Up to Main Index                             Up to Journal for March, 2014

                    JOURNAL FOR WEDNESDAY 12TH MARCH, 2014
______________________________________________________________________________

SUBJECT: Abolishing distractions - plain and simple
   DATE: Wed 12 Mar 20:51:53 GMT 2014

*sigh* This was supposed to be a post for Monday. I had half of it written and
then had to leave it. Then it was supposed to be a post for Tuesday and now
it's Wednesday and I should be coding, instead I'm still trying to get this
post finished! Anyway...

Catching up on a few things I came across a post[1] by esr - Eric Raymond -
with the title 'How to demolish your software project with style'. At first I
just quickly skimmed over it. I then grabbed a fresh mug of really hot coffee,
scrolled back to the top of the page and read it again - properly this time.

Having read the post I sat and pondered it while finishing my coffee. Again it
made me think about the hard pros and cons of starting WolfMUD over again...

What did I decide? I haven't yet. Until I do I'll just keep calm and carry on.

I've also been tweaking my coding environment a bit. I already have a sparse
desktop running dwm[2] filled with xterms. I have a clock[3], an email
notification and usually a web browser open on a second monitor - all of them
distractions.

I started closing the browser and turning off the 2nd monitor. I also started
running an xterm in full screen mode but then flipping among multiple xterms
on the same desktop doesn't work as the fullscreen xterm is always on top :(
Ideally I'd work on a virtual console using GNU screen and not even run X at
all. However my main work machine has an Nvidia card and uses the binary
drivers from Nvidia[4] - this totally cripples the text console frame buffer
performance and full page scrolling is bad enough to give anyone an epileptic
fit.

In the end I found and applied the noborder patch to dwm. When only one window
is visible it is drawn without a border. I can now hide the status bar, use
monocle mode and multiple xterms without distractions - exactly what I was
after, just a sea of code :)

Here is a screenshot of a typical coding session: nondistracting-desktop.gif

That is what I look at all day - coding for work or fun. The yellow/gold/amber
text colour is my default in Vim and XTerms as I find it easier on the eyes
than white or grey. The exact colour is Gold2 or #EFC700 which reminds me of
the old mono gold/amber phosphor terminals.

Now for some WolfMUD coding with an update tomorrow, or Friday or whenever :P

--
Diddymus

  [1] Eric Raymond, How to demolish your software project with style:
      http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=5167

  [2] Love the domain name still: https://dwm.suckless.org

  [3] My fuzzy clock that displays the time as 'Noon', 'Nearly half past
      seven' or even 'teatime' - 4pm in civilised places ;)

  [4] With my employer's blessing I number crunch for the World Community
      Grid[5] when my machine would otherwise be idle. The last time I checked
      you have to use the Nvidia binary driver and not the nouveau driver to
      do number crunching using the GPU :(

  [5] World Community Grid: https://worldcommunitygrid.org


  Up to Main Index                             Up to Journal for March, 2014