Command line, fun?

Hey there,

It’s Robin from CFD Engine & I’m hoping that you can help me avoid a potential mistake.

I’m wondering where you are on the command-line appreciation spectrum? Do you avoid it as much as possible? Do you use it for almost everything? Or are you somewhere in between?

The reason I ask is that I’m toying with some ideas that might turn into command-line tools, but I don’t want to make something if there’s no-one there to use it.

As an OpenFOAM user there’s a good chance that you spend a decent amount of time entering commands in a terminal window so, whether you love it or loath it, I want to hear your opinions.

Not a fan

My guess is that, even if you’re not a fan of the command line experience, you don’t hate it, otherwise you’d have abandoned your OpenFOAM experiment long ago.

But, if you’re an OpenFOAM-er that only uses the command line when there’s no alternative, then I’d like to know…

What is it about the command line that doesn’t work for you?

Is it an OS thing? Are you mainly a Windows user, so the command line feels a bit alien?

Maybe OpenFOAM was your introduction to the command line & you’re still getting to grips with it?

Did you get bitten by a rogue command & lose some important results?

Or have you just got better things to do than learn a bunch of commands for things that you could do elsewhere with clicks & buttons?

Drop me a note & let me know – you’ll be doing me a huge favour.

Indifferent

Maybe you’re indifferent – neither a lover, nor a hater of the command line. You use it when you have to, but you wish some stuff was less painful &/or easier to remember.

Hit reply & tell me about those pain points, especially the CFD / OpenFOAM / ParaView-related ones.

Captain Command Line

If you’re a master of the terminal prompt, I still want to hear from you.

What’s tricky for you on the command line?

Which day-to-day, CFD-related operations cause you to abandon the terminal & head elsewhere? Do you retreat to another bit of software, like Excel? Or do you tend to write your own tools in Python instead?

Bonus

If you 💛 the command line (like me) then here’s a little bonus, a trio of open-source command-line apps that I think you might enjoy:

bat – it’s like cat & less had a baby that was much prettier & better at languages than it’s parents. I use this everyday.
fend – a command-line calculator that’s pretty handy for doing quick conversions while you’re setting/checking boundary conditions, things like 10rpm in radians/s or 100mph in m/s 👍
skim – a fuzzy-finder, like ctrl-p in VS Code or Spotlight on Mac that speeds up finding, previewing & opening your files.

Check ’em out, but don’t forget to come back & send me a reply when you’re done.

Much Appreciated

I really appreciate having the opportunity to seek your opinion on stuff like this, it helps me understand where you’re at & (hopefully) allows me to make better things in the future.

So, if you’re willing to share your thoughts, experiences & gripes about doing CFD from the command line, then I’d love to hear them.

Hit reply & fill me in 🙏

Until next week, stay safe