Sort a file's contents:
$ usort list.txt
Sort pasted content:
$ usort
<paste in content>
<c-d>
(I wish that worked with pipes, but it does not.)
Prioritizing task lists or backlogs is an important part of being organized. Even when it isn't strictly required, I find thinking about priorities to be a useful brainstorming device. But what's the best way to do it?
Staring at a drag-and-drop list and moving things at random always feels like a futile, ineffecient exercise. Have I thought about this thing yet? Wait, did I mean to put it above or below this other thing? Didn't I already decide on that?
It seems especially silly since sorting a list is Computer Science 101. We've got algorithms for that! We just need to use one of those algorithms to efficiently choose items to be compared, and then do the comparisons ourselves.
And that's what usort is. Give it a list of items and it will prompt you to compare them, one comparison at a time. At the end, it will print out your list. Sorted! rimshot
Version 0.3 introduces insort, for sorting top-level vimin items using standard alphabetic comparison.
This utility started as a simple script using a standard Perl function, sort, that is parameterized over the comparator function. That worked for years, and only got replaced when I wanted the ability to edit items in place, delete them, or undo previous actions. More features are slowly being added over time.
See the [CHANGELOG].