A common programming pattern when using WordPress filters is the early return pattern (also know as the “short-circuit” pattern). This pattern is useful when you want to allow a filter to override a value that is “expensive” to calculate.
Draft Posts
QMK 65% Esc and Backtick
When I downsized to a 65% keyboard I knew I was giving up function keys and a number pad but what caught me off-guard was the loss of my backtick (a.k.a. grave accent(`)) key. Because my keyboard runs QMK firmware, I’ve tried a number of modifications.
QMK Drop Alt
I replaced my keyboard of many years with a Drop.com Alt keyboard. This keyboard uses QMK firmware, which allows you to create modified firmware and run it on your keyboard. These are my notes about how I built a copy of the firmware locally and pushed it to my keyboard.
zsh alias with fallback
In my zsh configuration I define a number of aliases. One particular zsh alias maps gl to my custom Git alias “git lg”. Since my zsh configuration is portable, I want to define a fallback if my custom Git alias does not exist on the machine.
Manually Trigger WordPress Heartbeat from Browser
When developing code related to the WordPress heartbeat, it is frustrating to make your code changes and then wait for the next heartbeat to occur. You can trigger the WordPress heartbeat in the browser manually to eliminate this delay.
Shampoo Bottle Protocol
One day I realized that the last 10% of the shampoo bottle lasted at least as long as the first 90%. I suspected this was because most of the time I was using too much shampoo but as I neared the end of the bottle I used a more appropriate amount. How could I trick my brain to always use the appropriate amount?
Brady Bunch Achievement
The “Brady Bunch Achievement” is when you have exactly nine people on a video call. When this happens, viewing all participants in a grid looks like the intro to the Brady Bunch.
Remove newline at end of text file
Sometimes when I’m working with files in Git, I find myself with a change in a file that says “No newline at end of file”. This occurs when my editor adds the missing newline at the end of the file. While you should have a newline at the end of the file, you may have a reason for not wanting to add this change. In that case, you can remove the newline from the end of the file.
phpunit.xml vs phpunit.xml.dist
As a PHP programmer I’ve seen projects with a phpunit.xml file or a phpunit.xml.dist file (or even both, which is a mistake). These are configuration files for PHPUnit but why the two different file names? PHPUnit first tries to use phpunit.xml and if that file does not exist, then it tries to use phpunit.xml.dist instead. PHPUnit only uses one of these files, never both.
JavaScript Or (||) Versus Nullish Coalescing Operator (??)
The “or” (||) operator and the “nullish coalescing operator” (??) can often be used in similar ways when reading a property from an object that may or may not exist. When dealing with strings you’re typically better off using “or” (||) and for numbers you’re typically better off using the “nullish coalescing operator” (??).