Disclaimer: I am not an expert on computers. This blog is only to share some of my opinions as a (windows) computer user.
I am a power electronics engineer; I deal with circuit boards all the time. During a circuit test, the most scary thing is not that it definitely will fail, instead, is that it “might” fail. To me, an unpredictable success is more terrifying than a predictable failure.
Certainly I don’t like this feeling. Yet, I don’t have a choice in my research work – if something is totally controllable and predictable, it’s hard to be considered as a research. However, I don’t want this fear for uncontrollability to appear in any other part of my life, such as my computer.
Due to work needs, I am still doing most of my work on Windows – that might be one of the leading frustrations throughout my PhD. Please don’t mistaken me; I think Windows is a miracle still. It’s amazingly easy to start with – everyone knows how to use it.
Only, sometimes it makes you want to kill yourself or punch through your computer. To name a few right now (on my fairly new laptop),
I can list so many things that Windows has haunted me with. Hopefully someday I can get rid of it, but I am stuck as I need LabVIEW FPGA (which, is another blackhole), Altium Designer (This is decent). I believe there might be some people having a similar delimma like I do, we really don’t have a choice on which OS to use.
However, we do have a choice on what to run on this OS. We may never be able to understand all the little details or behaviors of the software we are using. However, we should reserve the right to be able to do so. Here is my struggle to have a fairly neat and controllable windows computer.
I believe the following tools combined together can satisfy all basic needs of an electrical engineer or student without getting into the MicroSoft trap.
I should have a blog recording my favorites usage/tips of latex.
call plug#begin()
Plug 'preservim/nerdtree'
Plug 'morhetz/gruvbox'
Plug 'junegunn/vim-easy-align'
call plug#end()
" set gruvbox colorscheme
syntax enable
set background=dark
colorscheme gruvbox
" turn off bell alerts
set belloff=all
" indent
set tabstop=4
set softtabstop=4
set shiftwidth=4
set smarttab
set expandtab
" backup files
set backup
set swapfile
set undofile
" Start NERDTree when Vim is started without file arguments.
autocmd StdinReadPre * let s:std_in=1
autocmd VimEnter * if argc() == 0 && !exists('s:std_in') | NERDTree | endif
set keywordprg=python3\ -m\ pydoc
set nu
set nobackup
cd "d:\"
Write-Host "Copying data ... ..."
# Step 1: List all files in the current directory that start with "tek"
$filesToCopy = Get-ChildItem -File -Filter "tek*" -Path $PWD
# Step 2: Copy the files to c:\users\jinshui\desktop
$destinationPath = "C:\users\jinshui\Documents\data\MDO3054"
$filesToCopy | ForEach-Object {
Copy-Item $_.FullName -Destination $destinationPath
}
# Step 3: Get the most recent three files
$recentFiles = $filesToCopy | Sort-Object LastWriteTime -Descending | Select-Object -First 3
# Step 4: Delete all files except the most recent three
$filesToDelete = $filesToCopy | Where-Object { $_ -notin $recentFiles }
$filesToDelete | ForEach-Object {
Remove-Item $_.FullName -Force }
Write-Host "Files copied and old files deleted successfully!"
cd -
param (
[string]$fileName = 'main.tex'
)
# Check if the file exists
if (-Not (Test-Path $fileName)) {
Write-Host "File '$fileName' does not exist."
exit 1
}
echo $fileName
# Extract the base name (without extension) from the file name
$baseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($fileName)
# Compile the LaTeX file using pdflatex
Write-Host "Compiling LaTeX file..."
& pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode $fileName > nul
# Run biblatex for references
Write-Host "Running biblatex..."
# & biber $baseName
& bibtex $baseName
# Compile the LaTeX file again (twice) to ensure references are updated
Write-Host "Finalizing compilation..."
& pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode $fileName > nul
& pdflatex -interaction=nonstopmode -synctex=1 $fileName > nul
# Delete auxiliary files
$auxFiles = @("$baseName.aux", "$baseName.log", "$baseName.out", "$baseName.bbl", "$baseName.blg")
foreach ($file in $auxFiles) {
if (Test-Path $file) {
Remove-Item $file
Write-Host "Deleted $file"
}
}
# rm *.log
Write-Host "Compilation finished. PDF generated as '$baseName.pdf'."
# ii "$baseName.pdf"
Combine this powershell script with vim record function. Works like a charm!