Using a command table as wallpaper
Recently I cleaned up my source code directory, removed a lot of rarely-used, dated scripts, and grouped the remaining standalone scripts into a central place (~/dev/scripts)1. One thing I learned in this process is that I tend to write a reusable script but rarely actually reuse it (even if it sits on PATH), sometimes implementing the same functionality twice or typing a long command line over and over again.
To remind myself of which scripts are at my fingertip, I decided to use a command table as wallpaper on my secondary display. So I wrote a shitty Python script2 (depending on XeLaTeX and ImageMagick) to automate the generation of such a wallpaper. It's pretty customizable, and anyone may grab it and do whatever they want to with it (also available as a gist):
#!/usr/bin/env python3
"""Generate command table."""
import argparse
import os
import shlex
import subprocess
import sys
import tempfile
# pylint: disable=wildcard-import,unused-wildcard-import
from zmwangx.colorout import *
DEFAULT_COLUMN_WIDTH = 120
DEFAULT_FOREGROUND_COLOR = "white"
DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_COLOR = "black"
DEFAULT_FONT = "Consolas"
DEFAULT_BORDER = 20
DEFAULT_DENSITY = 300
DEFAULT_SIZE = "1280x800"
HERE = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(sys.argv[0]))
XELATEX_PROGRAM = (r"""
\documentclass[varwidth=\maxdimen,border={border}pt]{{standalone}}
\usepackage{{color}}
\pagecolor{{{background}}}
\color{{{foreground}}}
\usepackage{{fontspec}}
\setmonofont{{{font}}}
\begin{{document}}
\begin{{verbatim}}
{table}
\end{{verbatim}}
\end{{document}}
""")
def text_table(**kwargs):
"""Generate the text version of the table."""
width = kwargs["width"] if "width" in kwargs else DEFAULT_COLUMN_WIDTH
directory = kwargs["directory"] if "directory" in kwargs else HERE
command_line = (r"find {directory} -maxdepth 1 -type f -perm -u=x -exec basename {{}} \; "
"| column -c {width} | expand".format(
directory=shlex.quote(directory), width=width))
ccommand(command_line)
return subprocess.check_output(command_line, shell=True).decode("utf-8")
def pdf_table(**kwargs):
"""Generate the PDF version of the table.
Returns 0 on success or 1 on failure. Generated PDF is "table.pdf"
in the current working directory.
"""
border = kwargs["border"] if "border" in kwargs else DEFAULT_BORDER
foreground = kwargs["foreground"] if "foreground" in kwargs else DEFAULT_FOREGROUND_COLOR
background = kwargs["background"] if "background" in kwargs else DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_COLOR
font = kwargs["font"] if "font" in kwargs else DEFAULT_FONT
program = XELATEX_PROGRAM.format(table=text_table(**kwargs).strip(),
font=font, border=border,
foreground=foreground, background=background)
with open("table.tex", "w") as texfileobj:
texfileobj.write(program)
try:
ccommand("xelatex table.tex")
subprocess.check_call(["xelatex", "table.tex"],
stdout=subprocess.DEVNULL, stderr=subprocess.DEVNULL)
return 0
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
cerror("xelatex failed on the following program:")
cerrnewline()
cerrwrite("default", program)
return 1
def png_table(**kwargs):
"""Generate the PNG version of the table.
Returns 0 on success or 1 on failure. Generated PNG is "table.png"
in the current working directory.
"""
if pdf_table(**kwargs) == 1:
return 1
density = kwargs["density"] if "density" in kwargs else DEFAULT_DENSITY
size = kwargs["size"] if "size" in kwargs else DEFAULT_SIZE
background = kwargs["background"] if "background" in kwargs else DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_COLOR
command_line = ("convert -density {density} table.pdf -resize {size} -size {size} "
"xc:{background} +swap -gravity center -composite table.png".format(
density=density, size=size, background=background))
try:
ccommand(command_line)
subprocess.check_call(shlex.split(command_line))
return 0
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
cerror("the following ImageMagick command failed:")
cerrprint("default", command_line)
return 1
def main():
"""CLI."""
description = "Generate a PNG table of all executable commands in a directory."
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(description=description)
parser.add_argument("--width", type=int, default=DEFAULT_COLUMN_WIDTH,
help="""line width, default is 120""")
parser.add_argument("--directory",
help="""directory containing executables, default is
the directory containing this command""")
parser.add_argument("--border", type=int, default=DEFAULT_BORDER,
help="""default is 20pt""")
parser.add_argument("--foreground", default=DEFAULT_FOREGROUND_COLOR,
help="""foreground color, default is white""")
parser.add_argument("--background", default=DEFAULT_BACKGROUND_COLOR,
help="""background color, default is black""")
parser.add_argument("--font", default=DEFAULT_FONT,
help="""default is Consolas""")
parser.add_argument("--density", default=DEFAULT_DENSITY,
help="""used for the -density argument of convert,
default is 300""")
parser.add_argument("--size", default=DEFAULT_SIZE,
help="""size of image, default is 1280x800""")
args = parser.parse_args()
kwargs = {k: v for (k, v) in args.__dict__.items() if v is not None}
fd, tmpfilepath = tempfile.mkstemp(suffix=".png", prefix="table-")
os.close(fd)
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory(prefix="table-") as working_directory:
os.chdir(working_directory)
if png_table(**kwargs) == 1:
cerror("execution failed")
os.remove(tmpfilepath)
else:
os.rename("table.png", tmpfilepath)
cprogress("saved to:")
print(tmpfilepath)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()By the way, the zmwangx.colorout module is here, just to ease the printing of progress and errors to tty. You may safely remove all the ccommand, cerr* and cprogress calls.
Here is an example wallpaper reflecting my current ~/dev/scripts:
Command table wallpaper for my secondary display (MBP 13'' builtin display).
The
~/devdirectory stands for development, and contains all my source code and almost all local builds. The point is by having a~/devdirectory, I no longer need to havebin,include,lib, andsharein myHOME, thus saving a few slots. Backing up and restoring is also slightly easier.↩︎Yeah, I know it's a shitty script, so don't nitpick on style problems.↩︎