added images, wrote on good out of the box experiences.

This commit is contained in:
Gabe Venberg 2024-03-15 04:03:36 -05:00
parent 7c5dbba18b
commit 18c969f56a
8 changed files with 70 additions and 7 deletions

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@ -17,11 +17,16 @@ sed,,1974,c
bc,,1975,c
make,,1976,c
vi,,1976,c
bourne shell,,1979,c
awk,,1985,c
screen,,1987,c
bash,https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/,1989,c
zsh,https://www.zsh.org/,1990,c
vim,https://www.vim.org/,1991,c
midnight commander,,1994,c
ssh,,1995,c
curl,https://github.com/curl/curl,1996,c
fish,https://fishshell.com/,2005,c/rust
fossil,https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki,2006,c
tmux,https://github.com/tmux/tmux,2007,c
git,https://git-scm.com/,2008,c
@ -115,6 +120,8 @@ led to a resurgence in development of command line utilities.
Instead of just developing completely new tools,
Ive noticed that people are rethinking and reinventing tools that have existed since the early days of Unix.
<!--TODO: add more here-->
## The lessons learned from the past
A large amount of the innovation in the area, I think, can be attributed to
@ -144,15 +151,66 @@ better than bash. When starting fish for the first time, however, its powerful
autocompletion and information rich prompt are front and center with no
configuration required. Of course, fish still has the same level of
configurability as zsh, it just also has sensible defaults.
<!--TODO: insert pics of zsh command line without config vs fish command line without
config.-->
<!-- look at helix compared to (neo)vim-->
To demonstrate my point, this is the default prompt for zsh with no
configuration. It *only* shows the hostname, none of the advanced featurs you
can get out of a zsh prompt even without plugins.
![zsh prompt, only shows hostname](zsh_prompt.png)
Here is bash's prompt. It actually gives more info than zsh's, even though zsh
can do more when properly configured.
![bash prompt, shows hostname and current directory](bash_prompt.png)
And here is fish's default prompt. It has a few colours, shows everything the
bash prompt does, and additionally shows the git branch we are on.
![fish prompt, has colours, shows hostname, current directory, and git
info](fish_prompt.png)
Text editors are another great example of the evolution of out of the box
defaults. Vim and Neovim both improved on their predecessors, but so much of
that improvement is locked behind extremely complex configuration experiences
and plugins. Heres four different terminal text editors with no configuration
applied:
![vi, vim, neovim, and helix editors in their default
configuration](editors.png)
Vi, (top left) is our baseline, and, as far as I can tell, doesnt actually
support much for configuration. What you see out of the box is more or less
whats there.
Vim (top right) greatly improved on Vi, adding things such as syntax highlighting, line
numbers, spellchecking, split windows, folding, and even basic autocompletion.
However, everything but syntax highligting is either extremely clunky or
outright disabled without configuration. (for example, the earliest things I did
when I first made a `.vimrc` was to enable indent folding, make some better
keybinds for navigating windows, and adding a line number ruler to the side)
Neovim (bottom left) further improved on Vim, adding support for Treesitter and the Language
Server Protocoll, but the out of the box experience is the *exact* same as vim!
In order to take advantage of the LSP and Treesitter support, you have to
install plugins, which means learning a Nvim package manager, learning how to
configure LSPs, and configuring a new LSP for every language you want to use it
with. (Or finding out about Mason and being OK with having multiple levels of
package management in your Nvim install alone). Dont get me wrong, Neovim is a
great editor once you get over the hump, I still use it as my daily driver, but
so much of its functionality is simply hidden.
Then we have the Helix (bottom right) editor. Colour scheme aside, everything is
just there. Helix doesnt have plugin support
[yet](https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/discussions/3806), but it has so
much stuff in core that, looking through my neovim plugins, pretty much all of
my neovim plugins are in the core editor! (ironically, the one feature that
helix is missing, [folding](https://github.com/helix-editor/helix/issues/1840),
is a core part of neovim, albiet one that requires some configuration to get
good use out of). Helix has a config file where you can change a huge amount of
settings, but its an extremely usable IDE out of the box, thanks to having all
of its features enabled by default.
### Friendly error messages
<!-- look at nushells error messages-->
[earlier](../nushell)
### Concise and discoverable documentation
<!-- look at zellij and helix and their built in keymap cheatsheets-->
@ -173,7 +231,7 @@ config.-->
<!-- most of the new tools are written in rust and go.-->
<!-- rusts clap and gos cobra-->
<!-- rusts clap and gos cobra, CLI argument parsing libraries, help with this.-->
## Appendix: the tools
@ -196,11 +254,16 @@ available, wikipedia otherwise, and sorting is by year first, then alphabetical.
|bc|1975|c|
|make|1976|c|
|vi|1976|c|
|bourne shell|1979|c|
|awk|1985|c|
|screen|1987|c|
|[bash](https://www.gnu.org/software/bash/)|1989|c|
|[zsh](https://www.zsh.org/)|1990|c|
|[vim](https://www.vim.org/)|1991|c|
|midnight commander|1994|c|
|ssh|1995|c|
|[curl](https://github.com/curl/curl)|1996|c|
|[fish](https://fishshell.com/)|2005|c/rust|
|[fossil](https://fossil-scm.org/home/doc/trunk/www/index.wiki)|2006|c|
|[tmux](https://github.com/tmux/tmux)|2007|c|
|[git](https://git-scm.com/)|2008|c|

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@ -3,7 +3,7 @@ title = "Building My New Keyboard."
date = 2024-02-06T15:01:28-06:00
draft = false
[cover]
image = "layers/layer0"
image = "keyboard_with_case"
+++
Ive been using a split keyboard at home now for several years,
@ -17,8 +17,6 @@ Eventually, though, I stumbled upon the github page for the [Ferris Sweep](https
## The Basic Build
<!--TODO: insert pic of completed keyboard-->
The Sweep seemed simple enough that I could assemble it,
and after doing some shopping around, I was able to source all the parts I needed for under $100.
I ordered the pcb from JLPCB and the parts from [Keebio](https://keeb.io/) and [Lowprob.ca](https://lowprokb.ca/),
@ -33,6 +31,8 @@ and finally soldered the switches in. (I used choc purpz, a bit of a leap of fai
I did ruin one switch by letting a leg getting hot enough to melt the housing plastic,
and desoldering it was unexpectedly difficult, but not every build can be mistake free, right?
![The finished keyboard](finished_keyboard.jpg)
Flashing QMK was uneventful, working exactly as the [QMK docs](https://github.com/qmk/qmk_firmware/tree/master/keyboards/ferris/sweep) for the Ferris Sweep suggested.
I would, however, recommend flashing the micros _before_ doing any soldering,
I had to take my micros out of their sockets in order to access the boot buttons.

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