/clips

πŸ“Ž Short GIF clips with CLI tips

Primary LanguageVim script

πŸ“Ž CLIPS :: CLI tiPS

About

πŸŒ‡ CLIPS is a series of GIF-casts with various CLI tips.

🧰 At the same time it's a collection of tools/links and a few bash scrips helping me to create those GIF-casts.

Usage

source ./start ./scenarios/s0e0.txt ./episodes/s0e0/s0e0_
. ./next           # echoes the first line of the scenario
n                  # OR using alias
n s 1 1            # OR rewinding to a certain scene/line
n s 1 1 && n s 2 5 # OR playing a few scenes in one go

Here's a short glossary of terms I'm using in CLIPS

  • Scenario – is a txt file with lines we want to output one by one using different styles and options available in the next script
  • Scene - is a script containing the whole uninterrupted sequence of lines being printed as specified in the scene (used to print annotations, etc.)
  • finalcut.txt - a human readable reminder of how to play the whole episode (including the instructions about manual demos, etc.)

Here's the list of all the possible next args:

next argument possible parameters CLIPS feature
no argument; prints the next line as a usual echo
_ prints the next line with typing effect
+ any of the n arguments or + prints the clipboard contents using next with a specified effect
a prints the next line as an annotation (echo till the "βœ‚οΈŽ" separator, typing effect after)
b any parameter prints the next line as Bear's cue ("βœ‚οΈŽ" symbol used as a character/cue separator)
c any parameter prints the next line as a command (executes it if no argument passed)
d ey~es fa~ce prints the next line as Dude's cue
e executes the next line as an expect one-liner
p command passes the next line to a specified command using pipe
s scene # line # executes the next "scene" script (with args passed: forces scene and scenario line #)
t prints the next line as a title (using toilet)
k prints the next line as a key combination / keyboard shortcut
y puts the next line to the clipboard (aka yanks it)

Here are some tips on scenarios creation:

  • The execution and sourcing of the next script are different and since it relies on environment we need to source it or use n alias to run the next line of the scenario
  • There's no need to create any scenes (and passing the prefix) if you're not planning on using multi-line outputs (like annotations) or custom delays/clears
  • Titles (t) have pagga font and piped to lolcat by default, for any customisations see p parameter
  • The Dude (d) has a few tricks up his sleeve:
    • The line is automatically trimmed, to preserve any trimmable chars use escaping with \
    • The Dude has customisable face features, pass first argument with ~ separator to set eyes and the second to set the mouth and the nose (please notice: if you want to have a space symbol in the Dude's face, use ␠ symbol instead, which is going to be replaced with space. This was needed cause echo $(echo x~x ~o) trims the space in the second pare when passing it as an argument in eval_script in case you were wondering...):
      • n d ΰ² ~ΰ² " ␠~Κ–
      • n d x~x" ␠~Κ–
      • n d ʘ~ʘ" ｑ~Κ–
      • n d ●~●" _~Κ–
      • n d Β°~Β°" ⎡~⌑
      • n d βš™~ΰ² " ⏠~Κ–
  • The Bear command b is called bear cause the Bear is the default emote character used in the command. Although, if you pass anything as a second argument: n b _, the line gonna be interpreted as the one consisting of two parts ʕ‒́α΄₯β€’Μ€Κ”γ£βœ‚οΈŽHello, World! the custom character ʕ‒́α΄₯‒̀ʔっ and its cue Hello, World! separated by βœ‚οΈŽ. NOTE: mind though, not every symbol can be displayed in every terminal, so test your characters with n + + before using them in the actual scenario.
    • ʕ‒́α΄₯β€’Μ€Κ”γ£βœ‚οΈŽHello, World!
    • α•™(`β–ΏΒ΄)α•—βœ‚οΈŽHello, World!
    • (β€’β—‘β€’)/βœ‚οΈŽHello, World!
    • Ω©(Λ˜β—‘Λ˜)ΫΆβœ‚οΈŽHello, World!
    • βŠ‚ο½₯_Κ–ο½₯βŠƒβœ‚οΈŽHello, World!
  • Command (c) could be either typed and executed or just typed: n c _
    • Using a special separator char βœ‚οΈŽ it's possible to make pre-/post-hook commands to be executed before the original command
    • If the command has no "hooks" it's gonna be printed/executed as usual
    • Instead of aliases in "hooks" it's better to use functions, because of non-interactive shell alias expansion issues (see: https://bit.ly/3ans9w5)
  • Annotations (a) make sense only in scenes or n a && n a && n a execution sequences, since they take multiple lines
  • Annotations (a) have a special separator βœ‚οΈŽ which divides the lines and the annotation printing. The former is faster and the latter is with the typing effect
  • Typing effect is a simple pv command, the parameter _ for typing effect output means to represent a typing cursor
  • Scenes (s) functionality is an abstraction on top of next command, which for GIF-cast purposes allows to:
    • hide actual commands behind the CLIPS
    • automate the series of commands
    • avoid having prompt in between separate commands
    • have multiple scenes to manually show something in between and go to the next one
    • rewind to sub-sections of the CLIPS
  • Scenes optionally accept two args scene number and line number to force the current scene and rewind the scenario to the appropriate line
    • If you have identical scenes for different starting lines, there's no need to duplicate them, just call the same scene with an appropriate line number
  • Pipes p allow to delegate line output to any command(s) to extend CLIPS possibilities without overcomplicating the script (escape hatch):
    • n p cowsay -f udder | lolcat (see /usr/local/share/cows)
    • n p cowthink -f elephant
  • To output a key combination / Shortcut use k option with a line like Ctrl+Alt+Del, Cmd+Ctrl+Shift+4, a, ,+l, etc.
  • A + option could be used while developing or testing the functionality of next since it allows to output the line from clipboard as if it was the next line. E.g. . ./next + k with Ctrl+Alt+Del in the clipboard allows to output this line as a keyboard shortcut. NOTE: the line number of the current scenario/scene number are not bumped by this option.
  • Another cool testing option is to pass + as an argument of +, i.e. . ./next + +. As with the + option it's going to get the content if the clipboard, but this time it's going to be interpreted line by line where every odd line would be treated as content and copied to clipboard and every other (even) line gonna be evaluated with next + <...> command. Consider an example: 
    clear && sleep 2
c
⌘ Cmd+R
k
\e[38;5;221m   ─────────┬────────\e[38;5;255m
a
\e[38;5;221m            └──── βœ‚οΈŽ a common hotkey to \e[38;5;196mrefresh\e[38;5;255m\e[38;5;221m the content\e[38;5;255m
a
Title
t
I'm The Dude
d x~x ␠~Κ–
    NOTE: After evaluating the above with n + + you'd find your clipboard empty.

Episodes

CLIPS Tech Specs && Tips

  • Term size: tput cols && tput lines = 125 Γ— 32
  • Recording size: 1080x620
  • Required $TERM: xterm-256color
  • vim scissors: Ctrl+v u2702 (https://unicode-table.com/en/2702/)
  • Print scenario: echo "$(cat ./scenarios/s0e0.txt)"
  • Bash tmp prompt warm preset: PS1="\[\e[38;5;214m\]$(tput bold)~/clips\n\[\e[0m\]\[\e[38;5;202m\]❯ \[\e[0m\]"*
  • Bash tmp prompt cold preset: PS1="\[\e[38;5;38m\]$(tput bold)~/clips\n\[\e[0m\]\[\e[38;5;40m\]❯ \[\e[0m\]"
  • To get ANSI escape code for a given CSS Hex colour use our tool ./tools/cc '#f5e831' (cc stands for 'colour code')
  • To test all the features copy test.txt content and run n + +

Resources and Deps