b0rk

b0rk, 9 months ago (edited 9 months ago) to random

some people who make programming easier

(who am I missing?)

b0rk, 11 months ago to random

if you use Linux on your personal computer: what do you like about it?

I used to be super into customizing my window manager, but now I mostly like that it's so easy to install software, and that the environment is the same as on a Linux server

(please no arguing about whether people "should" use Linux on their personal computers, I'm just curious about why you personally like it)

b0rk, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

if you're an infrequent command line user -- what text editor do you use if you need to occasionally edit a file on the command line (other than vim/emacs)?

curious about what people use to edit a git commit message etc

if you picked 'other', I'd love to hear what you do in the replies!

b0rk, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

what git jargon do you find confusing? thinking of writing a blog post that explains some of git's weirder terminology: "detached HEAD state”, "fast-forward", "index/staging area/staged", “ahead of 'origin/main' by 1 commit”, etc

(really only looking for terms that you personally find confusing, not terms that you think someone else might be confused about)

b0rk, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

what's a popular command line tool (other than git) that you wish had a clearer / more intuitive UI? I'm thinking of tools like dig which has this IMO pretty arcane output format

b0rk, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

been thinking about this very common git workflow and how git doesn't do much to help you ensure that if you're using this workflow:

a) you never commit to your local main branch directly
b) you regularly pull from origin/main to keep your local main branch up to date

you just need to be careful

branch protection on github/gitlab helps with this, but I don't think there's much in git itself

b0rk, 7 months ago to random

today I'm thinking about the tradeoffs of using git rebase a bit. I think the goal of rebase is to have a nice linear commit history, which is something I like.

but what are the costs of using rebase? what problems has it caused for you in practice? I'm really only interested in specific bad experiences you've had here -- not opinions or general statements like “rewriting history is bad”

b0rk, 10 months ago to random

what helps people get comfortable on the command line? https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/08/08/what-helps-people-get-comfortable-on-the-command-line-/

Would love more stories of things that helped you in the last ~5 years!

(as usual, no need to reply if you don’t remember, or if you’ve been using the command line comfortably for 15 years — this question isn’t for you :) )

b0rk, 11 months ago (edited 11 months ago) to random

i’m tired of clicking “open in browser” in my mastodon client to see all the replies to a post / look at a user’s profile who i don’t follow

is there any mastodon client with a “fetch more data” button or something which will automatically do this for me and show the posts to me in the client?

(right now I’m using Ivory)

b0rk, 7 months ago to random

git rebase: what can go wrong? https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/11/06/rebasing-what-can-go-wrong-/

b0rk, 10 months ago to random

I almost never request ideas for new zines but -- what topics are you having a hard time learning?

b0rk, 6 months ago to random

there's something weird about git branches that "a branch is just a reference to a commit" does not capture and I've been struggling with it for weeks

like in this diagram I think most people would say that there are 3 branches (corresponding to the 3 commits at the top of the diagram), though technically in git you could have 0, 3, or 100 branches here, and it's not labelled so you have no way to know how many branches there are

(please don't try to explain branches to me ty)

b0rk, 10 months ago (edited 10 months ago) to random

if you just stopped being scared of the command line in the last year or three — what helped you?

(no need to reply if you don’t remember, or if you’ve been using the command line comfortably for 15 years — this question isn’t for you :) )

b0rk, 5 months ago to random

this guidance on man pages for the GNU project is wild https://www.gnu.org/prep/standards/html_node/Man-Pages.html

(they seem to think everyone should use info pages instead, which I personally have never used despite having used GNU tools for 20 years)

b0rk, 10 months ago to random

what community spaces are you using on the internet these days to talk about programming?

(mastodon/twitter? tiktok? discord? stack overflow? mailing lists? hn/reddit? just private group chats? wikis? something else?)

I'm writing a talk and I'm trying to think about how we share information as a community

b0rk, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

what's your favourite way to simplify your life with git? mostly interested in slightly unusual tricks to reduce the number of git features you're using, like:

• never using the stash, just creating temporary branches instead
• deleting your main branch so that you can never accidentally commit to it

b0rk, 6 months ago to random

reading online discussions about git is always really funny because 50% of the people are like "i don't understand git" and the other 50% say “no you just have to understand git is a directed acyclic graph where branches are pointers to commits" and nobody learns anything

(the discussions we've been having on here have been going MUCH better than this and I'm very grateful for that)

b0rk, 7 months ago to random

working on a very short list of helpful command line git tools. so far I have:

• a custom shell prompt with your current branch
• tig for a nicer git log https://jonas.github.io/tig/
• delta for nicer diffs https://github.com/dandavison/delta
• maybe lazygit (I haven't used it but I hear a lot of good things!)

what am I missing?

(I think GUI git tools are great too but that's not my focus right now)

b0rk, 7 months ago to random

confusing git terminology https://jvns.ca/blog/2023/11/01/confusing-git-terminology/

b0rk, 9 months ago to random

PATH

permalink: https://wizardzines.com/comics/path/

b0rk, 9 months ago to random

I've been thinking about these "dns propagation checkers" like https://www.whatsmydns.net/ that show you a world map.

This feels weird to me, because the main reason that DNS lookups get outdated records is that the resolver has an old record cached. And whether or not a record is cached has nothing to do with the geographical location of the server?

what's going on with these sites? why are they designed this way?

(would love to hear from people who actually know the answer, not guesses)

b0rk, 7 months ago to random

every piece of jargon in git

(what did I miss?)

b0rk, 5 months ago (edited 5 months ago) to random

does anyone have tips for how to make sense of git merge histories like this? do you use git log --first-parent? git log --topo-order --no-merges? something else? how can you tell if commit A was merged before or after commit B? what if there are "backwards" merges like in the 3rd screenshot?

(no "just make the history linear” or "merges are bad" takes please)

b0rk, 7 months ago (edited 7 months ago) to random

has anyone seen an explanation of nix flakes that explains the design goals of flakes & the fundamental problems they're trying to solve before diving into the syntax?

i'm looking for something like:

• the goal of flakes is to let people define packages in an uncoordinated way without a central repository
• the problem is coordinating dependencies: you could easily end up with an explosion where you end up installing 1000 versions of libc
• the way flakes address that problem is ???

b0rk, 2 months ago to random

i've been hearing a lot from folks on here who are frustrated with git (for many good reasons!)

but I'm curious about the opposite perspective: if you've worked with more than one version control system over the years and you prefer git, I'd love to know:

a) what other systems have you worked with? (hg? svn? p4?)
b) why do you prefer git?

notes:

• please no replies about why you think git is worse
• interested in answers other than "because I have no choice"