Ted On Flex: Command Line Intelligence

Command Line Intelligence

DIGG IT! 8 Comments Published Thursday, February 23, 2006 at 8:11 AM .

I have been working with ANT, Java, and Flex more and more. The result is that I have become ever more dependent on the command line. One of the engineers at Cynergy showed me a trick he learned while working on the Biztalk server team at Microsoft. Write this down, its a jewel!

In XP, Microsoft added Intellisense into the command line via the TAB key. When you are typing path names, you only need to type the first few characters, then hit the TAB key to walk through the available path names. When you press TAB, a valid path is magically typed for you.

Here is a little experiment:

1. run "cmd"

C:\Documents and Settings\Theodore Patrick>

2. type: "cd \prog" and press TAB

C:\cd "Program Files"

3. Press Enter

C:\Program Files>

4. type: "cd Macr" and press TAB

C:\cd "Program Files>cd Macromedia"

5. Press Enter

C:\cd "Program Files\Macromedia"

6. type: "cd Flex" and press TAB

C:\cd "Program Files\Macromedia>cd "Flex Builder 1.5"

7. Press TAB

C:\cd "Program Files\Macromedia>cd "Flex Builder 2.0 Alpha 1"

8. Press TAB

C:\cd "Program Files\Macromedia>cd "Flex Builder 2.0 Beta 1"

9. Press SHIFT + TAB

C:\cd "Program Files\Macromedia>cd "Flex Builder 2.0 Alpha 1"

This little trick has saved me a ton of time on the command line. Just get in the habit of pressing TAB periodically and walking the file system with the command line will go faster and faster.

c:\PSDKBlog>ant blog.post

Cheers,

Ted :)

8 Responses to “ Command Line Intelligence ”

# Anonymous February 23, 2006 8:47 AM

hm, so, you wanna say you didn't know about this?

Although, it is to blame microsoft for this..on older windows versions you needed to go and edit registry (set dword to enabled, and optionally fill in completion character, I believe tab used to be default)
# Anonymous February 23, 2006 8:49 AM

so, to correct you, this was possible in previous versions of windows:
quick google search showsregistry settings:
http://www.weberdev.com/get_example-1436.html
# BIT-101 February 23, 2006 9:36 AM

you can do better than that:

cd prog < tab >

results in:

cd "Program Files"

Just keep typing:

cd "Program Files"\ma < tab >

results in:

cd "Program Files\Macromedia"

keep going...

cd "Program Files\Macromedia"\fl < tab >

gives you:

cd "Program Files\Macromedia\Flash 8"

keep tabbing til you get to flex. Hit enter only when you are all done.
# Ted Patrick February 23, 2006 10:12 AM

Sure, I am not afraid to say I didn't know about it. Noone knows everything.

I used to automate all my builds with Python so I never needed to use the command line at all. I would just call a URL or click on the build script to handle compilation.

Learn something new everyday!

Ted :)
# brandon ellis February 23, 2006 12:01 PM

you can also add a context menu shortcut to the cmd prompt

in the registry go to :
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\shell
add a new key named 'cmdPrompt' and set its default string value to 'Open At Cmd Prompt'

from cmdPrompt, add a new key named 'command' and set its default string value to - Cmd.exe /k pushd %L

now when you right click on a folder you will have the option to open it at the command prompt.
# eokyere February 23, 2006 12:19 PM

better late than never, no? :)

for a better command line experience on windows, get cygwin, add rxvt which is a better term emu than even the default that comes with cygwin, and certainly better than cmd;

this is how my shortcut looks like:

C:\cygwin\bin\run.exe C:\cygwin\bin\rxvt.exe -sr -bg black -fg green -e bash --login -i

you can also add the bash-completions package for programmable completion enhancements.

cheers,
-- eokyere
# Open Source Intelligence February 18, 2008 6:29 PM

You know, you wouldn't have this problem if you used Linux. Come on... over to the bright side... use the force... ... ...
# Krishnendra April 2, 2008 1:09 AM

Hi Ted,
is there a way by which we can access the windows registry through Flex
Thanks
Krish