Google hits coder G-spot with Linux command line tool

Google has introduced a command line utility for accessing various Chocolate Factory services, including YouTube, Blogger, Google Docs, Calender, and Contacts. And an army of text-interface obsessives have responded with glee.

"I love you!!" one coder told Google. "This couldn't be better!!"

"Ooh, I hope it's not April 1 today. *calendar check* Wow, nope!" said another. "There goes my Friday evening."

"Effin amazing" said a third.

Google CL is a Python application that uses the gdata Python client library to make Google Data API calls from the command line. Currently, it supports Blogger, Picasa, YouTube, Google Docs, Contacts, and Calendar.

Just think of it. You can update your blog or browse a list of web videos or update your online calendar – all without stooping to the level of a GUI interface.

"Ever wanted to upload a folder full of photos to Picasa from a command prompt?" Google said in a blog post. "We did, a lot, last summer. It made us want to say:

$ google picasa create --title "My album" ~/Photos/vacation/*.jpg

So we wrote a program to do that, and a whole lot more."

The open source Google CL is hosted on Google Code, and you can browse the project here. Once you download the application, you too can enjoy such command line orgasms as:

$ google blogger post --blog "My blog" --tags "python, googlecl, development" my_post.html

and

$ google calendar add "Lunch with Jason tomorrow at noon"

and

$ google docs edit --title "Shopping list" --editor vim

The project is geared towards Linux. Google offers a Linux .deb package and a tar archive for download. But independent developer Isaac Truett is offering instructions for using the tool on Windows. And Google points to some Mac tips here.

Example scripts are available here. ®