Add Visidata

[frosencrantz]

Add Visidata (https://github.com/saulpw/visidata) http://www.visidata.org/

This was originally rejected by the original owner of modern-unix, but with no clear direction: ibraheemdev#53

As mentioned there this is not a direct replacement of any one tool, but I've found I use awk/sed/cut/sort a lot less since I started using VisiData.

So it ends up being a great replacement for awk/sed/cut/sort for how I generally use those tools, which is to gather some details about some data file or output of some Unix system command that generate tabular data like ps.

The image is taken from the visidata.org site.

[frosencrantz]

One big thing that I like about VisiData is that "everything is a sheet". This means that all the data is presented and manipulated through a consistent tabular interface called a "sheet." This is similar to how in Unix "everything is a file" - it's a unifying design principle that makes the tool more intuitive and consistent.

For example, whether you're looking at:

• A CSV file
• Directory contents
• SQL query results
• Python objects
• The list of VisiData commands
• Metadata about a sheet. (Columns, aggregate data, etc)
• VisiData configuration options.

They're all displayed and interacted on Sheets (data tables) with rows and columns. This consistent interface means that once you learn the commands for working with one type of data in VisiData, those same commands work everywhere else. You can sort, filter, aggregate, and manipulate any kind of data using the same set of operations.

I've heard others say that VisiData is too complicated, but understanding the Sheet interface along with a handful or two of the basic commands, you can do a lot. This is very much in the Unix tradition.

[thenbe]

One big thing that I like about VisiData is that "everything is a sheet". This means that all the data is presented and manipulated through a consistent tabular interface called a "sheet." This is similar to how in Unix "everything is a file" - it's a unifying design principle that makes the tool more intuitive and consistent.

You may also be interested in Nushell.

[frosencrantz]

@thenbe, thank you for the suggestion. I have been watching Nushell, but have not tried using it. I like that it is about using structured data via pipelines. VisiData should fit very well within that shell.

[johnalanwoods]

Cool but closing as too specific.

[frosencrantz]

@johnalanwoods thank you for looking at this issue. Also, thank you for the effort to continue this list, it is a useful service.

Can you provide more guidance on what you mean by "too specific". I came here after ibraheemdev also gave an ambiguous response. (ibraheemdev#53 (comment))

To me visidata is somewhere between a pager and awk/sed/jq. It allows you to read data within the terminal like a pager, but like awk/sed/jq it allows you to query&modify data. Within that context this is a generic tool that can be used by any Unix user. It is not tied to any one file format.

This list should be somewhat opinionated. It would be helpful to you, me and other contributors if you can be clearer about how a tool qualifies for the the list.