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Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

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Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#181

Post by bogidon »

- keeping all your configuration files (“dotfiles”: shell, git, etc) in one, version controlled place. Makes setting up new machines so much less stressful. Here are mine in case you’re interested, for macOS and Ubuntu: https://github.com/Bogidon/dotfiles

- setting up a personal vpn with a reserved IP if you connect to services that require your IP to be whitelisted and you move often

- for git cli: dashes take you back to your previous location (eg `git checkout -` will take you back to the previous branch). On zsh: `cd -n` will take you to n directories ago

Mac only:

- the Paste clipboard manager has been a most delightful tool, though I don’t know if I’ll ever upgrade to the new subscription version: https://pasteapp.io/

- the workflows feature in Alfred.app as a convenient place to keep utility applescripts / other kinds of little scripts that you want to invoke through global shortcuts or through Alfred

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#182

Post by chadcmulligan »

I use Appcode over Xcode for swift development mainly for one single feature - bookmarks, ctrl-shift-1 to set a bookmark, ctrl-1 takes me to it.Maybe not 100 hours but its a feature I can't live without. I don't know why Xcode doesn't have bookmarks. There's also a plugin for Visual studio which does the same.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#183

Post by DeathArrow »

Code related:

Visual Studio, ReSharper, Notepad++ (I did many tedious tasks with ease just by using regular expressions), Git, generic To Do list software (Microsoft ToDo, Todoist, etc.) - not everything is to be kept in Jira so this kind of software helps with organizing other tasks.

Not code related: Adobe Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop

Web browser is a piece of software that saved me time but also helped me waste a lot of time. So it's not only software that matters but the user, too.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#184

Post by greggman3 »

fbnlsr wrote: post #124
save_ferris wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

+1 for VSCode for its configuration portability plugin, settings sync. It’s never been so easy to sync editor changes across my machines, and I’ve only had 1 dependency issue using it in 4 years. No longer having to maintain my vim config and dependencies has been great.

I believe Settings Sync is going to be included in the next release of VS Code. Yay! The amount of work Microsoft is putting in this editor is amazing. Last month we got file history, that was the last thing I needed to ditch the Git GUI I had installed.

I use vscode but it's missing some basic code features for me. The biggest for me is probably keyboard macros, something that's been a basic feature of editors since at least the 80s. Keyboard macros in other editors has saved me 100s of hours.

https://github.com/microsoft/vscode/issues/4490

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#185

Post by Zecc »

opwieurposiu wrote: post #64

VSCode, and/or Sublime Text have probably saved me a hundred hours I would have spent waiting for Eclipse to start.

And if you need something even lighter, something like a better Notepad is enough. Lightweight text editors are a dime a dozen, but I'm personally a fan of notepad2 / notepad2-mod / notepad3; even if they don't have tabs.

Also shout out to LINQPad, for letting me test quick snippets of C# with better visualization than Visual Studio. It's also a better alternative to Sql Server Management Studio for running SQL.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#187

Post by BossingAround »

node-bayarea wrote: post #156

Node.js -- Can easily build a ton of server side and CLI tools with ease. Saved me a ton of time!

Coming from a Java environment, I can't agree enough... A lot of my fellow devs would think of NodeJS as a replacement for Ruby--inefficient and not production ready.

When I first tried NodeJS, I was hooked... You can build simple CRUD backend APIs within minutes! I'm aware you can do the same with Java, e.g. something like Spring Boot streamlines the process a ton as well, but the feedback loop of just writing a line or two and having a server automatically reload within seconds is amazingly addicting.

I am not sure I would use Node for production... I suspect a lot of the Java world might switch to Go as being much faster yet much safer than something like Node.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#188

Post by mszcz »

dceddia wrote: post #100

The Z command line utility has saved me a ton of time. It remembers the directories you’ve visited and lets you jump to them with just a few characters. Almost like Chrome’s autocomplete for recently-visited directories (if you’re used to being able to type “g” to go to gmail or “n” for “news.ycombinator.com”...). For instance I can run “z B” and it’ll jump to my ~/Business directory (and “z ss” would do the same). h…

Did you mean "(...) almost like _Firefox's_ autocomplete (...)"?

I know this is OT but one of the reasons I've switched is history search that actually works.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#189

Post by xerosanyam »

bogidon wrote: post #181

- keeping all your configuration files (“dotfiles”: shell, git, etc) in one, version controlled place. Makes setting up new machines so much less stressful. Here are mine in case you’re interested, for macOS and Ubuntu: https://github.com/Bogidon/dotfiles - setting up a personal vpn with a reserved IP if you connect to services that require your IP to be whitelisted and you move often - for git cli: dashes take you b…

I use copyclip as my clipboard manager: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/copyclip-clipboard-history/id5... It is free + simple.

Re: Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours?

#190

Post by mszcz »

dorkwood wrote: post #62

Everything[0] by Voidtools as a Windows search replacement. It makes search practically instant. Now that Windows search often fails to turn up even my most used files (what happened to Windows search? Was it intentionally nerfed?), Everything has become a necessity for me. [0]: https://www.voidtools.com/

Seconded. This was recommended by a friend and saved me hours since. The search is near instant, it's flexible, updates in real time. Highly recommend.
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