Alright, so folks have been asking me a bit about this “hyzdu” thing I’ve been using lately. It’s nothing fancy, really, just something I cobbled together to make my own life a bit easier. Lemme walk you through how it all came about, from the mess it was before to how I got it working for me.
The Before Times: A Real Headache
You know how it is. You’re juggling a bunch of small projects, or maybe just trying out new ideas. And for every single one, there’s this ritual of setting up the basic environment, right? Used to drive me nuts. I’d be copying config files from one place, tweaking a line here, a line there. Or worse, I’d forget some crucial setting and then spend an hour figuring out why my new shiny thing wasn’t working. It was a total time sink, and honestly, super boring.
I tried a few things. At first, I just had a folder full of template files. I’d manually copy them over. That worked, kinda, but it was still manual. Then I thought, “Hey, I’ll write some aliases for my shell!” That got complicated fast. Too many aliases, and I’d forget what they did, or they wouldn’t be flexible enough. I even looked at some of those big scaffolding tools out there, but they always felt like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Too much stuff I didn’t need, too many opinions baked in.
Enough is Enough: The “hyzdu” Spark
So one afternoon, after wasting yet another 30 minutes setting up a tiny * experiment, I just kinda snapped. I thought, “There has to be a better way for me.” I didn’t need a one-size-fits-all solution. I needed my size. And that’s when the idea for “hyzdu” started to form. It wasn’t even called “hyzdu” then, it was just a vague notion of a super simple script.
The name “hyzdu” itself? Honestly, it was just a random string of characters I typed when I first saved the file. I think I fat-fingered something, looked at it, and thought, “Eh, good enough.” Kinda stuck after that.
Getting My Hands Dirty: Building hyzdu Bit by Bit
So, I opened up my text editor and started with a really basic shell script. My goal was simple: automate the creation of my common project boilerplate.
Here’s roughly what I did:
- Figured out the core needs: I first listed out the most common things I always set up: a basic `*` for Node projects, a simple `*` for web stuff, maybe a `.gitignore` file. Just the absolute bare minimum.
- Started with *: This was my most frequent use case. I wrote a small function in the script that would ask me for a project name. Then it would create a directory with that name. Inside, it would generate a very minimal `*` with things like a start script for `nodemon` and a basic test script. It also dropped in my standard `.gitignore` for Node.
- Made it interactive, then optional: Initially, it would prompt me for everything. Project name, author, etc. Later, I added command-line arguments so I could just run `hyzdu new my-cool-project –type node` and it would just do its thing without asking questions if I provided enough info. But if I just typed `hyzdu new`, it would still walk me through the prompts.
- Expanded to other types: Once the * part was working, I added support for simple static HTML projects. This part would create an `*`, a `*`, and a `*`. Super basic, but it’s often all I need for a quick prototype.
- Tackled configuration: I wanted to be able to easily tweak what “hyzdu” generated without editing the script itself every time. So, I created a simple JSON configuration file in my home directory (`~/.hyzdurc` or something like that). In this file, I could define my default author name, email, and even paths to custom template files if I wanted to get fancier. The script would read from this config.
- Added a “git init” step: Almost every new project I start, I want it in git. So, I made “hyzdu” automatically run `git init` in the new project directory. Saved me another command.
- Kept it stupid simple: This was key. Every time I thought about adding a super complex feature, I asked myself, “Do I really need this, or am I just over-engineering?” Most of the time, the answer was to keep it lean. It’s a shell script, not a full-blown framework.
So, How Does “hyzdu” Work For Me Now?
It’s pretty straightforward. I have this `hyzdu` script in my path. When I want to start something new, I just pop open my terminal and type something like:
hyzdu new my-web-experiment --type html
And boom! It creates the `my-web-experiment` directory, plops down my basic HTML, CSS, and JS files, adds a `.gitignore`, and initializes a git repository. Takes like, two seconds.
Or if it’s a Node thing:
hyzdu new my-api-server --type node
Same deal, but with a `*` ready for me to install dependencies and start coding. No more hunting for my template files. No more copying and pasting. No more forgetting to add a `.gitignore` until my `node_modules` folder is already tracked (we’ve all been there, right?).
The biggest win? Time and mental energy. It just removes that tiny bit of friction that used to exist when starting something new. It sounds small, but those little things add up. Now I can go from idea to actually writing code much faster. And because it’s my script, it does things exactly how I like them. No fuss, no bloat.
It’s not revolutionary, and it probably wouldn’t work for everyone as-is. But for my personal workflow, this little “hyzdu” script has been a game changer. Sometimes the simplest tools you build for yourself are the most effective. Just gotta identify that pain point and start chipping away at it. That’s my story with hyzdu, anyway. Hope it gives you some ideas for your own little workflow hacks!
