Posts

2024-04-30
Nix shell IDE integration

Most projects involve some CLI tools which can be useful to integrate into the IDE. For example, when using an interpreted language like Python, telling the IDE where to find the python executable means it should be able to find and auto-complete language-specific dependencies, detect any syntax errors based on the exact interpreter version, and run the tests without any extra setup. There’s just one snag: some IDEs require you to specify an absolute path to the interpreter, and Nix store paths are hashed:
2024-04-30
Nix language-specific dependencies

The following Nix shell declaration has a common bug:
2023-11-26
AWS Azure login interactive profile selection function

I’ve created a wrapper for aws-azure-login to let you interactively select the profile you want before logging in. I have a bunch of profiles, I can never remember what they are called, and some of them have short session lifetimes, so this has been a lifesaver.
2023-09-24
Being open about openness

tl;dr: Being open about what you’re open about is helpful to everyone involved, including maintainers.
2023-08-03
Easy PostgreSQL testing with pgTAP and Nix

This article explains one way to get from zero to a psql shell inside a local PostgreSQL instance with pgTAP enabled. It’s based on the Nix shell template article.
2023-07-02
Nix shell template

Nix shells are the best tool for creating software development environments right now. This article provides a template to get you started with Nix shells from scratch, and explains how to add common features.
2023-01-31
Convert date/time from machine-readable to human-readable

Enter a date/time string below to get the human-readable local time instantly.
2022-12-26
On brevity

There was a young joker, a git,
Who thought himself quite the wit,
But he wasn’t funny,
His jokes were runny,
Like “Conciseness, rather than prolixity, is the very being, the very body, the very soul, of wit!”
2022-11-11
YouTube channel web feed bookmarklet

tl;dr Drag →→→ YouTube channel feed ←←← to your bookmarks to get to the web feed of the current channel.
2022-09-20
Reproducible Jupyter Notebook with Nix

So you have a Jupyter Notebook with pyproject.toml and poetry.lock files, and you want to productionise it? You’ll just need a Linux or macOS machine. This is the magic sauce: