If you've been following me for a while, you might know my editor of choice is VIM,
it's very clean. There's nothing there to get in your way, except your own limitations, and those limitations can be
destroyed through practice. Havn't tried vim yet? What are you waiting for?
Vim is a text editor written by Bram Moolenaar and first released publicly in 1991.
It is commonly found on unix-based operating systems.
VIM is based off an older text editor, vi, and it's name is an acronym for Vi-Improved.
With vim Your fingers never have to leave the keyboard to command great power. The learning curve is a little steep but you can very quickly pick up new skills as you need them. The basic premise is that there is an Input mode
and a Command mode. By default you start in command mode, here you can move around the document, search, and do a fair bit of editing quickly. Insert mode is designed for adding (and removing) text, it's just like a normal text
editor.
Quick Start/Cheat Sheet
From the Command Line
type "vim" into the command line to create a new untitled file
type "vim /path/to/file.name" to open an existing file. (if the file doesn't exist, this creates it)
to open multiple files list them like vim file1.txt file2.sh
you can switch to the next open file with the command :bn, or the previous one with :bp
Working in VIM
hit "i" to switch from command mode to input mode
hit "v" to switch from command mode to visual mode
hit "esc" to switch back to command mode
VIM Commands
type ":wq" or "ZZ" to save and quit
type ":q!" to quit without saving
moving the cursor
j move down one line
k move up one line
h move left one character
l move right one character
to move to line 88 hit 88G or 88gg
move to the begining of a file hit gg
move to the end of the file hit G
hitting % while the cursor is on a bracket like [({})] will find the matching bracket
to delete a character hit x
to cut a line hit dd
to copy a line hit yy
to cut or copy multiple lines put a number before the command like 5dd
you can put a number before most commands to repeat them X many times.
press p to paste after the current line
press P to pase before the current line
to delete from the cursor to the end of the line hit d$
to delete from the cursor to the beginning of the line hit d0
in command mode to search for apple type /apple and hit enter
to look for the next occurance hit n
in command mode to find and replace all occurances in a line type :s/original/replacement/g
when searching you can use regular expressions
in command mode to find and replace all occurances in a file type :%s/original/replacement/g
VIM tips
If the file is owned by root and you opened it as another user, you can escalate privileges and save with :w !sudo tee %
the delimiter when using :s doesn't have to be / you can try % or _ if you want to avoid fences like in :s/\/usr\/local\/bin/\/common\/bin/ you can use :s#/user/local/bin#/common/bin#
You can store a cursor location in a mark, vim allows 26 of these, you can set a mark with command m followed by a letter like ma
you can move to a line containing a mark using the ' (single quote) command 'a moves to the line containing the mark labeled a
you can move to the exact location of the mark using the ` (backquote) command `a moves to the mark labeled a
these are "movements" that can be combined with other statements like d`a to cut text from the cursor's location to the mark labeled a
You can make macros with the q command,
hit qa to create a macro named a (should show a record indicator) enter a series of commands and hit q again to stop recording.
hit @a to execute the macro named a, you can execute the command multiple times in the standard way 23@a will repeat it 23 times.
Going Further
Vim is highly customizable, you can set shortcuts and preferences in the .vimrc file, usually located in your home directory.
There are a ton of plugins (aka scripts) available too. They're easy to manage with other scripts
like Pathogen or Vundle.
If you want to get a headstart, my dotfiles are available on github, but there are a lot of people
doing that lately, for example there's a very nice VIM Distribution named Janus that's worth a look.
Google unceremoniously killed Reader.
It was fun while it lasted, but you knew it was going to happen.
I've been using Reader to keep up with my feeds for a long time; sometimes ignore them for weeks, but still skimiming for the best.
The closure was hardly the hardest part.
That respect does to when Google originally decided to start damaging Reader with a redesign in late 2011.
This redesign brought in the new Google black bar, and partially replaced the social aspect with Google Plus.
Up until then you could share articles with your friends, if they actually wanted to see them.
It was great for discovering things from new perspectives, and for trading the best feeds to follow But G+ never really filled the gap.
It was a separate entity and integration into Reader went out the window with this announcement.
Google Plus won't be filling in any other gaps either.
The major losses here are in China & Iran
where it was being used to circumvent oppressive regime's policies, so I can hardly compare my plight.
So now to fill this new hole in my life, there were a few solutions offered as replacements that I tried.
It's ok, you can only import reader feeds from the app, not the website, which forced me to make some room on my phone.
Sadly I had to add each feed individually to new or existing pages, I couldn't just reuse the folders from Reader.
And that's where I found my other problem, you can only have so many feeds on a page; Resulting in pages like "Dev2" and "Dev3".
The interface here expects an image to give you the title over, and each feed is given it's own line and only shows a few articles each.
I just want one feed where I can see it all, and this isn't it.
It'd be great if all your content had a descriptive picture, unfortunely most of what I read doesn't.
If you love Windows 8 Metro, you'll like Pulse.
You can connect your Reader account here by signing up or signing in with Google.
However that's not quite obvious, and is more of a lucky happenstance for connecting your Google account.
Unfortunately again you have to add your interests or favorite sites manually.
Prismatic isn't an RSS reader, it's an article suggestion tool, based on interests in your feed.
The social ascpect is cool, and there's always a ton of interesting content, but this isn't a feed reader.
Amazing feed reader, similar keyboard shortcuts to Reader, and other features are close.
The Title's view is almost exactly like Reader's compact view, which is my favorite.
There's phone apps, browser apps, and web access here, so you can always read your feed.
This is nearly a drop-in replacement for Google Reader, and it imports your feeds automatically, like a good app should.
I think I've found my man here with Feedly, I'm really enjoying it and the learning curve from Reader is nearly non-existent.
When I was learning design I was glued to photoshop.
Touching every filter and tool, researching customisation and automation.
Working hard to improve my skills, and learning all the tricks and etiquette, but it was hogging my time.
It was all fluff, web browsers don't care about your layer-naming scheme or how well you use smart objects.
The web is open, free, and unpredictable; Photoshop is none of those things.
It's a monolith of photo manipulation and drawing tools, it exists purely for creating and improving stunning images.
It's not a web devlopment tool, it's a graphics tool, and you should always use the right tool for the task at hand.
PX
Everything you do in Photoshop has to be pixel-perfect, snapping to the pixel grid ensures jpegs are crisp and don't have any jagged edges or odd artifacts.
Only one small problem: on the web, there is no such thing as pixel perfect.
There's just no telling what a pixel will be on the end-user's screen.
When using viewed at smaller resolutions set pixel values don't change, so if you have a combined total of 960px of margins, padding, and images on a 320px wide screen you're not giving the user the best experience.
There's another bug when using IE6-8, if you set your font with a pixel height it won't resize like modern browsers and this hurts your site's accessability.
Mockups
Sometimes mockups are neccessary, but I don't use them often.
It's much faster to prototype instead and it gives you a great head start to the final product.
Clients love seeing progress, and if you let them play with the minimum viable product they feel much more involved in the process.
This also allows them to give you feedback quicker, spot mistakes, and ask questions — all valuable time savers.
Don't take my word for it
A PSD/PNG should be nothing more than an idea of a website. It should give clues and a direction to the build, but ultimately should not be treated as a final design. Following PSDs to the pixel will lead to ill-considered code, and code is your final product, not an image. For example, if your PSD uses three shades of very similar blue, the build should pick and honour just one. There is no point repeating similar declarations in your CSS when a happy middle-ground is more efficient, easier and quicker. A PSD is a clue, not a contract.
