dir

dir for Node.js

You ever used Firebug? You know the awesome dir function its console has? Well, this is like that, but for Node.

That means you get real object inspection that goes up the prototype chain, not the pansy-ass, weak-sauce "inspection" Node's util.inspect gives you. And it actually returns an object instead of a string, so you don't have to tediously and explicitly console.log it in the shell to unescape characters. And best of all, since it returns a real object, the output is just as nicely colored and formatted as the native shell.

Btw, it turns out Node already has a console.dir, but, uh... it doesn't seem any different than console.log! So this monkey-patches it to no longer suck.

With dir in hand, you're ready to kick some console ass. Go forth and enjoy!

Installation

npm install dir

Usage

dir() probably won't be terribly useful from within an app or file (though feel free to let me know if I'm wrong!), but it's super convenient and useful from within the shell (AKA interactive-mode).

Before:

$ node
> console.dir(Function.prototype)
[Function: Empty]

After:

$ node
> require('dir')
[Function: dir]
> console.dir(Function.prototype)
{ bind: [Function: bind],
  arguments: null,
  toString: [Function: toString],
  length: 0,
  call: [Function: call],
  name: 'Empty',
  apply: [Function: apply],
  caller: null,
  constructor: [Function: Function],
  '[prototype]': 
   { toString: [Function: toString],
     __lookupGetter__: [Function: __lookupGetter__],
     __defineGetter__: [Function: __defineGetter__],
     toLocaleString: [Function: toLocaleString],
     hasOwnProperty: [Function: hasOwnProperty],
     valueOf: [Function: valueOf],
     __defineSetter__: [Function: __defineSetter__],
     constructor: [Function: Object],
     propertyIsEnumerable: [Function: propertyIsEnumerable],
     isPrototypeOf: [Function: isPrototypeOf],
     __lookupSetter__: [Function: __lookupSetter__] } }

That's the briefest example I could come up with. Some kick-ass-ier examples to experience first-hand:

> var dir = require('dir')
> dir("hello")
> dir([1, 2, 3])
> dir(4.56)
> dir(/regexp/)
> dir(new Date())

The two samples above show the two different ways of using dir:

// using the monkey-patched console.dir
> require('dir')
> console.dir(foo)

// or grabbing the returned function
> var dir = require('dir')
> dir(foo)

I really want to be able to get the best of both worlds:

// no need to save returned function; it's global
> require('dir')
> dir(foo)

But I can't seem to get this to work in the shell. If you have any ideas, let me know or just submit a pull request!

Next steps

None so far! Ideas, bug reports, praise, patches all welcome. =) Enjoy!