Forget university, most of these this should be the content of K-12 computing/programming classes. It's simpler and has much more real world value than a lot of the crap the tech, like graphical iPad programming or how to use a specific version of word.
MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
41–50 of 83 posts
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#42Hi all! We (@anishathalye, @jjgo, and @jonhoo) have long felt that while university CS classes are great at teaching specific topics, they often leave it to students to figure out a lot of the common knowledge about how to actually use your computer. And in particular, how to use it efficiently. There’s just no class in the undergrad curriculum that teaches you how to become familiar with the system you’re working wi…
That's funny, I recently had the same revelation (that it's hard to discover these things) with engineering students in mind. I wrote an e-book called Digital Superpowers, covering many of the same topics you did. I added some general interest things on art and publishing too. I think I like your approach better.
Anyway, my list of topics is as follows, maybe you want to consider adding a few of them to your list?
Password Managers • 2-factor authentication • Virtual machines • Package managers • Command line • Routers • QR codes • Port forwarding • Python • Pandas • Onion routing • Ad-blocking • PDF reordering • Flow charts • Regular Expressions • Time-lapses • Encryption • Column edit • Digital photo editing in RAW • Audio noise reduction • Vector graphics • Making websites • DJing • LaTeX publishing • Reference management • pandoc • git version control • Programming • Web apps • Self-hosting • Home automation • Monte Carlo • VPNs, • ImageMagick • Linear regression • ffmpeg • Sphinx • Robotics
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#43So one lecture covers window managers for tiling. I used dwm for years and love it, but am stuck on Windows at work. Is there anything for Windows 10 that has a similar approach of having a stack with your unused applications and a big window for the app that is in focus? And then you can easily move window from stack to focus and vice versa? I looked at the Wikipedia article [1], but none of the alternatives seem to…
It's no where near complete like dwm for that, but it is highly customizable, I use AquaSnap when I have to use windows for work. It is paid but I haven't had any issues with upgrades or redownloading the software when I haven't had to use a windows machine in a while.
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#44MIT went with the Berkeley editor. A lost opportunity to introduce programmers to the beauty of using Emacs and Lisp.
But almost all IDEs and editors have a VIM mode - learning VIM is a good way to teach people how to keep their fingers on home row, and the skill is (because of what I stated previously) easily transferred to whatever editor you like.
From my perspective, I tried to learn Emacs, and decided it's a great editor, once you spend weeks to months to get it actually "working good," and learn shitloads of commands (let alone keybindings). Given my initial goal was "keep hands on home row," it was far, far faster/better for me to spend 3 days learning/memorizing VIM commands, installing a vim plugin into VScode, and just doing that.
Would love to use Emacs, but it's a nightmare to set up. I still haven't managed to get it feature parity with vscode.
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#45So one lecture covers window managers for tiling. I used dwm for years and love it, but am stuck on Windows at work. Is there anything for Windows 10 that has a similar approach of having a stack with your unused applications and a big window for the app that is in focus? And then you can easily move window from stack to focus and vice versa? I looked at the Wikipedia article [1], but none of the alternatives seem to…
Haven't tried it but I think HashTWM[1] claims to have a similar main/stack model for windows.
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#46Hi all! We (@anishathalye, @jjgo, and @jonhoo) have long felt that while university CS classes are great at teaching specific topics, they often leave it to students to figure out a lot of the common knowledge about how to actually use your computer. And in particular, how to use it efficiently. There’s just no class in the undergrad curriculum that teaches you how to become familiar with the system you’re working wi…
Do you like that kind of talks ? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCZJblyT_XM
Gary Bernhardt - The Unix Chainsaw
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#47The article on editors is basically "here's the names of 5 editors, now learn vim"
I know this will piss off vim users but in my experience vim users are seriously out date when it comes to dev tools. It's like they never left the 70s. vim might be great, it might be available everywhere but when I see a vim user I then see them use something like gdb and have clearly never experienced a modern debugger because if they had they'd be infuriated at how their debugging tools haven't improved in 30 years.
I'm sure others could go into all the features a modern editor or IDE provide. The vim users will say they don't need that crap. They sound like some grandpa saying "back in my we had to walk to 5 miles to school, no one had invented bicycles or cars or buses. Don't need those new fangled things, now Get off my Lawn!"
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#48The article on editors is basically "here's the names of 5 editors, now learn vim" I know this will piss off vim users but in my experience vim users are seriously out date when it comes to dev tools. It's like they never left the 70s. vim might be great, it might be available everywhere but when I see a vim user I then see them use something like gdb and have clearly never experienced a modern debugger because if th…
My experience of IDE users (myself included much of the time) is that they don't know how limited their debugging experience is, just breakpoints and how to step through code. Things like breaking when a variable is set, debugging from a core dump, creating a core dump under certain conditions, viewing the assembly, setting variables on the fly etc, are features of a good debugger (often the one they're using) that are obscured from them.
If you want that shallow level of debugging you can do it from inside vim though: https://github.com/idanarye/vim-vebugger
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#49is this some sort of MIT class to undergrad or general public?
Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools
#50can't see anything on that projector :-(