[SOLVED] Can a bash be used to write a command line utility/program?

wh33t · 11-23-2021, 11:05 PM

Is it possible to create a text editor like nano using only bash?

NevemTeve · 11-23-2021, 11:59 PM

Sure.

Edit: libtool is an example for a complex utility that is a shell-script.

pan64 · 11-24-2021, 12:07 AM

Sure. Yes. You can see a calculator here written in pure bash (just to have an idea).

And it looks like it is a much better example: https://github.com/comfies/bed

shruggy · 11-24-2021, 12:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

You can see a calculator here written in pure bash

Not even in Bash. In POSIX shell (which is a subset of Bash).

wh33t · 11-24-2021, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pan64

And it looks like it is a much better example: https://github.com/comfies/bed

Wow! So cool how powerful just bash alone is.

While I've got ya here, I am curious, is there a way to make the text selectable with a mouse in a bash text editor like that? I know that there is different terminal types and some have advantages over the other. I am curious if that kind of functionality is terminal dependent.

Also, what about images? Is there a way to display images in a terminal in a bash program?

pan64 · 11-24-2021, 09:10 AM

probably you can do the search.

NevemTeve · 11-24-2021, 10:03 AM

Without `ncurses` (or similar library) you would have to handle the escape-sequences sent by the terminal(emulator) manually. Mouse clicks are also reported as such sequences.
You can start here: https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man...e_codes.4.html

Regarding images: google for ASCII-art