Along the theme of common sense reminders, I enjoyed reading when windows are not enough about how automating repetitive tasks is a key part of staying productive (and sane) when using computers. I like the “three strikes, you’re out” guideline for automation: when you find yourself doing something for the third time, write a script.

Towards the end Gojko Adzic talks about regular expressions, which every programmer should know and I don’t know well enough myself. Alexander Stigsen (via Ron Jeffries has posted a nice webcast and cheat sheet if you’re looking to brush up on you regex skills.

One thought on “regular expressions are cool

  1. Combining regular expressions with email archives and speech synthesis can be a fun way to recall the past, and reflect on aspects of one’s personality or relationships with others.

    I wrote a little app a few years ago that would read aloud all self-referential statements from my email archives.

    http://woj.com/whispers/

    It’s a very solipsistic art app, but the point is that there are some interesting interaction possibilities when you intersect a few powerful tools.

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