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Jul 2026 | 15 posts

Markdown Cli

This is a post that may be a work in progress for awhile, Its a collections of thoughts on managing my blog, but could be translated into anythiung that is just a collection of markdown. Listing things # [1] - posts - tags - draft posts data # [2] - frontmatter - filepath - content - template - html [3] render content # [4] - Markdown.Markdown - support extentsions frontmatter cleaning. # [5] - provide ways to hook in or clean up the frontmatter Markata.Markata methods # [6] - load - render - save Markata.Post methods # [7] - load - render - save Markata plugins # [8] - before_load - before_post_load - after_load - after_post_load - before_save - before_post_save - after_save - after_post_save Markata plugins # [9] - cleanse_frontmatter - html_feed - json_feed - rss_feed - save_posts CLI # [10] $ markata list tags python data $ markata [ { "title": "post title", "description": "this is a post", "filepath": "path_to.md", "content": "the ...

My Content Strategy For 2021

I am making another push in 2021 to get my content out in the world and meeting users where they are. See how I plan to execute. Platforms # [1] - waylonwalker.com - Twitter - DEV - hashnode - Medium - LinkedIn - Anchor Markdown # [2] My content is written in markdown, all markdown. I find that markdown does a really great job at getting out of the way and letting ideas flow onto the page. I am never fussing with fonts and formatting while physically writing posts. Not that I don’t spend way more time than I need to tweak these things on my own personal site where everything gets posted. Articles # [3] Much of what I create is inside of short articles that get posted to my personal site waylonwalker.com [4]. These will get cross-posted to DEV [5], hashnode [6], Medium [7]. I have made cross-posting a bit easier for myself by posting the markdown for each article next to the post on my personal site. Add .md to any post and there is the source. Should I be giving my art...
3 min read

Quickly Edit Posts

Recently I automated starting new posts with a python script. Today I want to work on the next part that is editing those posts quickly. Automating my Post Starter [1] Check out this post about setting up my posts with python 🐍 Enter Bash # [2] For the process of editing a post I just need to open the file in vim quickly. I dont need much in the way of parsing and setting up the frontmatter. I think this is a simple job for a bash script and fzf. - change to the root of my blog - fuzzy find the post - open it with vim - change back to the directory I was in bash function # [3] For this I am going to go with a bash function. This is partly due to being able to track where I was and get back. Also the line with nvim will run fzf everytime you source your ~/.alias file which is not what we want. Lets setup the boilerplate. Its going to create a function called ep "edit post", track our current directory, create a sub function _ep. Then call that function and cd back to where...

Gitui is a blazing fast terminal git interface

Gitui is a terminal-based git [1] user interface (TUI) that will change the way that you work with git. I have been a long-time user of the git cli, and it’s been hard to beat, mostly because there is nothing that keeps my fingers on the keyboard quite like it, except gitui which comes with some great ways to very quickly walk through a git project. installation # [2] Go to their [releases]https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/releases) page, download the latest build, and pop it on your PATH. I have the following stuffed away in some install scripts to get the latest version. install latest release GITUI_VERSION=$(curl --silent https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/releases/latest | tr -d '"' | sed 's/^.*tag\///g' | sed 's/>.*$//g' | sed 's/^v//') wget https://github.com/extrawurst/gitui/releases/download/v${GITUI_VERSION}/gitui-linux-musl.tar.gz -O- -q | sudo tar -zxf - -C /usr/bin/ run gitui # [3] It opens blazing fast. gitui Quick Commits # [4] Sometimes I edit a number of fi...
2 min read

