A recent Hacker News thread got me to revisit my dotfiles repository and reflect on the tools I’ve been using for the past 10+ years.
Technologies like the cloud and docker came, but surprisingly nothing major has changed in these years. I still use the shell to do most of my file shuffling and git operations. I still use an editor to write code.
Operating systems
I use OsX as my desktop and I manage several Linux machines. It took some work, but my tools are working seemlesly across OS-es. I also have an ansible playbook which amongst many things installs my dotfiles on any newly provisioned instances.
VIM
I learned vim when I was 16-17 and it was a great investment. Although I switched editors a couple of times in the past 10 years, I always used the vim keybindings. I don’t even think about it anymore, it’s just how I write code.
Editors I went through:
- vim
- IntelliJ idea / phpstorm
- Spacemacs
- Visual Studio code
ZSH
I switched from bash to zsh about 10 years ago and never looked back. The plugin system is phenomenal. I especially appreciate the fast syntax highlight plugin and fast directory access using z.
Future
Of course there is always room for improvement and the returns are quick when you use something every day. So I’m considering using Stow. I’m also intrigued by the declarative configurations of Nix.
