Critic my module

[Dave Angel]

On 07/27/2013 08:56 AM, Devyn Collier Johnson wrote:
>

     <SNIP>

Somehow during this thread, you have changed your purpose for this 
library.  It used to be a library that Python programmers could import 
and use.  And now, it's a shell replacement?  The user runs the Python 
interpreter, and types the line   import boash   to get started.

>
> Yeah, I have a VERY BAD habit of treating bash and the Linux shell (or
> any/all shells) as the same thing. I know they are all very different,
> but for some reason I still keep calling all shells in general BASH.

I seem to recall that BASH is an acronym, for Bourne Again SHell.

>
> I will be sure to create aliases. I make alias commands so that it is
> easier to guess or remember a command. For instance, a Python user my
> want to clear the shell's history, but can only remember one form of the
> command or must guess. On my Ubuntu system, I have set up numerous shell
> aliases. I am addicted to aliases.

Nothing wrong with aliases.  But how does your user create his own 
aliases?  That's much more important than having yours available. 
Remember that any new globals he defines are lost when he exits the 
interpreter (or crashes).

>
> I still need to add the other browsers. Do very many people use Iceweasel?
>
> I did not notice that I have "print(subprocess.Popen('(xterm &)'))"
> instead of "subprocess.Popen('(xterm &)')". The worst computer errors
> are ID-10-T errors.
>
> True, the user my have Xterm open, but what if they use Guake (like me)
> or Pterm, EvilVTE, Valaterm, Gnome-Terminal, Konsole, etc.?

Exactly.  If they're using a terminal with tabs, they might want to 
create a new tab, not a new instance of the terminal.  Or if they're 
running screen or the equivalent, they want the new terminal to show up 
on their (remote) console.

>
> How could I add security and convenience? Okay, I will try to add wget.
> Are there any other shell commands that anyone feels I should add?

How about tab?  The command-completion and filename-completion and 
parameter-completion logic of a good shell is extremely complex, and 
very useful.

>
> The point of this module is to allow Linux shell users to use Python3 as
> a regular shell. Instead of using CSH, Bash, Tcsh, FISH, etc., users
> could use Python3 and import this module. Python is more powerful than
> any shell, so I want to make it easier for anyone to use Python as the
> default shell. For instance, instead of typing "print(os.getcwd())" to
> get the current working directory, users could type "boash.ls()". I hope
> that is easier to remember than "print(os.getcwd())".

It's easier, but doesn't begin to do the same thing.

As for using this INSTEAD of csh, bash, etc., that might be likely once 
it gets beyond 10% of the usefulness.  Right now, it's at about 0.01% 
And any habits a user gets within this environment have to be unlearned 
when he returns to a standard shell.

Back in the early days of MSDOS, the FORMAT command didn't require you 
to specify a drive letter.  So people could intend to format their 
floppy, and actually trash their hard disk.  So I had colleagues who put 
a FORMAT.BAt command on their path which hard-wired the A: parameter. 
Now what happens to one of those folks when he goes to another machine 
which doesn't have that batch file?  Ouch!  Instead I wrote a batch file 
that checked to make sure you had the A: parameter.  Rapidly, my fingers 
learned that  FORMAT A:  was the valid syntax, and pretty soon the batch 
file was unnecessary (for me).

If I were going to define a dozen aliases for other people to use, I'd 
make them something like:

def clear_hist():
     print "The function you want is probably   clear_history()"


> As for the print()
> command, I do not like how os.getcwd() has single quotes around the
> output.

Those quotes come from the Python interpreter, not from getcwd().

> Plus, Linux shell do not print output with quotes.
>
> I want to make this a very useful and popular module, so I will use the
> suggestions and add more useful wrappers. Would it help if I made a
> Youtube video showing how this module can be used?
>
> I will post the next version on this mailing list for another review.
> Thanks everyone, and thanks a lot Steven D'Aprano!
>

Have you figured out how you're going to do things like cd  (os.chdir), 
which have to remember state?  And how to pass the new current directory 
to the shell that launched Python?

Have you looked at ipython (ipython.org) ?  At least from there, you can 
get command completion with tab, one-third of the bash functionality. 
So if you type  boash.cle   then <tab>  it'll fill in the rest.


-- 
DaveA