README.md
1# colwide
2
3**colwide** is a [Perl](http://www.perl.org/) script which displays a specified number of a character (default: `#`) on the screen. This may sound useless, but can compliment [tmux](http://tmux.sourceforge.net/) or [GNU screen](http://www.gnu.org/software/screen/).
4
5## Features
6
7And misfeatures!
8
9* Requires **NO** Perl modules!
10* Ability to print a specified amount of characters if specified as an argument
11* Does not have the ability to change the default hash character (`#`) with an argument
12* Ability to change default values, such as:
13* Default character by changing `$char`
14* Default number of printed characters by changing `$defwidth`
15* Licensed under the Simplified BSD License
16* Has no mechanism to detect terminal size
17
18## Usage
19
20In these usage examples, I assume the following:
21
22* **colwide** means the script's official name, whereas `colwide` is the filename of the script.
23* `colwide` is downloaded to a location in your shell's `$PATH`.
24* The file in your `$PATH` is called `colwide`.
25* The execute bit (`+x`) is set on the file `colwide`
26* `$char` is set to `#` (default)
27* `$defwidth` is set to `80` (default)
28
29Short usage info: `colwide [**charno**]`, where `**charno**` is the number of characters outputted. Leave blank for the default of 80 characters.
30
31If you run `colwide` with no arguments, and haven't changed `$char` or `$defwidth`, you get 80 hash (`#`) symbols printed to the screen. The output of `colwide` without any arguments is shown below:
32
33 neel@megan:~ % colwide
34 ################################################################################
35 neel@megan:~ %
36
37If you specify a number as an argument, you override `$defwidth` and get the amount of hash (`#`) symbols you specified. Let's say we run `colwide 40`:
38
39 neel@megan:~ % colwide 40
40 ########################################
41 neel@megan:~ %
42
43Here, `colwide` has outputted a specified amount of hash (`#`) symbols onto your screen, where in this case, it is 40.
44
45If you specify more characters to `colwide` than the width of your terminal, the characters will overflow, as shown in this example:
46
47 neel@megan:~ % colwide 120
48 ################################################################################
49 ########################################
50 neel@megan:~ %
51
52That's really it for the usage information. I don't really have anything else to add here.
53
54## Download
55
56You can download **colwide** from the [neelc.org](http://download.neelc.org/pub/colwide/0.01/) or by cloning this GitHub repository.
57
58If you use [FreeBSD](http://www.freebsd.org/) user (like me!), you also have the option to download **colwide** by install the FreeBSD port [misc/colwide](http://www.freshports.org/misc/colwide).
59