Category Archives: general development
Configuring Sonar with a Create React App in TypeScript
There are a ton of posts on StackOverflow and Medium and the rest of the internet on setting up SonarQube, but I couldn’t find a definitive guide on configuring it with a React web application (using react-scripts/create react app) written in TypeScript. Turns out that it’s not that hard once you know all the pieces…
Learning how to modern web dev
I’m neck deep in learning ES6, React, Typescript, Node and all the billions of pieces that are a part of this “ecosystem”. I think I’m going to post some of the things that I learn along the way here. Most of it will probably be obvious if you’ve been working with these technologies for a…
Packaging a Node Express App
I’m not sure how most of the JavaScript world is building, packaging, and deploying their applications. We’re using Yarn instead of npm, but neither tool provides a simple way to zip up and version your app (unless you’re publishing to npm, that is). Here’s what worked for me (based on Yarn 1.15.2). As with everything…
Oh no… GitFlow
It seems like every team I’ve worked with in the past few years follows some form of GitFlow. At the very least, they use feature branches and pull requests to perform code reviews. How we got here The creation of distributed source control systems made the pull request model possible. Distributed source control systems emerged…
Loss Aversion and Tech Debt
Humans are loss-adverse. We place an irrationally high value on losing something over gaining an identical item. So for example, I’d be more upset about losing $10 than the happiness I’d feel by gaining $10. If I buy a meal and hate it, I’ll likely finish it anyway. [ad name=”Leaderboard”] In general, people would rather…
TDD: Back to Hand Rolled Stubs
I’m unashamedly an Agile practitioner and self-proclaimed enthusiast. It’s not a perfect way to build software, but I haven’t found anything better. And until I do, this is the approach I’m taking. Building Quality In One of the core principles of Agile is the focus of building quality in from the start, not asserting quality…
Software Development is Expensive
This is a bit of a rant, so I apologize ahead of time. Software development is a crazy blend of art, science and luck. I’ve compared it to painting in the past and I still think that’s one of the better comparisons out there. It is difficult to build a software application that solves a…
Are You Mentoring or Lecturing?
Great team leaders raise the skill level of people around them. There are so many ways to do this – team presentations, sharing articles, demonstrations, etc. Mentoring is one of the most personal and powerful ways of developing individuals on your teams. Unfortunately, this term gets tossed around freely without really understanding it. To the…
Does your manager know how to code?
Who cares? Can you manage people? I used to think that a good manager could come from any background. Hell, I’ve had some incredible managers that have never written a single line of code. But as a full time manager of software developers I’m starting to think that a background in development does matter. I…
Love Your Code
Me and Code, we had something special. Like all new relationships, this one started out with the best of intentions. Although, I suppose we both knew it couldn’t last forever. Looking back I realize that I didn’t support Code the way I should have. The kind of support that could only be fulfilled by unit…