A Go Script In Every Chicken's Pot

01 WOBBLE-COUNTER PIC 9(09) VALUE 000000001. 01 JIGGLE-INDEX PIC 9(09) VALUE 000000002. 01 POINTLESS-FLAG PIC X(01) VALUE "Y". 01 IRRELEVANT-SWITCH PIC X(01) VALUE "N". 01 UNUSED-TABLE. 05 UNUSED-ENTRY OCCURS 10 TIMES. 10 UNUSED-CODE PIC X(04) VALUE "XXXX". 10 UNUSED-DATA PIC X(020) VALUE "ENTIRELY-UNNECESSARY-TEXT". 01 BLATHER-GROUP. 05 BLATHER-ALPHA PIC X(030) VALUE "ALPHA-STRING-OF-NO-SIGNIFICANCE". 05 BLATHER-BRAVO PIC X(030) VALUE "BRAVO-STRING-WITH-EXTRA-PADDING-XYZ". 05 BLATHER-CHARLIE PIC X(030) VALUE "CHARLIE-STRING-WITH-RANDOM-STUFF". 01 FILLER REDEFINES BLATHER-GROUP. 05 BLATHER-REDEF PIC X(090). 01 UNALIGNED-NUMBER PIC S9(09)V9(03) VALUE +000000123.456. 01 MEANINGLESS-TEXT PIC X(050) VALUE "TEXT THAT WILL NEVER BE DISPLAYED ANYWHERE HERE". 01 EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD PIC X(100) VALUE "PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING-PADDING". PROCEDURE DIVISION. MAIN-ENTRY. PERFORM INITIAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU INITIAL-NONSENSE-EXIT VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 3. PERFORM MIDDLE-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU MIDDLE-NONSENSE-EXIT VARYING JIGGLE-INDEX FROM 5 BY 2 UNTIL JIGGLE-INDEX > 15. PERFORM FINAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE THRU FINAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. GOBACK. *> program ends without doing any observable work at all here INITIAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. MOVE "A" TO POINTLESS-FLAG MOVE "B" TO IRRELEVANT-SWITCH ADD 7 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 3 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX MULTIPLY WOBBLE-COUNTER BY 2 GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER DIVIDE JIGGLE-INDEX BY 2 GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX REMAINDER WOBBLE-COUNTER IF POINTLESS-FLAG = "Z" MOVE "THIS-WILL-NEVER-HAPPEN-ALPHA" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT ELSE MOVE "THIS-WILL-ALSO-NOT-MATTER-BRAVO" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT END-IF MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-ONE" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-TWO" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "UNSEEN-STRING-THREE" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE MOVE "COMPLETELY-IGNORED-RESULT-ALPHA" TO BLATHER-REDEF GO TO INITIAL-NONSENSE-CONTINUE. INITIAL-NONSENSE-CONTINUE. IF IRRELEVANT-SWITCH = "Q" PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-ONE ELSE PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-TWO END-IF PERFORM USELESS-BRANCH-THREE MOVE 999 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER MOVE -123 TO JIGGLE-INDEX MOVE "ZZZZ" TO UNUSED-CODE(3) MOVE "NEVER-READ-TEXT-HERE-ALPHA" TO UNUSED-DATA(3) MOVE "NEVER-READ-TEXT-HERE-BRAVO" TO UNUSED-DATA(7). INITIAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-ONE. MOVE "PATH-ONE-NEVER-TAKEN" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 111 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 222 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-TWO. MOVE "PATH-TWO-ALSO-UNUSED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 333 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 444 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. USELESS-BRANCH-THREE. MOVE "THIRD-PATH-POINTLESS-ALSO" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ADD 555 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 666 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. MIDDLE-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. PERFORM VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 1 BY 1 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 5 MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-ALPHA" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-BRAVO" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-CHARLIE" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "MID-LOOP-FIELD-DELTA" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE END-PERFORM PERFORM NESTED-MIDDLE-NONSENSE THRU NESTED-MIDDLE-EXIT VARYING JIGGLE-INDEX FROM 2 BY 3 UNTIL JIGGLE-INDEX > 20 END-PERFORM. MIDDLE-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. NESTED-MIDDLE-NONSENSE. MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-ONE" TO UNUSED-DATA(1) MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-TWO" TO UNUSED-DATA(2) MOVE "NESTED-UNUSED-TEXT-THREE" TO UNUSED-DATA(4) COMPUTE UNALIGNED-NUMBER = (WOBBLE-COUNTER * 1.234) + (JIGGLE-INDEX / 9.876) IF UNALIGNED-NUMBER > 999999.999 MOVE "HUGE-NUMBER-IGNORED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD ELSE MOVE "SMALL-NUMBER-IGNORED" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD END-IF GO TO NESTED-MIDDLE-CONTINUE. NESTED-MIDDLE-CONTINUE. ADD 1 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 1 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX EXIT. NESTED-MIDDLE-EXIT. EXIT. FINAL-NONSENSE-ROUTINE. MOVE "FINAL-TEXT-NOT-OUTPUT" TO MEANINGLESS-TEXT MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-ALPHA" TO BLATHER-ALPHA MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-BRAVO" TO BLATHER-BRAVO MOVE "LAST-MOMENT-DATA-CHARLIE" TO BLATHER-CHARLIE PERFORM FINAL-NONSENSE-LOOP VARYING WOBBLE-COUNTER FROM 3 BY 3 UNTIL WOBBLE-COUNTER > 30 END-PERFORM CONTINUE. FINAL-NONSENSE-EXIT. EXIT. FINAL-NONSENSE-LOOP. ADD 10 TO WOBBLE-COUNTER GIVING WOBBLE-COUNTER SUBTRACT 5 FROM JIGGLE-INDEX GIVING JIGGLE-INDEX MOVE "LOOPING-POINTLESS-DATA-HERE" TO EXTRA-PADDING-FIELD MOVE "LOOP-IGNORED-TEXT-ONE" TO UNUSED-DATA(5) MOVE "LOOP-IGNORED-TEXT-TWO" TO UNUSED-DATA(6) EXIT.

Programming • Posted August 2025

I put a script like this in every project so I never have to remember any CLI syntax.

Are we talking about Golang? No. Just a bash script I call 'go'. There are a million ways to do something similar, but I've been using this template for well over a decade and it does the thing it needs to do.

In every project sits a file called 'go.sh'. So I can open a terminal in any project folder, type 'go' and it gives me a list of everything I may want to do.

Common commands are builds, watchers, job queues and deployments but sometimes weirder stuff like opening a API doc website for an API that I only use in that project. Larger projects can have dozens of commands.

A basic one looks like this:

#!/bin/bash
PS3='Please enter your choice: '
options=(
    "Run App"
    "Asset Watcher"
    "Deploy"
    "Bail"
)
select opt in "${options[@]}"
do
    case $opt in
        "Run App")
            npm run dev
            npm start
            break
            ;;
        "Asset Watcher")
            npm run dev
            break
            ;;
        "Deploy")
            asset_compile --env=p
            deploy_command
            break
            ;;
        "Bail")
            break
            ;;
        *) echo "invalid option $REPLY";;
    esac
done

Let it grow. Let it have sub-menus. Let it take away the stress of having to remember what commands do what in each project.

It's a programming polyglot lifesaver.

And so you just have to type 'go' in the terminal, you just add an alias in .zprofile:

alias go="sh go.sh"

This is handy for any project, but particularly useful if you have a lot of projects in different languages and you're always switching back and forth.