The Basic Tools

This week's reading

The Basic Tools (7 topics)

• The Power of Plain Text
• Shell Games
• Power Editing
• Version Control
• Debugging
• Text Manipulation
• Engineering Daybooks

By the end of this week you'll be able to:

• Explain why plain text outlives the tools that produce it
• Automate a repetitive task with the shell instead of clicking through it
• Name the editor skills worth drilling until they're reflexes
• Debug by reproducing first and fixing second, without blaming the compiler
• Keep an engineering daybook and use it to remember decisions

Reflect & discuss

1. What task did you do by hand more than three times this month that a script could do?
2. Share a time from your own work where this chapter's lessons would have helped, or where you learned them the hard way.
3. What's one thing from this chapter you'll try in your own work? When you have, share how it went in #wins, and link a gist or repo if you've got one.

Put it into practice

Editor drill (20 min): Watch yourself edit for ten minutes and note every time you reach for the mouse or repeat a keystroke. Look up the shortcut for the two most common ones and use only those for a week.

Daybook (5 min a day): Keep a plain text file or notebook this week. Write down what you tried, what failed, and why you chose what you did. Share one entry that saved you time in the Slack thread.

Go deeper

• Topic extracts and the book's page (Pragmatic Bookshelf)
• The Missing Semester of Your CS Education (MIT)
• Pro Git, Scott Chacon & Ben Straub
• Debugging: The 9 Indispensable Rules, David J. Agans