HOT-TIPS(7)            Miscellaneous Information Manual            HOT-TIPS(7)

NAME
     hot tips – from my files

DESCRIPTION
     This is a short list of tips from my configuration files and code that
     might be useful.

   Shell
     CDPATH=:~
             This is useful if you sometimes type, for example, ‘cd src/bin’
             wanting to go to ~/src/bin but you aren't in ~.  If the path
             doesn't exist in the current directory, cd will try it in ~ as
             well.

     alias ls='LC_COLLATE=C ls'
             This makes it so that ls(1) lists files in ASCIIbetical order,
             which puts capitalized names like README and Makefile first.

     git config --global commit.verbose true
             Not shell but close enough.  This makes it so the entire diff is
             shown below the usual summary in the editor for a git-commit(1)
             message.  Useful for doing a quick review of what you're
             committing.

   (neo)vim
     set inccommand=nosplit
             This is the only nvim(1) feature I really care about aside from
             the improved defaults.  This provides a live preview of what a :s
             substitution command will do.  It makes it much easier to write
             complex substitutions.

     nmap <leader>s vip:sort<CR>
             This mapping sorts the lines of a paragraph, or block of text
             separated by blank lines.  I use this a lot to sort #include
             directives.

     nmap <leader>S $vi{:sort<CR>
             Similar to the last mapping, this one sorts lines inside braces.
             I use this to sort switch statement cases or array initializers.

     nmap <leader>a m':0/^#include <<CR>:nohlsearch<CR>O#include <
             I use this mapping to add new #include directives, usually
             followed by <leader>s and '' to sort them and return to where I
             was.

     nmap <leader>d :0delete<CR>:0read !date +'.Dd \%B \%e, \%Y'<CR>
             I use this to replace the first line of mdoc(7) files with the
             current date.

   C
     #define Q(...) #__VA_ARGS__
             This is what I've started using to quote things like SQL
             statements or HTML fragments in C.  Anything that happens to be
             valid C tokens, which is most code, can be quoted this way.
             Macros are not expanded inside the quoted part.  You can embed
             (matched) quotes without having to escape them.  Whitespace gets
             collapsed, so you can write nicely formatted multi-line SQL that
             doesn't mess up your debug logging, for example.

                   const char *sql = Q(
                           INSERT OR IGNORE INTO names (nick, user, host)
                           VALUES (:nick, :user, :host);
                   );

     #define BIT(x) x##Bit, x = 1 << x##Bit, x##Bit_ = x##Bit
             I use this macro to declare bitflag enums.  It takes advantage of
             auto-incrementing enum items so you don't need to set the values
             manually.  You also get constants for both the bit index and the
             flag value for each item.

                   enum Attr {
                           BIT(Bold),
                           BIT(Reverse),
                           BIT(Italic),
                           BIT(Underline),
                   };

             For example, defines ItalicBit = 2 and Italic = 1 << 2.  Ignore
             the extraneous constants.

     typedef int FnType(const char *str, size_t len);
             You can just typedef function types!  It annoys me more than it
             probably should that everyone writes ugly function pointer
             typedefs.  Just stick typedef on the front of a function
             declaration and use FnType *.

AUTHORS
     june@causal.agency

Causal Agency                  December 2, 2020                  Causal Agency