependencies

• npm login

• npm publish

• npm install cryptic-resolcer -g

• npm update cryptic-resolcer -g

• npm uninstall cryptic-resolver -g

LICENSE

cr itself is under MIT

Official default sheets are all under CC-BY-4.0