25 Node.js Nuggets

Techiavellian on July 12, 2014

Node.js

My last Nuggets post, “50 Linux Resources for Developers” was pretty well-received, so I figured I’d try to do the same thing I did there for Node.js. Hopefully something here gives you some inspiration to make the next great Javascript app. It’s not meant to be an all-inclusive guide to learning Node, but more of a look at my journey with Node and some things I’ve found useful which you might find useful as well.

For a little background, here’s the synopsis of Node.js from their website:

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

Read More

7 Small Reasons to Love Vim

Techiavellian on July 8, 2014

These are some cool things you can do with Vim that save time and can help prevent mistakes from mouse selection. They’re mostly little things, but altogether they make up an editing environment that I simply love.

1. NERDTree (Docs) file deletion

<Ctrl-L> to open NERDTree, hjkl to move, mdy to delete

2. Easymotion (Docs). Check out their example GIFs, and you’ll never see movement with the keyboard the same again.

3. Executing shell commands without changing windows

:!ls ~  :!rm -rf ~/old.txt

4. Deleting everything inside quotation marks, function blocks, parameters lists, or tags

di" di' di` di{  di(  di[  di< (Delete text within first matched pair)
dit   (Delete text inside first matched "tag" e.g.: <div>TEXT</div>)

5. Selecting/deleting large blocks of text

Selecting: V <Ctrl-F> (page by page)
           V 500j (select 500 lines)
Deleting: d500d (delete 500 lines)

6. Searching Dash (paid app, but worth it) using dash.vim (Docs)

:Dash each underscore  :Dash Vim

7. Deleting only blank lines on either side of the cursor

In ~/.vimrc:
" Ctrl-up/down deletes blank line below/above, and Ctrl-k/j inserts.
nnoremap <silent><C-Down> m`:silent +g/\m^\s*$/d<CR>``:noh<CR>
nnoremap <silent><C-Up> m`:silent -g/\m^\s*$/d<CR>``:noh<CR>
nnoremap <silent><C-j> :set paste<CR>m`o<Esc>``:set nopaste<CR>
nnoremap <silent><C-k> :set paste<CR>m`O<Esc>``:set nopaste<CR>

If you have more awesome Vim tricks, shoot them to me in the comments!

50 Linux Resources For Developers

Techiavellian on May 24, 2014

I try to always bookmark interesting things I find as I bumble around the internet. I’ve collected thousands of bookmarks over the years, and I want to share some of the cool stuff I’ve found. I call these Nuggets.

Today, I want to bring you a list of links that might help you on your path to understanding and appreciating Linux. I don’t consider myself some wizened Linux guru, but I have spent many, many hours looking for guides and tools to make my life easier while using it.

If you’ve ever struggled to find information about Linux basics, or you just want to polish up your skills, there’s probably something here for you. This guide will be particularly focused on developers, but there will be information here that’s applicable to many other Linux users. Some of it is specific to Ubuntu users, but much of it is applicable across the board.

I’ve by no means covered everything, so comment or tweet to me if you have any you think I should include.

Read More