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by ontouchstart 1401 days ago 

  $ alias dn='date >> notes.txt && cat >> notes.txt <<EOF'
  $ dn
  > Reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32507878
  >   alias dn='date >> notes.txt && cat >> notes.txt <<EOF'
  > EOF
  $ cat notes.txt 
  Thu 18 Aug 2022 01:41:18 PM UTC
  Reply to https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32507878
    alias dn='date >> notes.txt && cat >> notes.txt <<EOF'
1 comments
CRConrad 1400 days ago
Yeah, but you had to type "EOF" to get out of the "cat >>" sub-process, didn't you? There's probably no way to automate / hide that away... (?) Sure, it's pretty good the way it is already, but it bugs me that you have to type that bit that isn't what you want to note. (Who, me? What OCD?)
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ontouchstart 1400 days ago
The essence of this tiny "interactive command line utility" is to capture user key strokes and redirect to a sub-process. So there gotta be a way to interrupt and exit the sub-process. "EOF" is just a convention. You can also get out of the sub-process with "Ctrl-D" like in Python shell.

Interactive editors like vi/emacs also need to flush the buffer and save the content to the file, but you have to type something, such as ":w" and "C-x C-s" (or use GUI).

If you want full automation without human input, I/O redirection is the way.

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