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You can do feature creep for a long time. If you just want a basic working version (that will probably drain your battery), that can be done really quickly. Th

You can do feature creep for a long time. If you just want a basic working version (that will probably drain your battery), that can be done really quickly. This took me ~10 minutes: #!/bin/sh set -e while true; do URLS="$(xsel | grep -Eo "(http|https)://[a-zA-Z0-9./?=_%:-]*")" && if [[ ! "${URLS}" = "${OLD_URLS}" ]]; then echo "${URLS}" >> urls.txt OLD_URLS="${URLS}" fi sleep 1 done;

thewakalix 5y ago
Using clipnotify[0], one could fix the busy-wait issue pretty easily. [0] https://github.com/cdown/clipnotify https://github.com/cdown/clipnotify
dugmartin 5y ago
Isn't the >> going to cause urls.txt to grow geometrically? eg, copying http://example.com/foo http://example.com/foo and then http://example.com/bar http://example.com/bar and then http://example.com/baz http://example.com/baz I think urls.txt would look like: http://example.com/foo http://example.com/foo http://example.com/bar http://example.com/foo http://example.com/bar http://example.com/baz EDIT: I stand corrected. I should have run the code instead of mentally executing it. One issue I did find when I ran it. The shebang should be: #!/bin/bash as [[ is a bash built-in. I'm on Ubuntu - maybe this works on Mac as /bin/sh is an alias to /bin/bash?
- BenjiWiebe 5y ago
  Doesn't look like it. The URLS variable could more appropriately be named CURRENT_URL. Singular, not plural.
  - stevelosh 5y ago
    The user might copy a block of text with multiple URLs, all of which get pulled out by the grep.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- ktpsns 5y ago
  No, >> is just doing appending, cf. https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/redirection#appending_redirected_output https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/redirection#appending_r...
sporedro 5y ago
Nice example, the problem with the article is the client(teacher) doesn’t know what they want in this case. It’s a good example of how feature creep and project scoping is important but if all you really want is a script to log urls that’s simple. Building a url logger with top notch security practices, cross platform, simple enough for my mom to use would be entirely different.
barnabee 5y ago
Agree! Furthermore the reason we have such bloated and garbage software is a combination of this kind of feature creep and a complete lack of modularity. Want pause functionality: write a small utility to provide an easy way to start and kill any program. Want notifications: write a program to monitor any file and provide notifications when something it added to it. Searching: grep or a GUI equivalent Syncing: rsync/syncthing/Dropbox… Someone will complain most people can’t use these tools. Firstly that wasn’t the initial question, and secondly that’s something I’d love to see tackled in a GUI tool. I don’t think it’s impossible, just misaligned with the incentives of people who make and overcharge for proprietary software.

thewakalix 5y ago

Using clipnotify[0], one could fix the busy-wait issue pretty easily. [0] https://github.com/cdown/clipnotify https://github.com/cdown/clipnotify

dugmartin 5y ago

Isn't the >> going to cause urls.txt to grow geometrically? eg, copying http://example.com/foo http://example.com/foo and then http://example.com/bar http://example.com/bar and then http://example.com/baz http://example.com/baz I think urls.txt would look like: http://example.com/foo http://example.com/foo http://example.com/bar http://example.com/foo http://example.com/bar http://example.com/baz EDIT: I stand corrected. I should have run the code instead of mentally executing it. One issue I did find when I ran it. The shebang should be: #!/bin/bash as [[ is a bash built-in. I'm on Ubuntu - maybe this works on Mac as /bin/sh is an alias to /bin/bash?

BenjiWiebe 5y ago
Doesn't look like it. The URLS variable could more appropriately be named CURRENT_URL. Singular, not plural.
- stevelosh 5y ago
  The user might copy a block of text with multiple URLs, all of which get pulled out by the grep.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
ktpsns 5y ago
No, >> is just doing appending, cf. https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/redirection#appending_redirected_output https://wiki.bash-hackers.org/syntax/redirection#appending_r...

sporedro 5y ago

Nice example, the problem with the article is the client(teacher) doesn’t know what they want in this case. It’s a good example of how feature creep and project scoping is important but if all you really want is a script to log urls that’s simple. Building a url logger with top notch security practices, cross platform, simple enough for my mom to use would be entirely different.

barnabee 5y ago

Agree! Furthermore the reason we have such bloated and garbage software is a combination of this kind of feature creep and a complete lack of modularity. Want pause functionality: write a small utility to provide an easy way to start and kill any program. Want notifications: write a program to monitor any file and provide notifications when something it added to it. Searching: grep or a GUI equivalent Syncing: rsync/syncthing/Dropbox… Someone will complain most people can’t use these tools. Firstly that wasn’t the initial question, and secondly that’s something I’d love to see tackled in a GUI tool. I don’t think it’s impossible, just misaligned with the incentives of people who make and overcharge for proprietary software.