osx-terminal

Rails Plugin for automating Mac OS X Terminal.App-based  Development
====================================================================


install:
--------

    ruby script/plugin install [email protected]:jcbloch/osx-terminal.git
    
requires:
---------

    appscript gem (see: see http://appscript.sourceforge.net/rb-appscript)
    
On install, plugin creates:     config/osx-terminal.yml
It backs up the file if it was already existing; if it does not exist, you will see, which can be ignored:

cp: .../your_app/config/osx-terminal.yml: No such file or directory

You must edit that yml file for your application before using osx-terminal.



Why use osx-terminal?
---------------------

osx-termnial plugin does two things that makes developing Rails apps on Mac OS easier.

1. With a single command it will open a set of Terminal tabs, title them, and run arbitrary commands in them

2. It interfaces with Git so that the terminal display settings (background color) automatically indicate the branch.

Many Rails projects make use of multiple terminal tabs, usually in a single terminal window.  
You may have a tab for the Rails Server, Rails Console, Memcache, a background task, a CLI (for git).
Your project may need additional external resource (a logging server or other services)
osx-terminal plugin automates all that....


    %rake  terminal:start

    (in .../your_app/)
    New tab for: "your_app -p3000"
    New tab for: "your_app CLI"
    New tab for: "your_app console"
    New tab for: "memcached"
    syncing git branch...

and BAM...  4 new terminal tabs are created, titled, and shell commands are run (as needed) in them.

Many Rails projects also use now use Git.  
Good git practices often involve working in private branches (local or remote)-- rather then public branches (such as "master").
In these cases, working directly in a public branch (such as "master") is to be avoided.
Git, however, offers NO  autonomous indication of the branch. 
Sooner or later a mistake happens--potentially causing significant project delays.

This situation changes with osx-terminal.

With osx-terminal, the branch is clearly indicated by the background color of the terminal tab.
Typically, non-master (private) branches will automatically get a white terminal background.
Private branches, such as "master", "staging", or "production" will automatically get a red background, 
a clear indicator to proceed with caution. Colors are of course configuration options, set in config/osx-terminal.yml


Usage
-----


1. Install the plugin && appscript gem (see above)

2. Alter config/osx-terminal.yml as needed

If you want to have osx-terminal control the terminal tab display settings in a dynamic manner, 
you will first need to create a terminal.app "settings set" for your rails application
You do this within the terminal.app, by selection the terminal/preferences menu item.
Then click on "settings" in the window and create the "default" terminal settings set for your app.
Make sure to give it a unique name that associates it with your application (like "git_your_app").
Use the name of this settings set in config/osx-terminal.yml   "git_settings_set" item.

Now, use that set for the settings_set for all tabs that you want to have dynamic, branch-dependent behavior

3. Hook into git

You are going to use the dynamic git stuff, you need to hook into git: 

    rake terminal:git_init

4. Take control of the terminal.app

Now you are ready to use osx-terminal to create your tabs whenever you need them, via:

(be patient, it can be slow when it runs fresh. It's worth it though.)

    rake terminal:start