CodeNowHere

CLI application to create almost any programming language files from your terminal! It has been developed to be used in any bash or shell, also in IDEs, text editors with console or terminal integrated. The app is developed in C++ and currently is made for Linux Systems (Debian/Ubuntu with gcc), Windows (10 and 11 with vs2022), and, Mac (with clang). But, with your help and contribution we together could extend this to other type of systems.

What is the idea?

The idea is to develop a Command Line Interface program for allowing CLI lovers to create their favorite code files wherever directory they are. The file will be generated with a comment header which will contain information about the file and the client. For example, File Name, Date of Creation, Author, and a brief description that should be provided by the user. Although, depends on the type of language, it creates a trivial sample code like hello world in a main function or in a proper function. After that, you can open it with your favorite editor (i.e vi, vim, etc.). The CLI interface code relies on docopt.cpp library for making easier the creation of command-line interfaces. For more information on docopt.cpp, please see this page.

This is a very humble project. I am not using any framework to develop this project. However, originally it uses autotools for generating the configuration files and the Makefile to build and install the project on linux systems but now we changed it to use cmake in order to be able to build and install in multiple system platforms. I am learning while doing, so may there be lots of mistakes and errors in designing and coding. I'll be thankful for any recommendation for improving the code.

Linux Minimum Requirements

• C++11
• cmake

Installing linux dependencies (Debian)

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install g++
$ sudo apt install cmake

To get the code, build, and install the CLI app; follow the commands below:

How to download and build CNH on Linux

$ git clone https://github.com/alucardthefish/CodeNowHere.git
$ cd CodeNowHere
$ . ./linux_release.sh

How to install CNH on Linux

After building you can install it in your machine this way:

$ sudo cmake --install release

make install can be reverted through the uninstall command:

$ sudo cmake --build release --target uninstall

A bash script build_local.sh is provided to compile it locally in the build directory. You can edit it with your compiler.

$ ./build_local.sh
$ cd build
# Example
$ ./cnh this File.ext -a "Author One" -d "Description one"

Windows Minimum Requirements

• VS2022
• cmake

Installing dependencies on Win

1. Download and install Visual Studio from: here

2. Download and install cmake from: here

How to download and build CNH on Windows

$ git clone https://github.com/alucardthefish/CodeNowHere.git
$ cd CodeNowHere
$ ./win_release.cmd

How to install CNH on Windows

After building you can install it in your machine this way:

You need to open a CMD or PowerShell as administrator and run the following command standing on the root of the project.

$ cmake --install build

Optional: add the cnh folder path to the PATH_ENV after completing the installation in order to have access to CNH in the whole windows system.

make install can be reverted through the uninstall command:

$ cmake --build build --target uninstall

Docker environment

You can run the docker image for this project which will install the dependencies, build the app and install it.

First step is to build the docker image: (Make sure you're standing on project base folder called CodeNowHere)

$ docker build . -t cnh:1.0.0

Second step is to run a container from the built image

$ docker run -it --rm cnh:1.0.0 bash

From here you can have access to a bash console and create your files using the app.

Optional: if you want to mirror the code with docker container working directory. Try this as below

$ docker run -it -v $(pwd):/usr/src/cnh --rm cnh:1.0.0 bash

Install on Linux from release tar (With autotools)

You can download a version package from release page. The package will have this format: cnh-x.y.z.tar.gz (x, y, and z are numbers).

1. From the terminal, change to the directory where cnh-x.y.z.tar.gz has been downloaded.
2. Type the following to extract the file to the current directory:

$ tar -zxvf cnh-x.y.z.tar.gz

3. then install:

$ ./configure CXXFLAGS="-std=gnu++11"
$ sudo make install

Usage

Type in shell:

$ cnh --help

Usage:
      cnh this <filename> [-a <author>] [-d <desc>] [--cr]
      cnh these <filenames>... [-a <desc>] [--cr]
      cnh bunchof <numfiles> [--ext=<fileext>] [--author | -a <author>]
      cnh (-h | --help)
      cnh --version


    Options:
      -h --help                       Show this screen.
      --version                       Show version.
      -a <author>, --author <author>  Set the file author.
      -d <desc>, --desc <desc>        Set the file description.
      --cr                            Set a copyright line to comment header.
      --ext=<fileext>                 File extension [default: .cpp]

Filename is mandatory. Depending on the extension file it will create the header commentary.

Examples:

• Creating a python code file

$ cnh this sample.py

cnh generates a python file named sample.py with the following header comment:

# ****************************************************************************
# File: sample.py
# Author: UserName
# Created: Sun Jan  5 03:18:05 2020
# Description:
# ****************************************************************************


def main():
    print("Hello World!")


if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

If option -a or --author is not passed, it takes the username from the system by default.

• Creating a code file in C++ with options arguments

$ cnh this sample.cpp -a "John Doe" -d "Sample of code file creation"

cnh generates a c++ file named sample.cpp with the following header comment:

// ****************************************************************************
// File: sample.cpp
// Author: John Doe
// Created: Sun Jan  5 03:27:15 2020
// Description: Sample of code file creation
// ****************************************************************************

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    cout << "Hello World" << endl;
    return 0;
}

• Adding copyright comment with --cr option:

$ cnh this sample.cpp -a "John Doe" -d "Sample of code file creation" --cr

The output would is shown below:

// ****************************************************************************
// File: sample.cpp
// Author: John Doe
// Created: Thu Feb 20 17:23:41 2020
// Copyright (c) 2020 John Doe. All rights reserved.
// Description: Sample of code file creation
// ****************************************************************************


#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(int argc, char * argv[]) {
    cout << "Hello World" << endl;
    return 0;
}

• For creating various code files at once you can do it by passing their names as follows:

$ cnh these MyFileA.py MyFileB.py MyFileC.cpp -a "John Doe" --cr

• For creating a number of code files at once without specifying names only the extension file:

$ cnh bunchof 5 --ext .py

The created files come with blank description in their comment headers.

Markup and Programing Languages Supported by Now

• Ada
• Agda
• Alef
• AppleScript
• Awk
• B
• Bash
• Boo
• C
• C-INTERCAL
• C#
• C++
• Ceylon
• Clojure
• Cobol
• Cobra
• CoffeeScript
• ColdFusion
• Crystal
• Css
• D
• Dart
• E
• ECMAScript
• Egison
• Elixir
• Elm
• Erlang
• Euphoria
• F#
• Factor
• Falcon
• Fortran
• Fp
• Gap
• Gnuplot
• Go
• Gosu
• Groovy
• Haskell
• Html
• Icon
• Imba
• Io
• J
• Janet
• Java
• JavaScript
• Julia
• Json
• Kotlin
• Logo
• Lua
• Nemerle
• ObjectiveC
• Pawn
• Pascal
• Perl
• Php
• Picat
• PL/SQL
• Prolog
• Pony
• Python
• Qore
• R
• Ruby
• Rust
• Scala
• Scheme
• Sql
• Swift
• Toml
• VisualBasic
• Xml
• Yaml

Whether you enter a different programming language from the list above or an unknown file into the program, it will ask you for the inline comment character to create the header commentary. Otherwise, the comment header is omitted.

Tests

Project uses the Google Test library for Unit Testing locally as part of the code in the submodule googletest. For testing, go to tests/ directory and write some tests.

To run the tests; type the following from base folder /

$ make check

Contribution

Please read our Contributing guidelines, and Code of Conduct.

Feel free to create issues and Pull Requests for improving this project. For instance, you can support it extending this utility adding more programming languages options, requesting new features, and reporting bugs.