Kedro - My Data Is Not A Table

In python data science/engineering most of our data is in the form of some sort of table, typically a DataFrame from a library like pandas, spark, or dask. DataFrames are the heart of most pipelines # [1] These containers for data contain many convenient methods to manipulate table like data structures. Sometimes we leverage other data types, namely vanilla types like lists and dicts, or even numpy data types. What is Kedro [2] unfamiliar with kedro, check out this post Sometimes datasets are not tables # [3] There are times when our data doesn’t fit nicely into a DataFrame. Lucky for us Kedro has pickle support out of the box. Pickle is a way to store any python object to disk. Beware that pickle files coming from an unknown source can run malicous code and are considered unsafe. For the most part though when you read and write your own pickle files they are a good tool to consider. See more about pickle [4] from python.org. Cataloging Pickle # [5] I may have a dictionary ...
Check out asottile [1] and their project babi [2]. a text editor References: [1]: https://github.com/asottile [2]: https://github.com/asottile/babi

Quickly Change Conda Env With Fzf

Changing conda environments is a bit verbose, I use a function with fzf that both lists environments and selects the one I want in one go. Conda # [1] I have used conda as a virtual environment [2] tool for years now. I started using conda for its simplicity to install packages on windows, but now that has gotten so much better and it’s been years since I have run a conda install command. I’m sure that I could use a different environment manager, but it works for me and makes sense. What environment manager do you use for python? Conda environments are stored in a central location such as ~/miniconda3/envs/ and not with the project. They contain both the python interpreter and packages for that env. Conda create # [3] Conda environments are created with the conda create command. At this point, you will need to name your env and select the python version. conda create -n my_env python=3.8 After running this command you will have a directory ~/miniconda3/envs/my_env with a base...
3 min read

Vim Replace Visual Star

Replacing text based on whats in the current search register is a quite handy tool that I use often. I believe I picked this tip up from Nick Janetakis, check out his YouTube channel for some amazing vim tips. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fP_ckZ30gbs If there is one thing that I Like most about vim it’s the ability to hack on it and make it work well for you. Replacing text in vim # [1] Vim can often be a bit verbose, but that’s ok because we can hack on it, and make our own shortcuts and keybindings. For instance, finding and replacing text requires using a command at the vim command-line :. Replacing foo with bar looks like this :%s/foo/bar/g, the final g means all of the foos, not just the first one on the line. making it better # [2] I have a keybinding in my init.vim that will allow me to search for a pattern with the usual / character, page through them as normal with n and N, but when I press <C-R> it will populate the replace command for me so that all I need to do ...
2 min read

Minimal Python Package

What does it take to create an installable python package that can be hosted on pypi? What is the minimal python package # [1] - setup.py - my_module.py This post is somewhat inspired by the bottle framework, which is famously created as a single python module. Yes, a whole web framework is written in one file. Directory structure # [2] . ├── setup.py └── my_pipeline.py setup.py # [3] from setuptools import setup setup( name="", version="0.1.0", py_modules=["my_pipeline", ], install_requires=["kedro"], ) name # [4] The name of the package can contain any letters, numbers, “_”, or “-”. Even if it’s for internal/personal consumption only I usually check for discrepancy with pypi so that you don’t run into conflicts. Note that pypi treats “-” and “_” as the same thing, beware of name clashes version # [5] This is the version number of your package. Most packages follow semver [6]. At a high level its three numbers separated by a . that follow the format major.minor.patc...
2 min read
Check out jameslittle230 [1] and their project stork [2]. 🔎 Impossibly fast web search, made for static sites. References: [1]: https://github.com/jameslittle230 [2]: https://github.com/jameslittle230/stork

