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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?

#331

Post by _zllx »

TeddyDD wrote: post #308

Kakoune: multiple selections, interactivity and powerful editing primitives makes text editing a breeze. https://kakoune.org/

There's a VS Code plugin for Kakoune-like editing called Dance. I was looking for a quick way to put multiple cursors over a given word in VSCodeVim; Kakoune (and therefore Dance) is more focused on multi-cursor editing and searching which made it possible for me to do that. Dance is also a much lighter layer over VS Code's built-in commands, making it easier to write custom keybinds and have better compatibility with other extensions.

https://github.com/71/dance

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

#332

Post by sokoloff »

jakear wrote: post #199
greggman3 wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Curious, what do you think of multi-cursor as a replacement for macros? (I’m on the team)

As an emacs user, I view multi-cursor as suitable for only a subset of macro usage. Macros are inspectable, editable, savable, able to be applied across files, easily used a variable N times.

My typical pattern is something like: define it, try it, adjust it, then apply variable times (including “infinite until error”), maybe save 1% of them. That often takes less time to do than it just took me to describe.

I use macros probably 25x for every one time I reach for multi-cursors, though to be fair, if I came the other way, I’d probably use multi-cursor more often than currently. (I used macros for 30 years before getting multi-cursors, so if both can do the job, I’ll use a macro.)

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

#333

Post by jcelerier »

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.

> - Windows. By not having to configure drivers and other compatibility problems which I have on Linux it definitely saved me 100 hours.

OTOH building on windows takes literally multiple times the time it takes for building the same software on the same machine / SSD on linux. And that's something that I do every day, multiple times per day.

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

#334

Post by iso947 »

perceptronas wrote: post #312
globular-toast wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 anythi…

I’ve been using Ubuntu on desktop and laptop since 2006, and Debian for 6 years before that. Haven’t had hardware problems for over a decade

Wife’s Mac mini sometimes prints, but it can take 20 minutes to go.

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

#336

Post by john4532452 »

Microsfot teams app - While working in office most of my colleges would come to my desk for trivial things if they wanted something but don't know what they want. During discussion they would figure it out what they wanted exactly. Since the corono outbreak everyone is WFH and now if they want something they figure out what exactly they want and then message me. This is a huge time saver. Now i can focus a lot at the problem and respond to the messages async.

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

#338

Post by DanBC »

Endlessly wrote: post #227
pricci wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a time when this worked great. Now I feel like many doesn't work on Google

How so? Sure, it’s true some of the operators come and go, but I assure you some of the most important ones still work fine and Google one a daily base asks me if I am a bot. Happy to answer any questions if there’s something specific you’re having an issue with.

Here's an example that I don't quite understand yet.

[nhs inurl:mcusercontent.com] = 2 hits.

[covid-19 nhs inurl:mcusercontent.com] = 90 hits.

[covid-19 "nhs" inurl:mcusercontent.com] = 90 hits.

I'd expect that first one to include all the second, but it doesn't. I thought maybe the second is ignoring the NHS word, so I wrap it in double quotes to force it to be included and it returns the same results.

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

#339

Post by ethelward »

ikurei wrote: post #300
978e4721a wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Multicurors aren't replacement for macros in the same sense as loops aren't replacement for recursion.

That's snappy but not informative at all. What do you miss in multicursor that macros give you? I also prefer vim's macros to multicursors, but I think it ammounts to nothing more than habit and preference. Macros in Vim are going to be much more powerful, with movement commands and selection commands giving yo a more flexible system... I think? Hard to be objective after so many years of Vim.

> What do you miss in multicursor that macros give you?

Not OP, but to take a recent example (although it was in Emacs, I'm pretty sure it would work in any advanced editor), I had a macro select the second half of the open file and pipe it through sort and uniq to replace it with each unique line and their number of occurences. That's not doable with multi-cursors; their use cases intersect but don't overlap with macros ones.

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

#340

Post by crispinb »

boramalper wrote: post #320
crispinb wrote: post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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. =)

There are a few minor things I prefer about Windows here & there, but power management is the biggest single thing, agreed.

In truth I don't like any current OS - when you add up all the pros and cons, Linux has the best overall balance of attributes for my use. It's far from optimal though. I find the state of OSs in 2020 pretty sad.

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