IdeaWell

Project ideas from Hacker News discussions.

Start all of your commands with a comma (2009)

Original Article

Hacker News Discussion

📝 Discussion Summary (Click to expand)

Three dominant themes in the discussion

Theme What users said Representative quote
1. Namespace & autocomplete benefits The comma prefix is praised for keeping custom scripts separate from system binaries and for making them easy to discover and type. “But that’s the killer feature for me! I always forget the little commands I’ve written over the years, whereas a leading comma will easily let me list them.” – stavros
2. Aesthetic / semantic objections Many commenters feel that a punctuation character as the first character of a filename looks wrong, clashes with common conventions, or is confusing for newcomers. “I appreciate the idea, but the comma just looks horrible to me as part of a filename.” – ndsipa_pomu
3. Alternatives & variations Users propose other prefixes (underscore, letters, brackets), aliasing, or path‑ordering tricks to achieve the same goal without using a comma. “I use my_ as a prefix.” – eterps
“Either adding your script directory in front of the PATH, or creating alias that provide a full path to your script where a conflict exists, makes a whole lot more sense to me.” – mid‑kid

These three themes capture the core of the debate: the practical advantages of the comma trick, the visual/semantic discomfort it can cause, and the range of other solutions people already employ.

🚀 Project Ideas

Generating project ideas…

ScriptNamespace Manager

Summary

  • CLI tool that prefixes custom scripts with a user‑chosen namespace (comma, underscore, etc.), auto‑generates aliases, and provides shell autocomplete and help.
  • Core value: eliminates name collisions, improves discoverability, and keeps $PATH clean.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Power‑users, sysadmins, developers who maintain many local scripts.
Core Feature Namespace prefixing, alias generation, autocomplete, help integration.
Tech Stack Go or Rust for speed, Bash/Zsh plugin, optional web UI.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Hobby

Notes

  • Users like “,sudo make me a sammich” and “I always forget the little commands I've written over the years” (sevg, stavros).
  • The tool directly addresses the “comma” naming convention debate and offers alternatives (underscore, custom prefix).
  • Practical utility: can be dropped into any shell, no heavy dependencies, and can be shared on GitHub.

PathCollision Analyzer

Summary

  • CLI/web service that scans $PATH, detects potential collisions between user scripts and system binaries, and suggests safe renames or prefixing.
  • Core value: prevents accidental overrides and script breakage.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience System administrators, developers with custom scripts.
Core Feature PATH scan, collision report, auto‑alias or prefix suggestions, optional .bashrc snippet generator.
Tech Stack Python, Docker for containerized scans, optional web UI with Flask.
Difficulty Medium
Monetization Revenue‑ready: subscription for enterprise features.

Notes

  • Commenters worry about “If I introduce an executable with a name, that overrides a system one” (mathfailure, chrisjj).
  • The analyzer gives concrete actions, e.g., “rename grep to grep‑my or alias grep='grep --color=auto'”.
  • Discussion potential: best practices for PATH ordering, alias vs. prefix.

CustomScript Hub

Summary

  • Web‑based platform + CLI that lets users upload, tag, version, and discover their custom scripts, with auto‑completion integration and sharing.
  • Core value: solves memory overload and discoverability of hundreds of short scripts.

Details

Key Value
Target Audience Developers, hobbyists, teams managing many local utilities.
Core Feature Script repository, tagging, autocomplete plugin, version control, sharing links.
Tech Stack Node.js/React for web, Go for CLI, PostgreSQL, Docker.
Difficulty High
Monetization Revenue‑ready: freemium with paid storage and team features.

Notes

  • Users mention “I have 100s of short scripts” (1vuio0pswjnm7) and “I prefer oh‑my‑zsh plugin style short aliases” (karolist).
  • The hub provides a central place to remember scripts, auto‑generates shell snippets, and can integrate with Git for versioning.
  • Practical utility: reduces “I never had enough custom scripts to justify this” (karolist) by making them easily searchable.

Read Later