Tools

… that I like … and so should you!

Work

Work has a thread to this extent (might be secret - here’s what I said)

  • some (like me) use “VS Codium” https://vscodium.com/ instead of Code
    • https://vscodium.com/ (peace of mind / tinfoil hat)
    • i’ve found it (or a NIH variant that) works on Arch Linux
      • … and the main project has .deb and .rpm so unless you’re using SteamOF, use that instead of whatever snapak garbage ChatGPT tells you to setup
    • one “DavidAnson” has produced vscode-markdownlint here https://open-vsx.org/extension/DavidAnson/vscode-markdownlint
      • … which fixies table widths
  • KDiff3 (from TortoiseHg et al) is a nice way to diff directories
  • mermaid.js’s mermaid.live is still free (there’s a different paid-for AI version)
    • … and it has a very-nice-indeed button to copy the document into an editable markdown image
  • the git tooling in Codium/Code seems to be “good enough” for commit/sync with private repos

… when i was trapped on Windows …

if you need to “self host”

  • Forgejo is a rather nice and lite like-GitHub https://forgejo.org/
    • i have it happily running on a pi3 (… with a fake SSHd server making it into a Mercurial host)

if you need to “sound like a human”

Daily

uv (… and NO MORE PYTHON)

  • it’s an npm/npx style front end for python, venv, pip, etc - ALL AT THE SAME TIME
  • install it instead of python
    • … or, if python is already there; install it as well
  • (it works without python. i got in an argument about this. it works - you don’t need to suffer)1

Codium / Code-OSS / Visual Code / Antigravity

  • it’s a spicy chrome
  • text editor with all-the-features
  • it has a competent Git client
  • there are so many extensions

cmder (on Windows)

  • https://cmder.net/
  • fixes the Windows shell; use this instead of cmd1
  • get the bigger one with git; now you have a bunch of UNIX tools too

hg (aka Mercurial)

  • https://www.mercurial-scm.org/
  • DVCS
  • has a GUI by default
    • git people hate it1
  • I prefer using it for git
    • git people hate it1
  • uses an immutable db by default
    • git people hate it1
  • built for source code and blows up on 100mb+ files
    • git people hate it1
    • … and adults understand that version-controlled files should not be that big …
  • … and the CLI works out of uvx on Arch Linux
  • … and there’s a yay package for TortoiseHg
  • the GUI has been vaguely “portable” in the past
    • I copied the program to a pen drive, and I was able to operate it at the university

KDiff3 - it’s in hg

  • http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/
  • it’s a windows diff tool
  • when writing text comparison unit tests, I;
    1. dump mismatches to files into the build folder
    2. emit an error message with a CLI to invoke KDiff on the mismatches

Build

fips

sbt

Languages

CoffeeScript

  • https://coffeescript.org/v1/
  • looks a bit like a less-verbose python
  • compiles to JavaScript
  • v1 compiles to ES5 that DukTape can use
    • I’ve successfully embedded v1 in a C/++ application
    • … have/am building a weird like-Unity3D eDSL from it
  • can dump AST nodes
    • I would love to interpret those directly
    • also; add a do-notation to the nodes

DukTape

  • https://duktape.org/
  • works like a second-generation Lua1
  • it’s an (ES5) ECMAScript engine in a “single source” buildable
  • it’s C, but, there’s no build script; just drop it into your project
    • needed a CMake/#define tweak to get it to run in Windows 7
    • … but when i had to use that … Windows 7 was out of support and the “free upgrade” was still available (despite M$ saying the deadline had passed) 
      # make it work on Windows 7
add_definitions(-DDUK_USE_DATE_NOW_WINDOWS)

Open JDK

Documentation

Mermaid

PanDoc

  • https://pandoc.org/
  • write .md then translate to .tex
    • … then use an outer.tex to include the .tex
  • amazingly simpler than writing everything in .tex
    • there are multiple ways to use Mermaid in it
  • … and I can \cite{whatnot}

Hosting

GoGS

source hut

  • https://sourcehut.org/
  • yet another me-too GitLab/GitHub
    • you can host your own - but I haven’t tried
  • smoler and lighter than the other two
  • supports mercurial
  • has CI et al
    • … but I’ve not had viel glück with them

Changelog

2026-02-15
Updated with stuff from work and the great-un-Windowsing
2020-12-12
Nested things and added sbt and GitFiend sections
2020-03-31
Initial version

There’s an old adage/parable about “the ball crushing factory” where one needs to crush their balls to initialise the machines. While this is an excellent/hyperbolic analogy, it’s not suitable for bizness use. So, hereupon this text file; i propose the “foot-stomping-factory” to refer to situations/scenarios/culture where the population is determined to have their feet stomped on as part of operating machinery. One is only “aware” that a practice belongs in the foot-stomping-factory, when one realises that the conveyor belts can be started without personal injury. Frustratingly, the gen-pop usually insists that this is not the case and one cannot make any progress without injuring themselves.

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Peter LaValle avatar
Peter LaValle
Any links probably include affiliate ids for that sweet sweet kickback - and some programs require that I tell you. The contents of this blog are likely unrelated - as they include games, paints, and build tools.