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-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/cleanup.sed.gsp6
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/compose.sh.gsp3
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/dmenu.sh.gsp1
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/download.sh.gsp1
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/index.gsp312
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/ls-1.sh.gsp6
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/ls-2.sh.gsp2
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/ls-3.sh.gsp6
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/program.sh.gsp4
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/unicode.jpgbin0 -> 31647 bytes
-rw-r--r--src/blog/extend/unicode.txt.gsp10
11 files changed, 351 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/cleanup.sed.gsp b/src/blog/extend/cleanup.sed.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7ec8721
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/cleanup.sed.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+@span .fn {-s}@span .op {-/}@span .str {-;[^;]*}@span .op {-/}@span .op {-/}@span .str {-2g}
+@span .fn {-s}@span .op {-/}​@span .str {-\\<(.)([A-Z]*)}@span .op {-/}​@span .str {-\\1\\L\\2}@span .op {-/}@span .str {-2g}
+@span .op {-/}@span .str {-^[^;]*;<}​@span .op {-/}@span .fn {-d}
+@span .op {-/}@span .str {-Compatibility}@span .op {-/}@span .fn {-d}
+@span .op {-/}@span .str {-Variation Selector}@span .op {-/}@span .fn {-d}
+@span .fn {-s}@span .op {-/}@span .str {-[^;]*}@span .op {-/}​@span .str {-\\\\\\\\u&}@span .op {-/}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/compose.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/compose.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..c084b5c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/compose.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+@span .fn {-yq} -0 @span .str {-'.mangoes.[].quote.content'} @span .op {-<}quotes.yml @span .op {-\\}
+@span .op {-|} @span .fn {-shuf} -zn1 @span .op {-\\}
+@span .op {-|} @span .fn {-tr} @span .str {-'\\0'} @span .str {-'\\n'}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/dmenu.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/dmenu.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..2993357
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/dmenu.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+name@span .op {-=}@span .str {-"}@span .op {-$(}@span .fn {-cut} -d@span .str {-';'} -f2 UnicodeData.txt @span .op {-|} @span .fn {-dmenu}@span .op {-)}@span .str {-"}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/download.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/download.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..367fdfd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/download.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+@span .fn {-wget} @span .str {-'https://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeData.txt'}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/index.gsp b/src/blog/extend/index.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ce2b5fd
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/index.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,312 @@
+html lang="en" {
+ head { m4_include(head.gsp) }
+ body {
+ header {
+ div {
+ h1 {-Dmenu is a Godsend}
+ m4_include(nav.gsp)
+ }
+
+ figure .quote {
+ blockquote {
+ p {=
+ Because dwm is customized through editing its source code, it’s
+ pointless to make binary packages of it. This keeps its userbase
+ small and elitist. No novices asking stupid questions.
+ }
+ }
+ figcaption {-https://dwm.suckless.org}
+ }
+ }
+
+ main {
+ h2 #simple {-Simple Software}
+ p {-
+ In a @a href="/blog/gsp" {-previous article} I talked a bit about
+ software simplicity, or perhaps maybe the lack of it that exists in the
+ world. One of my favorite parts of UNIX-like systems is the
+ composability of command-line tools. Instead of having giant monolithic
+ programs that do everything, you have various small domain-specific
+ tools that all use a common interface — standard-input and -output. The
+ following is a good example of this:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(compose.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ I have a m4_abbr(YAML) file on my system with various fun quotes, and I
+ like to have a quote-of-the-day that’s displayed when I open a terminal.
+ I can make use of the @code{-yq} program which is specialized in
+ querying m4_abbr(YAML) files to extract the list of quotes from the
+ file. I can then use the @code{-shuf} program to shuffle the quotes and
+ pick one at random, and finally I can use the @code{-tr} program to
+ translate null-bytes to newlines.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Notice how all three of these tools are very specialized to a specific
+ domain; they don’t try to reinvent the wheel, instead offloading the
+ tasks they aren’t specialized to do to other tools. @code{-yq} doesn’t
+ waste its time with functionality to shuffle lists of items because you
+ can do it with @code{-shuf} instead. This mindset of composability
+ allows you the user to create tools that are more powerful than they
+ could have been otherwise. Instead of hoping that all your tools offer
+ support for shuffling items @em{-and} hoping that they can shuffle
+ things in the specific way you like, you can just use the one single
+ shuffling tool @code{-shuf} everywhere.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ In my example I used @code{-shuf} to pick a random quote, but I could
+ similarly use it to pick a random song from a playlist, or to pick a
+ random image to use as a desktop wallpaper.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ So with the composability of the UNIX environment being such a great
+ thing, it blows my mind that people are still writing software such as
+ @code{-kitty} that try to do absolutely everything in one giant
+ monolithic program instead of keeping focused to the task at hand and
+ allowing the user to extend their tools to add in the functionality they
+ so desire.
