The Evolution of Terminal Applications and Developer Productivity

This week, Robbie and Chuck talk with Ben Holmes—Astro core team alum and now at Warp—about the rapid evolution of developer tools, the promise and quirks of AI-powered coding, and why he’s betting big on terminal UX.

In this episode:

• (00:00) - Intro
• (02:09) - Warp and dev tools
• (04:20) - Whiskey intro and rating: Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Rye
• (15:47) - Hot Take: inferred types vs explicit types
• (17:11) - What Cursor AI gets right (and wrong)
• (23:12) - Pros and cons of Windsurf
• (25:02) - Hot Take: git rebase vs git merge
• (27:27) - Vim Motions and The Vim Gym
• (30:45) - Hot Take: sidebar on the left or right in VS Code
• (34:40) - Specialize or generalize?
• (44:01) - Frameworks vs doing your own thing
• (48:21) - The MBA journey
• (52:06) - Ben's connection to Peloton
• (53:12) - Plugs

Links

• Heaven Hill Grain To Glass Kentucky Straight Rye: https://heavenhilldistillery.com/
• Astro: https://astro.build/
• Warp: https://www.warp.dev/
• Norlan: https://norlanglass.com/
• Cursor: https://www.cursor.com/
• Windsurf: https://windsurf.ai/
• Copilot: https://github.com/features/copilot
• Cline: https://cline.bot/
• Claude: https://claude.ai/
• Ghostty: https://ghostty.org/
• Vim Motions: https://www.barbarianmeetscoding.com/boost-your-coding-fu-with-vscode-and-vim/moving-blazingly-fast-with-the-core-vim-motions/
• Tailwind CSS: https://tailwindcss.com/
• Vue: https://vuejs.org/
• Svelte: https://svelte.dev/
• Ember: https://emberjs.com/
• NeoVim: https://neovim.io/
• Primeagen: https://x.com/ThePrimeagen
• Jason Lengstorf: https://x.com/jlengstorf
• Vision Pro: https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/
• JSWorld: https://jsworldconference.com/
• Final Cut Pro: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/
• CapCut: https://www.capcut.com/
• DHH: https://x.com/dhh/
• University of Alabama: https://www.ua.edu/
• Georgia Tech: https://www.gatech.edu/

Connect with Ben

• Website: https://bholmes.dev/
• X / Twitter: https://x.com/bholmesdev

Connect with Chuck and Robbie

• Robbie Wagner: https://x.com/RobbieTheWagner
• Chuck Carpenter: https://x.com/CharlesWthe3rd

Subscribe and stay in touch

• Website: https://whiskey.fm
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-web-and-whatnot/id1552776603
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/19jiuHAqzeKnkleQUpZxDf
• Overcast: https://overcast.fm/itunes1552776603
• YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhiskeyWebAndWhatnot

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