MyCmd Rewrite Branch Merged into Main

I created this pull request to merge the long-running rewrite branch into mainline. And I approved the pull request, merging into main.

This culminates efforts started back in July 2023 to rewrite the MyCmd core to be more modular and easier to test. Then, earlier in this year, I had an idea of how to implement the core data structures in MyCmd, around the Commands and Command Groups. Additionally, I wanted to try discovering all Commands and Command Groups up front, to simplify the command line parsing logic in the MyCmd Launcher. Finally, these changes have paid off and I have merged the changes into the main branch and then created a new development snapshot tag, snapshot-r2-2024-12-20, that I am using in my local install of MyCmd to dogfood it.

The efforts of this last year and a half have finally paid off. The cognitive load of understanding, using, and maintaining my code is lighter. More tested. It is easier to write what I need.

I am thankful for December Adventure giving me the motivation and momentum to get things across this line.

Summary of the Changes

Using git-quick-stats:

        Travis B. Hartwell <nafai@travishartwell.net>:
          insertions:    19763  (100%)
          deletions:     9865   (100%)
          files:         574    (100%)
          commits:       149    (100%)
          lines changed: 29628  (100%)
          first commit:  Fri Jul 21 14:48:17 2023 -0700
          last commit:   Fri Dec 20 13:57:16 2024 -0800

        total:
          insertions:    19763  (100%)
          deletions:     9865   (100%)
          files:         574    (100%)
          commits:       149    (100%)

The current line counts (including blank and commented lines) of all files (minus a few support files):

    7534 total
    1002 myproject
     968 mycmd/mycmd-registry-lib
     414 bin/mycmd
     367 mycmd/project/project-lib
     318 mycmd/project/run
     275 mycmd/project/project-task-lib
     275 mycmd/mycmd-command-group-lib
     273 mycmd/logging/page-log
     256 mycmd/mycmd-pathname-lib
     256 mycmd/logging/log-both
     253 testing/tests/pathname-test
     202 mycmd/mycmd-platform-support-lib
     177 mycmd/project/project-git-lib
     173 mycmd/logging/logging-lib
     172 mycmd/mycmd-command-lib
     167 mycmd/mycmd-event-lifecycle-lib
     157 mycmd/mycmd-loading-base-lib
     148 mycmd/mycmd-output-lib
     146 testing/tests/registry-test
     124 mycmd/mycmd-environment-lib
     122 mycmd/project/list-tasks
     118 mycmd/mycmd-formatted-output-lib
     116 testing/tests/project-lib-test
     101 testing/tests/mycmd-lib-test
      97 testing/tests/environment-test
      85 testing/tests/command-group-test
      78 testing/tests/logging-lib-test
      73 mycmd/mycmd-lib
      70 mycmd/mycmd-loading-lib
      63 testing/tests/init-bin-test
      59 mycmd/logging/summarize-log
      58 mycmd/mycmd-function-calling-lib
      55 testing/tests/command-test
      54 testing/tests/function-redefinition-test
      49 mycmd/mycmd-vendoring-lib
      47 mycmd/mycmd-event-base-lib
      45 mycmd/project/project-shell-lib
      30 testing/tests/event-base-test
      22 testing/user-base/shell/extended/extended-lib
      21 testing/user-base/test-command
      17 mycmd/shell/shell-lib
      17 mycmd/create/create-lib
      14 testing/user-base/test-command-group/test-command-group-lib

In brief, these are the things I changed:

Broke up mycmd-lib into smaller support libraries that could be individually loaded and tested.
Implemented the MyCmd Search Path to define where MyCmd looks for Commands and Command Groups, allowing for tools built using with MyCmd to be installed separately.
Implemented a common MyCmd Registry data structure that discovers and maintains the data for all Commands and Command Groups. Commands and Command Groups are all discovered on each MyCmd invocation.
Implemented a common MyCmd Registered Item data structure for instances of Commands and Command Groups, along with aliases and extensions as appropriate for each.
Followed more consistent conventions for naming and file organization.
Adopted git worktrees for managing local development branches as well as a development snapshot to be checked out for use on my development machine.
Added support for profiling MyCmd Command execution and generating flamegraphs from the profiles.
Added project tasks to benchmark actions and track history.
Added tools to catalog and query the function dependencies across the project.

Next Steps

Before I make an official initial release, I plan on doing the following:

Separating out the project task runner into an independent project and repo that depends on MyCmd.
Get GitHub Actions configured for continuous integration that will:
- Be executed on pull requests so I can use a pull request workflow.
- Use MyCmd and the project runner to run tasks to check linting, formatting, and test execution on pull requests.
- Use MyCmd and the project runner to run tasks to do a snapshot release on merges to main.
Completion support for mycmd in major shells (Zsh, Bash, and Fish – prioritizing Zsh as that is my preferred interactive shell.)
Implement the mycmd shell command group with commands for integrating with interactive shells.
Write documentation for MyCmd end users.
Write documentation for MyCmd Command and Command Group writers.
Implement the mycmd create Command Group for creating Commands and Command Groups from templates.
Figure out installation mechanisms for end users:
- At minimum, a shell script to do the install.
- Packages for various package managers.
- A plugin for Mise, possibly?
Feature detection for required Bash features.
Fix mycmd.init_bin to find all requested cross-platform executables all at once.
Caching of Command and Command Group metadata for even faster execution.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about the changes that I have just merged, and these remaining items have been only vague things I’ve thought about. So, the coming work might be a bit more challenging. However, I have a much better base to work with and so these changes should be easier than where I was before the rewrite.