"Xterm"-inate steam [suggestion]

[Leios]

Maybe "'Xterm'-ify" would have been a more appropriate word. Regardless, I have been thinking that the terminal steam command is rather drab. It works, I suppose, but it is not linux-y enough for me. I would love to see more qualifiers added to the command to allow for snappier play. So, why not "Xterm"-inate Steam (make steam more terminal-friendly)?

Commands could include:
steam - opens general steam UI, as it does now

possible qualifiers:
[game] - plays the game on the current X server
-X [game] - plays game in new X server
-W [game] - runs the game using WINE (obviously configured by the player)
-S [genre/title name] - searches for and lists all games with the qualifications in terminal
-Sd [forum search] - opens the steam client after searching the steam discussion board
-I game] - Installs the game on your particular system
-P [game] - purchases the game with the settings you set online
-U - updates steam client
-B - opens steam in "Big Picture" mode

possible appendages:
--nocommunity - does not sign into Friends or start the steam community in game


Example terminal commands:

steam -X "Amnesia: the Dark Descent" --nocommunity
Plays Amnesia in another X-server without Friends or the steam community active

steam -S "action"
Searches for every game with "action" in it's title or description and lists them
This should be similar to "yaourt" in Arch

steam -SPI "puzzle"
Searches for "puzzle" games.
Purchases and installs the game after you have made your selection.

Some of these options may allow the linux community to squeeze out a few fps here and there while also customizing our gameplay a little. I am not at all discontent with what we have, but this might help linux users in the future. I was also thinking that the ability to play games in another X-server or whith a WINE extention might be useful (though the WINE extension may not be as necessary).

What are your thoughts?

[Tea]

Steam already does much of this. It has a Big Picture launch flag and you can use the Steam binary to launch games based on AppIDs.

Also, we need to stop talking about using Wine on Steam. Steam's job is to deliver your game, not make it work. If a publisher wants to support a game on Linux with Wine, then they can (Witcher for Mac does this), but Steam's job is not to facilitate your Wine usage, it just wants to put the game on your hard drive.

[Leios]

Originally posted by Tea:

Steam already does much of this. It has a Big Picture launch flag and you can use the Steam binary to launch games based on AppIDs.

Also, we need to stop talking about using Wine on Steam. Steam's job is to deliver your game, not make it work. If a publisher wants to support a game on Linux with Wine, then they can (Witcher for Mac does this), but Steam's job is not to facilitate your Wine usage, it just wants to put the game on your hard drive.

Ah, see. I didn't know you could already launch steam games directly from the terminal (without the UI), and I figure we can run it in another X-server from there. I still would like a search function directly from the terminal too. I don't really like pulling up any UI unless absolutely necessary. I figured that a lot of linux users would agree with this sentiment. Also, As noted above, the -W flag would use the wine configured by the player. Honestly, I think that the extension is actually a little counter-intuitive, but for the transitioning months (or years), it would be a nice feature.

Also, "man steam" is not providing any of the info necessary to pull up a game alone without the UI. I'll give it a shot in a second and mess around with it a bit. Part of the purpose of the suggestion was to streamline the steam command so it could be more accessible to linux users.