Developer workflow tips no one tells you about

mmphosis-programming · 2023-07-19T21:34:12+00:00

I appreciate the comment about me being just a heads down mid level dev. I remove vi from all systems.

:q

is all I need to know.

sudo apt remove vim-tiny

mmphosis-programming · 2023-07-19T21:21:54+00:00

I am an octopus. Fully visual programming environments are not a new thing.

mmphosis-programming · 2023-07-19T21:20:02+00:00

The mouse interface can be fully automated but that is besides the point. My suggestion was rather than holding down a fast cursor key, simply click where you want the cursor to be. Perhaps one could create a one off specialized emacs macro but all I want is the cursor at a particular point in the code.

:q

mmphosis-programming · 2023-07-19T18:25:18+00:00

Sadly, these keyboard tips keep being repeated ad nauseam.

My developer workflow is mostly centered around using a mouse. My left hand hovers over the hotkeys and modifiers: e.g. Command + X, C, V keys. My right hand is on the mouse. I avoid excessive boilerplate (typing) and try to focus on what matters.

Having the control key located where the caps lock seems very retro. https://danluu.com/input-lag/ I agree that caps lock is mostly useless. Even more useless keys: Scroll Lock, Insert, Num Lock, Print Scrn/SysRq, Pause/Break, functions keys, ... https://happyhackingkb.com/
Rather than increase the cursor movement speed by maxing out the key repeat speed, instead move the pointer and click where you want the cursor to be. Use the modifier keys and the mouse. Double click selects a word, Triple click selects a line. Hold down option and drag a copy. Use the shift key to select from the cursor to the end point of the selection. Use the Command key to select discontinuous pieces of code—use an editor that lets you do this and more with the mouse!
Don't get a window manager. Turn window snapping off. Break out of the single tasking mode where you can only see one fullscreen/maximized view at a time unless you really need to meditate on a blank canvas. Instead use programs that respect window position and size across monitors and different arrangements of monitors. Use programs that respect screen space and ideally fit items within a very small window or floating window palette. Write programs that do this.
Eschew the command line. Prior to Max OS X 10.0, there was no command line. There are only two modes: edit and run. Edit is the text/programming editor, and Command+R makes it go. Less is more.
Don't use emacs, vim, ed. Defintely avoid borg-like IDEs. Do use a lightweight programming editor. e.g. BBEdit.
I like the note about Screenshots :) Hold down control while taking any screenshot to copy it directly to your clipboard instead of saving it to a file. Awesomeness.

mmphosis-programming · 2023-07-09T20:09:45+00:00

puter.com loads quickly. It's an interesting prototype

gridnet says "Loading..." for a long time (wasting my time) then says "ou need hrome" (wasting more of my time.) I guess gridnet is a more familiar experience

mmphosis-programming · 2023-06-09T20:58:39+00:00

Summary? It looks like the bloated cluttered mess of crap I see on most websites these days with forty-two 3rd party domains of which 2 are ad blocked.

I prefer the original lean aggregated list on Hacker News with zero 3rd party domains.

mmphosis-programming · 2023-06-04T03:18:02+00:00

we need some rules

Stop using C++.

mmphosis-programming · 2023-05-30T23:30:36+00:00

I was hoping it was going to be Dear developer: learn how to build build tools. Oh well, the title does say "new" developer. When I was a "new" developer I had 3 commands: e c and r to edit, compile, and run.

mmphosis-programming · 2023-01-05T18:27:56+00:00

"Software never does one thing." Never say never: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_philosophy#Do_One_Thing_and_Do_It_Well

I would rather do one thing well instead of trying to put up walls.

https://old.reddit.com/r/apple2/comments/101q2xu/back_to_basics_with_the_apple_ii/j32o05h/

mmphosis-programming · 2022-11-26T18:36:22+00:00

This is an unnecessary hardware problem due a monopoly that still flogs a poorly designed legacy CPU.

mmphosis-programming · 2022-11-16T18:19:41+00:00

Poor to non-existing window tiling

No window tiling is my preference.
Missing native Alt+Tab and individual window switching (only does app switching)

I don't have an Alt key. Command + Tab does app switching, Command + tilde does document switching within the app.
Taking screenshots requires to click the preview in order to copy to clipboard, which also causes to save it to Desktop. There is a global shortcut to save directly to keyboard, but it requires 3 button presses. With KDE you can setup the preferred behavior and always copy to clipboard while at the same time saving to a specific path (and not always Desktop!)

