rvm ruby-1.9.1%wayne

This will auto-switch to the specified ruby/gemset when cd-ing into that directory..
(see http://rvm.beginrescueend.com/workflow/rvmrc/)

TextMate is a fantastic editor. No other software development tool can compare on the combination of aesthetic, sensible extensibility, and feature set that it provides. The imperfection is that very sensible extension mechanism. You can go a long way with it, but there are things that are out of reach. You can’t really embed a terminal window in TextMate, or implement split windows, or proper full-screen editing by writing a TextMate bundle. Perhaps someone could write something in Objective-C that mucks around with the TextMate insides, as the somewhat popular project drawer plugin does. But that’s a suboptimal solution. That said, TextMate does an astonishingly good job of reaching the 90% point of what developers need.

I don’t use it or even own it, but Photoshop seems to be the subject of near constant abuse on Twitter. Between Adobe’s installation and upgrade procedures, its performance, its outdated UI, and its poor position as an OS X citizen, I’m often surprised people keep putting up with it. It would be quite difficult for a competitor to provide all the functionality needed to outright replace Photoshop, but I suspect the potential profit would be handsome.

If I think of Adobe’s tools and something like Emacs, I start to think that creators easily eschew aesthetics and native feel for raw power. It’s probably a sensible trade-off.

As a developer, the tools I use are by their nature unfinished. I want them that way, as finishing is a closing off of possibilities. I want emacs to have conceptual edges left unfinished, as I can finish them in a way that suites me, that best integrates with the way I think and program, which WILL be different than how you think and you program.

Tools which support creative endeavor must be unfinished, so the creator can believe it adapts to them, not that they must entirely adapt themselves to it.

Then there are tools like Terminal.app, which provide an infinity of power unobtainable by any pre-designed application. The flow of chaining piped commands together to build something supremely more powerful than any one tool could provide is a core part of why I work from the command line more often than not.

I’ve used great IDEs, and I continue to use them, but as a software developer I often want to do things that could never be pre-imagined by the IDE authors, sometimes because I just want to do them once, but I do a dozen once operations a day. Sometimes because it’s a conceptual operation specific to the current project.

Also, the unfinished edges of our tools are the places we add our own touches, the things that make a tool feel ‘right’ in the hand. It’s like a broken-in hiking boot; no boot from the factory is going to provide the experience you want, you have to wear it, break it in, smooth its edges with your own customizations.

We wouldn’t approve of that in a tool not designed for assisting in the act of creation, because those tools are generally focused, purposeful tools. You don’t want your clock widget to encourage you to explore, or your calendaring system to encourage experimentation. You want them to do the focused job you need them to do.

Our primary tools, as creators, are for exploration and experimentation. That necessitates a certain…unfinishedness of the tools, as we finish them through our use.

I shouldn’t write stuff like this when I’m tired, I get all flowery and shit. ;)

 — Morgan

What would George Washington think?

But a guy can dream, right?

Hey, now, I resemble that remark… I was born and raised in Southwest Oklahoma (otherwise known as North Texas to ya’ll.)

One more thing: You know why Oklahoma is so windy? Because Texas sucks and Kansas blows. ;-)

Keep up the great blog. I just discovered it and it’s now in my reader. Cheers!