[HN Gopher] Show HN: Facad. The ls alternative making terminals ...
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       Show HN: Facad. The ls alternative making terminals cooler than
       GUIs
        
       Author : y-f-honeyguide
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2024-09-30 17:47 UTC (5 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | y-f-honeyguide wrote:
       | Facad is about functionality, not just aesthetics.
       | 
       | Key features:
       | 
       | - Intuitive file type representation
       | 
       | - Smart sorting (directories first, then by extension)
       | 
       | - Four-column layout for quick directory analysis
       | 
       | It evolved from this alias:
       | 
       | alias ls='ls -A -F --group-directories-first --sort=extension
       | --color=always'
       | 
       | Facad takes this concept further, offering more flexibility and
       | visual clarity.
        
         | mmh0000 wrote:
         | What is the benefit of sorting on extensions? Since extensions
         | have no meaning to the kernel and, only a few oddball
         | applications (tar, gzip) care about extensions.
         | 
         | The emojis are cute, but is it really quicker than reading a
         | `-`, `d`, or `l` in the ls output?
         | 
         | This is my daily goto:                 alias ls='ls -Av --time-
         | style="+%Y-%h-%d %r" --group-directories-first --color'
         | alias ll='ls -lh'
        
           | anigbrowl wrote:
           | I always sort on extensions. I want to know what things are
           | and group similar things together.
        
             | shric wrote:
             | I usually group similar type things into directories so
             | that I don't get much of an extension mix. The exception is
             | my download directory and for that I generally want to
             | order by time or size.
        
               | IgorPartola wrote:
               | Something like photos processed by darktable are a good
               | example of why this isn't always practical. You have your
               | raw files and your sidecar files side by side. You could
               | separate them in settings I suspect but that's not the
               | default and god forbid you ever lose one. If you are in
               | the habit of putting JPEGs in the same place you really
               | want to separate by extension.
        
             | kristopolous wrote:
             | Ideally are we talking extension or mime here and if it's
             | the latter, how far down do you slice? Do we separate our
             | PNGs from our JPEGs?
        
           | lolinder wrote:
           | > Since extensions have no meaning to the kernel and, only a
           | few oddball applications (tar, gzip) care about extensions.
           | 
           | This tool is pretty clearly meant to be consumed by a human--
           | if you need a directory listing as part of a shell script
           | you'd just use ls--and humans very much do care about
           | extensions even if the kernel and application don't.
        
         | lelandbatey wrote:
         | Why four column and not one column? If I add a new file that's
         | longer than the old ones, the columns will re-flow and now
         | where I used to look is no longer where I was looking, it's
         | moved off to the side. Why not have just a single column so
         | your eye only has to move in a single direction to find things,
         | a-la `ls -alh` ?
         | 
         | Note I often wonder about bare `ls` usage for the same reason;
         | it always seemed terrible to me, hence why I never type 'ls'
         | and instead always use the `ll` alias (though I've customized
         | it from the default that Ubuntu gave me over a decade ago).
        
       | codedokode wrote:
       | Regarding emojis: I believe they should be monochrome in console.
       | The problem is that when you have text with emojis they stand out
       | too much and distract you. So they should be monochrome, not so
       | large and not so standing out.
        
         | stouset wrote:
         | Do most emoji actually look decent in monochrome in practice?
        
           | seanw444 wrote:
           | Unless they mean a completely new style of emoji to
           | complement the monochrome, then I'd say no. Flattening
           | existing emojis to one color would probably be awful.
        
             | sanex wrote:
             | Like some of the random notification icons on Android that
             | are just a circle. Useless.
        
           | lolinder wrote:
           | You'd get an emoji font specifically designed to be
           | monochrome:
           | 
           | https://emojipedia.org/noto-emoji
        
         | uniq7 wrote:
         | You can configure your terminal to use a custom font with
         | monochrome emojis.
        
       | drdaeman wrote:
       | Looks nice! I think it would be cool to know the differences
       | between Facad, lsd, and eza (https://github.com/lsd-rs/lsd and
       | https://github.com/eza-community/eza) aka "why do I want to try
       | Facad rather than alternatives". No offense meant, but the latter
       | two already exist for a while, available in most distros and seem
       | to do at least approximately the same thing.
        
         | nine_k wrote:
         | Apparently Facad is much smaller, less feature-rich, written in
         | C (both lsd and eza are written in Rust), and uses slightly
         | more permissive license (MIT).
        
       | kccqzy wrote:
       | I don't like emojis in this context. I like them when humans use
       | them to communicate over text when facial expressions and such
       | aren't available. I feel weirded out when a computer program
       | sprouts emojis at me. A computer program needs to treat human
       | users with respect, and emojis convey the wrong tone. Like
       | languages with T-V distinction, emojis strictly belong to the T
       | form and are unsuitable for communication from a computer program
       | to a human.
       | 
       | This made me recall that I have `export HOMEBREW_NO_EMOJI=1` in
       | my shell startup. I wish all programs provide me with an opt out
       | like this for this misfeature.
        
         | Supermancho wrote:
         | > I like them when humans use them to communicate over text
         | when facial expressions and such aren't available.
         | 
         | I believe emoji is shorthand for a tableau of common
         | iconography. This is useful, because it is not limited to an OS
         | specified set, allowing for user expansion and culture to
         | determine the core set.
         | 
         | The folder icon, itself, is an emoji in this context.
        
       | 0xfeba wrote:
       | How do you pronounce the name?
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-30 23:00 UTC)