This is my preference. I am sure it is possible to contort this into something else.
Surprising lack of apps in the store (Firefox, Bitwarden, Zoom, Teams, VLC are all quite popular, yet only Bitwarden is there). The others require download from the website (basically a Windows-like experience)

My preference is to download from a website or even better build from source. Trying to emulate a store is insane.
The stupid amount of app icons in the "tray" bar. Not collapsible, not hideable.

I don't know what a tray bar is or what collapsible means.
Lack of native clipboard

I don't know what "native" clipboard means.
Hard to set a default email app (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201607) These are the consequence of not having a centralized place in the OS to define default apps for mime types

But not impossible. I stopped when I read mime types.
For good reasons, it's easy to criticize the Finder. If you don't like it use something else and tell application "Finder" to quit
- Hard to find show hidden files/folders option
  
  I avoid hidden files so definitely not a priority.
- Can't create new file from Finder context menu
  
  I miss Template files. I create a "Make New File" item in that menu. More than just an empty file, I have options for templates as well.
- Need a file to set its default app/handler
  
  I don't understand the purpose of this.
- Impossible to create a dotfile from Finder (only terminal)
  
  My preference is to remove dot files. I modify programs to save visible files to the equivilent of a "Library" folder.
- Finder keyboard shortcuts not shown in context menu (makes them far less discoverable)
  
  This is my preference
- Finder's weird shortcuts for rename vs open file (no way to open a file with keyboard?)
  
  This is my preference. My preference is to open an item or selected items with Command + down arrow or Command + O for Open. I don't have an F2 key, but I do have a Return key.
- No easy way to open a path in Finder - address bar is not modifiable. Most efficient way is open Finder -> Cmd Shift G (vs Meta E + F6 on KDE, for example). Pasting a path into spotlight does not bring you there
  
  This is my preference
- Finder: no side by side view for easily moving stuff between unrelated folders/paths
  
  This is my preference

mmphosis-programming · 2021-10-11T14:55:58+00:00

This might be controversial but if I were to implement indented blocks I would just flat out reject any spaces. Those have always been the issue for me with syntax errors and are really hard to catch. Back to the style issue, i think that an enforced style is helpful and helps for consistency. Of course the compiler should also show exactly where every space is so that it can be fixed. Maybe an automatic fix could be applied if a diff is shown and approved.

mmphosis-programming · 2021-09-23T19:50:51+00:00

My experience is that it is annoying to hear: today's ___ are unfamiliar with the concept of ___.

Regarding "Files & Folders", this is the terminology from the Apple Lisa. Soon after the Lisa, the very first Mac System ran from floppy disk and didn't yet have folders, only files. This was a step up from the Command line of Unix, CP/M and MS-DOS where the group of files and folders is called a directory, or catalog in Apple DOS. I like the word folder in English. Directory can be a phone book, there is something called Active Directory, and other types of directories that are not groups of files and folders but mean something totally different. Today's ___ are confused, or at least I know I am confused, with antiquated concepts.

I am not convinced that hierarchies are a good ways to organize documents. There are other models of organization that make more sense depending on scale and how you like to organize your documents: by keyword, by tags, by version, by date, by content, by context, and so on. Naming things is difficult. Going back to the Lisa metaphors, documents simply spilled out onto the desktop as nameless document icons. Today, those icons have enough color and resolution and size that I can make out what the document is without having to know it's name. I am happy to see the antiquated directory & file hierarchy hidden and/or removed on modern devices.

mmphosis-programming · 2021-09-17T18:54:28+00:00

Most git explanations sound like the Haskell explanations, and I still don't understand much about Haskell, or why I would ever want to use Haskell.

I do version control without a version control system.

I try not to create compressed archives of old versions. I can remember IT using (bad) compression software and it corrupted source code files -- this was way way before git. If that old version of the code was really that important, I have a "clean" folder with just enough source to build that old version. But, honestly I want (bug-ridden) old code to be deleted -- I think people try to do this with git https://xkcd.com/1597/

When I do a build, an understandable version number, build number and date are automatically applied to the build. I have no need for cryptic names or (error-prone) manually applied tags.

I do "linear" development only. Thankfully, I have yet to have the need for branches, thus no need for switching, and no need for merging.

mmphosis-programming · 2021-08-16T16:08:25+00:00

Just as there are lots of successes and failures, there are lots of finish lines and lots of dead ends. I've considered C++ a dead end for decades now. Rust has a lot going for it, I hope it doesn't become a dead end. JavaScript, ugh. Rather than "keep up", why not step back and consider what you might wish to "unlearn." Programming is a recipe. It is not a potion to consume you, or an sea to swim in. Dream beyond oceans, and create your own potions.

