Here is the result:

#!/bin/sh
echo -n "twitter> "
read text

while [ ${#text} -gt 140 ]; do

echo
echo "Message too long; used ${#text}/140 characters."
echo
echo -n "twitter> "
read text

done

echo
echo "Message is ${#text}/140 characters.  Press enter to post, or Ctrl+C to cancel."
read

curl --basic --user "username:password" --data-ascii "status=`echo $text|tr ' ' '+'`" "http://twitter.com/statuses/update.json" &> /dev/null


To use the script, copy all of that into a file somewhere in your path, then make the file executable (e.g., chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/twitter).  Now you can type ‘twitter’, type in your tweet, and you’re done!

I even set up fluxbox so that mod4+t launches a terminal with the script running.  To do that, I added this to ~/.fluxbox/keys:


Mod4 t :Exec xterm -e "twitter"


If you’re not familiar with ‘mod4′, it is the Windows key on most PC keyboards.

I’ll eventually get around to writing a slightly more full-featured twitter updater in c or c++.  Until then, enjoy this script!