8 ms·

Wow, the comments in this thread are quite harsh. Even though I might not use it, this looks like an awesome project - kudos to the author for finding (& implem

Wow, the comments in this thread are quite harsh. Even though I might not use it, this looks like an awesome project - kudos to the author for finding (& implementing) ways to improve something as mundane as ls. I've long been stuck on finding a suitable (perfect?) project idea to play with Rust but exa is making me think through again! Thanks for sharing this and also for your screencasts. I'd definitely spend a lazy evening watching you program exa.

yegle 9y ago
Writing `ls` is the first thing I do when learning a new language.
- jayvanguard 9y ago
  Hah, interesting! Mine is writing a simple web server (sockets, IO, string handling) and an ultra-simple command line browser (args handling, 3rd party libs for URLs, HTML parsing, etc.)
  - jamescostian 9y ago
    And all along I thought I was creative for skipping "Hello, World" and going straight to "Hello, World" 10 times
  - sabujp 9y ago
    mine is doing everything in hackerrank in the new language
  - oskenso 9y ago
    I like to write chip-8 and other VMs to get a handle Of a new lang
  - jsjohnst 9y ago
    Mine in similar, I implement an authoritative domain name server. I've done it in something like 20-25 languages now. The only language I've learned in the last decade I didn't write one in is ARM Assembly. I am not that "dedicated" (more like masochistic) enough to try to do one in assembly.
    - jolux 9y ago
      I tend to reimplement the Linux kernel from scratch a few times in every language and go from there onto the X server, desktop environment, networking stack, etc.
      - jsjohnst 9y ago
        Github link? ;)
  - mathw 9y ago
    A friend of mine used to learn new languages by implementing Tetris in them. Sad to say I'm here years later and I still haven't even implemented Tetris once in anything.
- cytzol 9y ago
  Thanks for the kind words, everybody. exa was my first Rust project and it just grew and grew.
  - dfc 9y ago
    It looks neat. You should include a link to the documentation on the homepage. After I saw the screenshot I went looking to see how easy it would be to change some of the colors before I installed it. I read down below that the colors are baked in:( It would also be nice to see files owned by different users and some of the git functionality.
  - Dowwie 9y ago
    Would you consider reflecting and writing about your experiences using Rust?
  - HaoZeke 9y ago
    Don't be worried about the hate. ls is a gold standard but that doesn't mean alternatives aren't interesting. Especially as a FOSS project in rust I find it fascinating.
  - nightvox 9y ago
    Nice! I just downloaded it here ... My suggestion is to include an option to list the hidden files (dot files) as well as some file sorting options in the next version of Exa. ;-)
- Inityx 9y ago
  You must have had an easy time with Ruby, then. #!/usr/bin/env ruby `ls`
  - unit91 9y ago
    You haven't written ls in Ruby, you've called ls with Ruby. Big difference!
- copperx 9y ago
  Is it useful to learn how to do system calls and formatted output for the kind of programming work that you do?
userbinator 9y ago
Wow, the comments in this thread are quite harsh. I wonder if a lot of that has to do with how it's being "marketed" --- it might just be me, but whenever I see "modern" being used to describe something, it evokes the negative connotations of being trendy, fashionable, boring, vapid, fleeting, style-over-substance that's all too common with software today (Windows' "modern UI/Metro" being one of the first examples to come to mind); not exactly the right sentiment for promoting a tool that's supposed to be long-lasting, foundational, and practical. Perhaps if the title didn't contain "modern", the discussion here would go in a different direction.
- jbooth 9y ago
  I did some nodejs work the other month, pinch-hitting in a product crunch, we're using grunt. `grunt test`.. ooh, so pretty and creative! `grunt test > test.out`, wtf, why is my file full of control character bullshit?
  - TheCoreh 9y ago
    To be fair, they could avoid that by checking if stdout is a TTY or not.
    - stevedonovan 9y ago
      That's an amateur hour mistake on their part, frankly. I hope they have a 'switch color off' flag.
      - tazjin 9y ago
        Welcome to the JavaScript ecosystem.
- rndmize 9y ago
  Given how half the comments are complaining about the colors and there's a whole thread on whether 3MB is "small" or not... I doubt it.
- 9y ago
dheera 9y ago
It would be nice if it implemented the exact same set of command line flags as ls plus whatever else it does. That way I'd be able to use it as a replacement when I type 'ls', much as 'vi' fires up 'vim'. Typing commands like 'ls -ltra' are already muscle memory to me and that takes effort to change.
- bipson 9y ago
  oh great, but shouldn't it then also behave exactly like ls does, i.e. deliver the same output whenever a script of yours or somebody else calls ls and expects a certain output? oh wait, I know what behaves exactly the same way: ls

yegle 9y ago

Writing `ls` is the first thing I do when learning a new language.

