Tooling on Jake Worth

Unalias an Alias

Wed, 01 Jul 2026 11:45:19 -0400

Sometimes I want to iterate on an alias. You can unalias an alias like this:

unalias aliasname

Concatenate Non-Printing Characters

Tue, 30 Jun 2026 12:29:45 -0400

I’ve been writing some non-printing characters to a file. But when I concatenate, it appears empty.

cat log.txt
# Nothing here 🥺

cat those non-printing characters with -v:

cat -v log.txt
jjjj:wq^M%

Prettier in Fenced Code Blocks

Mon, 29 Jun 2026 14:06:11 -0400

Prettier formats code in fenced code blocks! When I type three backticks and then a code block, Prettier evaluates the code in the block and tries to format it per my global .prettierrc.

Vim Scratchpad Part 2

Wed, 26 Oct 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Today, I’d like to dive deeper into a part of my practice: using a persisted text file for jotting things down. In this post, I’ll explain the ‘why’ behind this technique, and provide an updated version of it.

Vim Scratchpad

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Today I’d like to share a small part of my practice: using a persisted scratchpad text file for jotting things down.

Tmux Application Startup Script

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 00:00:00 +0000

My development environment depends on several processes running. Here’s how I’ve scripted this setup.

Spell Checking with Vim: Tutorial and Best Practices

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I write each post for this blog in Vim. Writing in the terminal makes me feel like a programmer, even when I’m not specifically programming. In this post, I’ll share how I spellcheck in Vim.

Solved! How to Exit Vim "Ex" Mode

Wed, 06 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

How does one exit Vim “Ex” mode? But first… how did you even get into “Ex” mode?

Why Vim

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been using, teaching, and stanning Vim since almost the beginning of my programming career. Yet, when asked to explain this preference, I stumble. In this post, I’d like to explore why I love Vim.

Refining Your Terminal Aliases

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Any command you type out manually, or even tab-complete a few times, can be shortened. A common shortening technique is the terminal alias. Here are some tips that help me write better aliases and cut my terminal keystrokes.

Ruby's Frozen String Literal Comment: YAGNI

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Open a production Ruby file, and you’ll often see this magic comment at the top.

# frozen_string_literal: true

Today I’d like to argue that most Ruby files do not need this comment. YAGNI— You Aren’t Going to Need It.

How to Organize JavaScript Imports

Mon, 30 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

The import statements at the top of a JavaScript component file can be a confusing, duplicative, churning mess. Is there a way to organize them that makes sense and scales? In this post, I’d like to share the way I handle this detail.

My Annotated Vim Configuration File

Thu, 26 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I love Vim. Folks who’ve programmed with me, or attended a Vim Meetup when I was an organizer, can attest. When I was learning to code, getting fast at Vim changed everything for me. After almost a decade using this editor, here are my personal configurations.

Vim Nonrecursive Mappings

Sat, 17 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My first PR to a new Vim plugin was merged this week, check it out, adding non-recursive Vim mappings to vim-termbux.

Keyword, Match, and Region in VimScript

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

After a recent talk I gave that included VimScript, an attendee asked a question about the differences between keyword, match, and region following syn in a Vim syntax highlighting file. Here’s my answer.

Vim Buffer Problem

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A few weeks back I tackled the following programming challenge from my colleague Josh Branchaud:

Vim Buffer

I open up a new Vim buffer and type all the numbers 1 to 10,000, separated by spaces. Then, my cat walks on the keyboard and somehow activates a substitution command that replaces all the ‘0’ digits (zeros) with spaces. If I now sum up all the numbers in the buffer, as delineated by spaces, what is the total?