Thomas Adam @[email protected]

Merry Moomas!

#tmux portable release 3.6

This has now been released.

Some really great stuff in this release. For the nitty-gritty, see:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tmux/tmux/3.6/CHANGES

For me, there's a myriad of interesting things in there. The big one is pane-scrollbars, as shown in the screenshot attached...

Enjoy!

#keyboards #keyboardlayout #programming #workmanlayout

Hey all.

I was made aware of this earlier:

https://workmanlayout.org/

This is a very interesting read. I once tried the #dvorak layout for about a day and decided it wasn't for me.

But I never stopped to consider that there would be other layouts besides QWERTY and $OTHERS -- even Dvorak -- although popular -- isn't "mainstream".

For me, I've always found QWERTY easier because I used to use my late grandmother's typewriter -- and I tend to do more "writing" than programming these days.

That said -- it got me thinking -- for anyone reading this who does use an alternative keyboard layout from QWERTY -- how's that working out for you, and which one do you use?

I am also very curious to know from a programming perspective how a non-QWERTY keyboard layout is like with modal editors -- (neo)vim for example -- does this help, hinder, or do you end up having to use a bunch of key mappings to make it work?

In terms of a specific keyboard, I'm using a Keychron Q11, as per the image in this post.

If the keyboard itself is relevant to the keyboard layout for some reason, I'd be interested to know!

#cow #autumn

As is tradition, Angus has become Angus Autumnton...

#moo

Due to technical difficulties, I’m still at CGD waiting to go home.

This time, I spotted a dot matrix #printer in use.

Amazing!

I’m sat at CDG airport waiting to go home to England.

When we were in France, I saw the following in the photo attached.

Not sure what the ‘ba’ command is, but it’s definitely spawning ‘sh’ afterwards.

#sh #bash

#ruler #terminal #tmux #ded

I've had this idea of having a ruler in the terminal. Such a ruler would allow me to see how far across the terminal a character or word is.

Why? Not sure yet, I just liked the idea of it. You know, this is one of those solutions looking for a problem. ;). Still, it was fun.

What I came up was this:

(ruler1.png)

This is achieved using tmux, where it's possible to create a split where the output is taken from stdin (rather than spawning a shell):

% ruler | tmux splitw -dI -l2 -b &

Here, this creates a split window two lines high (-l2), puts on the top (-b), and puts the output from the`ruler` command in the window.

Then I can use text using whatever against the ruler to see where on the screen it is.

We can take this a step further though and make use of tmux's `popup-display` command to have a ruler floating on the screen:

(ruler2.png)

... and even make it borderless:

(ruler3.png)

This can be moved using the mouse, by holding Alt down and dragging with mouse-1.

It turns out that using a ruler in an application isn't new.

Thomas Dickey (of #xterm fame) wrote #ded (https://invisible-island.net/ded/ded.html) which has a ruler on it:

(ruler4.png)

#ded is an interesting program of itself and I had to tweak it slightly to make ot use ncursesw to display nicely in tmux (ACS fallback for drawing the ruler), which I might discuss in a separate thread on here.

I'll have to email Thomas to find out what the "workspace ruler" (as it's called) does, and what it's useful for.

As for my ruler, well, I think I have the measure of it now, so I think I'll re-write the quick shell script into something with bells-and-whistles.

Maybe I'll give it conversion options to display inches, feet, cubits, etc... ;)

#uk #govwarning #alerting

The UK has just had another mass-public testing of its "severe alerting" mechanism, which makes most phones vibrate and make a sound even if the phone is on silent.

Last time this was done (2023) it didn't go very well (no Government project the UK undertaken *ever* works, it's always a f**king disaster). This time though, it seemed to go well.

I came home to find Angus has transformed…

Señor Angusto.

Moochas Grassias!

#cow

#british #food

I know that Britain is famous for its #fish-and-chips.

That's fine.

We don't always eat it like that though...

