Live data from Hacker News

Writing one sentence per line

sive.rs

301–307 of 307 posts

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#301
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I totally agree. My approach is to just turn of the monitor.

I made a colorscheme for vim that uses same color for font and background. Use it sometimes when I need to write long confusing thoughts. It's quite a nice experience, the sentences turn out to be similar to the way I would speak, but still with more thought and deepness.

Oh that's awesome, I'm going to try that.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think we need to start changing this. In an era of language servers, perhaps our diff tools should be semantic instead of line based. I get so tired of seeing diffs where I add a function and the diff shows that I added it inside the previous function instead of between them, because it starts the diff one line too early.

Yes! I find `git diff` to be the most annoying thing about git. I can be pretty forgiving of the clunky UX, but the diff output is just wrong. People often say of git, "The porcelain is bad but the plumbing is good". The opposite is true for digging, IMO.

I have configured git to use `vimdiff`, based on advise I saw on the Internet some time ago:

  git config --global diff.tool vimdiff
  git config --global difftool.prompt false
Typing `git difftool` yields the expected behavior.

:qa in vim cycles to the next file in the changeset without saving anything.

Also, by default, git calls vimdiff with the -R option. You can override it with

  git config --global difftool.vimdiff.cmd 'vimdiff "$LOCAL" "$REMOTE"'
This will open vimdiff in writeable mode which allows edits while diffing.

:wq in vim cycles to the next file in the changeset with changes saved.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#304
post #209

One big advantage not mentioned in the article particularly relevant to this audience: git diffs (or your VCS of choice). One sentence per line means diffs will operate per-sentence, rather than per-paragraph. This way the diff can capture the restructuring of the paragraph (adding/removing/replacing a sentence), which gives much more insight than swapping out the paragraph wholesale. It also means minor changes (e.g…

I think we need to start changing this. In an era of language servers, perhaps our diff tools should be semantic instead of line based. I get so tired of seeing diffs where I add a function and the diff shows that I added it inside the previous function instead of between them, because it starts the diff one line too early.

This is such a great point. Diffs have largely not changed in decades and increasing the quality of diffs by 10% i feel would contribute so much to productivity. Especially when files contain repeating lines between chunks of code diffs tend to find it hard to understand what was deleted and what was moved because of the deletion.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> remind me via email to give Enso a try I like this. Thanks! Email notifications nowadays are a bit of a pain to set up, since they need to contain the physical address of the sender in the footer, so this is a piece of work I _always_ keep postponing. I was even considering dropping that form completely. Maybe I could generate a calendar event with a reminder instead? This way I won't have to store any data about t…

Go get convertkit. It's bloody awesome, cheap, and they even have an address of their own that you can use if you don’t wqnt to share your physical address. The sequenced auto responders that they have boost my open and click rates as much as 300% and allow for some truly powerful/complex programmatic features that anyone who's on HN would love.

>they even have an address of their own that you can use if you don’t wqnt to share your physical address.

Cheers, will give it a shot! (or just get the damn PO Box)

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#306
post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you’re both making good points in this thread. I’m writing a non-fiction book in my spare time, and I’ve had to face the fact that my default get-words-on-the-page is extremely flowery. Would it be possible for you share an example of your prose that received this criticism?

Basically anything here had the Wordpress plug-in whining: https://www.techtarget.com/contributor/Gordon-Haff And that's probably after I made a few token changes to make the plug-in happier.

Very interesting, thanks for sharing.

Re: Writing one sentence per line

#307
I like a version of this technique the best for curing writer’s block.

When I sit down and try and write the “perfect paragraph”, I get paralyzed. But if I just start barfing out semi-coherent thoughts line by line, I find I’m able to get unblocked, then I can come back and edit.

Post reply on HN