Augusto Tijerina

Text editing. In space!

2022-April-21

I'm a long time user of traditional Unix text editors. I also enjoy using new IDEs and development setups. While we usually have extremely limited choices on professional/enterprise/work setups the experience is completely different in your personal projects and freelance work. Back at my previous workplace we had to unify everything from scratch so we had a chance to select whatever was more comfortable and least expensive to the team, so I have some knowledge about usage at professional level.

So, there are 2 text editors that are usually considered the best and are also venerated history of Unix, Linux and heavy development usage: emacs and vim.

I take a pragmatical approach and use both, but after long term usage I've come to realize I tend to configure them in ways that make them slightly prone to break after version updates and they're a bit harder to mantain since I have to transplant it to Windows servers or barebones Linux jumphosts. Sometimes, due to security constraints, you are limited to just plain emacs and vi. It's uncomfortable, but it beats not using them.

There are many configuration kits or starter packs that help you, after a lot of testing, I've settled using the space* projects for both. I've also found that you can copy the configuration and framework folders and transplant them to a different server or workstation and get the same experience.
Here's the quick reference for installation and a useful layer list snippet for each. I'm also including my cleaned up, basic configuration files.

emacs: Spacemacs

Config file: $HOME/.spacemacs

Install process:

git clone https://github.com/syl20bnr/spacemacs ~/.emacs.d
cd ~/.emacs.d
git checkout develop

Sample configuration, package list:

;; List of configuration layers to load.
dotspacemacs-configuration-layers
  '(shell-scripts
    systemd
    ;;asciidoc
    ;;javascript
    ;;(javascript :variables javascript-fmt-tool 'prettier)
    html
    ;; ----------------------------------------------------------------
    ;; Example of useful layers you may want to use right away.
    ;; Uncomment some layer names and press `SPC f e R' (Vim style) or
    ;; `M-m f e R' (Emacs style) to install them.
    ;; ----------------------------------------------------------------
    auto-completion
    better-defaults
    emacs-lisp
    ;;helm
    ;;git
    ivy
    (ivy :variables ivy-enable-icons t)
    ;;lsp
    markdown
    (markdown :variables markdown-live-preview-engine 'markdown)
    multiple-cursors
    org
    ;; (shell :variables
    ;;        shell-default-height 30
    ;;        shell-default-position 'bottom)
    ;; spell-checking
    ;;prettier
    rust
    spacemacs
    syntax-checking
    ;;version-control
    tabs
    (tabs :variables
          tabs-auto-hide t
          tabs-auto-hide-delay 3.0)
          treemacs
    (treemacs :variables treemacs-use-follow-mode 'tag)
    (treemacs :variables treemacs-use-filewatch-mode t)
    (treemacs :variables treemacs-use-all-the-icons-theme t)
    unicode-fonts
    (unicode-fonts :variables unicode-fonts-enable-ligatures t)
    (unicode-fonts :variables unicode-fonts-ligature-modes '(text-mode))
    yaml
    )

.spacemacs download

vi: Spacevim

Config file: $HOME/.SpaceVim.d/init.toml

Install process:

curl -sLf https://spacevim.org/install.sh | bash

Sample configuration, layers list:

[[layers]]
    name = "autocomplete"
    auto-completion-return-key-behavior = "complete"
    auto-completion-tab-key-behavior = "cycle"                
[[layers]]
    name = "fzf"
                
[[layers]]
    name = 'shell'
    default_position = 'top'
    default_height = 30

[[layers]]
    name="colorscheme"

[[layers]]
    name = "format"
    format_on_save = false

[[layers]]
    name="lang#toml"

[[layers]]
  name = "lang#markdown"

[[layers]]
  name = "lang#sh"

[[layers]]
    name="core#statusline"

[[layers]]
    name = "lsp"

[[custom_plugins]]
    name = "jceb/vim-orgmode"

init.toml download

The futility of political discussions.

2022-March-11

Politics during our time period are a very bad mix of thinly veiled economical interests and partisanship as an unifiying tactic.

There's not a single political ideology, party, candidate or culture that uses logic and reason as a fundamental part of its makeup.

This is not my opinion, I am merely stating a fact. Feel free to find a single reasonable political ideology that is not filled to the brim with contradictions, historical mistakes or outright criminal, immoral and unethical behavior.
All of them. Not flawed or incomplete. Broken by design.

It saddens me to see some of the brightest minds of mankind wasting time in discussing these botched ideas. It will solve nothing, it will improve nothing and it merely wastes time (even if they derive some enjoyment, it does not change the erosive nature of the practice).

They are polluting their own mnemonic space. Slowly damaging themselves. They won't stop. Millions of cycles of humanity's mindstream processing slowly accruing over time. Wave after wave, amplified by the crude and vile communication subset that is mass media, that is social media.

It is my hope that someday all of these damaged ideologies can be replaced with an objectively solvable thought model. A balanced logical scheme that can get mathematical certainty to ordering the complex thermodynamic system prone to entropy that is humanity. A mostly balanced equation space that addresses every terrible challenge of existence for all mankind.

I hope.
But that is far off into the future. I will not live to see this.

Automotive technology is harmful.

2022-February-19

I've come to accept that there are several economic, technical and even ideological practices that are pernicious and damage humanity as a whole way more than we can measure. This is evil.
However, due to their wide acceptance in the general public and current cultural status they're considered an unavoidable nuisance, or even worse, we simply overlook, normalize and accept everything they cause.

Perhaps one day we'll recognize them as great evils, and work actively to neutralize them, like we have done through history in every place of this world.

Automotive technology is harmful. Automotive companies are an amazing enemy of economy, human life and environment. Cars are terrible engineering failures that routinely cause irreparable damage, waste of resources and loss of life.

I have avoided using cars as much as I can. I have minimized dependencies on them. I avoid car related publicity. I refuse to invest resources in cars or related technologies. I have purposely circumvented any work related to automotive companies.

For all who work there or invest any sort of resources in, please think about it. Before they cause the financial or environmental ruin of the place you live in. Before they cause the death of someone you love. Before they cause your own downfall.

It's time.

Stop. Remove it from your life. Make money other way. I believe in you. You can do it.

Not a developer

2022-January-15

I'm not a developer. But I still try to contribute as much as I can.

A swaggy year

2021-December-15

This year I decided to take advantage of several of the industry related online events.

I've never had a chance to do junkets or swag events, not even at college. I guess you could call these online junkets, but they were amazingly informative. I gathered a lot of knowledge, saw some extremely impressive demos, completed a free accreditation course and made several contacts for networking later on.

I also managed to win several points in each event's activities, enough to score some swag. I was surprised to get a microphone in the vmware empower challenge.

I'll try to go to more events in the future.