Shell Service

[Koelling]

This may be more of a UNIX related thread but I thought it fit more in the Hot Topics because it is so cool. It's really something to do with UNIX, but not actually seeing anything unix except a command or two. Shall I stop beating around the bush? It's called Shell Service 1.0.

This is a neat program which adds an option to the Services menu (you know, the one you never look at because it's just random stuff you'd never use under the application menu). The new option is "Execute Command" and it does just that to any selected text.

Example: I could be chatting in Adium and want to send my friend the date and time right now. I simply type date (which is a unix command) select it and hit command shift X and bang, there you go. It would replace 'date' with Fri Mar 15 22:43:47 MST 2002. <=That of course was me actually doing it.

Or one program I have called Wcalc works like a charm. I type Wcalc cos(30) and it returns = 0.866025

Now THAT is Unix functionality with Aqua goodness.

PS get it on the Apple.com site, under Mac OS X:downloads:Unix

[kilowatt]

sweet!

[simX]

That is a pretty cool service, but it's weird that when a command returns an error or no output, it just deletes the selection.

For example, do the command "oogabooga!". In the terminal it gives you a "command not found" error. The service should do the same, or it should at least preserve what you wrote.

[vanguard]

Well, I didn't write it so I'm only guessing but...

I bet it takes the contents of stdout and drops it in your doc. The stuff you're talking about comes from stderr.

Anyway, I guess it would be nice if you didn't lose your text but maybe that explanation will help?

Vanguard

PS Does anybody know of a similar utility that allows me to execute a command without the terminal? I want to start a shell script without opening the terminal first.