URL: http://diveintomark.org/archives/2002/10/07.html#my_good_easy
Date: 2002-10-07T17:59:05-05:00
_Joe Gregorio_: My next pet project[1]. &#8220;Trying to re-create the "Good
Easy[2]" on a Windows machine.&#8221; I have also made half-hearted attempts in
this direction, as I am forced to use Windows during the day. I say
half-hearted because I'm still application-centric, and I don't go as far with
keyboard shortcuts as I could. But I don't use the desktop at all (never have,
on any system), and I don't use ctrl alt keyboard shortcuts because I
personally find them awkward (YMMV). If you must use Windows, the first step
towards a productive system is managing your Start menu.
I use the main level of the Start menu with numbered shortcuts to my most
common programs. "0 Control Panel[3]", "1 Mozilla[4]", "2 Emacs[5]", "3 DOS
home", "4 DOS work", "5 DOS incoming" (each of which gives me a command line,
but in different directories), "7 Python[6]", "9 IE". Also "# Explorer home",
"$ Explorer work", "% Explorer incoming", which open Explorer windows in
various useful directories (the same directories as the DOS shortcuts, only
with the shift key held down, and yes, I intentionally set it up so that $ went
to my work folder). Less-used programs are taken out of their useless submenus
(as installed) and moved directly into the Programs submenu and given unique
first letters as needed. "Ad-aware[7]", "Excel[8]", "IM", "Netscape 4[9]",
"Paint Shop Pro", "Query Tool (ODBC)[10]", "VMWare[11]", "Word[12]". All other
submenus except Startup are removed from the Programs menu. (Yes, delete
"Accessories". Do you honestly ever use it? If so, it's probably a sign of a
larger productivity problem.) Things which never need to be run manually (like
WinZip and Quicktime) are removed from the Programs menu. Maintaining a clean
Programs menu is an ongoing struggle, but well worth it.
On most modern keyboards, there is a key next to your left alt key that opens
the start menu, which you can press with your left thumb without taking your
fingers off the home keys. Otherwise ctrl esc always works. Menu 4 gives me a
new command prompt in my work directory. Menu P N runs Netscape 4 (for
compatibility testing in my day job, ugh). Mozilla and Emacs are almost always
open, but I quit lesser-used applications as soon as I'm done using them
(mostly because my laptop doesn't have a lot of memory).
I install Cygwin[13] so that the command line is actually useful. Cygwin is a
collection of Windows ports of all your favorite UNIX utilities, including mv,
cp, scp, ssh, man, tar, less, grep, patch, ncftp, cvs, and many others. And
bash, which I don't use because I dislike how it handles Windows pathnames. I
also set the properties of my command line shortcuts to set the window size to
120 x 50 (almost full screen at 1024 x 768), and screen buffer size to 120 x
3000. Set window position at 0 x 0, and don't let the system position the
window.
In Mozilla, I set my home page to "about:blank", set Internet Search to search
with Google, use Tabbed Browsing, open tabs instead of windows in all possible
cases, always show the tab bar, and load links in the background (essential for
weblog surfing, you can ctrl click links to open them in new tabs in the
background). Under Scripts & Plugins, I do not allow scripts to open
unrequested windows. I turn off the sidebar, turn on the Site Navigation Bar,
delete all pre-installed bookmarks, and create two bookmarks: one which takes
me to my webmail, and another which takes me to my internal site search[14],
from which I can find all other bookmarks I need.
In Internet Explorer, I set my home page to the page to edit my weblog, since
that's the only thing I do in Internet Explorer. alt tab back and forth between
Mozilla and IE is easier than ctrl pgup/pgdown between tabs within Mozilla,
since TEXTAREAs in Mozilla lose focus when you switch tabs, making copying and
pasting weblog entries virtually impossible.
I use Emacs locally and vi remotely, because the default behavior of Emacs is
so heinous as to render it unusable. (For instance, editing a CGI script named
foo.cgi on a web server with Emacs would generate a foo.cgi~ backup file, which
is world-readable and is sent as plain text to any browser that asks. Try this
sometime on your favorite web site.) Among other things, my .emacs file (which
is actually called _emacs on Windows) instructs Emacs to store all backup files
in a single directory (d:\backup); to treat all XML files as DocBook, all CGI
scripts as Python, and all SQL scripts as PL/SQL; to use Cygwin's bash shell
for M-x-shell; to use a single maximized frame with no menubar, titled as the
name of the current file; to show column numbers; to accept "y" and "n" for
yes/no questions; not to blink; not to beep; and to close the current file when
I press M-w. I use some weird registry hacks and a hacked notepad.exe to get
all text files to open in Emacs. (I got this idea from Ultraedit[15].) My
_emacs file is my second most backed-up possession.
I don't use Windows' useless directory structure for user home directories. On
my D drive I have d:\home (contains directories for my books and other personal
projects, each under CVS control&#8212;also set as my home directory using the
HOME environment variable), d:\work (contains directories for each work
project, also under CVS), d:\incoming (set as default download directory for
all programs that download things), and d:\backup (used by Emacs, and for
temporary storage, for instance for storing originals when checking out newly
created CVS projects). I don't know or care what's where on my C drive.
I have tried many, many address books, and still store all my contacts, email
addresses, snail mail addresses, phone numbers, and other vital personal
information in a text file called phone, stored in d:\home\phone. It is not in
any particular format, other than being plain text and usually including blank
lines between entries. I categorize people with simple keywords in parentheses
after their name, and use M-x-occur in Emacs to search by keyword. This file is
my single most backed-up possession.
Other essential free Windows utilities I use (in no particular order): TweakUI
[16], Cygwin[17], Guidescope[18], ZoneAlarm[19].
[1]  http://bitworking.org/Oct2002.html#X631695997519494480
[2]  http://www.winterspeak.com/columns/082001.html
[3]  http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-013
[4]  http://www.mozilla.org/
[5]  http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/windows/ntemacs.html
[6]  http://www.activestate.com/Products/ActivePython/
[7]  http://www.lavasoftusa.com/
[8]  http://www.openoffice.org/
[9]  http://sillydog.org/narchive/
[10] http://gpoulose.home.att.net/
[11] http://www.vmware.com/
[12] http://www.openoffice.org/
[13] http://www.cygwin.com/
[14] http://diveintomark.org/mt/mt-search.cgi
[15] http://www.ultraedit.com/downloads/index.html#notepad
Replacing Notepad with Ultraedit-32
[16] http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp
[17] http://www.cygwin.com/
[18] http://www.guidescope.com/
[19] http://download.com.com/3000-2092-10039884.html?part=zonealarm&subj=dlpage