diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index 58ad14b..6605b40 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -1,28 +1,58 @@ -## punkshell - an alternative Tcl Shell - -BSD license - -2023-08 Note: this is **alpha** level software and still highly experimental. - - -### Features -- default ansi color output - toggle with 'colour on' and 'colour off' -- experimental functional language features. (will not be performant until more work is done on script compilation) - e.g - `var_pipe_output.= var_list.= list a b c |> string toupper` -- easy execution of externals commands with return of stdout, stderr and the exitcode of the process - - `run ...` - (return exitcode of process - and allows process writes to stderr/stdout to appear in console as they occur) - - `runout ...` - (return stdout of process - no output until completion) - - `runerr ...` - (return stderr of process - no output until completion) - - `runx ...` - (return a dict of stdout stderr exitcode - no output until completion) - - - -#### very unripe parts: -- commandline options - in need of urgent work to document and lock down specifics - in particular: punkshell somescript.tcl needs a fix to emit errors. -- shellfilter - api is clumsy -- scriptlib - will likely be reorganised/pruned significantly +## punkshell - an alternative Tcl Shell + +BSD license + +2023-08 Note: this is **alpha** level software and still highly experimental. + + +### Features +- default ansi color output - toggle with 'colour on' and 'colour off' +- experimental functional/pattern-matching language features. (will not be performant until more work is done on script compilation) + e.g.1 basic pipeline with 2 segments + `var_pipe_output.= var_list.= list a b c |> string toupper` + e.g.2 basic pattern-match multi-assignment to variables x y & z + `x@0,y@1,z@2.= list a b c` equivalently: `x@,y@,z@.= list a b c` or even `x@,y@,z@= {a b c}` + `x/0,y/1,z/2,zz/3.= list a b c` is similar - but the use of forward-slash instead of @ will not produce a mismatch if an index is out of range. + where .= indicates following arguments form a command, and a plain = accepts only a single argument as a value + The diminutive case of this is `x= "something"` as equivalent to `set x "something"` + Assignment operations and pattern-matches are slightly optimised to bytecompile, but are unlikely to compete with raw Tcl commands performance-wise. + e.g.3 destructuring pattern-match. Get value of key 'k1' from last item in a list of dicts. + `x@end/@@k1.= list {k1 aaa} {k1 bb}` returns bbb + + There are many more pattern-matching features yet to be documented. +- easy execution of externals commands with return of stdout, stderr and the exitcode of the process + - `run ...` + (return exitcode of process - and allows process writes to stderr/stdout to appear in console as they occur) + - `runout ...` + (return stdout of process - no output until completion) + - `runerr ...` + (return stderr of process - no output until completion) + - `runx ...` + (return a dict of stdout stderr exitcode - no output until completion) +- namespace browser (contextual - allowing running of commands within the active namespace - analogous to 'cd' for directories) + - `n/` - display child namespaces of current namespace (alias `:/`) + also `n/ ` to restrict output + - `n/ ` - if the argument doesn't contain glob chars '*' or '?' - attempt to switch to a child namespace of that name. Analogous to `cd ` + list any sub namespaces of the namespace we just switched to. + - `n//` - display child namespaces and commands (alias `://`) + with colourised indication of type such as proc,alias,ensemble,imported,exported where possible. + (renamed aliases and builtins and commands loaded from binaries will appear unmarked) + - `nn/` - move up one namespace towards root namespace '::' analogous to `cd ..` (alias `::/`) + - `n/new ` - create a child namespace called 'somename' and switch to it in one operation. (alias `:/new`) +- cross-platform alternative to cd & ls/dir without invoking child processes. Display colourised listing of dirs and folders - with vfs indication. + - `d/` - list current directory (alias `./`) + also `d/ ` to restrict output + - `d/ ` - switch to subdir and list contents in one operation + - `dd/` - move up one directory and output listing. Roughly equivalent to `cd ..` followed by dir or ls (alias `../`) + - `d/new ` - create a child directory and switch to it in one operation. (alias `./new `) + +#### missing +- raw mode REPL (read-eval-print-loop) to allow commandline completion etc. Initial version is linemode. (intention is to allow different REPLs to be plugged) +- documentation! +- tests + + +#### very unripe parts: +- commandline options - in need of urgent work to document and lock down specifics - in particular: punkshell somescript.tcl needs a fix to emit errors. +- shellfilter - api is clumsy +- scriptlib - will likely be reorganised/pruned significantly