EveryGUI - UNIX Commands by the Click of a Button
by Jeffrey Bakker · 01/29/2006 (6:20 am) · 7 comments
Now anyone can harness the power of the UNIX command line with a few clicks of a mouse.
Since my game plan is still on hold, I've had to keep myself busy with other things lately. In the process of designing m2dui (a GUI for map2dif), I realized that I design a lot of GUI programs for command line tools, which all have the same general idea - to run the command with the specified options...
..this is when I came to the conclusion that I should make a single GUI for pretty much "everything". So, I went about to design EveryGUI. EveryGui provides two applications: Chameleon, which is a dynamic GUI for virtually any tool or OS command, and Designer which is a visual environment for editing config files that determine Chameleon's different behaviours for each tool/command.
More information available at the official website:
http://everygui.sf.net
Since my game plan is still on hold, I've had to keep myself busy with other things lately. In the process of designing m2dui (a GUI for map2dif), I realized that I design a lot of GUI programs for command line tools, which all have the same general idea - to run the command with the specified options...
..this is when I came to the conclusion that I should make a single GUI for pretty much "everything". So, I went about to design EveryGUI. EveryGui provides two applications: Chameleon, which is a dynamic GUI for virtually any tool or OS command, and Designer which is a visual environment for editing config files that determine Chameleon's different behaviours for each tool/command.
More information available at the official website:
http://everygui.sf.net
About the author
#2
01/29/2006 (8:59 am)
Jeffrey, you da MAN! This is quite possibly the coolest idea since X Window.
#3
It would be even better if you had some sort of interface for combining commands - for example, constructing something like this:
However, as your program stands, it is still a pretty nifty and useful tool :)
01/29/2006 (9:06 am)
Nice idea, Jeffrey.It would be even better if you had some sort of interface for combining commands - for example, constructing something like this:
firstapp | secondapp -option | thirdapp < textfile.txtA bit like, say, the way you group actions together in Automator.
However, as your program stands, it is still a pretty nifty and useful tool :)
#4
01/29/2006 (8:31 pm)
Awesome idea, and a solid execution. Nice job, Jeffrey. :)
#5
Now that this is here, I'll probably start using it. :)
01/29/2006 (9:19 pm)
I once had an idea like this of running shell commands from a browsable interface, but mine was still using the terminal and curses. The idea was more about making a complete shell than to focus on the running commands-part, which had I continued would have ended in something similar. I also had plans for using the piping system as mentioned above. I stopped because it was very difficult and I didn't have a clear vision.Now that this is here, I'll probably start using it. :)
#6
01/29/2006 (10:08 pm)
Hmm, is there any chance of a windows binary for this?
#7
@James Urquhart: In EveryGUI's current form, combining programs like that is already possible (partially). You can use Designer to create your command like so:
firstapp | secondapp $options | thirdapp $infile
This will work as expected. I use the word "partially", because $options can only be applied to one of the three apps. In future releases, it may be possible to have the options split between different apps in a command.
@James W. Hofmann: A curses-based program like this would be totally bad-a$$. A lot of remote admins logged in via ssh would definately benefit from it. Although there is a very good web based system administration tool called webmin. But yeah, it would be cool to have a curses tool like that, it's too bad you stopped the project. :(
@Matt: There were plans for a Windows release at first, but when it came closer to release status, I couldn't think of much EveryGUI definitions for Windows commands to design and distribute with it. Most common MS-DOS commands either are already covered by Windows explorer and other tools or wouldn't benefit much from a GUI. Definitions for external or "third-party" commands would have to be changed per user for their installation paths. There may be a Windows-specific release in the future. When and if there is, I'll post about it here.
02/01/2006 (1:48 am)
Thanks for the kind words everyone.@James Urquhart: In EveryGUI's current form, combining programs like that is already possible (partially). You can use Designer to create your command like so:
firstapp | secondapp $options | thirdapp $infile
This will work as expected. I use the word "partially", because $options can only be applied to one of the three apps. In future releases, it may be possible to have the options split between different apps in a command.
@James W. Hofmann: A curses-based program like this would be totally bad-a$$. A lot of remote admins logged in via ssh would definately benefit from it. Although there is a very good web based system administration tool called webmin. But yeah, it would be cool to have a curses tool like that, it's too bad you stopped the project. :(
@Matt: There were plans for a Windows release at first, but when it came closer to release status, I couldn't think of much EveryGUI definitions for Windows commands to design and distribute with it. Most common MS-DOS commands either are already covered by Windows explorer and other tools or wouldn't benefit much from a GUI. Definitions for external or "third-party" commands would have to be changed per user for their installation paths. There may be a Windows-specific release in the future. When and if there is, I'll post about it here.
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