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#commandline

13 posts13 participants1 post today
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Don

The power of LibreOffice

I have many documents created with Microsoft Office for assignments written for graduate school courses years ago. How can I easily convert those dozens of documents to a different format without using an online application? This is an excellent example of the power of open source.

Five years ago I took a course at a local university where all of the documents were provided in ‘docx’ format. Is there a way to convert those documents to an ‘odt’ format? There is and it is quite simple. 

$libreoffice --headless --convert-to odt *.docx

What if I decided I wanted to convert those ‘docx’ items to ‘html’ so they could easily be shared on my classroom website. What if I had wanted to convert all those documents to html? 

$libreoffice --headless --convert-to html *.docx

I can use the same tool to turn those ‘docx’ files into ‘pdf’ files with an iteration of the same command.

$libreoffice –headless –convert-to pdf *.docx

Using LibreOffice from the command line inside the directory where the files you want to convert is easy and the conversion is accomplished in a matter of seconds depending on your processor and memory. You can find many more uses of LibreOffice from the command line by entering the following command on your own command line if you have LibreOffice installed as most Linux distributions do. 

$libreoffice --help

This is a great example of the power of open source software.

www.libreoffice.orgHome | LibreOffice - Free and private office suite - Based on OpenOffice - Compatible with MicrosoftFree office suite – the evolution of OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .ppt, .pptx. Updated regularly, community powered.
#commandLine#LibreOffice
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JdeBP

@gsuberland

In fairness, that's a culture that the GNOME, KDE, et al. desktop people changed by doing, years ago.

They've had long meaningful names, with more than 1 vowel in, in the desktop applications world for years.

When it comes to nomenclature "st" actually sucks *more* as a name to unfamiliar users than "gnome-terminal". (-:

It's the same sort of deal with the "convenience" aliases versus the full cmdlet names in #PowerShell.

#CommandLine#nomenclature
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Martin Owens :inkscape:

I had a dream last night I was the host of a popular YouTube show which was basically Cribs, but for famous programmers showing me around their command line shell setup.

The Linus Torvalds episode did numbers, but no one wanted to watch me show myself around my own shell.

😅 such is the fickle imaginary audience of one's own dreams. Lol.

#programming#commandline#foss
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Georgiana Brummell

This post was inspired by the accessibility, or lack there of, of various operating systems, annoyances that people have with Windows, and the current state of Linux, which many sighted people tout as a great Windows alternative. While there are obviously some blind people who use it, overall, the experience is neither streamlined nor easy. and it can be downright frustrating. There is Mac OS, but then, there is the expense of a Mac, plus the fact that many normal periferals can't be used with it. There are Android and IOS, but these are touch-based, not built for computers, though both can be used with real keyboards. Still, such operating systems come with their own headaches.

My solution is one that cuts through all of the hurdles to a system that is fast, efficient, light on resources, and very accessible. This is DOS. I am not referring to MS-DOS, but to modern varients such as FreeDOS (just updated this year), Enhanced DR-DOS (updated a few years ago), VDOS (a version that runs directly in modern Windows systems), etc. For instance, this is FreeDOS.

freedos.org/download/

This is a wonderful (and long) list of general fallacies that people may hold about the operating system, as well as statements debunking them and proving why it is still a viable choice in 2025.

chebucto.ns.ca/~ak621/DOS/DOS-

For us in the blind community, there are really only two issues standing in our way. The first is a good screen reader, and the second is software synthesis. Yet even these can be overcome. While many DOS screen readers were made in the past, only one is now completely open source. That is Provox. The entire code is available for us to update to our hearts' content. (Look down the page and you will find the download link under the screen reader section.)

allinaccess.com/happ/

Of course, we could create an entirely new one, but this gives us a good place to start if we don't want to reinvent the wheel. As for hardware synthesis, it was done in the past, with Flipper. It's not the best, but it shows that it is possible. Now, with all of these updates to DOS itself, as well as faster machines with better memory, soundcards, and drivers, it should be easier to create a software synthesizer.

There are still people programming for DOS, both for everyday use and versions of the operating system itself. Why not collaborate with them? Why can't we have a text-based, keyboard-driven operating system that works for us, that isn't bloated, and that we can even help to create? Imagine a version of DOS designed with accessibility in mind. What if it came with a built-in screen reader that talked during installation, braille support, a magnifier, ocr software, various other accessibility options, and menus that were easy to navigate for those who didn't wish to use the commandline, as well as access to it for those who did? What if it were free, or at the very least, extremely cheap, and could run on almost anything, so that anyone in the world could use it, provided he had some sort of computer? This is all within reach.

How many of you would be interested in at least trying out these modern versions of DOS to see what they offer and how far we could take them into the realm of accessibility and daily use?

#accessibility #blind #commandline #computing #DOS #FreeDOS #OperatingSystem #programming #ScreenReader #SoftwareSynthesizer #SpeechSynthesis #text-based #tui #WindowsAlternative

www.freedos.orgThe FreeDOS Project
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Robert Kingett

I’ve been playing around with this and I can’t tell you how much I love this cli interface. It’s much easier for me, now, to edit and create new newsletters/emails. I’m super glad this newsletter platform offers this! it’s a lot cleaner, for me, than the web interface. As of right now, there’s a few bugs, but it still works well and i’ve already started contributing to the documentation! Providing some more notes for Windows users and explaining a few things that’s not in the original documentation. Buttondown CLI | Buttondown Documentation docs.buttondown.com/buttondown #Cli #CommandLine @buttondownemail @buttondown #Terminal #OpenSource #TUI

Buttondown DocumentationButtondown CLI | Buttondown DocumentationButtondown is the easiest way to start and grow your newsletter. Check out our docs and start building something great!
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Dan Drake 🦆

I'm mostly posting this as a way to help myself remember, but:

I have been using the venerable `less` Unix utility for over a quarter century (!) but just today I learned you can view multiple files with it!

less file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt

Use `:n` and `:p` to go to the next/previous file.

#unix#linux#terminal
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