Create, edit, manage and load complex Tmux session, window and pane configurations with ease.

This basically means if you have one Tmux window open where is your terminal, another Tmux window open which are you tests and another Tmux window which is your editor and all of these are for a specific project you can create a Tmuxifier 

 With one command in the terminal you can be up and running and get cracking on your work.

This might be clearer with an actual example…

You also need Tmux. (If you don’t know what Tmux is then check out my other 

, there are pretty clear instructions about how to install it and get it up and running. Make sure you follow all the instructions as it’s not just a case of 

 and thats it. You also have to update your 

In Tmuxifier you can basically create and edit 

 here are the same as the Tmux definitions.

 for my blog that I develop locally on my computer. I was feeling particularly creative that day so I called it blog. To create this 

This created a bash file blog.session.sh in which you can write the script for setting up your session. What I have set up is very basic for my blog as it’s a simple application but hopefully it will give you an idea and inspiration to get started:

seesion_root — This sets the root directory for your session.

if initialize_session "blog"; then — This is part of the boiler plate code when you create a new 

 but it’s basically initialising the session with the given name.

new_window — This creates a new tmux window in this session and gives it the name provided in the double quotes.

select_window — Selects the window provided in the double quotes. If the name in the quotes doesn’t exist it throws an error.

run_cmd — Runs the command provided in the quotes.

Honestly, it’s all pretty straightforward and easy to get going with this. In this particular instance I am just opening two windows in Tmux and getting my frontend and backend code bases running for my blog.

I’ve been using Tmuxifier for a few weeks now and these are the most common commands I am using:

This command allows you to actually load the 

Is this tool going to totally change your life? Probably not. But it will help you get up and running on projects that you are consistently working on. Half the battle sometimes can just be getting up and running so by running one command to be able to get going is a win.

Plus I have found I now keep my desktop more tidy. I used to leave my terminal windows open at the end of the day so I didn’t have to set up everything the next day. Now I can quite happily close everything when I have finished working on a project knowing I can come back the next day and get my setup up and running quickly.

I am a Frontend Developer working mainly with React and Typescript in my day-to-day professional life. I love exploring new tools and libraries and love the Javascript Ecosystem.

Discovering Tmuxifier and how it can improve your development environment.

Tmuxifier — One Up Your Tmux Game

As soon as the world realised the potential of ChatGPT there has been a 

 about “This is the end of programmers”. Apparently it’s only a matter of time before AI improves to the point where it can take over everything that a software developer does. Recently the latest and greatest AI implementation to replace developers was introduced — Devin — and of course the internet was flooded with 

So I thought why not try and visualise what a world without developers would actually look like. To see if it’s possible to imagine this world and how it would function. To actually look at some practical day-to-day examples to see how AI could work in this potential future.

The situation I want to imagine is for a small to medium company, let’s say 50–200 people. They have some sort of hardware products, some internal web tools and some web presence too. They work with dynamic applications, not just static websites and they have customers that they produce and sell things too.

We can start with a custom application that internal users use. It’s a custom built web based application that interacts with a backend API that acts as a interface to some business logic.

 of this application wants to add another field to one of the views to capture some kind of data that currently isn’t being captured (

let’s assume this person has been deemed the responsible one to make changes on the existing application

Even if all developers disappear and are replaced by AI and the whole thing is just working seamlessly, who is controlling the AI?

My immediate thought is there is some AI interface they can talk to and they bring it up and say something like:

“I want to add a field here to capture the manufacturer of this particular part in our product”

What happens next? I guess there are a whole host of choices:

The AI produces a few mockups almost instantly allowing the user to decide which best aligns with what they requested.

The AI just implements the field straight away on the live application for the user to try out and iterates from that directly in the live code.

There is some staging application the AI implements the field on for the user to test out.

And what about under the hood? Well I guess I am making 

a massive assumption that AI produced applications will use the same tech stacks as we use now

They update the relevant schemas and models on the backend.

They implement the Frontend from the design that was accepted by the user

They deploy all this to the production servers

I mean it’s not beyond the realms of possibility but I have a few questions:

If iterating on the live app, are they updating all the backend and frontend code simultaneously?

How is the code base structured? Would it be separated into modules and nice and readable to a human like it is now or will it just be raw machine code?

What happens if the AI just doesn’t understand what the user wants and every iteration is just not close to what the user is asking for? How to rectify this situation?

How is the design produced and made realistic? AI images from DALL-E and Midjourney are fantastical looking but 

I’ve noticed that “Iteration” doesn’t seem a familiar concept to AI. You ask it to tweak something on an image and it comes back with something quite different.

7 — Definitely some questions around this but not beyond the realms of possibility.

Let’s take a little leap now and imagine the user of this internal application wants to add a whole new complex feature. They have a vague idea of what they want but they would find it very difficult to articulate their idea out loud.

Would the AI be able to utilise all it’s datasets and piece together something novel?

With an AI application that relies on voice instructions this would prove tricky to say the least. The user could certainly have a go and maybe it would just be a case of 

I am not sure what would happen if this new feature was truly something novel. Would the AI be able to utilise all it’s datasets and piece together something novel? Who knows… but I can imagine that building out this feature could be very frustrating for the user.

In a current setup, very often the user will come with a vague idea to the software team who will in turn interpret what they heard and there would be a 

back and fourth dialogue in which the idea gets flushed out and the details slowly start getting filled in

. There is also inspiration in these group chats as ideas are bounced off of each other.

AI does everything off of data. Basically everything is produced off of the past, off something else that already exists.

Maybe in this imagined future with AI, it would require a group of people flushing out the idea first and then interacting with the AI? I can’t help but think someone of technical knowledge would be very useful in this situation (i.e. a Software Developer) to give an idea of whats feasible and to translate and interpret to the AI.

4 — I suppose it could happen in the right situation but I would imagine in reality the bigger the feature request, the more chance AI just won’t be able to interpret what is needed.

What about the building of a completely new application? How would this work in a world without developers? In most companies I have worked in when there is an idea about a new application, a 

 is usually built. This is done for a number of reasons:

It’s a way to get something up quickly that resembles the initial idea.

It’s cheaper than building out an app of production quality.

It allows the opportunity to actually try something out to see if it will actually work if implemented properly. With a new app it’s often not obvious if the whole thing will actually do what is expected in reality.

It focuses attention on what are the essential aspects of the app and only include those in the initial version.

With AI cheapness and quickness could potentially be taken out of the equation. AI theoretically can build things very quickly compared to a human developer. It also doesn’t require wages so it is relatively cheap. Plus it doesn’t sleep so can work around the clock. (You can see why investors and business people are getting so excited about the prospects of AI).

I think one thing that has been grossly underestimated is the amount of effort it will require to build a production quality application with the help of AI

The big question here for me is would a human be able to articulate well enough what they want in order for an AI interface to be able to build out an accurate representation

? I think in time they would be able to. I would imagine it would be similar to carving a statue with a stone. First start off with the main large pieces and gradually over time start redefining all the details.

However, I think one thing that has been grossly underestimated is the amount of effort it will require to build a production quality application with the help of AI. Even if the AI models have evolved from what we currently have it’s still going to be working from a human’s instruction. The initial idea will come from humans and the reality is that 

a real life application has so many details in it that are so far away from the initial idea of that application that AI or not, it still takes many iterations to get there

3 — Depends totally on what app is being built. For a generic blog or dashboard app I’m sure AI will manage quite well. For anything custom I think it would be a disaster.

One thing is to consider is that the whole paradigm of:

This may well change. The only reason we have mockups these days is it’s a quick and easy way for the developers to understand what is actually being requested and for the users to get a realistic example of what they are requesting. It’s an interface that brings a whole load of clarity to something that words just aren’t able to provide.

With AI, it can almost instantly code the solution which is being requested. Therefore it can iterate in code just as quick (if not quicker) than a human could in a tool such as Figma or Photoshop.

Therefore, you can realistically see the removal of a couple of steps from this current process. Obviously this ignores the whole part of “design” which is so under appreciated by businesses it’s not even funny. 

It’s easy to see a few DALL-E images and believe AI is creative. I guess in some way it is, but is it innovative? Is it coming up with completely fresh, original ideas and perspectives on how to look at things?

I would argue it isn’t. At the moment it’s quite easy to spot an AI generated image. Some are blatant whilst others rely on paying attention to little details. However, you can recognise them.

