Help! I had a major meltdown on one of my sites that I keep on Github. I had to change all sorts of files in the local repository, and I am wondering what the best way to get back in sync might be.

Should I just Push all changes up to Github?

Or would I be better off uploading the files to a new branch and creating a Pull Request that I then accept?

Start again from scratch with a completely new Master at github?

Something else?

That is a lot to be getting on with, but it also lays out a kind of road map, which is exactly what I was missing. If I can get this one thing I am writing polished today, I know what I will be starting tomorrow.

I can’t thank you enough.

I have not upgraded TextExpander, and if I ever have to, Alfred will do the same job, just not quite so slickly.

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That's helpful. I think what I lack, and have never really seen discussed in the few online courses and pages I have looked at, is how to set up a basic development environment suitable for a dabbler.

One reason I spent the weekend doing what I did is that I like how Script Debugger gives me a good view of what is going on. I can see whether my script will compile, view the value of variables at each stage, step through the command, etc etc.

So far, I have not yet come across, or managed to cobble together, a similar kind or arrangement for PHP or anything else.

It's that kind of thing, so often taken for granted, that I really need. Running a program with vardump() and echo and all that is much harder for me.

I do find that one of the great benefits of "automation" -- even if it is only using something like TextExpander to type a sentence for me -- is consistency. So easy to make silly mistakes when doing it by hand.

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Break a leg.

I hear you. I read all these "productivity" posts about having Hazel look for this and Alfred do the other while the person concerned just sits there and I think "Do I really want to set that up?"

A classic, for me, is changing the filenames of things like bank statements and invoices. They're all basically meaningless, and I have a simple enough system, but I always end up doing it by hand because it is literally only a few minutes a month. I can spare that time.

New post: how i spent my weekend, doing automation the old skool way [jeremycherfas.net]

I suppose they do, yes. But you have a duty to introduce those who don’t.

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You forgot the obligatory link to xkcd.

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