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Comment by m0shen | Hacker News Reader

`expect` is absolutely geared towards scripting, as it's an extension of TCL. Though as far as getting a "current terminal view" `expect` has `term_expect`: https://core.tcl-lang.org/expect/file?name=example/term_expe...

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Sorry, my wording wasn't very clear. I wasn't trying to imply that ht is more geared towards scripting than `expect` (in fact I'd say `expect` is more scripting-oriented being an extension of a scripting language) but rather that ht is more geared towards scripting the terminal as a UI than `expect`.

Am I wrong about that? (I may very well be since I haven't used `expect` before)

I see what you're saying. When I was writing scripts in `expect`, I didn't really ever try to automate tui programs. So, this could absolutely be a better way to script the the terminal as a ui as you said.

I'll certainly tuck it into my toolbox. Thanks :)

Based on my understanding/recollection of `expect`, the concept is that you're scripting a command/process (or command sequence) via a "terminal connection" (or basic stdin/stdout), based on the (either complete or partial) "expected" dialogue response.

e.g.

1. make initial connect over ssh (e.g. spawn ssh cli process) 2. expect "login: " response 3. send "admin" 4. expect "password: " response 5. send "password" 6. expect "$ " 7. send "whoami\n" 8. etc etc

I guess that might in theory be possible to script a TUI with but I suspect it'd get pretty convoluted over an extended period of time.

(BTW I mentioned this in a comment elsewhere in this thread but check out https://crates.io/crates/termwiz to avoid re-inventing the wheel for a bunch of terminal-related functionality.)

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