commit 7b3e1901398473a191c521f306c1654ff3903de1
parent 9bddf2a50b9aa5871739a5fd51ec19c0fd275def
Author: Jake Bauer <jbauer@paritybit.ca>
Date: Mon, 8 Jun 2020 23:20:37 -0400
Pubish new blog post
Diffstat:
5 files changed, 100 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/pages/blog.md b/pages/blog.md
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ href="https://social.paritybit.ca/@jbauer">Mastodon</a>.
### 2020
<ul>
+ <li>2020-06-08 <a href="blog/scripting-my-way-to-success">Scripting My Way to Success</a></li>
<li>2020-06-07 <a href="blog/curating-my-blogroll">Curating My Blogroll</a></li>
<li>2020-06-07 <a href="blog/why-email-is-the-best-discussion-platform">Why Email is the Best Discussion Platform</a></li>
<li>2020-06-02 <a href="blog/toggling-between-indentation-styles-in-vim">Toggling Between Indentation Styles in Vim</a></li>
diff --git a/pages/blog/scripting-my-way-to-success.md b/pages/blog/scripting-my-way-to-success.md
@@ -0,0 +1,77 @@
+## Scripting My Way to Success
+
+[//]: # "How I solve almost all my problems with scripting."
+
+[//]: # "main.min.css"
+
+[//]: #
+
+<div class="byline">
+<b>Written By:</b> Jake Bauer |
+ <b>Posted:</b> 2020-06-08 |
+ <b>Last Updated:</b> 2020-06-08
+</div>
+
+Something that I love about *nix systems is the composability of all of the
+different available tools allowing for very quick prototyping, fast and easy
+one-liners, and efficient text processing. I thoroughly (ab)use this to get
+nearly everything done.
+
+Yesterday, when I was curating my blogroll, I needed a way to update the list of
+blogs and feeds I follow on my [links page](/links#blogroll). Of course I didn't
+want to do this manually since that would be a huge pain. Instead, like whenever
+I encounter a problem, I turned to scripting. I came up with a script I call
+`generate-blogroll.sh` ([view the script
+here](https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/generate-blogroll.sh))
+which composes the export functionality of `newsboat`, the standard `awk`,
+`cut`, `tr`, `sort`, and `sed` utilities along with `vim`/`nvim`'s scripting
+abilities and `rsync` for uploading the changed files.
+
+The script basically goes through the exported OPML file from Newsboat, breaks
+each line up into a title, html URL, and feed URL, and then replaces the content
+of my blogroll page with the new, auto-generated list. Once that's done, it
+uploads the exported `blogroll.opml` file and the newly compiled `links.html`
+page. It's not portable to other websites but that doesn't matter at all because
+it's not supposed to be. I'm not creating a tool for someone else to use, I'm
+hacking out a script to perform a simple, repeatable function which would
+otherwise be a pain to do manually.
+
+I created and refined the script over the course of about 30-60 minutes of
+actual work and, in doing so, learned about how to properly use `vim`'s
+scripting abilities, practiced my POSIX shell scripting skills, and had a bunch
+of fun.
+
+That's the beauty of scripting and the *nix environment. Any time I encounter a
+similar problem, I write a script to handle it for me. Need to parse stats from
+a log file? Script it. Need a way to download the content of an entire website?
+Script it. Need to test how fast a program runs, then average the runtimes?
+Script it. Need to generate an entire website from markdown files? Script it (I
+did for this site!).
+
+In addition to the blogroll script, I have a [script to compile this
+website](https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/generate-blogroll.sh),
+a [script to publish new blog
+posts](https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/publish), a [script to
+update the site's uptime
+display](https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/tuptime-update.pl),
+and even a [script to handle uploading files to my
+webserver](https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/uploadwatch.sh).
+Those are just the scripts for this website! Some of them need to be rewritten
+for portability to other *nix systems, and some are from when I first started
+this site so they're not as good as my more recently-written scripts, but that's
+alright because they do the thing they're supposed to do and haven't failed me
+yet.
+
+Scripting is also great for saving time at work; the more time saved doing
+menial tasks, the more time can be spent doing interesting things. Plus, you get
+to show off in front of your co-workers and that's always a bonus.
+
+The next time you have a menial task to do, even if it's just a small one, give
+scripting a shot. It doesn't matter whether or not it saves you time in the long
+run (unless this is a critical task, then you should probably care), do it for
+the fun of it!
+
+_This is my thirty-ninth post for the
+[#100DaysToOffload](https://social.paritybit.ca/tags/100DaysToOffload)
+challenge. You can learn more about this challenge over at
+[https://100daystooffload.com](https://100daystooffload.com)._
diff --git a/pages/home.md b/pages/home.md
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@ extent)! Access through `gopher://paritybit.ca` or `gemini://paritybit.ca`.
src="/img/feed-icon.png" width="15" height="15" alt="Click for RSS Feed"/>
</a>
</div>
+2020-06-08 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/scripting-my-way-to-success">Scripting My Way to Success</a>
+
2020-06-07 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/curating-my-blogroll">Curating My Blogroll</a>
2020-06-07 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/why-email-is-the-best-discussion-platform">Why Email is the Best Discussion Platform</a>
@@ -37,8 +39,6 @@ extent)! Access through `gopher://paritybit.ca` or `gemini://paritybit.ca`.
