A Nomad's Command Line

A while ago I wrote about my computer and gave an overview of the software that I use on a daily basis, without going too much into the details of specific areas. With this follow-up I want to focus on the tools that I use and put together a collection that aren't typically part of a POSIX system.

Last updated: 24 May 2020

Introduction

While I do have a strong preference for single a.out binaries without large dependency trees that do not require additional runtimes, I’m also a strong believer of using the right technology for the right job. Hence, I obviously prefer C/C++ and Rust programs, but I also don’t mind using Python-, Node.js-, Ruby- or Elixir/Erlang-based helpers to get a job done. For an example, I would definitely search for a C/C++ or Rust alternative to ls – glad you’re asking, have exa please and thank you – over a Node.js version, because I want it to be instantly available and chew up as little CPU and memory as possible. Especially CPU usage is an important metric to me, as I’m heavily reliant on my MacBook’s battery life. That’s also one of the reasons I try to stay at least 6 feet apart from everything Electron-based and why I consistently keep anything that requires the JVM out of my life.

As mentioned before I try to install everything I use through brew, although I’d love to be able to use nix on macOS without all the trouble. Anyway, brew works reliably well for now and allows to install most of these tools.

The Environment

As for the overall environment, I’m using Alacritty with a rather minimalistic config and of course the Z shell with Oh My Zsh and a rather large .zshrc. I always run tmux hence I don’t really mind Alacritty not supporting multiple windows (or tabs) – especially since I mapped the standard macOS shortcuts to create new windows/panes in tmux. My terminal font is Fira Code – unfortunately without ligatures, since Alacritty does not yet support that – and my color scheme is based on Ayu, a theme which I used on Sublime Text in combination with auto-dark, so that my Sublime theme automatically switches between Ayu Light and Ayu Dark as soon as macOS changes to dark mode in the evenings and back to light mode at daytime. What I miss is Alacritty supporting multiple theme definitions for those modes as well. I’ll probably build something on my own there though.

The Collection

arduino-makefile

Makefile for Arduino sketches. It defines the workflows for compiling code, flashing it to Arduino and even communicating through Serial.

Installation

brew install arduino-mk

Introduction

The Environment

The Collection

arduino-makefile

asciinema

bandwhich

bat

bettercap

bingrep

bottom

browsh

caddy

caffeinate

dark-mode

dust

eva

exa

fd

fzf

ghcal

gifgen

git-crypt

git-flow

git-journal

git-lfs

gitui

gotty

gron

hexyl

httpie

hyperfine

icdiff

imager

irssi

lnav

mc

mdcat

mosh

ncdu

neomutt

neovim

picocom

procs

rainbowstream

restic

ripgrep

rsnapshot

socat

speed-test

syncthing

tealdeer

terminalizer

terraform

tig

tor

transmission-cli

tuir

wikit

ytop

zenith