The questions still remain though. Can AI push the boundaries of design? Can it introduce new styles and fashion into the App world? Can it truly innovate and move our App world forward?

What about third party packages and libraries?

Almost all major programming languages have a package management system these days — Javascript has npm, Python has pip, Rust has Cargo etc. What about all the libraries that come along with any ecosystem. All that innovation and development coming from human developers that other developers are able to utilise to build out products faster and of much higher quality. Is AI going to replace all that?

What about the Companies that are providing the AI?

One final thing that I think requires mentioning. Whatever AI exists in the future it’s going to be managed and run by a company or group of companies. 

A company like OpenAI or whoever that impose their rules and their ideals on the AI which in turn influences everything it produces.

Even if all developers disappear and are replaced by AI and the whole thing is just working seamlessly, who is controlling the AI? If this is adopted globally then a small change by this company can trickle down to have massive implications. Who will oversee what it is producing?

The more I go down this rabbit hole the more I get scared by the places we could end up as humans. And all so we can get more quicker?

One thing that has also become apparent in the writing of this article is the meaning of the word “Developer”. It seems to me that some of the tasks a developer does these days will be easy to replicate with AI. Others however, will not be.

If you are a Software Developer at the moment I think you have to aspire to become a 

. Engineers have been around as long as civilisations and they will continue to be. Throughout the ages, depending on the technology, engineers have worked in different domains but they have always been needed. To build, to innovate, to create and to push things forward.

I have realised in life that things change but also they don’t.

Even if all developers are removed from a company, it seems you still need some person to act as an interface between the business side of the company and the software being produced. It seem’s to be we aren’t going to get rid of developers, rather the developer’s specific roles are going to evolve.

Who’s overseeing the AI work to make sure AI is not adding complete rubbish?

 What about data? For many companies these days, data is their product. How much trust can you put into AI to make sure it doesn’t jeopardise the data integrity? In a current software team you have Pull Requests and Retrospectives and hierarchies within a team to address quality. This is all in place to try and maintain a standard and quality of the codebase and data for the company.

Innovation and novelty also leave a big question mark for me. AI is currently LLMs built on top of lots and lots of existing data. But if there are no developers surely it won’t take long for the whole development ecosystem to become stagnant. 

AI has no agency or intent. How and why would it try to innovate?

A world without Developers seems to me like a pretty sad affair. Sure, efficiency and productivity will soar and the fat cats sitting on the board will be content counting their coppers but what about all those positive human qualities that developers currently bring to the table. 

Innovation. Novelty. Quality. The spirit to improve.

 Without human developers the whole development lifecycle would just plateau because the spark of change would have gone. The world of technology would become dull and lifeless.

Apparently it’s only a matter of time before AI improves to the point where it can take over everything that a software developer does.

A World Without Software Developers

They will practice parts of a piece over and over again until it is completely engrained into their muscle memory

One thing that struck me was how they go about their practice. These young virtuosos will practice parts of a piece over and over again until it is completely engrained into their muscle memory. They can play it without thinking which is the level one needs to get to in order for the “soul” of the pianist to come through in the music.

I related this back to the profession of Software Development and specifically coding. We’re not working at a concert pianist level and we don’t need to perform but we do work with a keyboard and there are repetitive actions we do day in day out.

The more we know about the language the more diverse our options of implementation are and the quicker we can implement one of these options.

The whole idea of a text editor is to allow us as developers to capture our thoughts in a specific coding language. 

We think first what we want to do and translate that into whichever language we happen to be writing and type that into a keyboard so it appears in our text editor.

 The more we know about the language the more diverse our options of implementation are and the quicker we can implement one of these options.

There is much to learn to become a skilled Software Developer, the same as there is much to learn to become a great pianist. But how much purposeful dedicated time do we spend on the skill of becoming very proficient at using our text editor and how important is it really?

As a software developer I would classify the skills required (I am sure I will miss some) into the following groups:

Good knowledge of language/s regularly worked in

Knowledge of systems regularly used — Git, Jira, CI CD Pipelines, Operating Systems

You notice I didn’t include the Text Editor in the group of “Systems regularly used”. This is because as a developer you spend so much of your time in your editor. It’s easy to justify dedicating some deliberate time to learning the ins and outs of it. 