Sometimes we decide that adding more beige food is just too bland on the eye, and that having random vegetables such as tender-stem broccoli and runner beans is a much better alternative.

I say, "we", I mean, I was told to eat this... ;)

#bbc #archimedes #britishschool #education

I found a school journal from 1993, when I was ten years old.

In it, were the following screenshots for operating a BBC Micro computer and/or an Archimedes computer.

In 1993, computer literacy was still coming into its own; software packages like spreadsheets and word processors hadn't gone mainstream -- certainly not in terms of ICT (Information Computer Technology) at pre-GCSE level.

But we did spend a lot of time in school learning about #Pendown, which was a very capable word processor:

https://youtu.be/AURsz3eHbD8

I don't recall using Revelation to do anything, but it existed:

https://www.computinghistory.org.uk/det/21894/Archimedes%20Revelation%202/

According to the forms in my journal, I didn't get very far.

Says it all, really... I was only ten.

Day 3 with The #Ferments.

They're very active which is a good sign. The brine which has been a wonderful purple colour is now starting to go cloudy, this is another good sign as the good lacto bacteria are taking hold.

I've ordered some pH strips to test the acidity to make sure it's going down. I suspect it's fine, as there's so much CO2 being produced, the brine is overflowing the jars.

One thing we did not consider is the ferment proximity to our other fruits and vegetables... it must be torture! Just look at the photo... ;) ;)

#cake #banana #bananacake #baking

Tonight has also seen us bake banana loaf, as we had a few over-ripe bananas -- so what else are you supposed to do but make a cake with them? :)

#lactofermenting #fermenting #vegetables

Fermentation station is back!

This time, we've got: carrots, cabbage, leeks, chili, onion -- some have bay leaves in (for tanning to keep the vegetables crunchy during fermentation). Other jars have mustard seeds, whole black peppercorns.

The saline solution is 3.5% by weight, slightly higher than usual, but some of the softer vegetables (chili) need that to prevent kahm yeast from forming.

This should be fun!

#wedding #cake

Heh -- trust eagle-eyed people to notice such things!

Some of you have asked me about the white wedding cake in the attached photo.

It was something I bought for my wife ~18 months ago. In October this year, we will have been married two years. :)

#puzzles #wooden #boardgames

We're starting to get quite a mini-collection now. With my recent resurrected interested in #tafl games, I'm going to be going down that rabbit hole.

In the meantime though, you can see from the photos attached the following (from top-left, then bottom left, moving to the right):

* Solitaire (English variant): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_solitaire

* Solitaie (European variant): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_solitaire

* German Tactics (AKA, "Asalto"): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asalto

* Switch Sixteen: https://woodies100.co.uk/product/switch-sixteen/

* Bar Skittles: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_skittles

* Triangular Solitaire: https://woodies100.co.uk/product/tri-solitaire/

* Nine Men's Morris: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nine_men%27s_morris

Switch Sixteen happens to be quite tricky!

Table skittles is likely one of those curios only really seen in the British pub culture. Note that, many older pubs still have an actual skittle alley, played on the floor: https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-pub-skittles-1961-online

The cake itself, was a really lovely vanilla sponge cake, with a lovely coffee cream icing.

I love #coffee -- as Vicky knows, so I'm savouring him. :)

#feathers #feathersmcgraw #wallaceandgromit

Friday 11th was my birthday (42; heck!). My wife made me a cake...

I love Feather McGraw from Wallace and Gromit. :)

Well...

I figured I would start the notion of a #crypriccrossword terminal application on #linux and #bsd

I've a long way to go..

Why am I developing this on a Mac? A conversation for another day.

I wanted this to be about #rust and #ratatui development. Hopefully I've achieved that.

So far, this is fun! It's not usable yet, but hopefully the screenshot gives you an idea.

Any help or ideas appreciated.

Well, my wife and I have revamped #crossword corner in our lounge. This is where I sit and contemplate all things #crypticcrossword