A simple self review habit that converts some "unknown unknowns" to "known unknowns". Leverage text search to find related code in a codebase too large to memorize. The Habit Before I open up my pull request and ask colleagues for feedback I like to take a step back and review it myself. The so called self review checklist. I've come to like a remarkably simple item on that self review checklist so much I nowadays [...]

About three years ago I switched OS from Windows to MacOS. One thing that surprised me was the MacOS lacks a built in feature for quick window positioning. On Windows you can use the Windows key (CMD on MacOS?) and the arrow keys to place the window quickly. The first solution I found was the free and Open Source application "Spectacle": https://www.spectacleapp.com/ It's since been abandoned by the author but there's the active fork "Rectangle": [...]

Have you noticed that most terminal commands are at least two letters long? This is certainly the case for built in unix commands: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Unix_commands Two letter examples: ls, cd, cp, mv, rm. Three letter examples: pwd, cat, kill, awk, cut. Longer examples: alias, chmod, chown, crontab, time, xargs. There is no single letter command to be found among the built in ones. But what if we widen our search to non built in ones? https://formulae.brew.sh/analytics/install-on-request/365d/ [...]

If you have multiple software repositories, how do you move between them? Possibly you have all repositories checked out into the same parent directory? Do you cd .. a lot? [crayon-6074a4de2930b760668334/] Save some time by making a new "go-to-repository-command". Let's call this command "r". Mine looks like this: [crayon-6074a4de29310558627284/] The function itself is pretty short. Adding tab completion is the tricky part. The solution above supports both bash and ZSH. The following links was useful [...]

I recently investigated what terminal commands I used the most. Turns out "git push" is a common one. With that in mind it could make sense to investigate and solve some pain points I have with "git push". Pushing Tags I commonly have to do both "git push" and "git push --tags" after a release. Ideally I would want it to push tags always at the same time. My first attempt at a solution was [...]

As a software developer I use the terminal a lot. As I look for ways to save time and become more efficient it would make sense to reflect upon my terminal usage. I couldn't say with certainty which commands I use the most. I've hammered them into the spinal cord. Luckily there is the bash history. Making a "historytop" command is relatively simple. This command prints your top ten most used commands. [crayon-6074a4de29838101013999/] Breakdown of [...]

From my perspective as a software developer, a tool you could use to avoid some pitfalls when starting a new IT project. Sum up the points below. Higher score is better. "Keep it Simple" [#1] The lines of code would ... (+1) ... decrease (-1) ... increase TIP: Simplify and remove. You aren't gonna need it. Every line of code adds to the maintenance cost. [#2] The amount of version numbers to keep updated would [...]

In this article I explain how to setup daily backups of Droplets to Spaces at DigitalOcean. More than Weekly It should be noted that DigitalOcean provides a weekly backup system for Droplets. You may click a checkbox and get backups for the price of +20% of the droplet. Personally I want to backup daily. With that in mind I came up with this backup system that backs up to DigitalOcean spaces. There is however nothing [...]

Disclaimer: This article lowers the security of your SSH client connection and leaves you vulnerable to man in the middle attacks. For that I take no responsibility. If you follow the steps below you do so at your own risk. TLDR Add the following to your ~/.ssh/config file to make SSH shut up: [crayon-6074a4de29cf8133934553/] Wolf! Wolf! The wolf is performing a MITM attack! Have you ever seen this message when attempting to SSH somewhere? [crayon-6074a4de29cfc955925568/] In [...]

I recently made use of ProGuard to reduce the size of a jar through tree shaking. Tree shaking is basically the art of holding the software upside down in the roots and shaking it so that you only keep the classes and methods you need. There is a Maven plugin called proguard-maven-plugin that allows you to run ProGuard from your Maven build with ease. How to use this plugin in a way that cooperates well [...]