If Tmux

I do much of my work from tmux, I love it so much that I want to setup some functionality that puts me in tmux even if I didn’t ask for it. Bash Function # [1] Bash function to check if the shell is in a tmux session. in_tmux () { if [ -n "$TMUX" ]; then return 0 else return 1 fi } Using the bash function # [2] I often open up vim to do some quite edits, but before I know it I have several splits open and I need access to another shell utility, but I forgot to start in tmux. This function makes sure tht I start in tmux everytime. Using if_tmux to ensure vim is opened in tmux. vim () { in_tmux \ && nvim \ || bash -c "\ tmux new-session -d;\ tmux send-keys nvim Space +GFiles C-m;\ tmux -2 attach-session -d; " } I am not quite sure if this is proper use of the && and ||, let me know if you have a better way to do one thing if in_tmux returns true and another if it returns faslse. References: [1]: #bash-function [2]: #using-the-bash-function
If you’re into interesting projects, don’t miss out on vim-commentary [1], created by tpope [2]. commentary.vim: comment stuff out References: [1]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-commentary [2]: https://github.com/tpope
I’m really excited about vim-fugitive [1], an amazing project by tpope [2]. It’s worth exploring! fugitive.vim: A Git [3] wrapper so awesome, it should be illegal References: [1]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-fugitive [2]: https://github.com/tpope [3]: /glossary/git/
The work on vim-surround [1] by tpope [2]. surround.vim: Delete/change/add parentheses/quotes/XML-tags/much more with ease References: [1]: https://github.com/tpope/vim-surround [2]: https://github.com/tpope
If you’re into interesting projects, don’t miss out on kedro-starters [1], created by kedro-org [2]. Templates for your Kedro projects. References: [1]: https://github.com/kedro-org/kedro-starters [2]: https://github.com/kedro-org

Save Vim Macro

If you are like me, you have created a macro or two that is pure glory, and you forget how you made it after a day or so, or you immediately want to store it away as a custom keybinding. As with most things with vim, it’s easy to do once you understand it. Creating a Macro # [1] One of the earliest things we all learn to do in vim is to create macros, custom sets of functionality stored in a register that can be replayed later. To create a macro, get into normal mode, then type q followed by a letter that you want to store the macro under. qq Note: a common throw-away macro register is q because it’s easy to hit qq from normal mode to start recording. Replaying a Macro # [2] Macros can be replayed using @ followed by the letter that you stored the macro under. @q Registers # [3] Registers are nothing more than a single character key mapping to a value of some text. As you yank, delete, or create macros in vim, it automatically stores text into these registers. When you hit...
3 min read
Live Substitution In Neovim

Live Substitution In Neovim

Replacing text in vim can be quite frustrating especially since it doesn’t have live feedback to what is changing. Today I was watching Josh Branchaud’s Vim-Unalphabet series on Youtuve and realized that his vim was doing this and I had to have it. https://twitter.com/_WaylonWalker/status/1346081617199198210 How to do it # [1] I had to do a bit of searching and found a great post from vimcasts [2] that shows exactly how to get the live search and replace highlighting using inccomand :h inccommand # [3] 'inccommand' 'icm' string (default "") global "nosplit": Shows the effects of a command incrementally, as you type. "split" : Also shows partial off-screen results in a preview window. Works for |:substitute|, |:smagic|, |:snomagic|. |hl-Substitute| If the preview is too slow (exceeds 'redrawtime') then 'inccommand' is automatically disabled until |Command-line-mode| is done. Add this to your config # [4] I believe that this is a neovim only feature, add it into your ~...
khzaw [1] has done a fantastic job with vim-conceal [2]. Highly recommend taking a look. A vim plugin making use of vim’s conceal feature for additional visual eyecandy. References: [1]: https://github.com/khzaw [2]: https://github.com/khzaw/vim-conceal

Newsboat

Web browsers are a black hole of productivity. I try to use them as little as possible when it is time to focus. I try to use help, ?, or ?? with ipython, or –help at the command line as much as possible. What about that time I am trying to see what my online friends are posting on their sites? I used to used google reader quite heavily before that was taken down. Newsboat # [1] I am going to give a terminal rss reader a try for a bit and see how that goes for me. I have really struggled to get into an rss reader since google reader died. installation # [2] I installed with the reccomended snap for Ubuntu. sudo snap install newsboat Adding feeds # [3] super simple Running help for newsboat directed me towards their config files at the bottom. ❯ newsboat --help newsboat r2.22 usage: /snap/newsboat/3849/usr/local/bin/newsboat [-i <file>|-e] [-u <urlfile>] [-c <cachefile>] [-x <command> ...] [-h] -e, --export-to-opml export OPML feed to stdout -r, --refresh-on-start refresh f...