wikipedia2text - a brief review
Summary
wikipedia2text provides the ability to view wikipedia articles on the command line. This provides opportunities for faster working, as well as scripting of access to wikipedia.
Use case
So, you want to look something up on wikipedia, and you have to move away from your lovely console [ or fire up lynx and browse ]. What?! I don't have to do that to look up the meaning of a word [ see dict ] why should I have to do it if I want more detail.
Enter wikipedia2text. It basically automates the stage of using lynx to find a page, but it's very cool to be able to effortlessly bring up an encyclopedia in the middle of a shell session.
Example syntax
The man page will tell you the details, and is pretty well written, but if you want to dive right in, here is an example.
sj310@laptop:~$ wikipedia2text -Ps bacon Jump to: navigation, search Look up bacon in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. For other uses, see Bacon (disambiguation). An example of uncooked "streaky bacon". An example of uncooked "streaky bacon". Bacon is defined by Peter Klimchuk as as any of certain cuts of meat taken from the sides, belly or back of a pig that may be cured and/or smoked.Meat from other animals may also be cured or otherwise prepared to resemble bacon, such as chicken or turkey bacon. In continental Europe, it is used primarily in cubes (lardons), as a cooking ingredient valued both as a source of fat and for its flavour. In Italy, besides being used in cooking, bacon (pancetta) is also served uncooked and thinly sliced as part of an antipasto. Bacon is also used for barding and larding roasts, especially game birds. Many people prefer to have sj310@laptop:~$
And if you decide you want to know more, simply remove that -s.
Hints
I find it's nice to have an alias for my normal invocation:
Which yields behaviour like dict or man.
