Ask HN: Programs that saved you 100 hours? • Hacker News Board

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

#311

Post by edanm » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 9:56 AM UTC

dmytroi wrote: post #297

fragmede wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Spotlight is built in, but Alfred’s also a good one.

I was looking for Everything for Mac and tbh I can't say Spotlight is even close. Sure Spotlight works great for apps and files in ~/Documents/, but I find it failing when I'm trying to find some obscure file in /Library/ or with-in Xcode SDK's. Is Alfred good in this sense?

I used to use Alfred for this, but it's not really the same as Everything. I'm not sure why - something about the speed, results or maybe just the interface itself.

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

#312

Post by perceptronas » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:01 AM UTC

globular-toast wrote: post #309

perceptronas wrote: post #269

- Windows. By not having to configure drivers and other compatibility problems which I have on Linux it definitely saved me 100 hours. - Listary (windows) Not sure if its 100 hours, but I love its search in any context of explorer. Default explorer search is terrible IMO. For example when you open file - you can use search there instead of navigating by hand.

Odd. Completely the opposite experience here. Windows requires searching and installation of drivers and configuration via GUI. Linux has drivers built in so just works. I haven't had to install a driver manually since ditching nvidia a year ago. And all my config lives in text files on Github. I'm guessing you haven't tried Linux in 10 years or so, but even then I don't understand how Windows does any better on the…

I had been using Linux on desktop up until 2019~ for many years. I have never had hardware (desktop or laptop) which worked flawlessly with Linux. I even bought parts in my current machine to be compatible with Linux, but even then it did not run smoothly. Maybe I am just unlucky. However, with Winodws it does feel great to have everything run smoothly. Zero hiccups with bluetooth, games, hardware lightning or anything else. WSL2 and VMs cover the rest.

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

#313

Post by mister_hn » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:02 AM UTC

Docker. Just throwing aways entire environments and recreate them in a bunch of seconds is something really worth it

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

#314

Post by ybahubali2018 » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:02 AM UTC

Create React App saved me about 100 hours

https://create-react-app.dev

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

#315

Post by input_sh » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:03 AM UTC

caleblloyd wrote: post #213

nsomaru wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder what OS and stack you are programming that an OS update can break your dev env?

I use Ubuntu as my daily driver and apt packages are updated when upgrading versions. For example moving from 14.04 to 16.04 with `do-release-upgrade` made the default PHP version move from php5 to php7.

To be fair, 14.04 to 16.04 is two years worth of upgrade.

Skipping from one LTS to another should probably include some breakage.

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

#316

Post by john4532452 » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:04 AM UTC

ynac wrote: post #38

wmichelin wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Would you be open to sharing more about your workflow? 1000% increase in productivity is a bold statement!

Heh...maybe less bold if you could have seen how terrible my productivity was before! But sure, I'm happy to share. It's now next up on the article hopper. To be shared here and on my blog / gopher site soon.

Me too . please do share

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

#317

Post by capableweb » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:06 AM UTC

vim + vim-fireplace + only work on clojure/script projects. A real-time interactive development environment is hard to beat and after 10 years of experience programming and only around 1 year programming clojure/script, I have never before been this productive and carried the same confidence in my code.

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

#318

Post by glaberficken » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

Microsoft Windows Script Host (WSH) has saved me and my teams over the last 2 decades probably hundreds of hours. It has allowed me to deploy small VBScript and JScript scripts that automate day to day repetitive tasks in the office without worrying about installing runtimes/dependencies etc. You write it once and it just works for everyone (provided you work in the typical MS only office space, which I'm aware many here don't). Security is obviously a concern as the tech is quite legacy these days.

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

#319

Post by lloeki » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:08 AM UTC

lloeki wrote: post #214

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…

I prefer my own kd, which is 40 dead simple LOCs of shell and is predictable since it operates only on dirs you added (which sounds like a chore but is just fine in practice) kd foo $PWD # stores as foo kd f # jumps to foo kd # in a Ruby project subdir, jumps up to where the Gemfile is https://github.com/lloeki/dotfiles/blob/master/shell/kd

Just updated kd with a long-time feature I wanted: tty detection!

   kd f             # => jumps to foo
   echo $(kd f)     # => outputs foo's path
   # some creative, if nonsensical, examples:
   cp some/file $(kd foo)/app/controllers/whatevs
   cp $(kd bar)/Gemfile $(kd foo)/Gemfile
   kd foo && cd app/controllers && cp $(kd)/config/whatever .

This is useful and possible because kd's output is stable and predictable: it always returns the last prefix match of the kdrc file (or, without argument, the project's top-level dir), and it returns non-zero rc on failure. Plus zsh will even gladly expand the result on for double checking.

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

#320

Post by boramalper » Mon, Apr 13, 2020, 10:08 AM UTC

crispinb wrote: post #299

boramalper wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess depends on your use-case but I find Ubuntu vastly superior for development. Perhaps it’s just habitual. :)

Well so do I (also mainly an Ubuntu user these days), but that can be orthogonal to time spent. I prefer it to Windows, which I used f/t for nearly a year after ditching macOS. I prefer the single file system (as opposed to the wsl/native Windows mishmash). I enjoy its speed (mostly filesystem related I think). I find the desktop (Gnome in my case) simpler yet more flexible at the same time (PaperWM ftw). But there's…

I have spent a considerable amount of time on Windows turning certain features off, removing some bloatware, and setting up my dev environment so Ubuntu doesn't feel any worse.

The only upside of Windows, and definitely a major one, is power management. On Ubuntu, my battery lasts around 2.5h with moderate use whereas on Windows, it's around 3-4 hours. Yes, I am already using powertop and TLP. =)