It’s about time I got myself familiar with some of the core UNIX command line tools. No matter how good the GUI applications look like and work, when using command line alternatives the stuff gets done faster and it’s less prone to error.

I am talking here especially about FTPing stuff around. I’ve using Cyberduck so far but there were some bugs in the recent release and I’ve also read about the comparison of speed vs command line tools. It’s slower.

So I’ve learned to use rsync and lftp. It’s pure awesomeness. I can’t imagine going back to dragging files around in the GUI.

Also I’ve learned some basic Vim usage. It’s the fastest way to do quick .htaccess edits, or turning on/off CakePHP debug mode on the server and similar stuff. I realize some programmers use it full time for their work, but to go there Textmate shouldn’t have to exist.