[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Show me the sexy, sexy home page of your fav...
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       Ask HN: Show me the sexy, sexy home page of your favorite free CLI
       project
        
       Would like to make the homepage of my me-too FOSS project (a
       command-line static site generator (IT'S DIFFERENT FROM ALL THE
       OTHERS, I SWEAR)) as sexy as possible. Even more than that I want
       it to be functional and clear. Would you mind linking to super-good
       home pages of CLI projects? For example, I think Jekyll's is pretty
       darn good but Hugo, which product I much prefer, has an oddly
       subpar home page.
        
       Author : tomcam
       Score  : 76 points
       Date   : 2021-04-20 18:30 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
       | marttt wrote:
       | Ecasound: http://nosignal.fi/ecasound/
       | 
       | Mixer4 (closed source, though):
       | http://www.acousticrefuge.com/mixer4.htm
       | 
       | Edbrowse: http://edbrowse.org/
       | 
       | K2pdfopt: https://willus.com/k2pdfopt/
        
       | smoldesu wrote:
       | +1 for Feesh[1]
       | 
       | [1] https://fishshell.com/
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Sexy, funny, simple, truthy. Thank you.
        
         | hibbelig wrote:
         | "Finally, a command line shell for the 90s"
         | 
         | That line is what got me to try it. I didn't like it so much at
         | that time. Then I tried it again a few years later. And I
         | switched back, again. Recently, I've tried it again, and I'm
         | still using it.
        
           | smoldesu wrote:
           | Fish is my default. I'm normally pretty minimalist with my
           | shell configurations, but the Fish defaults just feel so
           | right to me. It's minimal nudges in the spots that help are
           | fantastic, and it's tab-completion is best in class. Unless
           | you have a very specific powerline setup that you absolutely
           | need, I think Fish is better than zsh for everyday use.
        
       | shae wrote:
       | One of my favorites is https://bluebird.sh/ check out all that
       | amazing command line software! a drawing program, a multiplayer
       | crossword solver, and the amazing visidata program (my visidata
       | review is https://recurse.social/@shapr/105984740425426440 )
        
       | mkovach wrote:
       | https://github.com/chadwickbureau/chadwick but it would be
       | nothing without some data, so ... https://retrosheet.org and
       | specifically https://www.retrosheet.org/game.htm
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | https://github.com/chadwickbureau/chadwick Totally qualifies as
         | sexy. It gets right to the point, has the right install
         | instructions, lays out the programming language requirements. I
         | love it. Thank you.
        
       | walrus01 wrote:
       | Everyone should know that youtube-dl exists and how to use it.
       | 
       | https://youtube-dl.org/
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Pretty good. That About button does tell you exactly what's
         | what. I sort of feel the home page isn't a home run because
         | it's all inside baseball. I say not sexy, though YouTube-dl is
         | definitely sexy.
        
       | floren wrote:
       | nmh: https://www.nongnu.org/nmh/
       | 
       | Heirloom troff: http://n-t-roff.github.io/heirloom/doctools.html
       | 
       | Plan 9 Port: https://9fans.github.io/plan9port/
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Most excellent! Thank you for those sexy examples.
        
       | chriswalz wrote:
       | I feel like mine isn't that beautiful but I'll show it anyway -
       | https://github.com/chriswalz/bit
       | 
       | It's a CLI "enhancer" for git
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Are you out of your mind? It's the sexiest yet! Animated
         | illustration, short description right at the top, news section,
         | clearly delineated sections, update for current users... this
         | is a model of clarity. Thank you for being a role model.
        
       | gru wrote:
       | Python Poetry [1] is very sexy.
       | 
       | Oh, and Starship prompt [2] too.
       | 
       | [1] https://python-poetry.org/
       | 
       | [2] https://starship.rs/
        
         | yesenadam wrote:
         | That starship one is nothing special. Sure, it got me to
         | instantly download and install Starship and its recommended
         | NerdFont without having heard of either one or knowing what
         | they do, but I'm sure the page design had nothing to do with
         | it. /s
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | You have a very special eye! These are sexy and arty, yet still
         | functional. Maybe the best kind of sexy. Mad props to you, gru.
        
