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After several years of Front-End Development I recently started development with python. I have created some basic webapps with Django and wrote some simple scripts. After using VIM as a Python IDE I really fell I love with "Command-line programs" (is there an official term for this?). Right now I am capable of doing newbie things like asking someones age and printing it to the screen. However this comes down to running a .py script and after this script is done the normal bash return. I would like create a program that I can run from the command line and that would allow the same user experience as VIM (one that you open and close). For example I created a simple script to import RSS feeds. It would be cool if I could open my terminal type the name of my program -> program would open -> Then I would like to use commands like :findsomething. Basically have real interaction with my program.

To conclude:

  • How would I got about creating such a program?
  • What kinds of modules, books or site would you recommend for a noob programmer?
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What you're describing is a terminal application, not a command line program –  Eric Jun 27 '13 at 20:49
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4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

A true command-line program is something in the vein of ls or grep; it is started from the command-line, but it's non-interactive and can be used in pipelines and combined with other programs. A typical command-line program has no interactive user experience, instead relying on shell's history and init file for customization.

What you want to create is a curses application, that uses the full capabilities of the TTY as an interactive platform, for better or worse. To do that, look up curses.

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Thanks I started learning the curses module. Seems be exactly what I was looking for! –  Niels B Jun 28 '13 at 0:25
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up vote 4 down vote

You should take a look at the cmd module.

See the Python Cookbook for examples of its use.

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up vote 0 down vote

If you want to create an standalone binary for a UNIX system, use freeze. If you want one for a Windows system, look into py2exe. To control locations of output on your screen, use the curses module.

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up vote 0 down vote

THe simplest way to do an interactive console application would be:

keep_going = True
while keep_going:
    command = raw_input('command? ').strip()
    if command == 'say_hello':
        print('Hello')
    elif command == 'other_thing':
        print('Doing something else')
    elif command == 'quit':
        keep_going = False
    else:
        print('Invalid Command.')

That's the basic structure. If you want something more vim-like, you'll probably need to use the curses library.

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