SGT-WATCH

A fun Bash watcher for Dart — military-flavored feedback for beginners

Monitors main.dart for changes and responds with dramatic, sarcastic, and encouraging chatter. Great teaching tool for new Dart programmers.

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Features

• Watches main.dart for changes (Linux by default).
• Military-style chatter for:
  • Empty files (sarcastic sergeants).
  • Errors (debug tips for common Dart exceptions such as NoSuchMethodError, FormatException, etc.).
  • Successful runs (celebratory messages).
• Detects interactive programs and prints manual-run instructions (for stdin.readLineSync()-style code).
• Optional Believing Soldier — encouraging messages to keep you motivated.
• Idle chatter after 10 minutes of inactivity.
• Customize all chatter via files in sgt_tmp/.
• Username authentication for playful access control.
• VS Code extension in development: sgt-watch-vscode.

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Quick example

Create main.dart:

void main() {
  print('Hello, Dart programmers!');
}

You can install SGT-WATCH in multiple ways:

Option 1 — Clone the full repo (all files)

git clone https://github.com/BiqqMax/sgt-watch.git
cd sgt-watch
chmod +x sgt-watch.sh
./sgt-watch.sh

This gives you access to all helper files (including a main.dart file).

Option 2 — curl (single script only)

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BiqqMax/sgt-watch/main/sgt-watch.sh
chmod +x sgt-watch.sh
./sgt-watch.sh

(This single script option runs the script directly after fetching — use with caution.)

Option 3 — wget (single script only)

wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BiqqMax/sgt-watch/main/sgt-watch.sh
chmod +x sgt-watch.sh
./sgt-watch.sh

(This single script option runs the script directly after fetching — use with caution.)

Option 4 — Git sparse-checkout (single file only)

git clone --no-checkout https://github.com/BiqqMax/sgt-watch.git
cd sgt-watch
git sparse-checkout init --cone
git sparse-checkout set sgt-watch.sh
git checkout main
chmod +x sgt-watch.sh
./sgt-watch.sh

(This single script option runs the script directly after fetching — use with caution.)

Option 5 — One-liner install script

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BiqqMax/sgt-watch/main/sgt-watch.sh)"

(This One-liner option runs the script directly after fetching — use with caution.)

You will see sergeant-style messages, a radio-style report of program output, and an encouraging message from the Believing Soldier if enabled.

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Prerequisites

• Dart SDK — verify with dart --version.
• Linux: inotify-tools and coreutils (e.g. sudo apt-get install inotify-tools coreutils).
• macOS: install fswatch (brew install fswatch) and replace the watch command with fswatch -o \"$DART_FILE\" | while read -r; do ... in the script.
• Windows: run under WSL2 and install the Linux dependencies.
• Git — git --version.

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Usage

1. Run ./sgt-watch.sh and enter a username when prompted (default allowed users include admin, commander, general, captain, lieutenant).
2. Edit and save your main.dart to trigger feedback:
   • Empty file: sarcastic sergeant lines.
   • Errors: error chatter with debug tips (e.g. “💡 Use try-catch with int.parse()”).
   • Interactive code: instructions to run dart main.dart manually.
   • Success: celebratory messages and Believing Soldier encouragement (if enabled).
3. Idle chatter starts after the configured delay (default 600 seconds / 10 minutes).

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Configuration

Edit variables at the top of sgt-watch.sh:

Variable	Default	Description
DART_FILE	main.dart	File to monitor
IDLE_DELAY	600	Seconds before idle chatter
IDLE_INTERVAL	10	Seconds between idle messages
IDLE_CHATTER_COUNT	3	Max idle messages
BELIEVING_SOLDIER_ENABLED	true	Toggle encouraging messages
AUTH_USERS	admin, commander, general, captain, lieutenant	Allowed usernames

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Customizable chatter files (sgt_tmp/)

On first run the script creates sgt_tmp/ with these files. Edit them to change the messages used by the watcher.

• output_chatters_line1.txt, output_chatters_line2.txt — success messages
• error_chatters_line1.txt, error_chatters_line2.txt — error messages
• empty_chatter_line1.txt, empty_chatter_line2.txt — empty file messages
• hush_chatters.txt, hush_instructions.txt — interactive-code messages
• idle_chatters.txt, idle_notices.txt — idle messages
• believing_soldier_chatters.txt — encouraging messages (if enabled)

You can use $USERNAME or $RANDOM_USER in these files to personalize messages.

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Limitations

• Linux-only by default (requires inotify-tools). macOS and Windows need adjustments.
• Monitors a single file by default.
• Covers common Dart errors but might miss rare cases.
• The watcher uses a 2-second timeout for runs; long-running programs may be interrupted.

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Contributing

1. Fork the repo and create a branch: git checkout -b my-feature
2. Commit your changes: git commit -m \"Add feature\"
3. Push and open a pull request: git push origin my-feature

Report issues via GitHub Issues.

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License

MIT License

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Contact

Open an issue or ping on X (Twitter): @BiqqMax — tag #SGTWatch.

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VS Code extension sgt-watch-vscode is in development for seamless IDE integration.