4 ms·

I'm skeptical that Ack is "far, far better than grep." Different? Ok. Better? Maybe, based on what you're doing. Far, far better? Probably not. Omitting correct

by tolos 14y ago

I'm skeptical that Ack is "far, far better than grep." Different? Ok. Better? Maybe, based on what you're doing. Far, far better? Probably not. Omitting correct results because a file extension isn't white-listed sounds like a pain. http://superuser.com/questions/39384/best-grep-like-tool/342803#342803 http://superuser.com/questions/39384/best-grep-like-tool/342...

alex-g 14y ago
FWIW in ack 2.0 (currently in alpha) this behaviour will be different: it will search all text files by default.
AngryParsley 14y ago
I like Ack more than grep, but I agree: whitelisting file types isn't fun. I wrote a mostly drop-in replacement for Ack in C (https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher) and the biggest difference in behavior is the file filtering. Ag searches all text files by default, with the exception of those in .gitignore and .hgignore. You can also add patterns to .agignore files if you want finer-grained control. Oh, and Ag is much faster than Ack. Ack isn't the only thing better than grep. If you're searching in Git repos, you might want to check out git-grep. Another useful tool is Exuberant Ctags: http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
petdance 14y ago
Where did you see ack as "far, far better than grep". My Ctrl+F finds nada. The reason I took "betterthangrep.com" as a domain name, besides it being catchy, is that I want people to think beyond stock grep as a tool, to know that they have options. The page http://betterthangrep.com/more-tools/ http://betterthangrep.com/more-tools/ is just a listing of other tools that may be better than grep, depending on the use case.
- tolos 14y ago
  Ack If you’re a programmer and you don’t know about Ack, you need to start using it now. It’s far, far better than grep.

4 ms·

I'm skeptical that Ack is "far, far better than grep." Different? Ok. Better? Maybe, based on what you're doing. Far, far better? Probably not. Omitting correct

by tolos 14y ago

alex-g 14y ago
FWIW in ack 2.0 (currently in alpha) this behaviour will be different: it will search all text files by default.
AngryParsley 14y ago
I like Ack more than grep, but I agree: whitelisting file types isn't fun. I wrote a mostly drop-in replacement for Ack in C (https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher) and the biggest difference in behavior is the file filtering. Ag searches all text files by default, with the exception of those in .gitignore and .hgignore. You can also add patterns to .agignore files if you want finer-grained control. Oh, and Ag is much faster than Ack. Ack isn't the only thing better than grep. If you're searching in Git repos, you might want to check out git-grep. Another useful tool is Exuberant Ctags: http://ctags.sourceforge.net/ http://ctags.sourceforge.net/
petdance 14y ago
Where did you see ack as "far, far better than grep". My Ctrl+F finds nada. The reason I took "betterthangrep.com" as a domain name, besides it being catchy, is that I want people to think beyond stock grep as a tool, to know that they have options. The page http://betterthangrep.com/more-tools/ http://betterthangrep.com/more-tools/ is just a listing of other tools that may be better than grep, depending on the use case.
- tolos 14y ago
  Ack If you’re a programmer and you don’t know about Ack, you need to start using it now. It’s far, far better than grep.