2020-05-27 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/i-like-perl">I Like Perl</a>
2020-05-26 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/choosing-a-self-hosted-git-service">Choosing a Self-Hosted Git Service</a>
-
-2020-05-25 <a class="feed-item" href="blog/going-from-user-to-contributor-with-foss">Going From User to Contributor With FOSS</a>
### What is a Parity Bit?
It is a bit (in the 1's and 0's sense) used in checking for errors in digital
diff --git a/public/feeds/sitewide-feed.xml b/public/feeds/sitewide-feed.xml
@@ -7,6 +7,25 @@
<description>The feed that covers all notable additions, updates, announcements,
and other changes for the entire paritybit.ca website.</description>
<item>
+ <title>Scripting My Way to Success</title>
+ <link>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/scripting-my-way-to-success</link>
+ <guid>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/scripting-my-way-to-success</guid>
+ <pubDate>Mon, 08 Jun 2020 18:24:46 -0400</pubDate>
+<description><![CDATA[<h2 id="scripting-my-way-to-success">Scripting My Way to Success</h2>
+<div class="byline">
+<p><b>Written By:</b> Jake Bauer | <b>Posted:</b> 2020-06-08 | <b>Last Updated:</b> 2020-06-08</p>
+</div>
+<p>Something that I love about *nix systems is the composability of all of the different available tools allowing for very quick prototyping, fast and easy one-liners, and efficient text processing. I thoroughly (ab)use this to get nearly everything done.</p>
+<p>Yesterday, when I was curating my blogroll, I needed a way to update the list of blogs and feeds I follow on my <a href="/links#blogroll">links page</a>. Of course I didn’t want to do this manually since that would be a huge pain. Instead, like whenever I encounter a problem, I turned to scripting. I came up with a script I call <code>generate-blogroll.sh</code> (<a href="https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/generate-blogroll.sh">view the script here</a>) which composes the export functionality of <code>newsboat</code>, the standard <code>awk</code>, <code>cut</code>, <code>tr</code>, <code>sort</code>, and <code>sed</code> utilities along with <code>vim</code>/<code>nvim</code>’s scripting abilities and <code>rsync</code> for uploading the changed files.</p>
+<p>The script basically goes through the exported OPML file from Newsboat, breaks each line up into a title, html URL, and feed URL, and then replaces the content of my blogroll page with the new, auto-generated list. Once that’s done, it uploads the exported <code>blogroll.opml</code> file and the newly compiled <code>links.html</code> page. It’s not portable to other websites but that doesn’t matter at all because it’s not supposed to be. I’m not creating a tool for someone else to use, I’m hacking out a script to perform a simple, repeatable function which would otherwise be a pain to do manually.</p>
+<p>I created and refined the script over the course of about 30-60 minutes of actual work and, in doing so, learned about how to properly use <code>vim</code>’s scripting abilities, practiced my POSIX shell scripting skills, and had a bunch of fun.</p>
+<p>That’s the beauty of scripting and the *nix environment. Any time I encounter a similar problem, I write a script to handle it for me. Need to parse stats from a log file? Script it. Need a way to download the content of an entire website? Script it. Need to test how fast a program runs, then average the runtimes? Script it. Need to generate an entire website from markdown files? Script it (I did for this site!).</p>
+<p>In addition to the blogroll script, I have a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/generate-blogroll.sh">script to compile this website</a>, a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/publish">script to publish new blog posts</a>, a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/tuptime-update.pl">script to update the site’s uptime display</a>, and even a <a href="https://git.sr.ht/~jbauer/paritybit.ca/tree/master/uploadwatch.sh">script to handle uploading files to my webserver</a>. Those are just the scripts for this website! Some of them need to be rewritten for portability to other *nix systems, and some are from when I first started this site so they’re not as good as my more recently-written scripts, but that’s alright because they do the thing they’re supposed to do and haven’t failed me yet.</p>
+<p>Scripting is also great for saving time at work; the more time saved doing menial tasks, the more time can be spent doing interesting things. Plus, you get to show off in front of your co-workers and that’s always a bonus.</p>
+<p>The next time you have a menial task to do, even if it’s just a small one, give scripting a shot. It doesn’t matter whether or not it saves you time in the long run (unless this is a critical task, then you should probably care), do it for the fun of it!</p>
+<p><em>This is my thirty-ninth post for the <a href="https://social.paritybit.ca/tags/100DaysToOffload">#100DaysToOffload</a> challenge. You can learn more about this challenge over at <a href="https://100daystooffload.com" class="uri">https://100daystooffload.com</a>.</em></p>]]></description>
+</item>
+<item>
<title>Curating My Blogroll</title>
<link>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/curating-my-blogroll</link>
<guid>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/curating-my-blogroll</guid>
diff --git a/public/sitemap.xml b/public/sitemap.xml
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/home</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog</loc></url>
+ <url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/scripting-my-way-to-success</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/curating-my-blogroll</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/why-email-is-the-best-discussion-platform</loc></url>
<url><loc>https://www.paritybit.ca/blog/toggling-between-indentation-styles-in-vim</loc></url>
