Using howzit as a task runner

I’ve become fairly dependent on howzit for running my builds and deploys (and other tasks). By setting up a buildnotes.md file for each project, containing @run(task) lines for each section, I can always run howzit -r build to build or deploy, no matter what task runner/build system I set up for it. npm, yarn, gulp, grunt, rake, make, it doesn’t matter. I can get the right build command every time without a second thought.

As a shortcut, I have a function called bld that runs howzit -r with a default argument of “build” but accepting alternate arguments. In Bash that’s as easy as howzit -r ${1:build}, but in Fish I have to use my fallback function:

# Fish functions for howzit shortcuts

function fallback --description 'allow a fallback value for variable'
  if test (count $argv) = 1
    echo $argv
  else
    echo $argv[1..-2]
  end
end

function bld -d "Run howzit build system"
  howzit -r (fallback $argv build)
end

Shell Completion

In the latest version of howzit (published today), I added some new options for getting completion-compatible lists of sections. The -L switch does the same as -l (list all sections), but without color, header, or list markers. The -R and -T switches list all sections containing @run (or @copy, @open, etc.) directives that could be run with howzit -r. The -R version makes the list verbose, showing exactly what each section will run, and -T gives you just a “task list”, perfect for completion. The repository now includes some Fish tab-completion commands using these options. I haven’t set them up for other shells yet, but all the ingredients are there now.

Supplemental: Let’s Get Weird With That

Recently I got one of those fancy MacBook Pros with the Touch Bar. (Obviously I got it about a month before Apple announced the 16” with the better keyboard, as would be my persistent luck.) Nonetheless, I’ve been trying — really trying — to make that Touch Bar useful on the machine I have. BetterTouchTool is a hoot with it, but I think I finally found a use that’s truly a time-saver. At least a little.

It started when I found the “touchrunner” package for Fish that checks for a package.json file when you switch into a directory, setting the function keys in the Touch Bar to any npm tasks listed there. Great if you do everything with npm (or yarn), but with howzit I could make that universal. So I did.

I’m just showing it off here. I’m happy to share the plugin (a hack of touchrunner) upon request, but given that it requires the very specific combination of iTerm, Fish, a Touch Bar Mac, and the use of howzit, it seems like a pretty narrow slice of audience to deal with packaging it for general use. Just a neat trick for now.