A run down on the apps I use regularly and why. Caution, Mac specific drivel ahead.

Do you want a secret that will make you 10x more productive?

Of course you do. As a programmer, you’re designed to look for better, faster, more efficient solutions to all life’s problems. It’s in your nature, and if you could be 10x faster, you would at least be curious.

A coworker asked me the other day. Why Vim, what do you like so much about it? I would dare say everyone who encounters Vim has a similar story. Many years ago, while on a Linux machine I first uncounted Vim. It was a simple way to edit text on the server. It didn’t make sense, but it worked. That was the extent of engagement with Vim for about 10 years, just being able to do simple editing of text.

There are two primary was to work with the filesystem while in Vim. These two tools will allow you to create a new file, create a new directory, copy files, delete files and folders. Everything you need. The built in File Explorer. To use this built in file explorer, just think :Sex, that’s right Sex. This will open up the built in file explorer in a buffer and allow you to naviate around the filesystem.

Most of the time when I’m working on a Markdown document like a README, I want to preview it in Chrome as markdown. Perhaps I’m working on an HTML document and want to preview it in Chrome. It would be a real pain to go to Chrome and then look for the file I’m working on. Luckily Vim makes this really easy. The Setup Add this to your .vimrc " Open up current file in chrome nmap <silent> <leader>ch :exec 'silent !

I love Vim. There is something about it. Most people that “try” Vim, hate and wonder what all the fuss is about. If you force yourself to learn it, customize your environment and start using it, you’ll want to use it for all your text editing needs. Here are few more improvements I’ve installed today. Tagbar Tagbar allows you to see inspect the current file listing the properties and methods in that file.