Author: Tom (Page 355 of 434)

Using Kaleidoscope For a Git Diff Tool

February 18, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

In a previous post, I’ve mentioned that GitBox is my git client of choice. In short, I think it’s UI is simple and it’s extremely easy to manage all of the standard git tasks.

And, of course, if you find yourself needing to issue some commands from the command line, it’s really easy to install git for the command line.

But for anyone that’s done an any amount of work with source control, you know that a portion of your time is resolving merge conflicts and sifting through code using a diff tool to help manage the merging.

Though there’s a lot of good options available, the latest version of Kaleidoscope has become my favorite application for managing code diffs. After installing it, here’s how you can configure it for your environment.

Writing a Plugin (and Doing It Live!)

February 15, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this week, Pippin Williamson (of Pippin’s Plugins) sent out the following tweet:

What's a plugin that @nocross and I could build during #wcmia and release for free? #WordPress

— Pippin Williamson (@pippinsplugins) February 13, 2013

Neat idea, right? Have he and Andrew Norcross – a fellow WordPress developer – create a plugin during the course of a WordCamp that could be released for free.

So I tossed my idea into the ringer:

@pippinsplugins @norcross write a plugin that identifies all comments that have *not* been replied to by the post author.

— Tom McFarlin (@tommcfarlin) February 13, 2013

You can actually read the entire conversation here.

This has been a plugin that I’ve wanted for a long time, and I assume anyone who’s actually maintained a blog for a significant amount of time would do the same.

As it turns out, I’m going to be joining Pippin and Norcross in writing a plugin for exactly this. And we’re gonna do it live.

Comment Images 1.8 – A Major Update

February 14, 2013 / Tom

Late last night, I released Comment Images 1.8 along with two smaller updates to resolve any outstanding issues (some of which were already reported by users – so thanks for that!).

Comment Images 1.8

Here’s a run down of everything that’s new in the last version of the plugin.

Quit Your Day Job – My Interview with The Pro Guide

February 14, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

For those of you who have followed this blog for sometime, you know that I moved from corporate employment to self-employment several years ago. During that time, I’ve had the pleasure of working on both contract projects as well as helping to co-found and build 8BIT.

Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by The Pro Guide on what it looks like to quit your day job.

WordPress Refactoring: Refining Plugin Functions

February 13, 2013 / Tom / 0 Comments

Whenever it comes to writing code – be it starting a new project or working with an existing system – there are a lot of developers that aim to write clean, maintainable code.

It’s a challenge for sure, but it’s not impossible. Even if you’re responsible for simply introducing a new function into an existing system, there’s an opportunity to leave the place a little better than you found it.

Granted, trying to refactor a larger system too much can have serious unintended consequences, so I don’t necessarily advocate doing that, but if you have the opportunity to break a one larger function into several smaller, more focused functions, then I think the opportunity should be taken.

I recently had a chance to do a bit of WordPress refactoring in the context of a commissioned plugin I am working on, and wanted to share the process that I followed for doing so.

Using Kaleidoscope For a Git Diff Tool

Writing a Plugin (and Doing It Live!)

Comment Images 1.8 – A Major Update

Quit Your Day Job – My Interview with The Pro Guide

WordPress Refactoring: Refining Plugin Functions

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