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
#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, according to my own needs. I had the feeling that I was more efficient with it, but more importantly I really enjoyed using it.
Fast-forward 2 years ago. An idea popped up in my mind: what about writing a book to pass on all the knowledge I had about this kind of mouseless development environment? What about enabling every developer to build their own system if they wanted to?
After shortening a trip in Asia beginning of 2020 because of Covid-19, I came back in Berlin without any job or even a flat, only some clothes and my old Lenovo x220. Fortunately, I found a temporary place to live where I decided to write this book.
I've spent hundreds of hours on it, and now I'm really proud to finally release Building Your Mouseless Development Environment, where I explain in detail how to build a similar system to the one I use every day. This system is based on Arch Linux, i3, Neovim, Zsh, and tmux.
The goal is not to impose a particular workflow; I tried to explain every single shell command and piece of configuration for the readers to be able to shape their systems to their own needs.
If you're curious, you can read the first 30 pages of the book, including the whole table of content there: https://matthieucneude.com/building_mouseless_environment_sa....
If you want to know how this system looks, I've made a short video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67lbLKTm91U) describing the one we build in the book.
Last thing: If you already know and use all these tools, you won't learn much from the book I'm afraid.
Any feedback, positive or negative, is welcome!
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#3[deleted]
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#4"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…
> If you already know and use all these tools, you won't learn much from the book I'm afraid.
Hah! If I kept count of every time I heard that about Vim, and then went ahead and read the article and learned yet another new thing about Vim, well, I'd be getting pretty good at Vim...
Don't sell yourself short. Even just seeing how others use the same software you use can be eye opening. I'm going through the linked PDF now.
One question: what did you use to make the book itself? I noticed the links in the chapter don't work, at least in Firefox's PDF reader, so if that is unexpected it might be a point to improve.
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#5"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…
> If you already know and use all these tools, you won't learn much from the book I'm afraid. Hah! If I kept count of every time I heard that about Vim, and then went ahead and read the article and learned yet another new thing about Vim, well, I'd be getting pretty good at Vim... Don't sell yourself short. Even just seeing how others use the same software you use can be eye opening. I'm going through the linked PDF…
I used Pandoc for the PDF; the links don't work because it's a sample. They work in the real book.
About selling myself short: you're probably right. I'm struggling with imposter syndrome, like many, so I've a tendency to do that. At the same time, I'm trying to be honest and I don't want to deceive people.
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#6For 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 the right tool varies among people.
I guess what I am getting at is "highly opinionated" is better suited for ongoing processes than it is for soft goals. Arch Linux is highly opinionated. This makes reasoning about the ongoing process of maintaining a Linux installation consistent. The strong opinions of Arch Linux are orthogonal to the goal of switching to a tiling window manager. Ubuntu has a different way of reasoning about system maintenance that might offer less friction for other people. Tiling window managers are not dependent on distribution.
I'm not trying to change your opinion. Rather, I think that there are ways to make the book a more useful resource for more people by broadening it to "here's how I do it and here are some other ways that might work better for you."
Good luck.
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#7For 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…
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 "Awesome list of Linux tools" on GitHub.
2. You write something more focused, as I did: the readers can practice, you can describe and explain everything they're doing because the focus is more narrow. You eliminate a whole class of problems as well, because you know exactly the tools they're installing and using. As a result, you enable them to understand what's happening.
I went for the second solution, because I think we lack books which are really practical. I wanted the readers to be actively engaged into a project, learn by practicing, and be able to swap every tool they want afterward. Because they'll have a deeper understanding of Linux, a modal editor, a tiling window manager, and so on.
It's not because I use these tools that I want to impose them to the world. I choose these tools for the book because they allow the reader to understand what's happening under the hood. Even if I was using another wm or another distro, I still would go with these tools, because it allows me to teach what I want to teach. Because they're not too difficult for beginners if you explain them right. I think people are smart, and I think they can learn way easier than most people think.
To me, Ubuntu is highly opinionated. Who cares? It's not about me, it's about what the readers can learn from the experience. I'm not convinced you learn a lot by installing Ubuntu, or that you understand the benefits to work with a tiling manager, or you understand the important place of the shell in the Linux ecosystem.
Thanks for the good luck :)
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#8For 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…
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.
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#9"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.
Re: Show HN: I wrote an entire book to build a mouseless dev environment
#10For 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…
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…
I guess what I am getting at is the vitality of book recommendations not technical merits. There’s nothing wrong with Arch, but I hesitate to recommend it without knowing someone pretty well. The same with Zsh over bash and neovim over Vim.
As personal choices backed by experience it’s a different context than a tutorial for others.
That’s what I am saying.