The Pragmatic Programmer: Preface

posted on October 28, 2023

On Being a Better Programmer

This book is about the developer. It’s about doing a difficult job–part listener, advisor, interpreter, and dictator. Theory and practice combine to make you strong.

What Makes a Pragmatic Programmer?

We’re unique, but a pragmatic programmer shares many of:

early adopter / fast adapter
inquisitive
critical thinker
realistic
jack of all trades

Individual Pragmatists, Large Teams

Almost as a summary, “Care about your craft” and “Think about your work.” Through software development is an engineering discipline, there’s room for individual craftsmanship (as there is in the trades). It’s more than mechanical:

We who cut mere stones must always be envisioning cathedrals.

It’s a Continuous Process

As in so many things in life, consistency is key to success. Remember Kaizen–continuously making small improvements.

Useful Docker Commands

posted on December 19, 2022

Docker (Compose) Commands that I Find Useful

Burn it All to the Ground

docker compose up will take a long time after this, but you’re here because nothing is working anyway.

docker system prune --volumes --all

Run an interactive shell inside of a running docker container

docker ps # get the container ID / name of the service you're interested in
docker exec -it {container ID or name} bash # or maybe bin/bash if bash is not in your PATH?Code language: PHP (php)

Run a Docker container and start an interactive shell inside of it

docker run -it {image name, like nginx:alpine} bash # or maybe bin/bash if bash is not in your PATH?Code language: PHP (php)

Run a Docker container and start an interactive shell inside of it, bind mounting your current directory

docker run -it -v $(pwd):/{some path} {image name, like nginx:alpine} bashCode language: JavaScript (javascript)

Build a Docker image

docker build -t {image name, like transfer-suite} . # I think this assumes the default Dockerfile name
docker build -t {image name, like transfer-suite} . -f {image name, like transfer-suite}Code language: PHP (php)

Run a Docker image by name

docker run -p 80:80 {image name, like transfer-suite}

Useful Git Commands

posted on December 10, 2021

Git Commands that I Find Useful

Many of these are initially sourced from Stack Overflow or great articles that have titles like “5 Must-Know Git Commands” then modified to fit my workflow (here’s one great example for popular git configs). Some are actually put together by reading the docs.

Delete Branches that have been Remove from Remote

For this to delete branches, local must know that remote has removed branches (which git branch -v lists as [gone]). One way to accomplish this is to configure your fetch to always prune.

git branch -v | awk '/ \[gone\] /{ print $1 }' | xargs git branch -dCode language: JavaScript (javascript)

Always Prune on Fetch

From the docs, “…remove any remote-tracking references that no longer exist on the remote.” git pull and git fetch would both have the following setting applied, since git pull is (in my mind) like running git fetch and git merge.

git config --global fetch.prune trueCode language: PHP (php)

Viewing the global git config (cat ~/.gitconfig) should now show

[fetch]
    prune = trueCode language: JavaScript (javascript)

Always Rebase on Pull

git config --global pull.rebase trueCode language: PHP (php)