I don't immediately see the advantages over something like jq from just reading the readme. Maybe include a definitive example of how you would do something in jq and how you would do that same thing better in unq.

I am not so keen on programs having multiple names, especially if one is unpronounceable. I would definitely lean into one of unq, unquery, or ~q. My recommendation is unq because it is short to type and already what you seem to have chosen as the name for the executable. I highly recommend dropping the ~q branding completely. In windows ~ denotes a hidden file so it might be hidden queue.

In unix (both mac and linux) ~ denotes the "home" directory /home/<user>/ leading to the idea of "home q". This could also lead to a lot of confusion when trying to run a command such as ~q -f ~/query.unq ~/mydata.json.

In arithmetic ~ can mean "about" or "close to".

And in some Logical expressions, which I think is close to the way you want it to be used, it means not. But even in that context I would still feel compelled to pronounce it not queue.

I am not sure if you are also the developer of xcitedb but if you are I would definitely recommend having a link to click for people interested in the DB from the marketing page (https://xcitedb.com/). If it is an open source database then a link to the github page, if it is a closed source database then a link to contact sales.

Also the marking page (https://xcitedb.com/) references the Q!query language. Which is maybe this ~q language? If so then I recommend unifying the branding of this as well.

That said, other then being a programmer, I am not your target audience so take everything I said with a grain of salt.

Thank you for your thoughtful comments!

The name has gone through several changes. I started with Q!, and then changed it to not-Q (similar to NoSQL), but since !Q looks confusing, I settled with ~Q, which looks better typographically. ~Q/Unquery is the language (used both in XCiteDB and unq), and unq is the name of the command-line tool. If enough people don't like the ~Q name, I may be convinced to drop it :-)

I got another request for examples comparing unquery and jq syntax. That's definitely something I'm going to work on.

And finally, I'm in the process of revamping the XCiteDB website and replacing it with a much better website with more technical content and links.

Minor comments regarding the name (as I can't really comment on the rest :-D)

> ~Q

I read that as: "more-or-less Q"/"almost Q"/"approximately Q", but that might be due to my math classes from 25 years ago.

~ is not particularly handy to type on non-US keyboards (using ALT+126 here on Windows, or: AltGr+4, then spacebar... and this is on a keyboard with "Ñ"). It might hinder a bit the ability to search for ~Q.

"unQ" is less ambiguous, at least for me (and my poorly self-taught "English" :-D).

I've been so fed up with jq's annoying syntax that I began thinking about developing something that can perform json operations in familiar syntax such as javascript but I ran into fx (https://github.com/antonmedv/fx) and it's been pretty great actually.

I also created jello, which is like jq but uses python syntax.

https://github.com/kellyjonbrazil/jello

Thank you both. Following your feedback, and after additional discussions with many people, I've decided to drop the "~Q" abbreviation, and just go with "Unquery".

The documentation, and any future reference to the language, would reflect this change.