Book Image

Building Modern CLI Applications in Go

By : Marian Montagnino
Book Image

Building Modern CLI Applications in Go

By: Marian Montagnino

Overview of this book

Although graphical user interfaces (GUIs) are intuitive and user-friendly, nothing beats a command-line interface (CLI) when it comes to productivity. Many organizations settle for a GUI without searching for alternatives that offer better accessibility and functionality. If this describes your organization, then pick up this book and get them to rethink that decision. Building Modern CLI Applications in Go will help you achieve an interface that rivals a GUI in elegance yet surpasses it in high-performance execution. Through its practical, step-by-step approach, you’ll learn everything you need to harness the power and simplicity of the Go language to build CLI applications that revolutionize the way you work. After a primer on CLI standards and Go, you’ll be launched into tool design and proper framework use for true development proficiency. The book then moves on to all things CLI, helping you master everything from arguments and flags to errors and API calls. Later, you’ll dive into the nuances of empathic development so that you can ensure the best UX possible, before you finish up with build tags, cross-compilation, and container-based distribution. By the end of this UX book, you’ll be fully equipped to take the performance and flexibility of your organization’s applications to the next level.

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Building Modern CLI Applications in Go
Marian Montagnino
Mar, 2023 | 406 pages
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Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
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Conventions used
Get in touch
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1
Part 1: Getting Started with a Solid Foundation
Part 1: Getting Started with a Solid Foundation
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Understanding CLI Standards
Chapter 1: Understanding CLI Standards
A brief introduction and history of the command line
The philosophy of CLI development
The guidelines
Go for CLIs
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
3
Chapter 2: Structuring Go Code for CLI Applications
Chapter 2: Structuring Go Code for CLI Applications
Technical requirements
Commonly used program layouts for robust applications
Determining use cases and requirements
Structuring an audio metadata CLI application
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
4
Chapter 3: Building an Audio Metadata CLI
Chapter 3: Building an Audio Metadata CLI
Technical requirements
Defining the components
Implementing use cases
Testing a CLI
Summary
Questions
Answers
5
Chapter 4: Popular Frameworks for Building CLIs
Chapter 4: Popular Frameworks for Building CLIs
Technical requirements
Cobra – a library for building modern CLI applications
Viper – easy configuration for CLIs
Basic calculator CLI using Cobra and Viper
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
6
Part 2: The Ins and Outs of a CLI
Part 2: The Ins and Outs of a CLI
7
Chapter 5: Defining the Command-Line Process
Chapter 5: Defining the Command-Line Process
Technical requirements
Receiving the input and user interaction
Processing data
Returning the resulting output and defining best practices
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
8
Chapter 6: Calling External Processes and Handling Errors and Timeouts
Chapter 6: Calling External Processes and Handling Errors and Timeouts
Technical requirements
Calling external processes
Interacting with REST APIs
Handling the expected – timeouts and errors
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
9
Chapter 7: Developing for Different Platforms
Chapter 7: Developing for Different Platforms
Technical requirements
Packages for platform-independent functionality
Implementing independent or platform-specific code
Build tags for targeted platforms
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
10
Part 3: Interactivity and Empathic Driven Design
Part 3: Interactivity and Empathic Driven Design
11
Chapter 8: Building for Humans versus Machines
Chapter 8: Building for Humans versus Machines
Technical requirements
Building for humans versus machines
Increasing information density with ASCII art
Being consistent across CLIs
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Answers
12
Chapter 9: The Empathic Side of Development
Chapter 9: The Empathic Side of Development
Technical requirements
Rewriting errors to be human-readable
Providing debug and traceback information
Effortless bug submission
Help, documentation, and support
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Answers
13
Chapter 10: Interactivity with Prompts and Terminal Dashboards
Chapter 10: Interactivity with Prompts and Terminal Dashboards
Technical requirements
Guiding users with prompts
Designing a useful terminal dashboard
Implementing a terminal dashboard
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
14
Part 4: Building and Distributing for Different Platforms
Part 4: Building and Distributing for Different Platforms
15
Chapter 11: Custom Builds and Testing CLI Commands
Chapter 11: Custom Builds and Testing CLI Commands
Technical requirements
What are build tags and how can you use them?
How to utilize build tags
Building with tags
Testing CLI commands
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
16
Chapter 12: Cross-Compilation across Different Platforms
Chapter 12: Cross-Compilation across Different Platforms
Technical requirements
Manual compilation versus build automation tools
Using GOOS and GOARCH
Compiling for Linux, macOS, and Windows
Scripting to compile for multiple platforms
Summary
Questions
Answers
Further reading
17
Chapter 13: Using Containers for Distribution
Chapter 13: Using Containers for Distribution
Technical requirement
Why use containers?
Testing with containers
Distributing with containers
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Answers
18
Chapter 14: Publishing Your Go Binary as a Homebrew Formula with GoReleaser
Chapter 14: Publishing Your Go Binary as a Homebrew Formula with GoReleaser
Technical requirements
GoReleaser workflow
Trigger release
Installing with Homebrew and Testing
Summary
Questions
Further reading
Answers
19
Index
Index
Why subscribe?
20
Other Books You May Enjoy
Other Books You May Enjoy
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Understanding CLI Standards

The Command-Line Interface (CLI) is a text-based interface for humans, and computer interaction was initially designed as a way of interacting with an Operating System (OS) before the desktop graphical interface was invented. The CLI, as we know it today, was in popular use in the 1960s until the graphical desktop interface was developed a decade later. However, although most computer users are used to the graphical user interface (GUI) and web, there’s been a resurgence of CLI development circa 2017. Popular and new use cases for the retro CLI vary, but its most popular usage is as an additional offering alongside a company’s API for increased platform usage.

In this chapter, you will learn about the comprehensive history of the CLI, what it is today, and a breakdown of its anatomy. You will learn about UNIX’s philosophy and how following its principles will guide you toward the creation of a successful CLI.

By the end of this chapter, you’ll have a deeper understanding of the CLI, how best to design and implement proven, time-tested standards, and why Go, which has become an increasingly popular language, has a compelling case for being the best language to build your CLI.

In this chapter, we are going to cover the following main topics:

  • A brief introduction and history of the command line
  • The philosophy of CLI development
  • Modern CLI guidelines
  • Go for CLIs
Previous Section
End of Section 1
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