Software Development Tips

How documentation can improve everything

Today, I want to discuss a big benefit of writing documentation that is often ignored: driving improvements to confusing and convoluted solutions.

Sep 12 • 

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Underrated Quick Fix smart actions

While AI chats and agents are all the rage, I think GitHub Copilot’s smart actions in VS Code deserve more attention.

Sep 5 • 

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August 2025

Getting notified from the command line

When executing long-running commands in the terminal, it is useful to get notified when they are done, instead of checking the terminal manually.

Aug 28 • 

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From best practices to sensible defaults

The tech industry is obsessed with “best practices.” People are constantly on the hunt for the latest and greatest processes, tools, and technologies.

Aug 22 • 

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The use cases of global Git excludes file

Git excludes file, often referred to as “global .gitignore,” is a file that defines global ignore rules for tracking files across all local Git…

Aug 12 • 

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Visualize older and newer code with GitLens File Heatmap

Visual Studio Code already comes with plenty of Git-related features, but there are still some neat features hiding in various extensions like GitLens…

Aug 1 • 

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July 2025

Solving Git merge conflicts with three-way merge view

Merging two versions of the same file results in a conflict when the version control system cannot decide how to reconcile the two versions.

Jul 23 • 

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May 2025

Command Line Handbook

Today is a special edition of my Software Development Tips newsletter.

May 29 • 

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Navigating between edits in VSCode

Navigating code in programming editors typically involves operations based on text or code semantics.

May 8 • 

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April 2025

Stacked pull requests with git rebase --update-refs

If you are using pull/merge requests as your code integration strategy, you will run into situations where multiple PRs will depend on one another.

Apr 11 • 

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March 2025

On using relative line numbers

Working with relative line numbers (as opposed to absolute line numbers) is a popular technique commonly used in command-line modal editors. The most…

Mar 25 • 

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January 2025

Config aliases

Some of my most used shell aliases are aliases for editing configuration files.

Jan 24 • 

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