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MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

hacker-tools.github.io

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Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#61

Post by bigmit37 »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #57
freshcatch_ wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

this is insanely ambitious, and in a weird order

You're right. And "covering" is a strong term for the book. It only introduces them, offers a few exercises, and moves on. It's still 200 pages. It's intended to help engineering students (mechanical, civil/structural, nuclear, etc.) discover these wonders and then choose which ones to go deep with based on their needs and interests.

Thanks for sharing and seems it would be useful for non-engineering students as myself as well. Going to check it out =)

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#62

Post by TeMPOraL »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #42
Jonhoo wrote: post #2

Hi 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? Pa…

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Superpowers-readily-available...

That's the one?

EDIT: I guess it is, via https://digitalsuperpowers.com/. The list of topics is great, gonna check the book out!

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#63

Post by TeMPOraL »

splittingTimes wrote: post #10

So 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…

~Year ago, I had plenty of success with bug.n - https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n. It's a DWM clone written in... AutoHotkey, of all things.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#64

Post by JeffRosenberg »

rollinDyno wrote: post #59

I strongly believe man is a product of his tools, my slow but steady increase of their mastery is a source of pride. I've spent nights just mindelessly browsing the web in the search for a tool I didn't know about (it can be a service, a browser extension, a text editor plugin) so just looking at the title of this post made me ready for an injection of dopamine. I have a branch on my todo list solely focused on my to…

Love it! Do you have any favorite tools you'd recommend, and/or favorite places for finding new ones?

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#65

Post by VonGallifrey »

komali2 wrote: post #44
melling wrote: post #9

MIT 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 alon…

> Would love to use Emacs, but it's a nightmare to set up.

Maybe you would like spacemacs then? It is a Configuration Bundle for Emacs focusing on "Evil Mode" (aka the Vim emulator in Emacs). It is just a few minutes to install and if you already familiar with vim then there should not be much change what the normal editor usage is concerned. Of course the customization is Emacs lisp which has a bit of a learning curve, but just to get started with Emacs and evil you don't really need to customize anything.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#66

Post by pnutjam »

splittingTimes wrote: post #10

So 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…

If your stuck on windows, give MobaXterm a try. It's the commandline Windows should have had.

Sorry, but I don't think there is anything you can do about the GUI..

I like to use x2go on another machine or VM, it gives you access to individual windows/tiles for Linux programs, similar to Citrix published apps.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#67

Post by acidburnNSA »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #62
acidburnNSA wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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? Pa…

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Superpowers-readily-available... That's the one? EDIT: I guess it is, via https://digitalsuperpowers.com/ . The list of topics is great, gonna check the book out!

That's it! Let me know how you like it. It's my first foray into writing books. Walking the line between utility and breadth is tough.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#68

Post by Thimothy »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #63
splittingTimes wrote: post #10

So 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…

~Year ago, I had plenty of success with bug.n - https://github.com/fuhsjr00/bug.n . It's a DWM clone written in... AutoHotkey, of all things.

Ok,this blew my mind in thousands pieces. I'm going to try it right away.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#69

Post by jackallis »

c256 wrote: post #58
jackallis wrote: post #49

is this some sort of MIT class to undergrad or general public?

At MIT, the month of January is a reserved time separate from the normal terms called IAP - Independent Activities Period. During IAP, there are many seminars, panels, talks, and short courses (and some long courses taught in an intensive fashion) on a huge variety of topics. Many are taught by students, faculty, staff, and area alumni. While a few classes do give credit, fulfill requirements, and the like, oat exist…

ohh. Only if it was to public, hop on the red line and walk 10 mins.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#70

Post by TeMPOraL »

acidburnNSA wrote: post #67
TeMPOraL wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Superpowers-readily-available... That's the one? EDIT: I guess it is, via https://digitalsuperpowers.com/ . The list of topics is great, gonna check the book out!

That's it! Let me know how you like it. It's my first foray into writing books. Walking the line between utility and breadth is tough.

Bought it! I'll shoot you an e-mail with my thoughts once I'm through.
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