Pipe
Pipe is now freeware. We're doing this, because the application is getting old and there haven't been much updates lately. You can use the following license key to get the full version:
1-1559-9341-D09A-EB53
If you, however, feel particularly generous, you can always donate something! (via Paypal)
New releases ·
Pipe helps you write, test, and debug shell scripts quickly. It is also ideal for learning scripting languages. You can filter text through your scripts, and see the script source, input, and output simultaneously.
In Pipe, any piece of text written in a computer language is a script. Shell scripts (e.g. bash or tcsh), Perl, Python, Ruby – all these count as scripts. When you run a script in Pipe, it writes your script code to a file, sets the executable bit, and executes it. The input you provided is passed to the script via the standard input channel (stdin), and everything the script provides on standard output (stdout) appears in the output box. If the script writes anything to the error output channel (stderr), that text will appear in the errors drawer.
You can also tell Pipe not to execute your script directly, but to run a command which then executes your script code. This feature allows you to treat almost anything as a script: AppleScript code, XSLT stylesheets, even database or RDF queries.
Pipe is ideal for learning: you can edit both the script source and input, and see the resulting output in a single split-pane window. You can load your script source and input from a file on your hard disk, or from a URL anywhere on the internet. With a single click or keypress, you can execute your script and see the output immediately in the same window.
In addition to plain text, your scripts can also output HTML or even images, which will be shown directly in the output box. The script library, that comes with Pipe, contains sample scripts that generate charts and even function graphs from input data.
Pipe gives you quick access to all your scripts from the script browser. The browser allows you to feed input through any script and see the output with a single click. You can also quickly take the output of a script and use it as input for another one.
You can feed text through your scripts from any services-aware application on Mac OS X. Simply select some text, choose “Services – Pipe – Through Script…”, select the appropriate script, and your text selection will be replaced with the script output.
You can read more about the Script Library and the Template System on a separate page. We have discussed various included scripts and templates in detail there.
Pipe is not a full-featured development environment, and we don’t want to reinvent advanced text editing features that others have already done better. That’s why Pipe works together with popular editors like BBEdit, SubEthaEdit, or TextMate. You can edit the script source and input in your favorite text editor, and as soon as you save, the changes will be transferred back to Pipe. Even better, with the auto-run feature you can immediately see the effects of your changes.
