Ole Bakstad's blog

Today I decided that I’m going to give twitter another try, but the first thing that struck me was how cumbersome it was to actually post a tweet.

The way I did it:

1. Open your favourite browser
2. Go to twitter.com
3. Log in
4. Write a tweet

I’m a Linux user and I love the terminal. Wouldn’t it be better to write tweets from the terminal? – Yes it would!

I have written a quick and dirty python script that enables you to write tweets from the terminal.

You can download the script here.

Install guide for Debian:

Step 1: Download

$ wget http://dibon.net/tweet
$ chmod +x tweet
$ sudo mv tweet /usr/bin/

Step 2: Install curl

The script uses curl to send data to twitter, if you don’t have curl installed you have to install it:

$ sudo aptitude install curl

Step 3: Make the config

Make a file called “.tweet” in your home directory:

$ vim .tweet

And insert the following:

[login]
username = YOURUSERNAME
password = YOURPASSWORD

You may want to edit the permissions for the file

$ chmod 0700 .tweet

That’s about it. You may have you reopen your terminal window before you can use the tweet command.

Usage:

$ tweet "I'm writing a tweet in terminal!"

Unfortunately it is necessary to use single or double quotes before and after the message.

My friend He Yu provided me with a link where you can learn Python in 10 minutes. A nice introduction to Python assuming that you know general programming.

I’m looking into Python for two reasons. One; I want to expand my knowledge of programming languages. Two; Next term I’m taking the course Introduction to Algorithms where Python is the language we will be using. It’s always nice to have a head start.

Update:

It turns out that the professor teaching the course has written books about Python and also written a short tutorial. Click here for tutorial.