Bazel. I really like the workflow of how it only selectively runs unit tests.
Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
191–200 of 519 posts
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#192Earlier quoted context omitted.
An excellent list. Regarding functional programming, I recommend starting with a gentle approach that doesn't require picking up a new language: 1. Stop creating counters/loops and become facile with map, reduce, and the like. This will shift your thinking away from blocks and toward functions. 2. Take the time to really understand what side effects are, and start avoiding them everywhere they are not necessary. Keep…
Agreed on gentle approach. I've started using libraries like Ramda for JS, which is especially designed to ease people into functional patterns. I then moved to FP-TS, which makes more heavy use of haskell-like patterns and monads. The hard part isn't the syntax of whatever language, but understanding the new patterns and way of thinking, which you can do with a simulation layer like FP-TS (for typescript/javascript)…
I too have started down the fp router with ramda and ramda-adjunct.
Though other people at my work dislike it due to them not understanding what's going on
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#193- GNU/Linux + i3wm; complete control over my programming environment. - bash + GNU coreutils; seriously, take the time to be able to write helpful bash scripts which can run basically anywhere. - git; use it even when you're not pushing to a remote. Add helpful aliases for everyday commands. Build a good mental model of commits and branches to help you through tough merges. ( my ~/.gitconfig: https://gist.github.com/…
Re: i3wm
I installed it a couple years ago, went whole hog, down the rabbit hole, but realized a couple of things.
1. I rarely ever use anything more than a simple L/R split.
2. When I do use something more complex, it's almost always in the terminal, in which case why not use tmux?
These days I'm back to using gnome because ubuntu switched to it over unity (which had a weird multitouch bug that drove me crazy).
What do you get out of i3 beyond a simple L/R split supported by simpler wms and how often do you use it?
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#194For many of the tools that have improved my productivity, it was not the tool that was the breakthrough but the realization of the tool’s value. For example, version control has existed since the beginning of time practically, and I begrudgingly used RCS, SCCS, VSS, and probably other version control systems for ten or fifteen years until I had that Eureka! moment (coinciding with Git’s release, roughly) that inspired me to actually embrace version control tools. A similar experience happened with automated testing: I’d gotten the testing-is-good bondage and discipline spiel many times, but it wasn’t until I started writing extensive units tests for language parsers that I realized how wonderfully empowering they can be.
That said, along with Git, I’d list Gdb (or LLdb or any real debugger), Emacs keyboard macros, Python’s venv facilities, and Django’s database migrations among the tools that changed my life.
Somewhat consistent with the it’s-not-the-thing-but-the-realization-of-the-thing’s-value theme above, I’d say reading the Practice of Programming back in ‘99 took my programming productivity to a new level, because it made me realize that one of the central tasks of an abstraction builder is creating a language that allows you to express thoughts in terms of that abstraction. Once you’ve done that, you “just” need to implement the language and all of the problems expressible in it become easy, even trivial.
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#195It can sound stupid but I’m newbie so for me:
* Firebase - moving my ideas from local host to online and be able to present this / get feedback. That was/is motivating me to solve more complex problems.
* JS challenges website like coderbyte edabit
* honorable to mention- Hardcore Functional Programming in JavaScript, v2 from front end masters
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#196The Jetbrains suite. Lightens the cognitive load, makes it easier to refactor and keep code tidy. All of which allow me build better software. For almost everything else e.g. git, learning how to use the command line instead of a UI is the best way for me to learn how the tooling works.
Seconded, although to be fair the choice of IDE doesn't really matter as long as it's relatively good. When I moved from vim to Jetbrains, one of the biggest things was seeing all the small errors including spelling mistakes. Being able to easily see and fix minor syntax errors or things like missing variables etc really makes a difference, especially when you are working on a codebase where that was missing for a lo…
The arrival of Language Server Protocol is going to make IDE-like functionality more evenly spread across traditional text editors, "modern" text editors and "IDEs". In Emacs I recommend eglot: https://github.com/joaotavora/eglot
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#197strace.
Even after having learned many programming languages and contributed to various projects, it was only when I started using strace that I felt like truly, efficiently understand what any program does, and can reliably write programs that do things fast.
I believe that "syscall oriented programming" (making your program emit exactly and only the right syscalls) results in clean, understandable software.
Now I use strace every day, as it is often the fastest way to figure out problems with any tool, written in any language, open-source or proprietary.
- Something hangs? strace shows how it's hanging.
- Computer is slow? strace will likely show who's the culprit spamming syscalls.
- "Unexpected error occured"? Bypass programmers doing poor error handling, and witness the underlying "no such file or directory" directly.
Last week I even used strace to debug why my leisure-time computer game wouldn't load a mod, and as usual, strace did the job.
strace helps to really understand computers.
If you want to learn more about strace, check out Brendan Gregg's pages like http://www.brendangregg.com/blog/2014-05-11/strace-wow-much-..., my presentation for an intermediate-level example (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16708392) or my project to build a programmable strace alternative (https://github.com/nh2/hatrace).
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#198Apple II, TRS-80. Quake engine. Haskell, F#, Rust. Type theory, domain and test driven design. Philosophy, economy. Linux. Physics engines, PyTorch, GStreamer. Twitter.
Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?
#199The Jetbrains suite. Lightens the cognitive load, makes it easier to refactor and keep code tidy. All of which allow me build better software. For almost everything else e.g. git, learning how to use the command line instead of a UI is the best way for me to learn how the tooling works.
Just downloaded the GoLand 30 day trail. First impressions are I now remember how slow and stuck in goo java based IDEs feel. What cool stuff should I look at as I am willing to be sold on this.
I don’t notice slowness on it personally. Maybe you are noticing the initial indexing it does. That doesn’t happen often with GoLand.
Make sure you enable Golang modules in the settings also.
Anyways just mentioning some stuff off the top of my head I enjoy:
Debugging is a great experience.
Can find a plugin for most anything, I use the Kubernetes one for syntax completion and documentation. (alt-q I think)
Also you can create .rest files and compose http requests and trigger them right in the files, which I thought was cool.
The documentation pop up by hitting alt-q in general is pretty cool. Don’t have to run over to godoc.
Then most things you’d expect from an advanced ide. Multi line editing... jump to definitions and implementations... Project wide code search and replacement