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ figcaption {-Kitty’s unicode input screen}
+ img
+ alt="Kitty’s Unicode Input"
+ src="unicode.jpg"
+ style="width: 100%;"
+ {}
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Some of you have surely already figured out what my issue is with what
+ Kitty has done here, and why I think this is shitty software design.
+ For those that haven’t, allow me to ask you a question:
+ @em{-what would be better than unicode input in your terminal?}
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ The answer is simple: @em{-unicode input everywhere.}
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Why should you be limited to unicode input in your terminal? What if
+ you’re texting your friend or sending an email, and want to include a
+ unicode symbol such as ‘™’, or want to properly refer to a site you
+ visited such as Ta’ Ħaġrat? Perhaps you even have a friend whose
+ surname is Mäkelä. Or maybe — you just want to send your friends a
+ middle-finger emoji sometimes.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a @em{-global} menu for unicode input?
+ Well turns out it’s actually really damn easy to do yourself, and
+ renders all that Kitty code absolutely useless.
+ }
+
+ h2 #scripting {-Writing the Script}
+ p {-
+ The first thing you’re probably going to need if you want to have your
+ own unicode-input tool is a list of all the unicode characters out
+ there. Luckily for you, I already went through the hell that is the
+ @a href="https://unicode.org" {-Unicode website} to find it for you.
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(download.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ You can check out the file for yourself if you want. It’s got a bunch
+ of information in it — a lot of which is really useless for our
+ purposes. There are also a bunch of control characters and other things
+ in there that I personally don’t care for, so those can probably be
+ removed too. If it tickles your fancy, I’ve written a @code{-sed}
+ script to clean up the input into something a bit nicer:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(cleanup.sed.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ After processing, your unicode data file should look something like
+ this:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(unicode.txt.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ aside {
+ p {-
+ You know how I inserted that sample of my unicode data file you see
+ right above this? By using a small- and simple command-line tool in
+ the form of @code{-head} to grab the first 10 lines of the file, and
+ then using another small- and simple command-line tool in the form of
+ @code{-wl-copy} to copy those 10 lines to my clipboard. Take that
+ Kitty.
+ }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Now that you have your data file, we can begin scripting. The first
+ thing we want is to get all of the names of the unicode characters.
+ Turns out that is a very easy task thanks to the @code{-cut} utility.
+ We can split each line on a semicolon and extract the second field with
+ a simple command, and then we can compose it together with @code{-dmenu}
+ or your preferred clone of it to present the user with a graphical list
+ of items they can pick from:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(dmenu.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Notice how we can simply compose @code{-cut} and @code{-dmenu} together,
+ and just assign the result to a variable. We can do this because these
+ are sane programs that read from standard-input, perform some simple,
+ basic task, and then print a result to standard-output. One tool to
+ parse a file, and another tool to let the user pick a selection.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ We have the users selection now, the @code{-$name} variable holds the
+ name of the unicode character that the user selected. All that we need
+ now is to actually get the unicode @em{-character} of our choosing.
+ Luckily this is @em{-also} incredibly easy thanks to composition:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(program.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Congratulations! That entire script, which can be easily condensed down
+ into only 2 lines of code is all you need to create a graphical
+ interface that allows you to pick a unicode character, and then copies
+ your selection to your clipboard — and it was all done by taking simple
+ tools and combining them to make a creater application.
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ So next time you’re developing software and want to add a new feature,
+ just pause and think for a second. Do you @em{-need} that feature? Can
+ it be done in a better way? It is possible to generalize your feature
+ to where it is useful outside of just your specific application? Don’t
+ make the same mistake Kitty did. Allow me to leave you with this quote:
+ }
+
+ figure .quote {
+ blockquote {
+ p {=
+ The talk reviews reasons for UNIX’s popularity and shows, using UCB
+ @code{-cat} as a primary example, how UNIX has grown fat.
+ @code{-cat} isn’t for printing files with line numbers, it isn’t for
+ compressing multiple blank lines, it’s not for looking at
+ non-printing ASCII characters, it’s for concatenating files.
+ }
+ p {=
+ We are reminded that @code{-ls} isn’t the place for code to break a
+ single column into multiple ones, and that @code{-mailnews}
+ shouldn’t have its own @code{-more} processing or joke encryption
+ code.
+ }
+ }
+ figcaption {-USENIX Summer Conference Proceedings, 1983}
+ }
+
+ h2 #good-bad {-The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly}
+ p {-
+ I would like to take a moment to point out some examples of
+ composability done right, and some examples of features that are
+ actively harmful in the pursuit of the UNIX ideal.
+ }
+
+ h3 {-Ls — Bad}
+ aside {
+ p {-
+ This is already referenced in the above quote, but I added that quote
+ after this section was already written.
