[HN Gopher] Make your CLI demos a breeze with zero stress and ze...
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       Make your CLI demos a breeze with zero stress and zero mistakes
        
       Author : heinzm
       Score  : 97 points
       Date   : 2023-04-04 14:14 UTC (1 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (martinheinz.dev)
 (TXT) w3m dump (martinheinz.dev)
        
       | jack_riminton wrote:
       | Would be nice to have some realistic variations in typing speeds
       | as well as realistic key sound affects too :)
        
       | brainzap wrote:
       | I just record it with the OS screen recording tool.
        
       | debarshri wrote:
       | Asciicinema [1] is stil the most robust terminal capture I have
       | seen.
       | 
       | [1] https://asciinema.org/
        
       | denvaar wrote:
       | Why not use the built in `script` program?
       | https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/script.1.html
        
         | sdsd wrote:
         | How is it possible, that I've worked as a Linux sysadmin,
         | backend engineer, security developer, and technical writer
         | (regularly sharing CLI snippets in articles), and regularly
         | document my CLI work on my blog, and I'm just learning about
         | this.
         | 
         | Thank you for this comment lol
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | It's called "script" and it's default output file is called
           | "typescript". Makes it pretty hard to Google for :)
        
           | avgcorrection wrote:
           | Because the CLI is not discoverable. :)
        
         | simmonmt wrote:
         | script seems to require you to type the demo commands perfectly
         | and at the right pace for the demo. That openssl command, for
         | example. Contrast with this tool, where you can get the command
         | right at your leisure then apply magic to look like it's being
         | typed in interactively. The two steps (running commands,
         | interactive typing with desired timing) are much easier to get
         | right separately than together.
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | It can export timing data that you can tweak. Pretty manual,
           | though it does work.
        
       | gglitch wrote:
       | I'm sure the linked tools are awesome, but if I were trying to in
       | some way stage a "live" demo, I'd first check Expect.
        
         | seedie wrote:
         | For live demos "its a live" [0] by @stavros is also great.
         | 
         | From the Readme:
         | 
         |  _It 's a Live lets you write commands and keystrokes in a
         | file, which it will then read and open a new terminal for you.
         | Every time you press a key, It's a Live will write one
         | character from the file into the terminal, making it look like
         | you're typing every single command with the practiced ease of a
         | consummate professional._
         | 
         | [0] https://gitlab.com/stavros/itsalive
        
       | eterps wrote:
       | This looks nice, but if there is a script anyway isn't making an
       | animated GIF of it a relatively poor use of capabilities? Why not
       | have a result that is able to go backward and forward (like a
       | slideshow), the ability to pause/resume, or to copy/paste text
       | from it.
        
         | Dzugaru wrote:
         | He actually mentions the tool [0] that has all of this, in the
         | end. It records your screen and compiles a demo that runs in
         | any browser by the looks of it.
         | 
         | [0] https://www.terminalizer.com
        
           | tsukurimashou wrote:
           | looks very similar to https://asciinema.org/
        
       | chrisweekly wrote:
       | Thanks for sharing! Good post, useful libs explained well.
        
       | amtamt wrote:
       | https://asciinema.org/ can do this pretty well too.
        
         | ivanche wrote:
         | If I'm not mistaken, asciinema covers only the second part of
         | the article, i.e., recording. It can't do or control the actual
         | demo.
        
           | amtamt wrote:
           | Full demo can be recorded and edited to add/ remove parts.
           | Also, there is a js player that can be used to provide video
           | player like user interface.
        
         | esposito wrote:
         | An ASCII enema sounds very uncomfortable.
        
       | sjg wrote:
       | I recently used VHS for this https://github.com/charmbracelet/vhs
       | - nice set of tools there to do various cli stuff
        
         | zachallaun wrote:
         | Same, I've been working on a command line tool and set up VCR
         | to record demos (https://github.com/zachallaun/mneme/blob/main/
         | examples/demo....). I'd be very interested if anyone could
         | speak to the fundamental differences between VCR and the tools
         | referenced in the OP.
        
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       (page generated 2023-04-05 23:02 UTC)