one thing zsh has that I wish fish had too is this `path` array that you can use to set `PATH`, like this:

path=(
$path
~/.cargo/bin
~/bin
)

really feels like the "right" interface for setting PATH

I really love using a shell script to set my terminal colours (like in the screenshot), I feel like it's kind of a "weird" way to configure colours but I always find messing around in my terminal settings so annoying.

also I don't switch terminal emulators that often but it's nice for my colours to Just Work (tm) if I'm in a different one

Running a shell script (that I just run every time I start my shell) feels so much easier to me.

I may never do this but every so often I think about building a simple open source ebook fulfillment service that integrates with Shopify

(I mean probably other ecommerce platforms too, but personally the thing I need is a Shopify integration)

contributed a feature to the iTerm Color Schemes library yesterday to make the colorschemes work with any terminal emulator that supports the OSC 4 escape codes for setting the terminal's color palette (including GNOME Terminal, I believe the Linux console, and a bunch of others) https://github.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes/?tab=readme-ov-file#generic-color-schemes

basically it means that you can download a short script (like this: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mbadolato/iTerm2-Color-Schemes/refs/heads/master/generic/Solarized%20Dark%20-%20Patched.sh and when you run it it'll print out some escape codes that update your terminal colours, like this:

terminal poll: do you ever have problems where there are colours in your terminal which are hard to read because of bad contrast?

curious about where there's a project (other than base16 & its forks) that uses shell scripts to set your terminal colours like this: https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell/blob/master/scripts/base16-atelier-dune.sh

I really enjoy setting my terminal colours from a shell script (works in every terminal emulator! no more messing around in the settings! ) but there are some things about base16 that I don't love

Great post on the SIGARCH blog: "The Academic Pipeline Stall: Why Industry Must Stand for Academia" https://www.sigarch.org/the-academic-pipeline-stall-why-industry-must-stand-for-academia/

We need your help, industry folks.

Very concretely and immediately: I want to make more zines like https://decomposition.al/zines/#communicating-chorrectly-with-a-choreography, and I want to fund an undergrad to work with me on them over the summer. It doesn't look like the NSF REU funding we had for our first zine is happening this summer. Is there a company who'll step up with $10k to fund a student to make zines with me?

@b0rk Use zsh’s url-quote-magic to automatically quote pasted URLs. I love this one! No need to use single quotes with curl anymore

https://github.com/samsonjs/config/blob/9a32974419a416006aa34a78471649a5ffaa034f/zshrc#L180

ok here are a few Tab tips in the shell

writing about tab completion in the shell is reminding me of how much I rely on being able to tab complete from the *middle* of a filename in fish

like if the file starts with a weird character -- no problem! I can just type some characters from the middle and press 'Tab’

In which I survey CSRF countermeasures and existing Go libraries and propose we add CrossOriginForgeryHandler to net/http to solve this once and for all.

Turns out there is no need for tokens or keys in 2025! Browsers just send a This-Is-CSRF header now. (Sort of.)

https://github.com/golang/go/issues/73626

trying to come up with some advice around quoting/escaping/tab completion in the shell and not coming up with as much as I thought I would! so far I have:

- sometimes you can drag a file from a GUI file manager to escape it properly
- tab completion is great

mostly looking for advice around using the shell interactively, not scripting (so not "always quote your shell variables”)

trying to write a super short 10-line example program to give an idea of what the first step would be if you were writing your own terminal emulator (create a "pseudoterminal pair") https://gist.github.com/jvns/fe878425a1663132b0ed1153b55bb73e

copy and paste in the terminal

the good thing about spending 6 months working on writing a zine about the terminal is that when I just saw this error message:

$ rm *
rm: illegal option -- b

I could just pause for 5 seconds, think "oh, right, I guess I have a file that starts with -b for some reason” and then just run "rm -- *"

I •think• this URL will work over here:

Via Patrick Nielsen Hayden on Bluesky:

@adapalmer 's annual U of Chicago papal-election LARP, covered in today’s New York Times (gift link)

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/06/us/conclave-pope-class.html?unlocked_article_code=1.FE8.JKOm.27PqInJ5NsAS&smid=url-share

stdin, stdout, and stderr

Mastodon has taken the strategic decision not to accept venture capital investments for growth, but rather restructure to a European non-profit organisation. 👏

https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/05/evolving-the-team/

terminal programs have a lot of hidden rules

I really like how we verify the examples of 493 libcurl man pages in CI by test-compiling them and making sure there are no warnings. Every man page also must feature an example or the build fails.