4 ms·

I wonder how world would look like if all standard unix tools gave two outputs: human readable and structured, json-like.

wayoutthere 5y ago
Then it would be PowerShell.
- disgruntledphd2 5y ago
  But with shorter command names, and gnomic short options.
- laumars 5y ago
  No. Powershell is a whole new CLI user land as well as a shell. If you want something that’s compatible with POSIX but still has smart pipelines and native support for JSON then you’re better off with Elvish or Murex as shells.
xorcist 5y ago
Perhaps take git as an example instead, with its plumbing and porcelain commands. They have historically been easier to keep backwards compatibility with than the dict-like structures of json.
rnestler 5y ago
I'd recommend to take a look at https://www.nushell.sh/ https://www.nushell.sh/ which has structured output, but displays it neatly when printing to the terminal.
Kim_Bruning 5y ago
You don't need to wonder, because jc is a filter that does just that! https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/ https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/
- robert_tweed 5y ago
  It even claims to parse ls output correctly (see caveat): https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/docs/parsers/ls https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/docs/parsers/ls
- kortex 5y ago
  > >>> import jc.parsers.dig I think "jc" stands for "jesus christ!" because I just exclaimed that out loud thinking about the amount of time I've wasted trying to parse dig outputs, or something similar. Spent a nontrivial amount of time looking for lightweight tools to convert the typical "fwf" of coreutils style programs. Definitely running "pipx install jc" immediately (pipx is great for managing python-based executable programs, avoid the mess of venvs).
deleted 5y ago
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int_19h 5y ago
FreeBSD is trying for something like that. https://libxo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://libxo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/

wayoutthere 5y ago

Then it would be PowerShell.

disgruntledphd2 5y ago
But with shorter command names, and gnomic short options.
laumars 5y ago
No. Powershell is a whole new CLI user land as well as a shell. If you want something that’s compatible with POSIX but still has smart pipelines and native support for JSON then you’re better off with Elvish or Murex as shells.

xorcist 5y ago

Perhaps take git as an example instead, with its plumbing and porcelain commands. They have historically been easier to keep backwards compatibility with than the dict-like structures of json.

rnestler 5y ago

I'd recommend to take a look at https://www.nushell.sh/ https://www.nushell.sh/ which has structured output, but displays it neatly when printing to the terminal.

Kim_Bruning 5y ago

You don't need to wonder, because jc is a filter that does just that! https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/ https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/

robert_tweed 5y ago
It even claims to parse ls output correctly (see caveat): https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/docs/parsers/ls https://kellyjonbrazil.github.io/jc/docs/parsers/ls
kortex 5y ago
> >>> import jc.parsers.dig I think "jc" stands for "jesus christ!" because I just exclaimed that out loud thinking about the amount of time I've wasted trying to parse dig outputs, or something similar. Spent a nontrivial amount of time looking for lightweight tools to convert the typical "fwf" of coreutils style programs. Definitely running "pipx install jc" immediately (pipx is great for managing python-based executable programs, avoid the mess of venvs).

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

int_19h 5y ago

FreeBSD is trying for something like that. https://libxo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ https://libxo.readthedocs.io/en/latest/