Learning Corner

I figured it would be a good idea to keep a list of things I need to do and things I've learned in the process of doing those things, so here that is! Not all of these are tilde-related but the information could still be useful.

Todos

• Check my .plan file for these! You can see it by using the finger command on me. finger owls while on the town should work.

Things Learned

• The finger command shows the contents of .plan and .projects files in a user's home directory in addition to the basic info. Neat!
• If copying text in nano, it only copies what's shown on the screen. If you have to page sideways to see it, it won't be copied even if you select the whole thing.
• How to exit Vim (:wq or ZZ to save and exit- or :q! to exit without saving changes).
• :o in Vim adds a new line below the current one and puts you into insert mode to write on it. :i just puts you in insert mode. Hit esc to get back into command mode.
• Pre HTML tags are a godsend for things like ASCII art. Don't break the cat!
• It is very, very easy to mess up while making a firewall remotely with iptables. Be careful when dropping inputs and make sure you're not about to get kicked off of your server. I messed up in two different ways with INPUT DROP.
• A TV screen can be used as the world's most overkill computer monitor if needed. It's hilariously oversized but it works.
• The leap from tilde.town to running a headless server is surprisingly small. Setting it up is the easy part, everything else is the challenge; being comfortable on the command line is a must.
• Vim's default behavior is to mimic vi when it comes to arrow keys, meaning it spits out ABCD instead of moving. You have to use .vimrc to get the expected behavior by adding the line "set nocompatible". Or just use hjkl to move instead!
• The find command has a ton of options. Want to find all empty files? Find everything belonging to a certain user? Use regex or check what filesystem something is on? All this and more. It's incredibly useful for finding files.
• The os module in Python is really, really useful for dealing with the operating system and assorted files.
• In addition to dealing with whitespace when processing user entry, make sure you address empty strings as well. You don't want the user to hit enter and have it work when non-empty input is expected.
• Also, make sure to account for slashes in directory or file names. They can wreak havoc. Apparently Dolphin (a file manager) had a bug related to this at some point.
• Gruvbox is a really nice color theme and really easy on the eyes. Solarized is eyestrain for me and Nord lacks the contrast I need to program, so Gruvbox fills a gap. Looks nice too!
• Importing Python files can improve readability if done well and isn't hard to do. Same as importing a module, just with your own file instead.
• Wayland is pretty good and works for daily use! Would recommend Sway, but that's the i3 enthusiast in me talking.
• .desktop files don't work with tildes (text character, not chared computers). Any tildes need to be quoted or removed, or they won't work. ${HOME} doesn't work either, by the way.
• In Vim, $ takes you to the end of a line, and 0 takes you to the beginning of it. #G takes you to line #.
• Another handy Vim command: . pastes the last thing you inserted. If you typed "I like cats" while in insert mode, . when not in insert mode will paste "I like cats".
• One more Vim tip! u is undo, and Ctrl + r is redo.
• Control+s in a terminal suspends the terminal. Hit Control+q to un-suspend.