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Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

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Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#81

Post by thanato0s »

throwaway888abc wrote: post #9
thanato0s wrote: post #2

"I don't want to try i3 or Vim. What's the point using less of the mouse? Such a waste of time!" That was me, 6 years ago. My colleagues were pushing me to try the tools they were already using for years. They are very good developers, so at the end they convinced me to look at them. I had to admit I was wrong. I fell in love with these tools. From there, I built my system step by step, configured it as I wanted, acc…

Looks great and helpful! Will read the sample more over weekend. Just sidenote: You should put some sort of newsletter box there. Send some tips and occasional promotions -> more sales.

Thanks!

I had a newsletter, and my subscribers were super helpful. Seriously, without them, I wouldn't have finish the book. I thought about keeping the newsletter, but I already had one for my blog. So I simply asked them to switch from one newsletter to the other.

I'm not sure it was a wise decision, but maintaining two newsletter, a blog, and a book was a bit too much for me. I'm still thinking launching a newsletter about mouseless tools though, with tips and tricks; maybe later.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#83

Post by serf »

thanato0s wrote: post #2

"I don't want to try i3 or Vim. What's the point using less of the mouse? Such a waste of time!" That was me, 6 years ago. My colleagues were pushing me to try the tools they were already using for years. They are very good developers, so at the end they convinced me to look at them. I had to admit I was wrong. I fell in love with these tools. From there, I built my system step by step, configured it as I wanted, acc…

your explanation as to why the book isn't 'free or open source' is an explanation that you need money to continue the endeavor while living life successfully.

This makes one feel like a broken record, but this compels me to mention that there are major differences between 'gratis' and 'libre'.[0]

Open-source/free and for-profit are not at odds with each other. They describe different ideas.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gratis_versus_libre

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#84

Post by thanato0s »

philipkiely wrote: post #8
thanato0s wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I simplify a bit, I see two different approaches: 1. You write something broad as you say. You present many options to the reader. The book is not practical anymore, because you don't speak about something in particular but some general ideas. As a result, the readers can't really practice with a concrete project, and they might end up lost in an ocean of links. If I wanted to do that, I would have created another…

In my opinion, you're absolutely correct to write a focused, narrow book as that's the only way to stand a chance of addressing a topic completely. The information available on the internet is vast, as authors it is more often our job to surface, connect, and curate a tangle of information to give readers, as you said, practical direction.

Thanks for that. It's reassuring. I've always tried to do exactly that, and my readers were always thankful for this kind of direction, so... I continue :)

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#85

Post by thanato0s »

SatvikBeri wrote: post #50
thanato0s wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I simplify a bit, I see two different approaches: 1. You write something broad as you say. You present many options to the reader. The book is not practical anymore, because you don't speak about something in particular but some general ideas. As a result, the readers can't really practice with a concrete project, and they might end up lost in an ocean of links. If I wanted to do that, I would have created another…

This answer convinced me to buy the book, books like (2) tend to be my favorites. Looking forward to it!

Thanks! I hope you'll like it! If you have any question, feedback, or problem, don't hesitate to write me an email. It's on the page where I sell the book.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#86

Post by logn »

hartator wrote: post #13

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

And IMs, meetings, and just thinking about code. I think it's important to be able to touch type quickly and efficiently use autocomplete because those are directly in the way of transforming your thought into code. But in the times I'm bouncing around with a mouse, it's already coding downtime.

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#87

Post by thanato0s »

ehnto wrote: post #57
brudgers wrote: post #6

For what it's worth, I think there is a lot of space between what you use and what might work for other people. It's not that there is anything wrong with Arch. Rather Ubuntu is probably easier for many people. The general idea here is Linux. Similarly, there are several tiling window managers. A neutral description of the options and links to resources might have broader appeal. Text editors are another place where…

Using i3 with Ubuntu made me realise it doesn't matter all that much for me. CentOS, Ubuntu, Arch, it all looks about the same to my toolset.

I would tend to agree with that, distros are not that different from one another in the grand scheme of things.

But there are still differences; I speak about them at the beginning of the book. For Arch Linux, the three important ones are for me:

1. Installing it teaches you quite a lot about Linux-based system. If you have any problem with another distro, you'll know pretty well what happens under the hood and you'll be able to debug the problem more easily.

2. Arch is a rolling release, which means that every program you use will be up to date. No need to wait for the next LTS like other distros. It has some drawbacks, but I think the benefits outweigh them.

3. It let you choose exactly what program you want. It doesn't install much by default. Freedom is important for me, and Arch just gives me that.

And did I speak about the crazy amazing Arch Wiki? And the repos which have... everything? Sorry I stop, I'm doing my fanboy here :D

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#88

Post by thanato0s »

hartator wrote: post #13

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

I don't hate the mouse, but I think staying on the keyboard when you work with text (like code) is way more comfy. The problem is not the mouse, it's always switching your hand between keyboard and mouse.

Additionally, the system I describe in the book is centered around the shell, and it has so many good and mature tools for you to deal efficiently with text.

I love the mouse for graphic design, music composition, photography (post processing).

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#89

Post by garren »

Just picked up a copy. I’ve been using regolith on Ubuntu for about a year and love it. I like the idea of being able to put together a similar environment, while not needing to get neck deep in figuring out configuration and gory details. Your book basically covers all of that, and checks another box I’ve been interested in (arch). Sweet spot, thanks for the book!

Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment

#90

Post by thanato0s »

logn wrote: post #86
hartator wrote: post #13

I never got the hate of mouse in the dev community. Isn’t most of work browsing code and Googling things? Making a mouse a way to navigate way more efficient than a keyboard? It seems retrograde.

And IMs, meetings, and just thinking about code. I think it's important to be able to touch type quickly and efficiently use autocomplete because those are directly in the way of transforming your thought into code. But in the times I'm bouncing around with a mouse, it's already coding downtime.

I didn't think about that, but now you speak about it I think it's true. Thanks for that, that's interesting.
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