Cmder
Note: Cmder is really a wrapper around ConEmu
Cmder - messed up path
If there is a mismatch between what is accessible in cmder (the terminal that launches from Laragon) and the global git/bin/bash.exe or cmd terminals, it probably has to do with system path variables.
- Laragon/Cmder has some scripting set up to grab the global
%PATH%variable equal to itself + everything inlaragon/bin- You might to manually add some of these to the system path if you want to use them (for example, NodeJS)
- There is also a bizarre issue with VSCode and PATH expansion; it is broken for a lot of Windows users unless ran as an administrator
- This is the case for me; see broken unexpanded results in bash-running-in-vscode with
echo $PATH, but running outside of vscode works fine- I just set VScode to always run in admin mode
- See GH issue
- This is the case for me; see broken unexpanded results in bash-running-in-vscode with
Cmder - new tab spawns multiple duplicates
I tend to run into an issue every once in a while with "open new tab" spawning multiple duplicate previous tabs in cmder
- Seems to happen when there is no "default task for new console"
- Go into "Settings -> Startup -> Tasks" and then pick a task, such as "{cmd::Cmder as Admin}" and check the box for "Default task for new console"
Cmder - open new tab as admin
-new_console:a
Local Hosting
For WAMP (or just an always-on localhost for static HTML hosting), I highly recommend Laragon.
Local Static File Hosting - Quick CLIs
If you quickly need to locally host a directory of static files, there are a bunch of options:
- lwsjs/local-web-server (one of my favorites)
- NPX:
npx local-web-server --directory {path} - Regular use:
- Install globally
- Call binary
ws:- Subfolder:
ws --directory {path} - CWD:
ws
- Subfolder:
- HTTPS: As easy as using
--httpsor--https2flags (basic functionality).- If you want to, you can alternatively use a self-signed cert
- Use
--https, plus:--cert {CERT_FILE_PATH}--key {PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_PATH}
- Use
- If you want to, you can alternatively use a self-signed cert
- Supports a ton of options and middleware
- NPX:
- http-server
- NPX:
npx http-server {path} {options} - HTTPS: Follow these steps (requires manually setting up OpenSSL, generating certs, and starting CLI with flags and cert options):
- Use
--ssl, plus:--cert {CERT_FILE_PATH}--key {PRIVATE_KEY_FILE_PATH}
- Use
- NPX:
- Caddy Server (Go powered)
- Vercel's
ServePackage- NPX:
npx serve {path} - HTTPS: Not (yet?) supported
- NPX:
💡 Huge cheatsheet here: "Big list of HTTP static server one-liners"
Local Hosting - SSL Certificates
I have written an in-depth guide / cheatsheet on this topic!
Tunneling Requests
For temporarily exposing a local project to the outside world, there are a few options.
For pretty much all of these programs, using Ngrok as an example, they only tunnel / proxy / forward requests from a public URL to a local port. They do not take care of the actual localhost part of responding to requests. For that:
-
For many JS projects, you might already have a
servecommand, so using Ngrok with your project might look something like:- run
yarn serve, see that project is now serving on:5000 - Open new terminal, leaving first open
- run
ngrok http 5000to start tunneling traffic
- run
-
If you don't have a serve command, and you need to just serve static files, you could use something like the
servepackagenpx serve ./my-site, then ngrok to the port it shows it is using
-
Ngrok
- Pretty easy syntax; generally all you need to use is
ngrok http {localhost_port} - Unless you are on the paid plan, you will get a random public URL each time; to use us a fixed URL with the free plan, check out my blog post on using GCP as public proxy point
- Pretty easy syntax; generally all you need to use is
Local Web Hosting - Mobile Development
If you are building a website / web app, and want to test it on your smartphone, aside from the normal tools at your disposal for request tunneling, deployments, etc. - you also have some unique tools.
For example, if you have an Android phone, you can use Chrome's Remote Debugging tool to handle a large amount of things:
- Port forwarding local hosted things to your phone
- Inspecting webpages running on your phone, in real-time
- And more!
Productivity
Make sure to check out my favorite programs page, as well as product elevator pitches.
Here are some additional productivity tips / tricks / tools:
- Don't forget about "scaffolding"
- If you find yourself writing a lot of boilerplate, check to see if someone else has already created a template file, or better yet, a scaffolding tool that can generate the basic structure
- If it doesn't exist, that is a great opportunity to create one and share it with the world!
- Check out tools like Yeoman, which are industry standard for scaffolding new apps / codebases. Yeoman covers over 5K generators!
- Online codeplaygrounds are great for sharing demos with others, or even just testing little ideas without needing to fire up your IDE, setup a git repo, etc.
- Official documentation and guides are great, but don't forget about alternative media, such as blogs, StackOverflow, YouTube, forums, etc.
- Answering questions on StackOverflow can be a good way to brush up on certain skillsets or make sure they stay fresh.
- Automate!
- There is a great XKCD chart on whether something is worth the time to automate
- I would add to this that you should also think about the time saving for others if you share your automation. Could it add to your resume / portfolio, and maybe even get you a job? Or just feel nice about helping others? What is that worth?
- Take advantage of the open-source repos as a learning tool
- If you ever wonder "how do the pros do ____?", you should take a look at some Open-Source software that matches what you are looking for.
- For example, when I was trying to learn some QT and figure out how to structure my project directories (something often glossed over), I realized I could just look at the source for the actual QT IDE to see how QT themselves structured what has to be one of the largest QT projects ever!
- Chromium and Firefox are both Open-Source and easily navigated online, and both cover a huge amount of different programming uses
Enforcing coding standards / editor configs
A lot of this is specific per language (for example, see js-devops) or per IDE (see vscode), but there are some general tips that are true across languages.
For example, EditorConfig files (.editorconfig) are a cross-IDE solution for declaring some general coding style rules for a given directory/repo, such as tabs vs spaces. On some IDEs, such as WebStorm, it is natively supported, whereas with others, such as Visual Studio Code, a plugin is necessary.
Docker
See my cheatsheet, here
Virtual Box
- Reminders:
- You can install guest additions via device menu, and then install into guest
- This might be necessary to share folders
Laragon
See my notes, here
Cross-Platform Terminals
There aren't many terminals that are cross-platform in a way that includes macOS, Windows, and Linux. Main options are:
As of writing, Alacritty has no split-pane support, Tabby has native support, and Hyper supports through a plugin.
I've been using Tabby for multiple months at this point and cannot say enough good things about it - exactly what I have been looking for in a terminal.