Ask HN: What are your favorite tiny, single purpose tools?
What are you favorite simple, single purpose tools that do one thing really one? Websites, CLIs, libraries, anything really!
https://filezilla-project.org/ FileZilla FTP client
https://adionsoft.net/fastimageresize/ What the name says and super fast, super small output. supports multiple image formats.
https://www.xponentsoftware.com/xml-editor.aspx for fast loading huge XML files. editing not very full-featured and search is slow, but xml schema validation is fast.
https://afdc.energy.gov/stations#/find/nearest Alternative energy locations with map. USA, Canada. electric/charging type, CNG, LNG, Hydrogen, propane, biodiesel, ethanol. route selection.
https://fire.airnow.gov/ Fire and smoke map. USA, Canada.
date --date="2 days ago"
cal -3
On the other hand, I admire whoever the operator is for creating a business around such a simple thing.
So it's Bash that is slower ("heavyweight") if you count how many neuron firings it takes and how much these gigantic, slow write heads (fingers on a keyboard) have to move through space as part of the system. Computer scientists haven't been able to make a language with any sort of error recovery because "it would be non-deterministic" but Google (guided by capitalism) was able to see that's what people need. Google search is a programming language/shell.
Maybe the date command can do things like calculate the number of business days between two dates, accounting for U.S. holidays, and add or subtract work days excluding U.S. holidays -- I don't know. But I know it would take more effort than I'm willing to do to figure that out and test it. And I suspect it would involve a few switches and be subject to easy error.
For pulling up the calendar, it's literally a bookmark that brings up a browser tab with the year's calendar, showing U.S. national holidays. Can the cal command show holidays at all? It's unclear.
I think it's a bit sad to discount the value of a clear, usable, and fast GUI over a command-line interface for certain day-to-day tasks. Both tools have their uses.
git diff --color | aha > ~/Deskop/changes.html
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/powertoys/paste-as...
PureText provides universal paste too with Windows+V. PowerToys is useful but there's a lot of it that I find I either never use or forget about.
- Beyond Compare: https://www.scootersoftware.com/
- WizTree: https://diskanalyzer.com/
- WizFile (can search Google Drive!): https://antibody-software.com/wizfile/
- Fork: https://git-fork.com/
- Directory Opus: https://www.gpsoft.com.au/
- https://www.insynchq.com/ (Best solution for not syncing folders like `node_modules` to Dropbox/GoogleDrive)
- BRU[0]. I have to batch rename dozens of files very often and this works like a charm. Some people will say the UX is clunky but I think it's awesome![1]
- PDFill[2]. Simple PDF tools that work.
[0] https://www.bulkrenameutility.co.uk/
Not necessarily tiny, but awesome single-purpose gardening tool for removing weeds without overworking your back.
Both have long handles for use while standing up, but grampa's weeder seems to target one weed at a time while the stirrup hoe is meant to cut several roots in one go.
So perhaps use grampa's to dig out dandelions from your lawn, but a stirrup hoe to get all the weeds between the plants you want to keep in a flower bed or garden.
Great little timer and since I run my life by timers/time blocking things I find it really useful, just to set a timer and go and I can easily see it visually which helps keep me focus. Completely analogue so no reaching for my phone.
SelfControl for MacOS reliably blocks websites for a custom amount of time.
Shazam for finding music you hear. It still feels like magic.
I won’t tell you what that is, since it’s working for you.
sgpt "please show me a javascript function that appends to a list if the arguments are within seventeen days of each other disregarding timezones"