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Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#111

Post by aynawn »

Apreche wrote: post #9

Not just with development environments, but all computer configuration, I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself. For example, let's say an app has a default keyboard shortcut I don't like. I won't change it. Instead, I'll just get used to it until it becomes muscle memory. Now the default configurations are my preferred configurations. Of c…

If i have to deal with ancient osx gnu gplv2 utilities, i think I'd go bananas. You have to modify the default settings at some point or your productivity will surely wane in comparison to others. I see your point with some defaults but the purest approach doesn't seem practical either.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#112

Post by allarm »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #84
vlunkr wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a healthy middle ground here. Endless tweaking of settings tends to be a waste of time, but if you spend hours a day on a computer, you might as well make it comfortable. Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. The few minutes it takes to install and learn about a plugin might save you hundreds on hours in the future. I guess my personal strate…

> Some people use no $EDITOR plugins and wear it like a badge of honor, this is pretty silly to me. I don't use any plugins for PyCharm or IntelliJ, but they're pretty full-featured right out of the box. I certainly don't do it as a badge of honor, that indeed is pretty silly. But vim is useless without any plugins. Even VSCode is only marginally better than Notepad++ unless you give it the plugins necessary to turn…

> vim is useless without any plugins

It’s not? I mean vim defaults are great, it supports a lot of formats out of the box (indentation, syntax highlighting), it’s ideal for quick edits. Surely if you need an IDE-like functional then it’s not enough (probably) but it is very far from being useless without plugins.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#113

Post by bananarchist »

Apreche wrote: post #9

Not just with development environments, but all computer configuration, I stick with the defaults as much as possible. Instead of changing the configuration of the computer, I change myself. For example, let's say an app has a default keyboard shortcut I don't like. I won't change it. Instead, I'll just get used to it until it becomes muscle memory. Now the default configurations are my preferred configurations. Of c…

This is a great answer if, like you said, you don't set up computers very often. I use mostly defaults in part because I set up computers a couple times a month. Often just for a day does that physical or virtual device live, consuming my configs, but having to manually do it every time would be a pain.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#114

Post by Daegalus »

I use a combination of a .dotfiles folder and syncthing.

my .dotfiles folder has a script in it that symlinks the dotfiles and folders out to the right places, then installs any tools with asdf and the .tool-versions I save. usually gets any Linux setup up and running in a few seconds.

I then have a workspace folder that stores all my code and projects. I syncthing that between my computer and a 3rd server computer as a backup that has weekly backups running. the 3 way sync makes it easy to not lose anything, or if one machine goes down when I need my most recent files.

Since I use WSL on Windows, the same stuff works mostly the same. The script I have is tailored to my preferred distros. I have currently a fedora one, but I also have an Ubuntu and a Arch one for when I used those or need to get my stuff setup on them. I try to keep all of them updated. asdf really helps with tools.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#115

Post by mmphosis »

With the exception of Excel, I don't use Microsoft for development. I don't use vim. I stick with the defaults as much as possible as painful as that is. I thoroughly document all changes I make so that on the next clean install, I can remember what I did before. Any of my "conveniences" are never dependencies. The only dotfile that matters to me is my .bash_aliases file which is merely a stub pointing to an over-engineered startup script to avoid the madness of using dotfiles.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#117

Post by neurostimulant »

These days I use VSCode's remote development extension to mount my dev machine on my laptop. It works well for frontend and backend works (automatic port forwarding), but obviously doesn't work when working on native or mobile apps. I simply duplicated the environments and sync the development files with git when working on native stuff.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#118

Post by corrral »

lelandfe wrote: post #109
corrral wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, my macOS set-up is simple enough it's not worth scripting or otherwise saving. Use the GUI settings panel to make CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl. Takes maybe 10 seconds. Use same to make dock auto-hide. 10 seconds if I'm slow about it. Install Homebrew. Maybe 15 seconds hands-on and a couple minutes in the background. Use Homebrew to install spectacle. Less than 5 seconds hands-on time, done less than a minute later.…

> Use same to make dock auto-hide Cmd-Opt-D to toggle auto-hiding – I use this one to check if the dock is frozen :) (Also a great option to rebind: it's a global hotkey so no other app should be using it)

Ha, I hit this by accident a couple times a year, then have to fix it in settings because I can never remember what the combo is.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#119

Post by hybridtupel »

bradwood wrote: post #110
metaltyphoon wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CAPS LOCK an extra ctrl Another fine specimen, salute!

If it was ESC instead you'd get a +1. ;)

What if I told you that you can have both? For me it's ctrl when I hold it down and use it with another key and esc when I press it briefly. Can be set up on a Mac with Karabiner Elements.

Re: Ask HN: How do you sync your computer’s development configurations/environment?

#120

Post by lamontcg »

syncthing and gnu stow.

as long as things stay reasonably connected and you take a bit of care to avoid split-brain (after powering up a laptop that has been off or away for awhile give it some time to sync) then you can even sync git repos just fine.

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