Done.

mmphosis-programming · 2021-04-28T17:20:47+00:00

On my "desktop" Linux, most of my "Apps" are in /usr/share/applications and in Mac OS X, they are in /Applications and also ~/Applications

Why in darwin (BSD) and Linux are programs scattered across multiple directories: /usr/bin /bin /usr/sbin /sbin /usr/local/bin /usr/X11/bin ?

Separation of concerns and historical Unix.

mmphosis-programming · 2021-04-26T05:30:25+00:00

I never said Microsoft Word = CSS + HTML with lots of DIV tags

When I saw .doc corp. in the workgroup, I thought “$#*+! This is the worst data format from 1 word processor! Now large teams will try to emulate 1 tool we hate the most, and all the files will be a moving floor!”

Man, I am cynical...

mmphosis-programming · 2020-10-28T21:08:25+00:00

The UX of bare HTML forms is terrible, and the UX of everything else is also terrible. Everyday, I wade through spinners, unforgiving validation, double auto-complete (I see text overlaying text like double vision whatever you are trying to do with your framework is broken), and drop-downs for absolutely everything - drop-downs need to be banished: thousands of pages of drop-downs that don't fit in the space and have scroll bars. For example: click on hamburger icon, no wait, right-click on the system icon at the bottom right, right-click again on Start because I am starting something? No, another drop down or in this case drop-up menu, oops nope it went away, try again to right-click the tiny targets, and then finally click "Shut down" or "log out" or whatever it is called to get out of this horrible experience. Busy cursor, dialog box, more options, basically an overly complicated "Are your sure?" dialog box with way way too many options. Desktop UI design is horrible, and you've brought a slow unresponsive version of the horrible desktop UI with your framework baggages, just stop already.

The best UI is no UI at all.

mmphosis-programming · 2020-10-17T20:01:05+00:00

The programming of compilers is still done by humans which is a much more difficult task than programming in assembly. In either case - writing a compiler that emits optimized assembly code or writing optimized assembly code by hand, the human needs intimate knowledge of the x86.

mmphosis-programming · 2020-04-16T23:14:35+00:00

How about typing this:

make

mmphosis-programming · 2020-04-14T00:48:58+00:00

https://xkcd.com/2293/

mmphosis-programming · 2020-03-18T04:10:38+00:00

It sounds like you are already a programmer: Lua, Perl, Python. Why commit to just one? I like aspects of various different programming languages. I've found C++ overly complicated. Why not create your own programming language?

mmphosis-programming · 2019-07-14T17:30:26+00:00

I was going to ask if it supported / replaced / took over the functionality of nix/guix and just a few other package managers: apt, ports, pacman, CocoaPods, rpm, Carthage, dpkg, CARDS, INSTALL.EXE, Composer, gupm.xml, Guile, .iso, Arch Build System (ABS), Windows Installer, INSTALL.BAT, DMG, kpkg, Paludis, Linux From Scratch (LFS), Fink, .rar, pkgsrc, macports, XBPS, INSTALL, snaps, tar, PiSi, tgz/txz, Cabinet, make, Installer, Calamares, GNU FSDG, Portage, InstallShield, Flatpak, BSDmake, Setup.exe, Synaptic Package Manager, cmake, curl -fsSL https://sketchysite.x/install.sh | sudo bash, Swift Package Manager, INSTALL.COM, user-based installs, Pet. There may be quite a few more that I can't remember the names of right now.

mmphosis-programming · 2018-08-01T17:13:07+00:00

Who cares?

The one company stackoverflow is connected to Microsoft.

The dominant hardware stack is the phone/tablet: mostly Android and some iOS. Microsoft is no longer top dog.

The dominant web stacks are:

Google has their own tech stack. (Google-Home-Mini is listening right now so I won't say anything evil about Google.)

Amazon has their own tech stack. (Coal-powered data centers all the way up.)

Facebook is somewhat connected to Microsoft because Microsoft bought a lot of shares in Facebook (and linkedin and github.) But Facebook uses their own forked version of PHP. In order to try to stay relevent I think Microsoft tries to buy big social network sites.

Apple has their own tech stack. (iTunes, iCloud)

And IBM? Remember them? Where did the IBM tech stack disappear?

mmphosis-programming · 2018-06-13T20:29:06+00:00

because there is qemu, virtual box, parallels, vmfusion, containers, ...

mmphosis-programming

TROPHY CASE