Making my working environment portable
Last substantive revision: 2016-08-28
Just some notes for now.
- Making configuration files for common programs (vim, etc.) available online.
- Placing more things in public/online (especially on GitHub) so they’re easily accessible.
- Dealing with “cloud software”
- Also the problem of remembering passwords when using an arbitrary computer
- One problem I’ve had: I like to use Linux Mint for my main computer, but some of my old computers (which I use once in a while) have Debian, and UW CSE lab computers use Fedora. Dealing with different distros and versions of software on computers is slightly tricky (e.g. compiling documents with LaTeX or Pandoc could yield different output). Even dealing with Vim plugins is slightly tricky, since e.g. Fedora’s Vim doesn’t seem to have Python (so things like UltiSnips don’t work) – actually, I just needed to use the
vimxbinary. - Most of the time this isn’t such a big deal. I have a laptop that I can take with me pretty much anywhere, so everything is already set up in terms of software (though there is still the challenge of setting up the physical working surface).
One way to deal with this is to learn how to work efficiently with the defaults of the most commonly available software. So something like knowing the shortcuts for Bash, Vim, and Firefox/Chrome. Though of course, if you’re going to work for an extended period of time at a new machine, then it probably makes sense to try to copy over some config files. See also http://sstephenson.us/posts/on-configuration. Rob Pike says something interesting in an interview https://usesthis.com/interviews/rob.pike/:
I don’t install a lot of extra stuff on those Macs, mostly to reduce maintenance. I like the freedom to wipe and reinstall without losing my world
External links
- How to Efficiently Work Offline by Vipul Naik
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