Interacting with your computer using a mouse-driven GUI makes many tasks quick and easy to accomplish.  However, when use of the keyboard is required, a healthy amount of context shifting between these two non-complimentary input devices can occur.  And that’s bad news for turning thoughts into actions in a timely matter. So, what’s the consequence of spending a few extra seconds to switch back and forth?  As John D. Cook points out, it adds up:

It’s a matter of keeping up with your thoughts. Suppose some series of tasks takes 20 seconds with a mouse but you can accomplish the same tasks in 12 seconds using the keyboard. The big deal isn’t that you’ve saved 8 seconds; the big deal is that you’re more likely to finish your tasks before you lose the thought that motivated them.

I interact with the file system on a very regular basis.  I haven’t measured this, but I bet I’ll open Windows Explorer (or xplorer²) at least two or three times for every hour I’m at the computer.  I’m forever poking around for documents and restructuring directories so that they’ll be easier to find next time.  Many times I’ll want to execute a command line statement in the path that I’m browsing.  There are several different strategies for getting a “Open Command Prompt Here” to the explorer context menu, but they all require a right-click (or simulating one with the keyboard).  There’s an easier way.

A couple years ago I read an article on instructables about a “Drop Down”, Quake-style command prompt for Windows.  The project uses AutoHotKey to launch and hide a console window using a keyboard shortcut.  Neat!  It works great, except that it always dumps you in the your %HOMEPATH%.  I’ve taken the script and upgraded it to navigate directly to the currently open path in Windows Explorer – it’s name is Tilda.

For example – I’ve got an explorer window open in C:\console\UnxUtils\usr\local\wbin and I want to string some of those juicy unix command line utilities together.  I can now simply do Win+~, and I’ve got a new console instance in the right place.  As with the original, it will minimize/maximize the console window on subsequent usage of the key combination. 

I have this nasty habit of navigating around the file system when I’m using Windows Explorer.  After running some unix commands, I might have a hankering to run MSBuild.exe (ok, probably not, but who knows?).  I could tediously type the path, or, I could have Tilda automatically enter it for me.  From the new path in Windows Explorer, I type a combination Win+Shift+~ and the chdir command gets sent to the current console window.

Please note that I’m using (and recommend) Console as a command line window host.  Tilda is currently set to use this, but the script can be easily modified to use cmd.exe or whichever console window host you prefer.

Tilda - open and close a console window using a hot key.  Automatically navigates to the currently open explorer window.  Save some trips to the mouse and make getting to the command line easier.

Download Tilda (AutoHotKey source and binary)

Hi, I’m James Kolpack, and I’m a code-aholic.

Where I’m from

Ever since I was a kid I’ve been programming at various degrees of sophistication.  Being a child of the 80’s, I started with Basic (of the GW variety on a 8086 based IBM) with a dash of Logo and batch scripting.  Later in college I became learned in Pascal and then C and the trials and tribulations of memory management and complex data structures.  I loved the ability to solve interesting problems by the clever assembly of instructions to be executed on a computer.  It was a bit of a power trip, really - “Pow, I just made a program that can find the optimal combination of items to fill a knapsack in psuedo-polynomial time.”  This capability does not, I discovered, transcend one-to-one to “real-world” power – but you’ve got to do what you can with what you’ve got.

As for the name of the blog, “popcyclical”, it’s a dual homage to my interest in cyclical relationships and, of course, popsicles.  It also references my moniker “poprhythm” which I was given many years ago for my ever-loving devotion to excellent music.

Where I’m going

On this blog I will be exploring ideas and issues that are relevant to me at the given time.  As a developer employed at a small shop, the focus is guaranteed to wander over time.  For any given week, I may be highly invested in any number of   topics.  This may include : upcoming features of programming languages, graph algorithm design and application, development tooling, data mining, system architecture, user experience, natural language processing, semantic web, test driven development, statistics, data management, … these and many others are all fair game.  As of today, the technologies I’m working in from day to day are C# on the .NET framework, ASP.NET MVC and jQuery, WCF, and a variety of database engines.

I can use your help

When pointing the finger of blame for a problem I’m faced with, more often than not, that finger will eventually turn back to point at myself.  To err is human, and for software creators, this is repeatedly beaten into our skulls. Every time a compile fails, a stack overflows, a user is confused with our design, an out of memory exception is thrown, and every other time we’ve had a slip of the finger or a misconception about the problem or a technology. To combat this, we must flock together to overcome our individual weakness.  I welcome all relevant comments, suggestions, and criticism.