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  4. Kicking off #FreeSoftwareAdvent (thanks, @neil), I'll open with remind(1)

Kicking off #FreeSoftwareAdvent (thanks, @neil), I'll open with remind(1)

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  • gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined

    Kicking off (thanks, @neil), I'll open with remind(1)

    While it took several articles and a couple attempts before I switched over to using it, once you taste the power of what it can do, it's hard to go back to less-capable calendaring tools.

    While the classic "garbage day is on Thursday unless there was a holiday earlier in the week, in which case it moves back to Friday" scenario is a nice little demo of its power, one of the best examples from my daily use is the kids' school calendars:

    • the teen has an A/B schedule which doesn't mesh nicely with calendar days, week-days, etc

    • similarly, our elementary-age kiddo has a 4-day cycle schedule for her "specials" class

    But remind's nonomitted() function makes quick work of both of those, taking into consideration weekends, the school holidays, and using PUSH/POP directives for high-school testing days that impact his A/B schedule but not her 4-day cycle. I've never encountered another calendar that handled all the edge-cases with so little effort.

    It's a little rocky interchanging with other calendars (you have to use rem2ics to create .ics files to share, and pulling in others' iCal is non-trivial and doesn't seem to maintain the fidelity of remote events).

    But otherwise, this runs a great deal of my life schedule.

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Kicking off #FreeSoftwareAdvent (thanks, @neil), I'll open with remind(1)

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  • gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined

    Today's follow-up #FreeSoftwareAdvent entry is vi/vim.

    Uncategorized freesoftwareadvent
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    gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined
    Today's follow-up #FreeSoftwareAdvent entry is vi/vim.Which I use depends on the situation. Classic vi/nvi tends to be lighter weight and start faster, while vim offers extra features that I find particularly useful). I usually just type `vi` which gets me `vi` on OpenBSD, `nvi` on FreeBSD, and `vim` (or `vim-tiny`) on most flavors of Linux. If I specifically want vim features, I'll invoke it as such directly.I could go on for ages about favorite features, but a select few:• the ability to keep my hands on the home row and not use a mouse is helpful for preventing RSI symptoms• it's a language¹ of editing, involving counts, verbs/commands, and objects/motions, so I can express my editing *intent* and then use the period command to re-issue that same editing *intent*• the :global or :substitute commands can make massive-yet-precise edits across huge files• the :*do commands extend that power across multiple files, allowing me to precisely edit millions of lines across thousands of files with targeted precision• it's ubiquitous—even as some Linux distros have started removing ed(1) from the base installs , relegating it to packages, I can always type `vi` on any Unix-like/POSIX system and be editing with a powerful editor. And with builds for Windows and my phone, I can use it everywhere. No need to install anything• they work just fine over a SSH connection without a GUI, and use minimal resources so they work even on that old hardware from the 90s.⸻¹ https://gist.github.com/nifl/1178878
  • gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined

    Though a bit niche, my #FreeSoftwareAdvent today is ed(1).

    Uncategorized freesoftwareadvent
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    gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined
    Though a bit niche, my #FreeSoftwareAdvent today is ed(1). As the goofball behind @ed1conf, I certainly play it up, but I certainly use it more than the average Unix/BSD/Linux user.A while ago I wrote up list of reasons¹ why one might use ed, and some are more obscure/improbable reasons (though I've encountered all of them in that post), there are a couple of those that drive me back to ed regularly:• I can still see the output of previous commands on the screen while I edit, where a full-screen editor would obscure that output that I need to incorporate in my edit• it's just darn fast for a quick edit, changing a variable name or adding/removing an entry in a list, etc. No startup costs for a honkin' huge $VISUAL with dozens of plugins and language-server processes and GUI rendering• very usable on low-bandwith/high-latency connections like I sometimes get when I remote into machines (less of a problem now, but I still experience sessions where I'll SSH in, invoke ed, make the change, write & quit, and exit the shell, in a couple seconds, while the screen repaints things oh-so-slowly• and most importantly, there's quality geek-cred for using it in front of others 😆⸻¹ https://blog.thechases.com/posts/cli/why-ed1/
  • gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined

    Today it's awk(1)

    Uncategorized freesoftwareadvent
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    gumnos@mastodon.bsd.cafeundefined
    Today it's awk(1)I use it almost daily—from simple column-extraction (specifying column separators and mashing together various columns feels easier with awk than with sort(1)), to summing and running totals, to aggregating counts of data, to reformatting text, etc…so many little uses pop up.It's available on every POSIX platform making it easy to write cross-platform utilities without having to install additional run-times like Python/Ruby/Node and the heavy dependencies that come with them.I've even written cgi-bin/ scripts in awk, allowing dynamic data processing on my stock OpenBSD systems with httpd+SlowCGI without non-stock software in the chroot.https://blog.thechases.com/categories/awk/#FreeSoftwareAdvent
  • terryhancock@realsocial.lifeundefined

    #FreeSoftwareAdvent

    Uncategorized freesoftwareadvent inkscape
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    terryhancock@realsocial.lifeundefined
    Free Software that I rely on. One per day.Day 7:ImageMagickThis is actually a small suite of tools that can be used from the command line, although it also has a GUI interface. Pretty old school software; been around for ages; still very handy.Not as powerful as Gimp or Krita for manipulating a single image, but with ImageMagick and a bash script you can make changes en masse ("convert" and "mogrify" -- which does the job in place). You can quickly check the format and size of images from the command line ("identify") or simply pop up the image with "display". Finally, with "compose" you can make an image combining multiple images in many different ways, including making a grid with or without labels.I don't use it as much as I used to, but it is still the simplest way to check image content from the command line. And it's really the only option when you need to change a whole lot of images at once.Also often used on server back ends to manipulate images for display in web applications.#FreeSoftwareAdvent #ImageMagick #Graphics #FreeSoftware #OpenSource