TOPIC: HUGO
Resolving a clash between Homebrew and Python
22nd November 2022
For reasons that I cannot recall now, I installed the Hugo static website generator on my Linux system and web servers using Homebrew. The only reason that I suggest is that it might have been a way to get the latest version at the time because Linux Mint only does major changes like that every two years, keeping it in line with long-term support editions of Ubuntu.
When Homebrew was installed, it changed the lookup path for command line executables by adding the following line to my .bashrc file:
eval "$(/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin/brew shellenv)"
This executed the following lines:
export HOMEBREW_PREFIX="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew";
export HOMEBREW_CELLAR="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar";
export HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew";
export PATH="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/sbin${PATH+:$PATH}";
export MANPATH="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/man${MANPATH+:$MANPATH}:";
export INFOPATH="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/info:${INFOPATH:-}";
While the result suits Homebrew, it changed the setup of Python and its packages on my system. Eventually, this had undesirable consequences, like messing up how Spyder started, so I wanted to change this. There are other things that I have automated using Python and these were not working either.
One way that I have seen suggested is to execute the following command, but I cannot vouch for this:
brew unlink python
What I did was to comment out the offending line in .bashrc and replace it with the following:
export PATH="$PATH:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/bin:/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/sbin"
export HOMEBREW_PREFIX="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew";
export HOMEBREW_CELLAR="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Cellar";
export HOMEBREW_REPOSITORY="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/Homebrew";
export MANPATH="/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/man${MANPATH+:$MANPATH}:";
export INFOPATH="${INFOPATH:-}/home/linuxbrew/.linuxbrew/share/info";
The first command adds Homebrew paths to the end of the PATH variable rather than the beginning, which was the previous arrangement. This ensures system folders are searched for executable files before Homebrew folders. It also means Python packages load from my user area instead of the Homebrew location, which happened under Homebrew's default configuration. When working with Python packages, remember not to install one version at the system level and another in your user area, as this creates conflicts.
So far, the result of the Homebrew changes is not unsatisfactory, and I will watch for any rough edges that need addressing. If something comes up, then I will set things up in another way.
Choosing a desktop Markdown editor for producing grammar-checked static website content
8th November 2022
Earlier this year, I changed over two websites from dynamic versions using content management systems to static ones by using Hugo to build them from Markdown files. That meant that I needed to look at the editing of Markdown, even if it is a fairly simple file format. For one thing, Grammarly can be incorporated into WordPress, so I did not want to lose something like that.
The latter point meant that I was steered away from plain text editors. Otherwise, there are online ones like StackEdit and Dillinger, but the Firefox Grammarly plugin only appears to work on the first of these, and even then, only partially in my experience. While Dillinger does offer connections to online file storage providers like Google, Dropbox and OneDrive, I wanted to store files on my desktop for upload to a web server. It also works with GitHub, but I prefer to use another web hosting provider.
There are various specialised Markdown editors for desktop usage like Typora, ReText, Formiko or Ghostwriter, yet I chose none of these. My actual choice may surprise many: it was Visual Studio Code. The availability of a Grammarly plug-in was what swayed it for me, even if it did need to be switched on for Markdown files. In many ways, it does work as smoothly as elsewhere because it gets fooled by links and other code-like pieces of text. Also, having the added ability to add words to a custom dictionary would be ideal. Some rule overriding is available, but I am not sure that everything is covered, even if the list of options is lengthy. Some time is needed to inspect all of them before I proceed any further. Thus far, things are working well enough for me.