5 of the Coolest Homebrew Tricks and Packages

If you are a developer on macOS, then you probably have Homebrew installed already. If not, check out the guide here to install it.

Here is a list of the top 5 coolest Homebrew tricks that just brighten up a developer’s day with humour or the sheer uselessness of them.

1: Cowsay

This is a classic favourite. It’s so simple, yet cool. Essentially, it’s a script that shows a cow – or another animal – saying something.

Installation command:

brew install cowsay

Syntax:

cowsay hi

Replace ‘hi’ with whatever you want to say.

2: Fortune

This is quite a cool one. It’s a simple program that displays a random quote or aphorism.

Installation command:

brew install fortune

Syntax:

fortune

This should pop a random quote or joke into your Terminal to hopefully stir up some laughs or giggles. Essential for the workplace.

3: sl

This one is just the best. It’s hilarious. It stands for ‘steam locomotive’ and was created to make fun of people who regularly type ‘sl’ instead of ‘ls’ as a typo.

Installation command:

brew install sl

Syntax:

sl

This should create a beautiful animation of a steam locomotive on your screen. And no, there isn’t a way to get rid of it until it finishes.

4: cmatrix

This is a program that simulates the Matrix movie’s digital rain effect in the Terminal. Very useful when someone questions your capabilities.

Installation command:

brew install cmatrix

Syntax:

cmatrix

This should create a rain of randomised strings on your screen. To exit, use the holy ⌃c (control+c).

5: figlet

This is a program is similar to cowsay. But instead of using a cow, it displays a large ASCII banner.

Installation command:

brew install figlet

Syntax:

figlet hi

Replace ‘hi’ with whatever you want to say. It’s great for getting your message across visually.

Have fun!

Kind regards,

Oscar 🙂