This is an implementation of an idea we discussed a while ago; a launcher for town-specific commands.

The idea is to put town commands in one of three places:

• /town/launcher/core
• /town/launcher/contrib
• /town/launcher/admin

and pair each command with a corresponding .yml file.

For example, the aup command is a simple wrapper around elinks that opens our code of conduct. I put the executable aup in /town/launcher/core and matched it with /town/launcher/aup.yml. The purpose of the yaml file is to provide documentation for your executable, so aup.yml looks like:

shortDesc: View the town's Acceptable Use Policy
longDesc: |
  This command will open our code of conduct, a type of document that evokes the Acceptable Use
  Policies that governed servers like this in the past. It will open the elinks browser to a
  page on the wiki.  
examples: |
  $ aup           # open the aup
  $ aup --rainbow # open the aup with rainbow colors  

and using the launcher is like:

 $ town aup
 $ town aup --rainbow
 $ town contrib writo
 $ town admin ban vilmibm

You can see all the commands with town help as well as their descriptions; town help aup would show you the docs from aup.yml.

I'd love feedback on this approach while I wrap up this implementation. I can put it up on git.tilde.town if anyone desires to collaborate (and let me know if you want a git.tilde.town account).

Remaining TODOs:

• fix arg passing
• make tab completion available for common shells
• test with a command that makes use of stdin/stdout
• document / script submitting a tool for inclusion in contrib
• add all existing commands to the buckets
• make little wrappers for things like mail and chat
• add to users' paths