A command-line Twitter client

Overcoming Limitations

Besides retaining the old character limit, Rainbow Stream has at least two limitations. First, its commands do not include support for emojis. However, Rainbow Stream does support Unicode characters, which include a complete list of emojis [3]. For instance, to enter a basic smiley emoji, you would enter U+1F600. Given that Unicode supports 1,916 emojis, this isn't really a limitation after all.

Second, Rainbow Stream supports only one Twitter account per user. It would be inconvenient to be always deleting and replacing the authorization. However, you could install Boxer and one virtual operating system per account. This may pose a problem if you lack the disk space for virtualization.

What is not a problem – so far as I can tell – is the occasional message that Twitter is overloaded and that you should wait 15 minutes before doing anything. This warning appears to be left over from a streaming problem in earlier versions, since there is no interruption of service.

In the end, Rainbow Stream is a basic Twitter client. Unlike TweetDeck, for instance, it has no provision for scheduling tweets, although programmers might consider adding this feature. Still, its speed and efficiency might make it the Twitter client of choice for any who prefer to work from the command line.

The Author

Bruce Byfield is a computer journalist and a freelance writer and editor specializing in free and open source software. In addition to his writing projects, he also teaches live and e-learning courses. In his spare time, Bruce writes about Northwest coast art (http://brucebyfield.wordpress.com). He is also co-founder of Prentice Pieces, a blog about writing and fantasy at https://prenticepieces.com/.

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