Regardless of which text editor you use, you should know it top to bottom.

I just learnt as I went along. Some things naturally got quicker and occasionally I would stumble across a new keyboard shortcut and realised I had been doing something very inefficiently for the last 6 months.

However, I don’t know any developer who actively sets aside time to work on their “Text Editor skills”. It’s almost once you pick an editor (usually based on some popular opinion on the internet at that time) it’s relatively easy to get up and running and then you make do with learning as you go.

This is what I did for many a year. I picked up VSCode as all my colleagues were using it. It was easy to install and easy to click around with a mouse and get things done. But I didn’t have any lessons. I didn’t dedicate any time to practising or learning keyboard shortcuts to improve my ability and efficiencies in the tool. I just learnt as I went along. Some things naturally got quicker and occasionally I would stumble across a new keyboard shortcut and realised I had been doing something very inefficiently for the last 6 months.

Let’s say hypothetically, that you did dedicate some time everyday to learning your text editors inside out. Like a pianist who practices their scales, you would learn and practice your keyboard shortcuts. You would build up your muscle memory and discover different ways to work quicker and faster in your editor. Would it be worth it and what would be the actual benefits gained?

I would make the argument that if you intend to be a software developer for at least the next 10 years then it probably is worth dedicating some time to really learning and understanding the full capabilities of your text editor. Also, it would be worth your time at getting really proficient at the common use cases you run into in a normal working day. Things like:

Opening different panes to run tests quickly

Changing a variable name throughout your codebase

Getting to a specific line in a file quickly

When you really concentrate on what you do, there are a whole host of things you do each day that if you became proficient in these specific actions you would ultimately change the way you work.

I mean it’s one thing to be quick and efficient but if you’re writing out absolute garbage then it really doesn’t matter how quick you are.

Having said all this, there are other skills that are equally, if not more important than pure speed and efficiency. I mean it’s one thing to be quick and efficient but if you’re writing out absolute garbage then it really doesn’t matter how quick you are. Dedicating time to learning the language you are working in is obviously more critical, especially if you are at the beginning of your career.

There are enough Senior developers out there advising you to learn common algorithms and data-structures that this should be taken seriously.

Soft skills are also a completely underrated skill as a Software Developer. You need to know how to do technical implementations and to build and improve applications but if you can’t speak or communicate with people then you’re going to have a difficult career.

Considering all the other skills needed in order to be a well rounded Software Developer does it really matter if you implement some code in 45 mins instead of 40 mins? Ultimately if you implement a solid solution that will stand the test of time this is the most important thing.

I think we can take some inspiration from pianists and the way they approach their profession. However, there are some fundamental differences with the main one being pianists are training for that special one-off “performance”. Software developers however have no equivalent, they “perform” everyday but obviously not under the same conditions or scrutiny.

I do still feel developers should spend some deliberate time just playing around with their text editor. Practicing some common keyboard shortcuts, exploring all the nocks and crannies.

 Spend time discovering other potentially useful shortcuts and evolving the keyboard mappings. This will all aid in improving the process of getting their thoughts from inside their heads onto the file inside the code editor in a more timely and efficient manner.

Understanding the importance of how fast you can type code when you are a Software Developer

How Important is Coding Speed?

(Going off on a tangent… this 5 months of basically not researching to find a better solution is an interesting human condition. It’s when you have something that works but you just know it’s not optimal but there is something within you preventing you from taking the time and effort required to find that “better solution”. Is it a fear that this “better solution” doesn’t exist? Is it a fear that it could require a tremendous amount of effort which will lead you down a horrendously long rabbit hole from which you may never escape? Is it just pure laziness? What is at the root of this pervasive procrastination that invades all aspects of our lives? I wonder…)

Neovim, like Vim, uses the concept of registers to store text.

If you want to copy and paste something within Neovim then you have many possibilities.

yy This is known as “Yanking”. If you have a cursor on a specific line and you are in NORMAL mode, then pressing yywill “Yank” (essentially copy) the current contents from that line. The first y indicates the start of the yank operation and the second y specifies that the scope of the yank operation is the whole of the current line. Then pressing P or p will paste it. P — Line above. p — Line below

dd This is similar to “Yanking” but this will delete the current contents of the line also. It’s essentially “cut and paste” in a traditional editor.

