powerful cli syntax

If you've ever gone from bash to zsh, it was likely a seamless change. In contrast, the first time playing with xonsh's syntax requires one eye on the docs. This is understandable, as it was clearly no easy feat creating the lovechild of bash and python. Check this out:

path = $HOME + '/.xonshrc'
if not !(test -f @(path)):
    return 'Error: %s not found.' % path

Variables are pythonic; dollar signs are not required, but they prefix environmental variables by convention. As demonstrated above, we can modify variables, perform tests and format strings as in python.

What's cool here are the syntax blocks we see on the second line:

• @(...) treats its contents more like python, so @(path) expands to the path string.
• !(...) treats its contents with a shell syntax. The result from a !(...) block can be used in tests based on its return code, as above, but the object also contains the standard out and error streams, process id, and some other information.

This illustrates a central idea in xonsh: a contextual distinction between python-like (python-mode) and shell-like (subprocess-mode) executions.

xonsh also uses python's logical keywords, which act as drop in replacements for && and ||:

a > 10 and echo "a is greater than 10"

This is only a tiny sample but you get the idea. The shell-like syntax is very comfortable, and it feels natural to use it alongside python code.

setup

Much like zsh, the first time it is run, a wizard will guide you through initial setup and then get out of the way. This wizard generates your ~/.xonshrc file which is run when you launch xonsh.

The first step is 'Foreign Shell Setup'. This feature aims to help users use pre-existing bash or zsh configs in xonsh, though currently there are some limitations. For example, imported aliases that 'cd /some/path' don't seem to propagate their directory change to the shell. Surfing the github issues it seems there are a couple of other minor bugs that prevent use of things like ; or && in aliases.

The wizard next helps you set up other useful features and behaviour you see in other shells:

• syntax highlighting
• command completion
• vi-mode
• prompts
• plugins

Most of these are simply controlled by variables set in your .xonshrc. Overall the xonsh initial setup is painless.

plugins

xonsh's plugin framework allows for easy extension with xonsh or pure python scripts called xontribs. Some xontribs come pre-packaged but you can download or create more.

I was pleased to find that the zsh plugin z had been ported to xonsh, and a read of its code makes it clear that porting other zsh plugins would be relatively straightforward.

xontribs can do anything you want, such as hooking functions to events, adding more blocks that can be used in your prompt, adding functional aliases, you name it.

For example, we can create new aliases like this:

def _copy(args=None, stdin=None):
    """ Copy stdin or args to the clipboard """
    text = stdin.read() if stdin else ' '.join(args)
    echo -n @(text.strip()) | xclip -selection clipboard
    return

aliases['copy'] = _copy

Aliases like this send the argument list and stdin to the function as the first two arguments. This allows us to use shell-like syntax to call the function, i.e.:

echo 'this will be copied' | copy
copy 'so will this'

This seems much more natural in a shell.

Setting up a comfy environment in xonsh has led to me reading all about prompt_toolkit. prompt_toolkit is a really powerful python library for controlling what appears in the terminal window, and does the heavy lifting for xonsh when it comes to drawing prompts, watching for key bindings, and more. For these reasons, it is often useful to use its tools directly, rather than xonsh, to extend your xonsh setup.

thoughts

Overall I think xonsh is awesome and I'm excited to see how xonsh develops in the future. It's a powerful concept, and the motivation appears to be there - from both core devs and contibuting users - to iron out any issues and improve the experience.

It's pretty cool that you can use python libraries as in python:

from pykeyboard import PyKeyboard

Though I haven't actually found a use for that yet!

It is usable and practical as a daily driver, so I will definitely continue to use it and see how deep the rabbit hole goes.