📺 television

A cross-platform, fast and extensible general purpose fuzzy finder TUI.

Project Description

What is the project about?

television is a Terminal User Interface (TUI) application designed for fuzzy finding. It allows users to quickly search through various data sources using a fuzzy matching algorithm. Think of it like a command-line search tool similar to fzf, but with a more structured and extensible approach.

What problem does it solve?

The project addresses the problem of efficiently navigating and searching through large datasets or lists within a terminal environment. Instead of manually sifting through files, environment variables, git repositories, or other data, users can quickly narrow down their search using fuzzy matching. It streamlines workflows that involve finding specific items within large collections. It also solves the problem of needing different tools for searching different data sources by providing a unified interface.

What are the features of the project?

• High Speed: Uses asynchronous I/O and multithreading for responsiveness.
• Fuzzy Matching: Employs the nucleo library (from the Helix editor) for efficient fuzzy matching.
• Builtin Channels: Comes with pre-built "channels" for common data sources like files, git repositories, and environment variables.
• Shell Integration: Offers shell autocompletion for seamless integration with existing workflows.
• Cable Channels: Allows users to define custom data sources through a configuration file.
• Previewers: Displays the content of selected items in a separate pane.
• Builtin Syntax Highlighting: Provides asynchronous syntax highlighting for previews.
• Keybindings: Uses intuitive keybindings (inspired by Vim).
• Themes: Supports both built-in and custom themes.
• Cross-platform: Works on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
• Terminal Emulator Compatibility: Designed to work with major terminal emulators.

What are the technologies used in the project?

• Rust: The primary programming language.
• Tokio: An asynchronous runtime for Rust, enabling high performance.
• Nucleo: The fuzzy matching library (originally from the Helix editor).
• Ratatui: A Rust library for building terminal user interfaces (TUIs).
• TOML: Used for configuration files.

What are the benefits of the project?

• Increased Productivity: Faster searching and navigation within the terminal.
• Extensibility: Users can adapt the tool to their specific needs by creating custom channels.
• Unified Interface: Provides a single tool for searching various data sources.
• Improved Workflow: Streamlines tasks that involve finding specific items within large datasets.
• User-Friendly: Offers a visually appealing and interactive TUI experience.

What are the use cases of the project?

• File Navigation: Quickly finding files within a large project or directory structure.
• Git Repository Management: Searching through git repositories (e.g., branches, commits).
• Environment Variable Inspection: Finding specific environment variables.
• Log Analysis: Piping program output (logs) into television for interactive filtering.
• Custom Data Source Searching: Creating custom channels to search through any structured data (e.g., database entries, API results, if formatted appropriately).
• Shell command completion: Provides smart autocompletion.
• Searching through text.
• Searching through aliases.

Essentially, any situation where you need to quickly find something within a list or stream of data in the terminal is a potential use case for television.