iandinwoodie

For transparency, it might also be worth adding a disclaimer that the product you are advocating is produced by your current employer (even if that did not consciously play a roll in your decision to advocate for the product).

A virtualenv (venv) does not install its own copy of Python. Instead, when you create the venv it puts symlinks for the calling python in the <venv>/bin directory. When you activate the venv the <venv>/bin is added to the front of your PATH so that any "python" commands use the symlink'ed version of Python corresponding to your venv.

I went on the same search. For those interest in formal definition: Commercial open source software projects are open source software projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software (reference: https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-642-03132-8_...).

Personally, I dislike how Gists are so isolated. I just created a public test Gist and can’t seem to find a way to navigate to it when I view my GitHub profile from a private browser session. From my Gists profile there is a “View GitHub Profile” button, but I do not see a button to do the reverse.

I think adding a “Gists” tab to GitHub profiles would be a nice way to increase accessibility and exposure.

Additionally, I think that edits to a Gist should count as contributions. The current arrangement disincentives those who are concerned with contribution counts.

I remember hitting the punctuation dilemma with my self-imposed character limit. Putting the punctuation on the next line, looking at it displeased, moving it back, questioning the purpose of rules if they're not followed; racking my brain over the world's least consequential conundrum. Ultimately I decided to adhere to my limit, but to treat punctuation and the word that precedes it as a single unit to be wrapped together.

What I like about Vim is that it has a limited set of features out of the box. As a result, I feel that I have a strong understanding and command of Vim. If I want an additional feature I can either add it myself or look for an available plugin. With plugins I usually go through an adoption period where I try to determine if the benefits of the added features outweighs the loss of total understanding of my setup or any degradation in performance. In other words, I enjoy that Vim is an onion with few layers.

In contrast, modern GUI IDEs are more feature rich out of the box, but at the cost of tool complexity. Simple workflows are generally easy to get working, but adapting the tool to a complex workflow can have me clicking obscure options on the Nth option page without an understanding of what I've just done to solve the issue. As someone who works on a variety of codebases, tinkering around with setups for each project can (a) become a serious time sink and (b) can increasingly make me feel like I don't understand the tool if each setup seems to be relying on disjoint sets of new-to-me configuration options.

Additionally, I personally feel that "magic" utilities can rob me of my understanding of languages and codebases. It helps me rest easy at night knowing that I can create a codebase from scratch without needing to rely on "Create new C++ class ..." and automatic refactoring features provided by an IDE.

Regardless of my preference for Vim, I have found that a distributable configuration for a modern feature-rich IDE can be an invaluable asset for open source projects. Being able to open an IDE, load a configuration, and press the build button can remove significant barriers for contributing to projects where your understanding of the codebase and build system are nonexistent.

Imagine the sales that would generate

I got a good laugh out of the Meta-Failures section.

With regard to accessibility, a blind user can reliably use the function keys due to their physical separation. In contrast, the Touch Bar removes the separation of individual keys and may pose a challenge to sight restricted users.

I’m interested; email sent!

Waterproof hairdryer. You can dry your hair in the shower while you get it wet.

Here is the link to the Piranha repo since I didn't see it mentioned in the article: https://github.com/uber/piranha

Now _I_ can read it, so it _must_ be better!

If anyone wants another rabbit hole, reading through the Open Street Map Foundation resolution for the indefinite ban of user sorein is a good evening read:

https://www.openstreetmap.org/user_blocks/493

"We’ve added to_markdown() for creating a markdown table"

That's awesome!

Since this article is as opinionated as it gets, I’ll throw out my own opinion: A good manager keeps his colleagues informed of the ultimate goal so they know what and why they are doing things. This way, during the tackling of smaller tasks, the team as a whole can make conscious progress to deliver what is expected. When requirements change, the manager should inform their team so that everyone is still aiming for the same goal. If a colleague is asking “what is our ultimate goal,” then it indicates that you could do a better job keeping your team informed. If a colleague asks “what should I do next,” then you look at the priorities and assignment them their next task(s).

If you deem your colleagues as “losers” for asking for direction, then consider that you’re not fit to lead them.

Scrumdog Millionaire.

I find Joel Spolsky's (CEO of Stack Exchange and Co-founder of Trello and Fog Creek Software) blog to be informative for software engineering and management (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com).

I revisit his article "Things You Should Never Do, Part I" (link: https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-...) every time I get the itch to rewrite code from scratch.

Let's say I want to skip the development of a parser and use a preexisting library for that; allowing me to dive into the semantics. Do you suggest any libraries/tools to take care of the parsing?

I believe that from several times I've read through freelance-related discussion on this site that the recommendation is explicitly not to charge per project. The reason being that it can be very hard to estimate the total time required for the project. Additionally, once a customer has payed they might say "oh, we though you knew that this (previously unmentioned) feature was required when we paid you." Scope creep, tweaks, rewrites, and any change in customer expectation hits your pocket, not theirs, when you charge per project.

When you charge per hour you make sure you are getting payed for all the work you are performing. However, I often see it recommended that you charge per week (best) or per day (next best). I believe the rationale behind the per week (or per day) pricing model is that it weeds out the customers that are just looking for the cheapest labor they can find, leaving only those that are serious about a project and can commit to paying reasonably for the work.

Off topic, but the site creator should really toss Bruce Mahalski some credit for his image they are using as their logo.

This will be my first year. Can you explain what your toolkit is? I don’t have anything prepared and if people are going in with a toolkit it seems like I might not be prepared?

I'm also a C++ dev an I'm envious of how clean your site design is. Do you have any insight you can share on how you approached the frontend design? I find myself constantly fiddling with the CSS and I feel like I could fiddle around with it forever and still not be happy.

Could you provide an example of this (or point me to a repo where you use it)? It sounds neat

I'm putting my vote in for bond007.

This is a point of conflict for me. I use "~/dev" for all of my development work, but I don't want to because of the convention set by "/dev".

My problem is finding an alternative to "dev" that is just as convenient. Do any of you have any suggested alternatives?

It’s funny that this dictionary could serve a competing purpose; it’s a goldmine for someone looking for buzzwords.

Dylan, I was wondering if you could share your process for going from chapter text files to a full ebook? This looks like a really approachable way to writing a book. Is the conversion something scripted or is it a more involved process?

That's insane. Thank you for the detailed insight.

What happens to the other 90%? Is this typical for book authors?