--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/README.txt	Fri Oct 24 16:55:49 2008 -0400
@@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
+`cmd2` is a tool for writing command-line interactive applications.  It is based on the Python Standard Library's `cmd` module, and can be used anyplace `cmd` is used simply by importing `cmd2` instead.
+
+`cmd2` provides the following features, in addition to those already existing in `cmd`:
+
+- Searchable command history
+- Load commands from file, save to file, edit commands in file
+- Multi-line commands
+- Case-insensitive commands
+- Special-character shortcut commands (beyond cmd's `@` and `!`)
+- Settable environment parameters
+- Parsing commands with flags
+- Redirection to file with `>`, `>>`; input from file with `<`
+- Bare '>', '>>' with no filename send output to paste buffer
+- Pipe output to shell commands with `|`
+
+Instructions for implementing each feature follow.
+
+- Searchable command history
+
+    All commands will automatically be tracked in the session's history, unless the command is listed in Cmd's excludeFromHistory attribute.  
+    The history is accessed through the `history`, `list`, and `run` commands 
+    (and their abbreviations: `hi`, `li`, `l`, `r`).
+    If you wish to exclude some of your custom commands from the history, append their names
+    to the list at Cmd.ExcludeFromHistory.
+
+- Load commands from file, save to file, edit commands in file
+
+    Type `help load`, `help save`, `help edit` for details.
+  
+- Multi-line commands
+
+    Any command accepts multi-line input when its name is listed in `Cmd.multilineCommands`.
+    The program will keep expecting input until a line ends with any of the characters 
+    in `Cmd.terminators` .  The default terminators are `;` and `/n` (empty newline).
+    
+- Case-insensitive commands
+
+    All commands are case-insensitive, unless `Cmd.caseInsensitive` is set to `False`.
+  
+- Special-character shortcut commands (beyond cmd's "@" and "!")
+
+    To create a single-character shortcut for a command, update `Cmd.shortcuts`.
+  
+- Settable environment parameters
+
+    To allow a user to change an environment parameter during program execution, 
+    append the parameter's name to `Cmd.settable`.
+    
+- Parsing commands with `optparse` options (flags) 
+
+    ::
+    
+        @options([make_option('-m', '--myoption', action="store_true", help="all about my option")])
+        def do_myfunc(self, arg, opts):
+            if opts.myoption:
+                ...
+            
+    See Python standard library's `optparse` documentation: http://docs.python.org/lib/optparse-defining-options.html
+    
+- Catherine Devlin, http://catherinedevlin.blogspot.com
+
+cmd2 can be installed with `easy_install cmd2`
+
+Cheese Shop page: http://pypi.python.org/pypi/cmd2
+
+Example cmd2 application (cmd2_example.py) ::
+
+    from cmd2 import Cmd, make_option, options
+
+    class CmdLineApp(Cmd):
+        multilineCommands = ['orate']
+        Cmd.shortcuts.update({'&': 'speak'})
+        maxrepeats = 3
+        Cmd.settable.append('maxrepeats')       
+    
+        @options([make_option('-p', '--piglatin', action="store_true", help="atinLay"),
+                  make_option('-s', '--shout', action="store_true", help="N00B EMULATION MODE"),
+                  make_option('-r', '--repeat', type="int", help="output [n] times")
+                 ])
+        def do_speak(self, arg, opts=None):
+            """Repeats what you tell me to."""
+            arg = ' '.join(arg)
+            if opts.piglatin:
+                arg = '%s%say' % (arg[1:], arg[0])
+            if opts.shout:
+                arg = arg.upper()            
+            repetitions = opts.repeat or 1
+            for i in range(min(repetitions, self.maxrepeats)):
+                self.stdout.write(arg)
+                self.stdout.write('\n')
+                # self.stdout.write is better than "print", because Cmd can be 
+                # initialized with a non-standard output destination
+        
+        do_say = do_speak     # now "say" is a synonym for "speak"
+        do_orate = do_speak   # another synonym, but this one takes multi-line input
+    
+    app = CmdLineApp()
+    app.cmdloop()    
+
+Sample session using the above code ::
+
+    c:\cmd2>python cmd2_example.py
+    (Cmd) speak softly
+    softly    
+    (Cmd) speak --piglatin softly
+    oftlysay
+    (Cmd) speak -psr 2 softly
+    OFTLYSAY
+    OFTLYSAY
+    (Cmd) speak --repeat 1000000 softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    (Cmd) show maxrepeats
+    maxrepeats: 3
+    (Cmd) set maxrepeats 5
+    maxrepeats - was: 3
+    now: 5
+    (Cmd) speak --repeat 1000000 softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    softly
+    (Cmd) orate blah blah
+    > blah
+    > and furthermore
+    > blah
+    >
+    blah blah blah and furthermore blah
+    (Cmd) &greetings
+    greetings 
+    (Cmd) history
+    -------------------------[1]
+    speak softly
+    -------------------------[2]
+    speak --piglatin softly
+    -------------------------[3]
+    speak -psr 2 softly
+    -------------------------[4]
+    speak --repeat 1000000 softly
+    -------------------------[5]
+    show maxrepeats
+    -------------------------[6]
+    set maxrepeats 5
+    -------------------------[7]
+    speak --repeat 1000000 softly
+    -------------------------[8]
+    orate blah blah
+    blah
+    and furthermore
+    blah
+    
+    -------------------------[9]
+    &greetings  
+    (Cmd) run
+    orate blah blah
+    blah
+    and furthermore
+    blah
+    
+    blah blah blah and furthermore blah
+    (Cmd) run 3
+    speak -psr 2 softly
+    OFTLYSAY
+    OFTLYSAY
+    (Cmd) history maxrepeats
+    -------------------------[5]
+    set maxrepeats
+    -------------------------[6]
+    set maxrepeats 5
+    (Cmd) speak a dead parrot > pet.txt
+    (Cmd) speak < pet.txt
+    a dead parrot
+    (Cmd) speak only resting | wc
+      1       2      13
+    (Cmd)