Out With the Old
It is only by trying new things that we can hope to create products that are original.
After previously banging the drum for utility tools that have stood the test of time, I’ll admit to using some newfangled alteratives.
There’s an emerging trend of reimplementing well-known terminal commands in modern languages such as Rust. Some are faster, easier to use or provide more information whereas others just look fancy. What can I say? I guess I’m shallow.
ls > k
k adds git status, file size and age indication to directory listings. I keep meaning to explore exa for similar features.
cat > bat
Line numbering and syntax highlighting of files, right on the command line.
man > tldr
Scrolling through the man pages of a command to check flags and options can be a frustrating experience when all you want to see is a quick overview of common use cases.
grep > ripgrep
Like the Silver Surfer, this is a faster alternative for regular grep.
top > htop
Process listing with colours and nice looking CPU bar charts.
curl > axel
axel is an accelerator that tries to speed up downloads by using multiple connections and load balancing requests across servers.