PROGRAMMER_MODES.md

Legendary Programmer Modes

The Hanzo extension includes 45+ development modes inspired by legendary programmers and their philosophies. Each mode configures tools and settings to match their development style.

Usage

@hanzo mode list                    # List all available modes
@hanzo mode activate guido          # Activate Python creator mode
@hanzo mode show ritchie            # Show details about C creator mode
@hanzo mode current                 # Show current active mode

Language Creators (19 modes)

System Languages

• ritchie - Dennis Ritchie (C) - "UNIX: Do one thing and do it well"
• bjarne - Bjarne Stroustrup (C++) - "C++: Light-weight abstraction"
• gosling - James Gosling (Java) - "Java: Platform independence"
• graydon - Graydon Hoare (Rust) - "Fast, reliable, productive — pick three"
• pike_thompson - Rob Pike & Ken Thompson (Go) - "Less is exponentially more"

Dynamic Languages

• guido - Guido van Rossum (Python) - "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it"
• matz - Yukihiro Matsumoto (Ruby) - "Ruby is designed to make programmers happy"
• wall - Larry Wall (Perl) - "There's More Than One Way To Do It"
• rasmus - Rasmus Lerdorf (PHP) - "PHP: Solving web problems pragmatically"
• brendan - Brendan Eich (JavaScript) - "Always bet on JavaScript"

Functional Languages

• mccarthy - John McCarthy (Lisp) - "Lisp: The programmable programming language"
• hickey - Rich Hickey (Clojure) - "Simple Made Easy"
• armstrong - Joe Armstrong (Erlang) - "Let it crash and recover"
• odersky - Martin Odersky (Scala) - "Fusion of functional and object-oriented programming"

Modern Languages

• anders - Anders Hejlsberg (C#/TypeScript) - "Pragmatism over dogmatism"
• lattner - Chris Lattner (Swift/LLVM) - "Performance and safety without compromise"
• bak - Lars Bak (Dart/V8) - "Fast development and execution"

Classic Languages

• wirth - Niklaus Wirth (Pascal) - "Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs"
• backus - John Backus (Fortran) - "Formula Translation for scientists"
• hopper - Grace Hopper (COBOL) - "Programming for everyone"
• kay - Alan Kay (Smalltalk) - "The best way to predict the future is to invent it"

Systems & Infrastructure (2 modes)

• linus - Linus Torvalds (Linux) - "Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
• ritchie_thompson - Ritchie & Thompson (UNIX) - "Keep it simple, stupid"

Web Frameworks (7 modes)

Backend Frameworks

• dhh - David Heinemeier Hansson (Rails) - "Optimize for programmer happiness"
• holovaty_willison - Holovaty & Willison (Django) - "The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines"
• ronacher - Armin Ronacher (Flask) - "Web development, one drop at a time"
• otwell - Taylor Otwell (Laravel) - "The PHP framework for web artisans"
• holowaychuk - TJ Holowaychuk (Express.js) - "Fast, unopinionated, minimalist"

Frontend Frameworks

• evan - Evan You (Vue.js) - "Approachable, versatile, performant"
• walke - Jordan Walke (React) - "UI as a function of state"

JavaScript Ecosystem (3 modes)

• katz - Yehuda Katz (Ember.js) - "Convention over Configuration"
• ashkenas - Jeremy Ashkenas (CoffeeScript) - "It's just JavaScript"
• nolen - David Nolen (ClojureScript) - "Functional programming for the web"

Database & Infrastructure (1 mode)

• widenius - Michael Widenius (MySQL/MariaDB) - "Open source database for everyone"

CSS & Design (2 modes)

• wathan - Adam Wathan (Tailwind CSS) - "Stop writing CSS, start building designs"
• otto_thornton - Otto & Thornton (Bootstrap) - "Build responsive, mobile-first projects"

Special Configurations (6 modes)

• fullstack - Full Stack Developer - Frontend to backend, databases to deployment
• minimal - Minimalist - Less is more, only essential tools
• 10x - 10x Engineer - Maximum productivity, all tools enabled
• security - Security Engineer - Security first, paranoid by design
• data_scientist - Data Scientist - Data analysis and ML focused
• hanzo - Hanzo AI - Optimal configuration with all advanced features

Mode Features

Each mode configures:

1. Tools: Specific set of enabled tools matching the programmer's workflow
2. Philosophy: The guiding principle of that programmer/language
3. Config Scores: Personality traits scored 0-10 (e.g., simplicity, performance, readability)

Examples

Python Development (Guido mode)

@hanzo mode activate guido
# Enables: read, write, edit, grep, symbols, uvx, think, notebook_read, notebook_edit
# Philosophy: "There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it"
# Config: readability: 10, simplicity: 9, explicitness: 10

Systems Programming (Linus mode)

@hanzo mode activate linus
# Enables: read, write, edit, grep, git_search, bash, processes, critic
# Philosophy: "Talk is cheap. Show me the code."
# Config: performance: 10, directness: 10, patience: 2

Web Development (DHH mode)

@hanzo mode activate dhh
# Enables: read, write, edit, multi_edit, grep, bash, run_command, sql_query
# Philosophy: "Optimize for programmer happiness"
# Config: productivity: 10, conventions: 10, opinionated: 10

Maximum Productivity (10x mode)

@hanzo mode activate 10x
# Enables: ALL advanced tools including agent, llm, consensus, think, critic
# Config: productivity: 10, tool_mastery: 10, work_life_balance: 3

Mode Selection Guide

• Learning a language: Choose its creator's mode (e.g., guido for Python)
• Building web apps: Choose framework creator (e.g., dhh for Rails, evan for Vue)
• System programming: Choose ritchie, linus, or graydon
• Maximum features: Choose 10x or hanzo
• Focused work: Choose minimal
• Security audit: Choose security

Each mode embodies the philosophy and approach of its namesake, helping you code in their style!