jayvanguard 9y ago
Hah, interesting! Mine is writing a simple web server (sockets, IO, string handling) and an ultra-simple command line browser (args handling, 3rd party libs for URLs, HTML parsing, etc.)
- jamescostian 9y ago
  And all along I thought I was creative for skipping "Hello, World" and going straight to "Hello, World" 10 times
- sabujp 9y ago
  mine is doing everything in hackerrank in the new language
- oskenso 9y ago
  I like to write chip-8 and other VMs to get a handle Of a new lang
- jsjohnst 9y ago
  Mine in similar, I implement an authoritative domain name server. I've done it in something like 20-25 languages now. The only language I've learned in the last decade I didn't write one in is ARM Assembly. I am not that "dedicated" (more like masochistic) enough to try to do one in assembly.
  - jolux 9y ago
    I tend to reimplement the Linux kernel from scratch a few times in every language and go from there onto the X server, desktop environment, networking stack, etc.
    - jsjohnst 9y ago
      Github link? ;)
- mathw 9y ago
  A friend of mine used to learn new languages by implementing Tetris in them. Sad to say I'm here years later and I still haven't even implemented Tetris once in anything.
cytzol 9y ago
Thanks for the kind words, everybody. exa was my first Rust project and it just grew and grew.
- dfc 9y ago
  It looks neat. You should include a link to the documentation on the homepage. After I saw the screenshot I went looking to see how easy it would be to change some of the colors before I installed it. I read down below that the colors are baked in:( It would also be nice to see files owned by different users and some of the git functionality.
- Dowwie 9y ago
  Would you consider reflecting and writing about your experiences using Rust?
- HaoZeke 9y ago
  Don't be worried about the hate. ls is a gold standard but that doesn't mean alternatives aren't interesting. Especially as a FOSS project in rust I find it fascinating.
- nightvox 9y ago
  Nice! I just downloaded it here ... My suggestion is to include an option to list the hidden files (dot files) as well as some file sorting options in the next version of Exa. ;-)
Inityx 9y ago
You must have had an easy time with Ruby, then. #!/usr/bin/env ruby `ls`
- unit91 9y ago
  You haven't written ls in Ruby, you've called ls with Ruby. Big difference!
copperx 9y ago
Is it useful to learn how to do system calls and formatted output for the kind of programming work that you do?

userbinator 9y ago

Wow, the comments in this thread are quite harsh. I wonder if a lot of that has to do with how it's being "marketed" --- it might just be me, but whenever I see "modern" being used to describe something, it evokes the negative connotations of being trendy, fashionable, boring, vapid, fleeting, style-over-substance that's all too common with software today (Windows' "modern UI/Metro" being one of the first examples to come to mind); not exactly the right sentiment for promoting a tool that's supposed to be long-lasting, foundational, and practical. Perhaps if the title didn't contain "modern", the discussion here would go in a different direction.

jbooth 9y ago
I did some nodejs work the other month, pinch-hitting in a product crunch, we're using grunt. `grunt test`.. ooh, so pretty and creative! `grunt test > test.out`, wtf, why is my file full of control character bullshit?
- TheCoreh 9y ago
  To be fair, they could avoid that by checking if stdout is a TTY or not.
  - stevedonovan 9y ago
    That's an amateur hour mistake on their part, frankly. I hope they have a 'switch color off' flag.
    - tazjin 9y ago
      Welcome to the JavaScript ecosystem.
rndmize 9y ago
Given how half the comments are complaining about the colors and there's a whole thread on whether 3MB is "small" or not... I doubt it.
9y ago

dheera 9y ago

It would be nice if it implemented the exact same set of command line flags as ls plus whatever else it does. That way I'd be able to use it as a replacement when I type 'ls', much as 'vi' fires up 'vim'. Typing commands like 'ls -ltra' are already muscle memory to me and that takes effort to change.

bipson 9y ago
oh great, but shouldn't it then also behave exactly like ls does, i.e. deliver the same output whenever a script of yours or somebody else calls ls and expects a certain output? oh wait, I know what behaves exactly the same way: ls