After working under software sensei at Ooyala, I picked up a few productivity tips along the way. At first I was pretty averse to picking up new plugins and what not, believing that Vim alone was sufficient for my tasks. However after a little cajoling and watching one of my co-workers tear through code, I became a believer, a believer in productivity software.
Ctrl-P (Vim)
Before Ctrl-P entered my life, I was a sad man who used :e in Vim. Ctrl-P binds, well, “Ctrl-P” in Vim to a fuzzy file search mode (shown below).
Ctrl-P fuzzy file search
This makes finding files SO much easier. No more trying to remember where everything is located. You don’t even need to remember the whole file name just maybe 4 or 5 consecutive letters. This will most definitely keep a few extra buffers open during your work day.
Slate (Mac OSX)
I’ve been a Windows/Linux user my entire life and have even been a little against using Apple products. However, this summer I was forced to make the switch over to OS X and was pleasantly surprised by many of the features it had to offer. One feature I wasn’t satisfied with was its windowing system. To me, the windows look like someone took a stack of papers and slammed them down on a desk – splayed in disarray across the screen. One thing Windows got correct is their Aerosnap for windows and I missed it gravely. Slate erases all that and allows you to partition your windows easily with a press of a few buttons. Slate can also do a slew of other very useful things, including preset window configurations and window resizing.
Perfectly split windows
Vimium simply allows you to use Vim shortcuts for Chrome. While the browser is designed for the mouse, Vimium does a pretty darn good job of making it easy to explore the web with the keyboard. You can cleverly search for words using the oh-so-common “/” command in Vim and then, if that word is part of a link, simply hit enter twice to follow that link. All the basic Vim commands are what you expect as well (gg – top of page, G – bottom of the page… etc)
Vimium
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At the end of the day, productivity software actually makes a difference and is worth the time and research in order to make you a more effective coder. Do you have any life changing productivity applications? Let me know!
