How to use the command 'alex' (with examples)

The ‘alex’ command is a tool that helps identify insensitive, inconsiderate writing in text by detecting phrases that are gender favoring, polarizing, race-related, religion inconsiderate, or otherwise unequal. It is particularly useful for writers who want to ensure their content is inclusive and respectful.

Use case 1: Analyze text from stdin

Code:

echo His network looks good | alex --stdin

Motivation: This use case is helpful when you have a specific text or sentence that you would like to analyze using the ‘alex’ command. By piping the text through echo, you can immediately check if the sentence contains any insensitive or inconsiderate writing.

Explanation:

• echo His network looks good sends the text “His network looks good” to the standard output.
• | is a pipe operator that redirects the standard output of the preceding command to the standard input of the following command.
• alex --stdin analyzes the text received from the standard input using the ‘alex’ command.

Example output:

No issues found!

Use case 2: Analyze all files in the current directory

Code:

alex

Motivation: If you have multiple files in a directory and you want to analyze all of them at once, this use case is convenient. It allows you to quickly check the content of all the files in the current directory for any insensitive or inconsiderate writing.

Explanation:

• alex is the command itself.
• Without providing any specific file as an argument, ‘alex’ will analyze all the files in the current directory.

Example output:

path/to/file1.md
- Line 3: "Chairman" may be insensitive, use "Chair" instead.
- Line 8: "Fireman" may be gender favoring, use "Firefighter" instead.

path/to/file2.md
- Line 5: "Master/slave" may be polarizing, use "Primary/replica" instead.

Use case 3: Analyze a specific file

Code:

alex path/to/file.md

Motivation: Sometimes, you may want to analyze a specific file rather than all the files in a directory. This use case allows you to provide the file path as an argument and analyze only that particular file.

Explanation:

• alex is the command itself.
• path/to/file.md is the specific file you want to analyze.
• By specifying the file path, ‘alex’ will analyze only that file.

Example output:

path/to/file.md
- Line 3: "Chairman" may be insensitive, use "Chair" instead.
- Line 8: "Fireman" may be gender favoring, use "Firefighter" instead.

Use case 4: Analyze all Markdown files except example.md

Code:

alex *.md !example.md

Motivation: In some cases, you may want to analyze all Markdown files in a directory but exclude certain files from the analysis. This use case allows you to use wildcard characters to specify the files you want to analyze while excluding the ones you don’t.

Explanation:

• alex is the command itself.
• *.md is a wildcard pattern that matches all files with the “.md” extension.
• !example.md is used to exclude the file “example.md” from the analysis.

Example output:

path/to/file1.md
- Line 3: "Chairman" may be insensitive, use "Chair" instead.
- Line 8: "Fireman" may be gender favoring, use "Firefighter" instead.

path/to/file2.md
- Line 5: "Master/slave" may be polarizing, use "Primary/replica" instead.

Conclusion:

The ‘alex’ command is a powerful tool for identifying insensitive, inconsiderate writing. By using different use cases, you can analyze specific text, all files in a directory, specific files, or a selection of files with exclusions. This allows you to ensure your writing is inclusive, respectful, and free from any unintentional bias.