         | systemvoltage wrote:
         | Poetry is tacky. I have a higher, a more refined taste ;-)
        
       | tducasse wrote:
       | I kind of like the "one page with screenshots readme" type
       | design. Not to toot my own horn, and this one is not super great,
       | but here's one of mine: https://github.com/tducasse/go-instabot
        
       | gkoberger wrote:
       | It's not CLI-exclusive, but Prettier does a good job!
       | https://prettier.io/
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Prettier is. You are correct. Thanks.
        
       | exolymph wrote:
       | WP-CLI is great :) https://wp-cli.org/
        
         | jonnycomputer wrote:
         | I have to say that WP-CLI is how I do everything now for a few
         | personal sites I manage, and I have zero complaints. So much
         | better, actually, than doing anything in the WP GUI.
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | It's very clear about what it does, gets both beginners and
         | existing users into the mix ASAP, gratifies sponsors.. pretty
         | sexy. Thank you for that contribution.
        
       | clircle wrote:
       | Here is a github page for an Emacs package manager:
       | https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el
       | 
       | It's a good page because it contains comparisons too all other
       | emacs package managers[0], and carefully describes the pros and
       | cons of each package manager. I wish more open source projects
       | would do this.
       | 
       | [0] https://github.com/raxod502/straight.el#comparison-to-
       | other-...
        
       | ufo wrote:
       | Htop: https://htop.dev/
       | 
       | I think the animated gif in the background is charming.
        
       | jsjsbdkj wrote:
       | Please sign my petition to never use "sexy" to refer to anything
       | ever again.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Duly upvoted and signed because while all this is meant to be
         | lighthearted I don't blame your attitude in the slightest
        
       | danShumway wrote:
       | Not sure if this counts, but I'll throw my own project (semi-CLI-
       | driven testing framework) into the ring, not as a perfect example
       | overall, but as an example of what I wish more projects did,
       | which was let me experiment a bit with their interfaces before I
       | downloaded them.
       | 
       | This isn't something that's doable for every utility, but
       | especially with the advent of WASM and easier cross-compiling
       | from C, I wish more CLI/API documentation would allow me to play
       | around with examples or try out a command on their docs page or
       | in a sandbox; particularly if they're selling themselves as
       | having a composable interface.
       | 
       | That's not only helpful for figuring out whether or not I want to
       | use the project, it's also helpful when I look at a piece of
       | documentation and am not sure which flag or option is actually
       | important.
       | 
       | https://distilledjs.com
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | It sure does count, Dan. Love how you pare it down to the
         | absolute minimum so anyone visiting all of the site just pick
         | up the essentials and learn more or just dip without wasting
         | any time. And I agree, the playground concept is always
         | welcome. Definitely sexy.
        
       | TeddyDD wrote:
       | http://cht.sh/
       | 
       | This is the pinnacle of design.
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | So sexy for the intended audience. Form follows function
         | perfectly.
        
         | antisol wrote:
         | The pain! Why oh why are we only allowed to upvote once?
        
           | tomcam wrote:
           | No one said life was easy my friend. We must all make
           | sacrifices for the cause.
        
       | throwaway823882 wrote:
       | Why make a sexy homepage? To convince people to use it? Don't you
       | want to make it work real well first, and _then_ make the sexy
       | homepage, when it 's, you know... good software?
       | 
       | Back in the day, you would release your software on Freshmeat.net
       | (https://web.archive.org/web/20010528211603/http://freshmeat....)
       | . You would get excited if people clicked on your project (https:
       | //web.archive.org/web/20100627062409/http://freshmeat....), but
       | you'd get more excited if people downloaded your software,
       | because it meant people were actually trying it out. (I can't
       | find the graphs anymore, but it used to show you if anyone had
       | clicked on the .tar.gz of your source code. It also used to have
       | comments, but in later versions seems like comments were removed)
       | 
       | Anyone else remember back when the web was useful?
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Well I'm having fun with this post, your objections are
         | completely warranted.
         | 
         | If you'd like to email me the address in my profile I will post
         | a serious response in my blog. Long story short, I think an
         | attractive, credible looking webpage helps enormously in user
         | acceptance.
        