+ }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ The @code{-ls} program is one of the most useful ones found in the UNIX
+ environment. It has a simple job to perform and it does it well. It
+ lists files in a directory. So what’s the issue then? Well let’s see
+ what happens when you combine @code{-ls} and @code{-cat}:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(ls-1.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Ok… that looks about right. We invoke @code{-ls} and we get a listing
+ of the current directory, newline-separated. Well look at what happens
+ when we don’t compose it with another command:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(ls-2.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Yeah… it decided to ‘prettify’ the output by putting everything on one
+ line. If the input contains enough items it columnates them really
+ nicely for you. Here’s an example of what it looks like when I run
+ @code{-ls} in my screenshots folder:
+ }
+
+ figure {
+ pre {= m4_fmt_code(ls-3.sh.gsp) }
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Now don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that I can see more than one
+ item per-line. But why is this specific to @code{-ls}? It could
+ actually be really useful to be able to take arbitrary input and
+ columnate it in such a form for easier consumption. The @code{-column}
+ program does exist on Linux systems, but it is far inferior to what
+ @code{-ls} provides. In the ideal world, @code{-ls} would simply
+ display one filename per-line with a better @code{-column} command, and
+ you could compose the two to get a nicer viewing experience for your
+ files.
+ }
+
+ h3 {-Tabbed — Good}
+ p {-
+ What is one thing that almost all your graphical applications have in
+ common? They all have tabs. Your web browser has tabs, your terminal
+ probably supports tabs (and if it doesn’t, I bet you use @code{-tmux}).
+ Your code editors have tabs, and even modern email-clients have tabs.
+ Now let me ask you: why do we always reinvent the tab?
+ }
+
+ p {-
+ Suckless — the same people that brought us @code{-dmenu} — also created
+ a lesser-known application called @code{-tabbed}. You can
+ @a
+ href="https://tools.suckless.org/tabbed/"
+ target="_blank"
+ {-find it here}.
+ It’s quite a simple piece of software. You simply run it together with
+ another program (such as the @code{-st} terminal) and it adds
+ tab-support to it. Not only does this reduce code-duplication, but it
+ also is benefitial for you the software user as it means you get a
+ consistent UI with consistent-behavior and -key-bindings wherever you
+ go.
+ }
+ }
+
+ hr{}
+
+ footer { m4_footer }
+ }
+}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/ls-1.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/ls-1.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..389a58d
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/ls-1.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+@span .p {-thomas} @span .pp {-~} @span .p {-〉}@span .fn {-ls} @span .op {-|} @span .fn {-cat}
+code
+doc
+down
+mail
+media
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/ls-2.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/ls-2.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..fd4fc09
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/ls-2.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+@span .p {-thomas} @span .pp {-~} @span .p {-〉}@span .fn {-ls}
+code doc down mail media
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/ls-3.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/ls-3.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..5a436c8
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/ls-3.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+@span .p {-thomas} @span .pp {-screen} @span .p {-〉}@span .fn {-ls}
+…
+2023-08-03_18:07:58.png 2023-10-05_16:08:17.png 2023-11-18_20:54:30.png
+2023-08-04_16:17:22.png 2023-10-05_20:24:05.png 2023-11-18_21:07:07.png
+2023-08-04_17:50:39.png 2023-10-05_20:24:21.png 2023-11-18_21:07:48.png
+2023-08-05_16:05:07.png 2023-10-05_20:32:49.png 2023-11-18_21:07:57.png
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/program.sh.gsp b/src/blog/extend/program.sh.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..054a750
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/program.sh.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+name@span .op {-=}@span .str {-"}@span .op {-$(}@span .fn {-cut} -d@span .str {-';'} -f2 UnicodeData.txt @span .op {-|} @span .fn {-dmenu}@span .op {-)}@span .str {-"}
+@span .fn {-awk} -vn=@span .str {-"$name"} -F@span .str {-';'} @span .str {-'$2 == n { print $1 \}'} UnicodeData.txt @span .op {-\\}
+| @span .fn {-xargs} printf @span .op {-\\}
+| @span .fn {-wl-copy}
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/unicode.jpg b/src/blog/extend/unicode.jpg
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..7f1f3b3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/unicode.jpg
Binary files differ
diff --git a/src/blog/extend/unicode.txt.gsp b/src/blog/extend/unicode.txt.gsp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..dbc0da5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/blog/extend/unicode.txt.gsp
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+\\\\u0020@span .op {-;}Space
+\\\\u0021@span .op {-;}Exclamation Mark
+\\\\u0022@span .op {-;}Quotation Mark
+\\\\u0023@span .op {-;}Number Sign
+\\\\u0024@span .op {-;}Dollar Sign
+\\\\u0025@span .op {-;}Percent Sign
+\\\\u0026@span .op {-;}Ampersand
+\\\\u0027@span .op {-;}Apostrophe
+\\\\u0028@span .op {-;}Left Parenthesis
+\\\\u0029@span .op {-;}Right Parenthesis