7 ms·

Off topic but every once and a while I'm made aware of the impact prettier has had on my typing. It's so hard to write code without a tool like prettier because

Off topic but every once and a while I'm made aware of the impact prettier has had on my typing. It's so hard to write code without a tool like prettier because formatting related keystrokes have largely been removed from my muscle memory. You basically end up writing a sort of shorthand.

thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago
This + Copilot. I code in an entirely different way now, I would of thought it impossible to change my ways (about 20 years of coding)
- SSLy 3y ago
  have*
- deepfriedrice 3y ago
  Yes I just started dabbling with copilot and I feel much the same as when I began really leveraging prettier. I’m similarly surprised to see such an ingrained skill undergo such rapid change. And it’s funny because for me prettier was originally just meant to fix the chaos that is every dev having their own style/editor preferences.
boredtofears 3y ago
I think I probably suffer from the same thing. On top of that, I added a VS macro that adds missing imports, cleans up unused ones, and re-orders them in a single keystroke. I've never been lazier.
nonethewiser 3y ago
Yeah it’s true. Its not simply that you don’t have to manually format things a certain way. You simply don’t format things at all. You can avoid writing lots of spaces, newlines, semi colons, etc. it’s absolute garbage, then you save it, then it’s fine.
- matsemann 3y ago
  And autoformatters have cemented my preference for non-white spaced languages. As you say, just write whatever and let it format it. When I then switch to our python backend this strategy no longer works. Like, it can fix something, but it needs a much cleaner state to do so. For instance if my loops are indented wrong, black can't solve that as the decision it makes has a semantic meaning.
  - resters 3y ago
    A team I'm doing some work with uses eslint and has not configured prettier, so instead of simply having everything get formatted correctly, I get red squiggly lines under blocks of code because of an omitted meaningless whitespace character. There are a few linting rules that can help identify semantic errors or dead code, but only a small number of rules are needed to get all of the benefits. Autoformatting (prettier, gofmt, etc.) is the way to go.
    - kitschpatrol 3y ago
      You can mellow the squiggles for stylistic errors in VS Code. Take a look at the “eslint.rules.customizations” key in this file: https://github.com/antfu/eslint-config/blob/main/.vscode/settings.json https://github.com/antfu/eslint-config/blob/main/.vscode/set...
      - resters 3y ago
        Thank you! I had been wondering if that was possible. Do you know if it can be done only for a single project / directory?
        WorldMaker 3y ago
        You can set workspace settings in the top-level .vscode/settings.json file of your project: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_workspace-settings https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_work...
ozim 3y ago
But I am quite happy with it I don’t have to waste my time typing. I don’t have to waste my time improving my raw typing speed. I do solid touch typing 60WPM writing plain text. With code completion and linting it easily goes twice as fast writing code.
- nine_k 3y ago
  That's cool. I'm unironically interested, how do you manage to think at such speed?
  - 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
    I type at 100WPM and that's usually fast enough for programming but not always. Sometimes you just know exactly what needs to be written, maybe because you've written similar things before.
  - ozim 3y ago
    I don’t do it simultaneously, when I do know what I want to code it just takes me less time writing it out so sooner I go back to thinking what’s next.
  - globular-toast 3y ago
    Programming is mostly thinking interspersed with a bit of typing. Nobody thinks as they type. The typing bit is just getting your abstract idea of what the program should do into the computer.
  - camgunz 3y ago
    I'm ~120WPM and a vim user, and yeah the main thing is how little time I actually spend typing. It helps me keep my focus on what I'm doing. I think other tools (like the ones people are mentioning) do stuff like this for people: autocomplete, copilot, formatters, etc. I also use formatters and linters, and my autocomplete is "be strict about conventions, look up the actual meanings of words", which makes me touchy about conventions haha.

thomasfromcdnjs 3y ago

This + Copilot. I code in an entirely different way now, I would of thought it impossible to change my ways (about 20 years of coding)

SSLy 3y ago
have*
deepfriedrice 3y ago
Yes I just started dabbling with copilot and I feel much the same as when I began really leveraging prettier. I’m similarly surprised to see such an ingrained skill undergo such rapid change. And it’s funny because for me prettier was originally just meant to fix the chaos that is every dev having their own style/editor preferences.

boredtofears 3y ago

I think I probably suffer from the same thing. On top of that, I added a VS macro that adds missing imports, cleans up unused ones, and re-orders them in a single keystroke. I've never been lazier.

nonethewiser 3y ago

Yeah it’s true. Its not simply that you don’t have to manually format things a certain way. You simply don’t format things at all. You can avoid writing lots of spaces, newlines, semi colons, etc. it’s absolute garbage, then you save it, then it’s fine.

matsemann 3y ago
And autoformatters have cemented my preference for non-white spaced languages. As you say, just write whatever and let it format it. When I then switch to our python backend this strategy no longer works. Like, it can fix something, but it needs a much cleaner state to do so. For instance if my loops are indented wrong, black can't solve that as the decision it makes has a semantic meaning.
- resters 3y ago
  A team I'm doing some work with uses eslint and has not configured prettier, so instead of simply having everything get formatted correctly, I get red squiggly lines under blocks of code because of an omitted meaningless whitespace character. There are a few linting rules that can help identify semantic errors or dead code, but only a small number of rules are needed to get all of the benefits. Autoformatting (prettier, gofmt, etc.) is the way to go.
  - kitschpatrol 3y ago
    You can mellow the squiggles for stylistic errors in VS Code. Take a look at the “eslint.rules.customizations” key in this file: https://github.com/antfu/eslint-config/blob/main/.vscode/settings.json https://github.com/antfu/eslint-config/blob/main/.vscode/set...
    - resters 3y ago
      Thank you! I had been wondering if that was possible. Do you know if it can be done only for a single project / directory?
      - WorldMaker 3y ago
        You can set workspace settings in the top-level .vscode/settings.json file of your project: https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_workspace-settings https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/getstarted/settings#_work...

ozim 3y ago

But I am quite happy with it I don’t have to waste my time typing. I don’t have to waste my time improving my raw typing speed. I do solid touch typing 60WPM writing plain text. With code completion and linting it easily goes twice as fast writing code.

nine_k 3y ago
That's cool. I'm unironically interested, how do you manage to think at such speed?
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 3y ago
  I type at 100WPM and that's usually fast enough for programming but not always. Sometimes you just know exactly what needs to be written, maybe because you've written similar things before.
- ozim 3y ago
  I don’t do it simultaneously, when I do know what I want to code it just takes me less time writing it out so sooner I go back to thinking what’s next.
- globular-toast 3y ago
  Programming is mostly thinking interspersed with a bit of typing. Nobody thinks as they type. The typing bit is just getting your abstract idea of what the program should do into the computer.
- camgunz 3y ago
  I'm ~120WPM and a vim user, and yeah the main thing is how little time I actually spend typing. It helps me keep my focus on what I'm doing. I think other tools (like the ones people are mentioning) do stuff like this for people: autocomplete, copilot, formatters, etc. I also use formatters and linters, and my autocomplete is "be strict about conventions, look up the actual meanings of words", which makes me touchy about conventions haha.