       | ibraheemdev wrote:
       | A big terminal recording on the front page is a must for CLI
       | tools IMO: https://httpie.io/
        
         | ibraheemdev wrote:
         | Some others that look really clean:
         | 
         | bat: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
         | 
         | tldr: https://tldr.sh/
         | 
         | fzf: https://github.com/junegunn/fzf
        
           | tomcam wrote:
           | Yes, yes, and yes. These are all clean and sexy. Thank you.
        
         | amcaskill wrote:
         | Pretty nice animation of the input & output:
         | https://evidence.dev/
        
           | desi_ninja wrote:
           | pretty cool presentation. kind of gets missed out in Mobile
           | though
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Word. You wonder how many of those 50,000 stars are just
         | because they sell it so well. Brilliantly done and sexy as all
         | get out. Bonus points for zooming in so the, ah, temporally
         | disadvantaged among us can view parts of it easily too. The
         | clear Try it and Docs buttons, then a big illustration and
         | bullet list next to it, a brief getting started section, and
         | examples... and testimonials! For a free product! That brings
         | things to a whole new level.
        
         | foresto wrote:
         | Agreed, although I wish that animated gif was instead real
         | text, using something like playterm[1] or asciinema[2].
         | 
         | [1] https://playterm.org/
         | 
         | [2] https://asciinema.org/
        
       | cors-fls wrote:
       | The exa website [1] is pretty good looking. It is an alternative
       | to the ls command.
       | 
       | [1] https://the.exa.website/
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Very, very nice. Sexy, minimal, and honest about what it does.
         | You feel really good when you've finished that homepage because
         | they've sold you, but not tried to deceive you. SWEET.
        
       | camcaine wrote:
       | Clean - https://cli.github.com
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | That is sexy AF and so, so clean. THANK YOU CITIZEN
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | I_complete_me wrote:
       | Ok, I'll bite. https://github.com/hlissner/doom-emacs. It's
       | functional and clear. Sexy is 'very' subjective.
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Analysis: True, that is a sexy homepage. Thank you.
        
       | amzans wrote:
       | I think there's many nice OSS websites (and docs) built with
       | Docusaurus [1].
       | 
       | It's not exclusively for CLI projects, and their own website is
       | pretty nice IMO.
       | 
       | [1] https://docusaurus.io/showcase
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Scrumptious!
        
       | alphabet9000 wrote:
       | <html><body><h1>project name</h1><hr><p>info</p></body></html>
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Stop it you tease
        
       | yesenadam wrote:
       | I'm just loving this AskHN. Most of the comments make me laugh.
       | I've seen some great pages and programs, even installed one
       | already. Ask more questions on HN please!
        
       | ibraheemdev wrote:
       | Another static site generator huh? I would love to hear what you
       | are doing differently :)
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | Ibraheem, I hang my head in shame after seeing all these sexy
         | home pages. With your permission I will let you know at the
         | email address in your profile after I revise mine because I
         | have been massively humbled by some of these masterpieces.
        
           | ibraheemdev wrote:
           | Please do :)
        
       | majewsky wrote:
       | If I may toot my own horn: The thing that grinds my gears the
       | most about software project websites is when they don't clearly
       | say what the thing does, and who this is for. That's why the
       | website for my configuration management tool (https://holocm.org)
       | has two sections, "This is for you if..." and even more
       | importantly "This is NOT for you if..."
        
         | yesenadam wrote:
         | I agree. Very considerate, I love it, thanks.
        
       | meristem wrote:
       | After browsing the current (as of now) 41 comments, I am curious:
       | what constitutes 'sexy' for your audience?
        
         | tomcam wrote:
         | I am totally letting them decide!
        
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       (page generated 2021-04-20 23:01 UTC)