You can also use y or d in VISUAL mode on selected characters. If you select a bunch of characters and press one of these buttons, again it will copy the content and you can use P or p again to paste it somewhere else within Neovim.

What is actually going on in Neovim when you press y or d? Neovim, like Vim, uses the concept of registers to store text. When the yank operation is run it takes the copied text and stores it in the default register. 

Registers are storage spaces that can hold text

When the p paste command is run it then retrieves the content from the register and inserts it into the document in the specified location.

This meant the issue I was having is this default register, which is the unnamed register, is not accessible to the system clipboard. When trying to paste some yanked content to another program, the system clipboard didn’t use this unnamed register to retrieve content.

So it turns out, like most things in Neovim I have learnt, that there is a better way. You can use “Special Registers”. These “Special Registers” are linked to the system clipboard (not sure how, that is another rabbit hole I will save for a future date) so when using them you can copy text from Neovim and paste that text into other programs.

The "+ and "* registers are the special registers because they can interact with the system clipboard:

The "+ register is for the system clipboard that you interact with using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V (or Cmd on macOS).

The "* register is for the primary selection in X11 (Linux and Unix-like systems), which you typically interact with using middle-click.

Select the text in VISUAL mode by pressing v, then move to select the text you want to copy.

Press "*y to copy to the primary selection or "+y to copy to the clipboard.

Press "*p or "+p in NORMAL mode to paste the content of the primary selection or clipboard, respectively.

As a finishing touch I added a key map for this "+y command as it is something I use very regularly:

I just used that key map to copy this from my Neovim config file into this article! It’s already helpful.

However, through continual usage and a will to improve I managed to learn these concepts and also more about the underlying workings of the system I use everyday.

One other issue I have had in the past with Neovim is replacing multiple instances of the same word in a file. In VSCode there is the beautiful cmd + d keyboard shortcut which on first press selects the current word the cursor is on. Then on all subsequent presses it selects the next instance of that word. When you have multiple instances selected you can type in the replacement word.

I haven’t found something similar in Neovim yet. I have found though that if you select a word and yank it — y then you can paste that word to replace another word but once you pasted once you have to reyank it to paste it again! If you have 5 items to replace this is very annoying. I know you can do the :%s/ global find and replace but its a bit tedious and sometimes I only want to replace a few words and this seems over kill.

I have found at least as a short term solution if you yank the original word to paste into the special register for the system clipboard you can then replace every other instance using cmd + v Not a great solution but does saves the constant reyanking.

I have found with Neovim that there are many ways to do the same thing. I have also found that tasks that appear simple in editors like VSCode sometimes are not so straightforward in Neovim. This copy and paste is a great example of this. However, through continual usage and a will to improve I am learning more concepts and also more about the underlying workings of the system I use everyday. 

I think it’s really important to continually dive deeper and deeper into one’s understanding of the system one uses.

It’s relatively easy to pick up a tool designed by amazingly smart and talented people and live in ignorance to how it all works under the hood. But if you are a developer then I think you should take the time to at least gain some understanding. After all, there is no magic going on… usually.

Copying and pasting in Neovim and things you should know

My Frustrations with Copying and Pasting in Neovim

I realised that building a component library is not a quick endeavour.

What stack are we going to use on the Frontend?

Luckily for me, the community in the Frontend world is great and there is enough information out there and enough great tools that it’s not overly complex to pick a bunch of tools that will serve you well.

However, when it came to deciding about styling it was a little more tricky. I played with the idea of building our own component library and styling everything from scratch but then when trying this approach out on a simple button I realised that building a component library is not a quick endeavour. There is so much to think about and 

 that it was better for me to choose an existing component library.

There are also plenty of warnings out there about going with an existing component library but in my opinion it really depends on your situation.

There are also plenty of warnings out there about going with an existing component library but in my opinion, it really depends on your situation. If you have a designer and a few Frontend developers and a clear vision of what your whole style will be like then sure, a custom component library could be the best way forward. However, I was a loan Frontend developer who had to build rapid prototypes in order to show potential investors in order to raise capital for our small company. 

When I had made this decision it was time to whittle down a shortlist. I have used quite a few component libraries over the years so this was the list I came up with:

There are some more but these were the main ones I was seriously looking at.

