Feature Request: Use `<` and `>` for primary input/output

[Zearin]

The Current Usage

Either:

$ calabash -i[port] input_file.xml -o[port] output_file.xml pipeline.xpl

Or:

$ calabash --input source=input_file.xml --output result=output_file.xml pipeline.xpl

(I have a script, /usr/local/bin/calabash, to take care of all the command-line Java weirdness that I am seemingly incapable of remembering no matter how many times I look it up. ☺)

The Ideal Usage

Since XProc requires one primary input and one primary output, would it be possible to support using standard *nix redirect characters to specify the primary I/O ports? (< and > respectively)

Example:

$ calabash < input_file.xml > output_file.xml pipeline.xpl

The idea seems very appealing to me somehow.

What about sequences?

A couple of ideas come to mind:

• Allow glob syntax (*.xml) to specify multiple input files
• Use quotes to specify multiple I/O files < "input1.xml input2.xml"
• Allow directories for output…(?) (Just throwing out ideas: > ./dir/*.xml)
• An error is printed if one of the above cannot be unambiguously determined, listing the primary I/O ports that are sequences

Benefits

• Brevity of typing
• More “at home” feeling for non-Java devs that use Calabash in their scripts
• I’m guessing that people smarter at shell scripting than me could possibly come up with some other ingenious uses ☺

[ndw]

You can do that. Sort of. The magic filename "-" stands for STDIN or STDOUT.

calabash -isource=- -oresult=- < input_file.xml > output_file.xml pipeline.xpl

Is that sufficient for your needs, or would you really like it to be totally implicit: if there's no binding for the primary input port, assume it's STDIN. (I think STDOUT is already handled this way.)

I don't think that would be unreasonable.

[Zearin]

@ndw : Yep, implicit STDIN would be awesome!

Since I’m not a command-line guru, I just want to make sure: implicit STDIN means I could pipe things into calabash, or use < some-file.xml to specify the input—right?

[ndw]

Yes. And because I think STDOUT is already handled that way, I'll try to get this into the next release.

[Zearin]

Ping ☺

Just curious if/how this is doing.

[ndw]

It's on my list. There's a performance/memory leak bug that I've given a slightly higher priority. And I've been distracted by my day job and other things just recently.

[Zearin]

(re) Ping! ☺

[ndw]

Fixed for 1.0.6, I believe.

[Zearin]

w00t w00t w00t!

Thanks, Norm! 😄