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Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

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Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#131

Post by amelius »

braindongle wrote: post #61
Jeaye wrote: post #22

- 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/…

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…

> An excellent list. Regarding functional programming, I recommend starting with a gentle approach that doesn't require picking up a new language:

But at least make sure that your language supports closures.

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#132

Post by idoby »

Learning how to use the compiler and type system (if your language has them) to get as close as possible to "if it compiles, it works", is invaluable.

Novice programmers just want the code not to error out, and compile, they just want the compiler errors to go away, while more experienced programmers learn to use the errors as a todo list of sorts, at first, then as a guide for refactorings and fixing bugs.

Learn to harness the compiler and type system to help you, and your coding will improve 10x in both velocity and quality.

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#134

Post by MaxBarraclough »

braindongle wrote: post #61
Jeaye wrote: post #22

- 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/…

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…

> I recommend starting with a gentle approach that doesn't require picking up a new language

Disagree. This is likely to 'dilute' the lessons of functional programming, as it were. If you learn to program in idiomatic Clojure/OCaml/Haskell/Scheme, you can be relatively sure you really have picked up the principles of functional programming.

If you merely attempt to apply new principles in an environment you're already comfortable in, things aren't going to 'click' in the same way.

Beside that, plenty of languages simply lack the facilities needed to effectively use the concepts of FP, as vmchale says.

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#135

Post by inetsee »

tych0 wrote: post #94
Jeaye wrote: post #22

- 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/…

My life was also improved with some additional aliases in my git config: [alias] dfif = diff idff = diff grpe = grep

Years ago Interlisp (does anybody here remember Interlisp?) had a function called DWIM (AKA Do What I Mean). It was an (optionally enabled) part of the REPL. If you typed something that made no sense, DWIM would try to figure out what you really meant to type, and offered to run the corrected command.

I have often wondered why that functionality disappeared, and why no one has tried to resurrect it. Search engines offer corrections all the time; why doesn't bash?

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#136

Post by louib »

The vi mode for Bash. Blew my mind when I discovered it and it probably saved me hundreds of hours already. I used to have multiple copies of this cheatsheet [0] at my desk for every new developer I would see editing a terminal command with the left and right arrows.

[0] https://catonmat.net/ftp/bash-vi-editing-mode-cheat-sheet.pd...

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#137

Post by adamredwoods »

tych0 wrote: post #94
Jeaye wrote: post #22

- 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/…

My life was also improved with some additional aliases in my git config: [alias] dfif = diff idff = diff grpe = grep

Nice! I create two-letter aliases, it truly helps:

gc = git checkout

gs = git status

etc...

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#138

Post by fouric »

magit (https://magit.vc/) - a git interface for Emacs. Hyper-interactive and ergonomic, feels like vim for git. Highly pleasurable to use and makes you significantly more efficient.

SLIME (https://common-lisp.net/project/slime/) - a Common Lisp development environment, also for Emacs. Comes with a REPL, interactive debugger (way better than gcc), the normal IDE-like experience you know and love, and this fantastic tool called the Inspector that is basically an interactive, modal editor for your program data. The Inspector is one of the most novel and useful tools that a development environment can have... and I've never seen another IDE that has anything resembling it. SLIME gives you a highly interactive and fluid development experience that I've never seen anything else come close to.

Spacemacs (https://www.spacemacs.org/) - a starter kit for Emacs that gives you a sane out-of-the-box configuration and an optional pre-configured Evil (vim keybinding emulation) setup. Much more flexible and powerful than Vim (elisp, while a bad general-purpose language, runs circles around vimscript) and much better ergonomics than vanilla Emacs (Emacs' mode-less interface is just straight-up worse for your hands than Vim's modal interface).

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#139

Post by daveevad »

randylahey wrote: post #2

Choice of editor is subject to taste, but I find VI/Vim keybindings and modal editing an absolute must-have for productivity.

+1 and a recommendation for vimium browser extension.

basically, whatever allows increased rate of I/O between you and a computer.

it's really as simple as never leaving the home row and im pretty close to thinking that the mouse as an input device has held people back.

Re: Ask HN: Which tools have made you a much better programmer?

#140

Post by princevegeta89 »

Can't imagine writing code without Jetbrains IDEs. VSCode is great for lightweight editing. On the other hand, I have other tools like CopyEmPaste: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/copyem-paste-clipboard-mgr/id8... This is a great clipboard manager and helps a lot with Copy-Pasting.
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