For some reason, I have noticed that amongst seasoned developers Bootstrap is quickly dismissed, even mocked sometimes. “You used Bootstrap?! Why?!” I would hear it in some mocking tone like this library is somehow beneath them.

On the flip side, it seems to be the go-to library for junior developers or backend developers who just want to put together some 

 UI. Which I also find interesting. It’s not like it’s really any easier to use than the other libraries and it’s not as if it looks better but still seems the default choice in many situations.

Bootstrap (at the time of writing this) is on version 5. If you check out the 

 you find there are a fair number of components and plenty of options in terms of customisation.

I have noticed that amongst seasoned developers Bootstrap is quickly dismissed, even mocked sometimes.

For my situation, I didn’t choose it mainly due to the fact it was utility class based and I didn’t think the default styling really suited the use case of the applications I had to build. It’s pretty easy to recognise an MVP built with Bootstrap and it reminds me of the apps that used to get built when Bootstrap first came out. They were always clunky and just looked… like Bootstrap apps. I just don’t like the design. Maybe I am a developer snob after all.

With HeadlessUI I quickly dismissed it for two reasons:

I had never used it before and it looked like I might spend too much time styling and tweaking individual components rather than building out features that were quickly needed.

. Whilst I like Tailwind for static sites I think using Tailwind on the dynamic sites I was building out again would require too much time styling and building out a component library.

It basically came down to the best use of my time. Whilst I would enjoy the whole process of building out a design library I really didn’t have that luxury.

. I really like all the examples they give. It makes it very easy for a developer to understand how to use the components and the options each component provides. They have a long list of useful components. Components like 

 were very appealing to me as I knew I would need these in the projects I was working on. It’s also a mature library currently on 

So why didn’t I ultimately go with this library? 

I think this comes down to very irrational reasons

I didn’t know anyone personally who had used it. I didn’t have any specific recommendations from anyone I respected — either someone I knew or an online developer who I respected.

Gut feeling maybe? Something just didn’t entice me enough to decide to go with this. I had a mass of work ahead of me and this choice just seemed a little risky for some reason. If it backfired there would be some difficult questions I would have to answer.

All in all, I think it would be a great component library and one I definitely intend to use in some of my upcoming personal projects.

I’ve actually used Chakra-UI quite a few times on personal projects and I quite liked it. However, I didn’t feel it was the right pick for this project for a number of reasons:

Style — the overall style, look, and feel of the default Chakra components were just not in keeping with the apps I was planning to build. (Style and design matter a lot!)

The APIs on the components are a bit limited. If we compare the 

 you can see Mantine’s input field has many more props of which some I would use quite regularly. The whole rightSection and leftSection for me is much more intuitive and easier to use than Chakra’s InputGroup and InputLeftAddon and InputRightAddon

It’s a little thing I guess but if I am going to be using a component library for a long project and spend many working hours with it, the little things matter.

So ultimately it just didn’t provide the best option for me.

 quite a bit in the past so I was very familiar with it. 

It has much going for it — it’s got resources, it’s got a wide user base, it’s constantly being worked on and improved, it’s reliable and well-tested and its documentation is really good

I have to admit, none of these reasons are good solid reasons and that often the case when making some decisions in life. It comes down to a gut feeling which can’t always be explained by cold hard logic.

So why did I not choose it for this big project I was working on? For me, there were a couple of reasons:

Style — It’s all a bit Googly if you know what I mean. The library is based on Google’s Material Design. Don’t get me wrong, it’s fine but when you build an app using Material UI then unless you do some skilled customisation it has remnants of Google’s designs and that was not what I was after.

Input fields — I don’t like the input field design on Mui. The input fields are all a bit tall. The app I was going to be working on was going to have many input fields so this was important.

A review of different React Component Libraries and why I chose Mantine

Hi, I'm Adam Drake

Recently Published

Tmuxifier — One Up Your Tmux Game

A World Without Software Developers

How Important is Coding Speed?

My Frustrations with Copying and Pasting in Neovim

Why I Chose Mantine as My Component Library

A Deployment Strategy using Git Tags

What I Learnt About JavaScript from Learning Rust

As a Developer I am beginning to get Nervous about a Future with AI

A Few of My Favourite Vim Keybindings

Skills