NAME

shorthand — a simple label expander

SYNOPSIS

shorthand OPTIONS [SHORTHAND_FILES]

DESCRIPTION

shorthand expands labels in text using the definitions assigned to them. It reads each file named on the command line in turn, or standard input when there is none, and writes the text with the labels replaced. The lines that make the definitions are not written. It works as a naive macro language, for the jobs a template language is too much for: abbreviations in Markdown, a timestamp in a timesheet, pages built from several documents. Run shorthand -examples for the operators.

Without a file, shorthand is an interactive interpreter when standard input is a terminal: it prompts for each line, and “:help:” lists the operators. Use “:exit:” to leave. A line that contains “:exit:” ends the input in a file too.

The definitions and the labels live for one run, so the files given together share them. The first line below defines {{who}}, so the second prints “Hello Freda”:

:set: {{who}} Freda
Hello {{who}}

OPTIONS

-h, -help: display this help page
-l, -license: display the license
-v, -version: display the program name, version and release hash
-examples: display the operators with examples
-i FILENAME, -input FILENAME: read FILENAME before any files named on the command line
-o FILENAME, -output FILENAME: write to FILENAME rather than standard output
-p PROMPT, -prompt PROMPT: the prompt of the interactive interpreter (default “=>”)
-n, -no-prompt: turn the prompt off
-quiet: do not report a file that cannot be opened

EXIT STATUS

0: success
2: bad command line
65: a line could not be evaluated, such as an unsupported operator or a file an operator could not read. It is reported with its line number, the rest of the input is still processed, and the exit status is 65
66: an input file cannot be opened. The other files are still processed
73: the output file cannot be created

EXAMPLES

Expand a timesheet that starts with a definition of @now:

shorthand Time_Sheet.txt | stnparse

Build a page from a template, writing it to a file:

shorthand -o index.html build.shorthand

Expand text on standard input, with no prompt: