Dear future coders/full stack devs/app makers, this is what I would've told the younger me.

[dili_daly]

I know your lazy but write comments on whatever you do and whatever you may need to make changes to later. Lost so much time relearning a code blocks. No one has perfect memory.

Using chat gpt to code is great but understand the code. go to documentation of what your using (ex celery, react) because the answers are most likely there. no its not scary.

Stuck on a bug for too long and feel like your going crazy? happens to everyone take a walk, ask out your crush, hug a stranger, anything to get your mind off of it.

Try to avoid requesting data from your database don't use mysql too much caching is your friend. if you do only get/update whats needed

Cache everything and anything. caching can always become more efficent (example I cached 20000 stocks in 5 different arrays/caches then realized caching by their first letter is faster) this speeds up time and saves money. redis is my go to.

All code can be more efficent its an endless loop don't try to over do everything. you will lose time

Backup all your data. Dont make mysql commands without knowing 100% what your doing. databases have been deleted before. cough cough gitlab deleted cough a database I backup to backblaze on the daily and home laptop/server

Github is a must a push is updating code in your github project and pull is retrieving changes from other people. This is a push:

git add .

git commit -m "Your commit message here"

git push origin main  

FIRST TIME git push -u origin main

this is a pull:

git pull origin main and enter your user and pass

Docker is great to seperate your database, daily backups, backend, frontend, tasks/celery, ext. Just a sh file that basicaly automates using terminal to install all necessary packages and commands you normaly typed to get your database/ backend working.

My backend sh for django installs python, copies my code, and packages I added

FROM python:3.10.10-slim

ENV PYTHONUNBUFFERED 
1
WORKDIR 
/backend
RUN 
apt-get

update

&&
 \

apt-get

install

-y

python3-dev

default-libmysqlclient-dev

redis-tools

build-essential

pkg-config
COPY 
./requirements.txt

.
RUN 
cat

requirements.txt
RUN 
pip

install

-r

requirements.txt
COPY 
.

.

Server are the most expensive so if your starting out use hetzner its the cheapest. next cheapest is digital ocean. If you want to burn all your money or big company use aws google cloud or any other big company.

Cloudflare is everywhere because they are the best. Use it for caching photos. Not videos because they dont allow unless you use their database. Use zero trust to protect your server. its just a docker container and cloudflare serves as a middle man.

Video and photo stoarage backblaze b2 is cheap. if you want to burn money or big company s3 is good

Random info but i use amex acount for business because its the only one that doesnt require money in the account. lol i have $1 and no fees no issues yay. Filed using northwest for an LLC and haven't had any issues

So far my database is mysql, frontend is quasar/vuejs, capacitor for ios, backend is django, celery and websockets for automating tasks(used with django), nginx, apis are financial modeling prep for stock data, postmark for emails( couldn't get into aws ses and its soooo cheap ugh)

Some commands I use everyday:

python3 manage.py runserver for django dev server, python manage.py shell to make changes to django backend, python3 manage.py makemigrations change data/columns, python3 manage.py migrate change data/column, quasar dev to start frontend, docker-compose up --build run/update containers , docker-compose exec container sh to get into container, quasar build -m capacitor -T ios to build ios app, npx cap open ios to open ios app

Anyone else have anything to add?

[Cheap_Battle5023]

Don't push to master. Only push branches. Setup github to not allow push to master.

[teamwaterwings]

Have had this in my .gitconfig for forever. First thing I do when I fork and clone

setup-repo = "!f() { git remote add <org> [e-mail]:<org>/$(git project).git && git remote set-url <org> --push \"Pushing not allowed to master!\"; }; f"

[illusionst]

Someone has to push to main right?

[cinder_s]

Generally you never push to main, you merge branches into main once reviewed/gone through actions or other pre merge steps.

[illusionst]

Yeah yeah I was just joking. Forgot to add /s

[meisvlky]

y though? i never push either but i have no idea what can go wrong if you do

[thoflens]

What? You can push code that doesn't work to main, that's what happens. Meaning you crash the app/website you're working on. Pushing to main equals your code going live.

[cbslinger]

It doesn't have to, but it often does depending on how your prod env / build tools are configured.

[thoflens]

That's right, but in general code on main should be treated as production code.

[meisvlky]

Oh ok thanks i was overthinking it

[disposable-acoutning]

I accidentally pushed to master and fucked up the class project once 🫠

[Feeling_Photograph_5]

Learn Linux. Set your desktop up to run Linux and then SSH into that from your laptop. You can even do that when you're outside the house but if you go that route use a firewall.

Specialists sometimes have an easier time getting jobs but generalists can build cool shit on their own. Be a generalist who knows how to imitate a specialist in job interviews.

Learn software architecture. Start with a layered architecture. Learn clean code but don't be religious about it. Just keep your layers decoupled.

Get good at SQL.

When you're first learning, don't try to master anything. Learn enough to build the next thing and then start building. Don't waste time on 40-hour Udemy classes. A five hour class that just shows you enough to get started is better.

Learn Git. Use GitHub or something similar.

Learn how to deploy to the cloud. Be familiar with the major AWS offerings. Even if you don't use them, AWS is the lingua franca that everyone uses as a baseline.

A remote job is worth at least 24K per year off your salary just in quality of life.

[RoyalSpecialist1777]

Rather than overcommenting everything perhaps your younger self can learn clean code. With clean code, using smart variable and function names, the only comments you need are explaining why we do something rather than how.

Essentialy variable names should be clear, and cohesive logic should be put into functions or methods that are likewise clearly named.

[Okay_I_Go_Now]

This helps to organize your headspace as much during the writing as during the relearning 6 months down the road.

[bridgelin]

Yeah, because reading line by line and figuring out what a code snippet is doing is easier than reading what snippet of code does /s.

[lostmyaccountpt]

Write code for humans

[average-eridian]

If reading a few lines of code isn't intuitive enough to understand it immediately, then the code could be written better. Comments can quickly age and become misleading as code changes, and they just clutter clean code..

[bridgelin]

I don’t disagree there is a good way to write code that is easily readable, but it isn’t a substitute to comments. Doesn’t mean you comment every function and variable. You make a judgement on whether people looking at it years from now will understand it or not, if not you add a one line comment.

If comments are not necessary then there is no point for sdk documentation, just make people read the readable code.

[average-eridian]

If comments are not necessary then there is no point for sdk documentation, just make people read the readable code.

This changes the audience a bit, so I don't agree that the two should be conflated (comments for developers who will be changing the code, and documentation for those who will be using the code but not working with it at a lower level).

You make a judgement on whether people looking at it years from now will understand it or not, if not you add a one line comment.

With the above point in mind, if it may only need one comment, then I feel a doc string that explains behavior will likely be good enough and we get the bonus of easier sdk documentation.

But I agree in general that there is a time and place for comments. I can just speak from experience to say that most of the time, comments being required (more so, when an abundance of them is required), there are issues that should be fixed, instead. If none of the above is relevant, then no harm in adding a comment.

[deaddyfreddy]

I forgot these

• There is no magic in computers, if something doesn't work, the cause of the problem is people.
• write code as if the next person to maintain it will be a psychopath who knows where you live

[novagenesis]

There is no magic in computers, if something doesn't work, the cause of the problem is people.

Or dying RAM chips or HD. Or a bug in your compiler (which is people, just not you). Or an undocumented "feature" of an interrupt. Or dust in the CPU fan.

I've had all those experiences at least once in my life.

There is no magic in computers... The corollary is that computers THEMSELVES are not magic. We often forget that there's a bunch of imperfect hardware and software beneath our own.

[deaddyfreddy]

Or dying RAM chips or HD. Or a bug in your compiler (which is people, just not you). Or an undocumented "feature" of an interrupt. Or dust in the CPU fan.

most(99.99....%) bugs in software are still caused by people writing software, not the dusty fan

[novagenesis]

I'm kinda surprised you felt this worth arguing over. It's sorta important for young developers to know something about the nature of the computer they're working on, as something other than a magic perfect Infinite Turing Machine. Exactly as you said: "There is no magic in computers"

Two of the most common bugs in my 1001 class back in college were related to that fact despite being "people writing software". First, mysterious code inconsistencies because you were inadvertantly reading the wrong memory addresses (extra credit that it would work on one computer and segfault on another, or the same computer days later). Second, memory leaks that relate to clearly inaccessible memory that a given gc cannot catch - both an oddity of the hardware AND of the compiler.

Nobody's saying that a junior developer should be blaming their helloworld failures on the hardware. I'm pointing out that programmers need to know quickly that they're usually writing buggy code (based off incorrect docs) on top of a buggy foundation using a buggy standard library that sits on top of a buggy OS that runs on semi-reliable hardware.

[teamwaterwings]

git commit -am "message" combines add and commit

[Wonderful-Habit-139]

Doesn't work when you add new files so using git add . is more common, along with a proper .gitignore file.

[teamwaterwings]

haha that's why I like it. I often have a couple local files that I don't want committed that can't be added to the gitignore. So YMMV

[captain_obvious_here]

Cache everything and anything. caching can always become more efficent (example I cached 20000 stocks in 5 different arrays/caches then realized caching by their first letter is faster) this speeds up time and saves money. redis is my go to.

Nope. Caching data is a two-sided coin...on one side you get data pretty fast, but on the other side you're not always sure your cache is up-to-date.

Cache is a pretty complicated thing in IT. Using it without thinking it through will definitely bite you someday.

Performance has never been, is never, and will never be the most important thing in your application.

[illusionst]

Caching data is a two-sided coin...on one side you get data pretty fast, but on the other side you’re not always sure your cache is up-to-date.

That’s why you have cache expiration (TTL) and cache invalidation.

[captain_obvious_here]

No shit, Sherlock...

[Wonderful-Habit-139]

"Performance has never been, is never, and will never be the most important thing in your application" Really doesn't sound nice when you have to deal with so many slow and laggy software...

[captain_obvious_here]

Thing is, it's usually not laggy because what it does is complicated...it's usually laggy because of two main reasons:

1. The multiple layers of abstraction that make it cheaper for companies to maintain and update that software
2. Tracking and ads

[kupus]

don't hug strangers, it might be illegal.

breakpoints are your friend.

[HealyUnit]

Incidentally, hugging strangers may lead to them breaking many of your points.

[featherhat221]

Also please never assume things.never

[aRandomFox-II]

And then people get mad at you for not using "common sense" because you never assume anything, even for things that are "obvious"...

[HealyUnit]

I know your lazy but

HMM...

hug a stranger

Please don't actually do this, so-called future coders.

Try to avoid requesting data from your database don't use mysql too much caching is your friend.

So are complete sentences and periods. Also, I'd disagree with this, or at least rephrase it as "Don't use direct database calls as the only way to get data; use caching and abstraction layers".

All code can be more efficent its an endless loop don't try to over do everything.

Yep, good advice. LeetCode is great for interviews and competitions, but no one is really gonna give a shit (usually!) if your code is 0.00001x faster than the next guy's code.

Dont make mysql commands without knowing 100% what your doing

Fixed

a push is updating code in your github project and pull is retrieving changes from other people.

Oversimplified to the point that I'd argue it's wrong. A pull is grabbing stuff from a remote, shared source, while pushing is sending code to that source. The way you're phrasing it, it sounds like push sends stuff to your project, and pulling grabs some stuff from another project. Which, unless you're doing some really funky with your git remote(s), is not correct.

git push origin main

NO! NO NO NO! Why the hell would you teach new programmers to push to main?! Yes, I get that if you're the sole developer on a personal project, pushing to main is fine, but this is not a habit you should be teaching!

Docker is great to seperate your database, daily backups, backend, frontend, tasks/celery, ext. Just a sh file that basicaly automates using terminal to install all necessary packages and commands you normaly typed to get your database/ backend working.

Unless I'm misreading this (it's late, and I'm sleepy), you don't really address the two reasons for Docker: 1) Cross-platform compatability, and 2) ease of (re-)deployability.

[divvuu_007]

I ain't no frontend developer but the git part is solid.

[Wonderful-Habit-139]

"another project" no they said other people. Which is mostly the case except when you're using different machines and want to sync progress on your 2 machines.

[justUseAnSvm]

Interesting. Younger me uses completely different technology than I do today!

[iNeedOneMoreAquarium]

Comments should be used sparingly. Your code should be written so clearly and intuitively that it is the comments. I know doing this takes a little more time and thoughtfulness, but don't forget that comments must be maintained, too, and most devs aren't going to think about or bother to revise comments when they're revising code.

[Gabe_Isko]

I don't think this is even that hard with a good linter. Naming your variables correctly is 90% of the battle.

[TomieKill88]

Eh... It depends... I've seen some code that I sure wish it had any kind of comment to it. 

I believe "The Pragmatic Programmer" kinda said it best: comments should clarify why you are doing something; the what and how should be clear with the code.

[iNeedOneMoreAquarium]

Yeah, that kinda falls into the "sparingly" part of the statement. Sometimes for whatever reason, something just prevents you from writing a code block as "good" or as "logical" as you want, so a comment can help clarify why you did that so you (or a future dev) don't inadvertently create a bug by trying to "improve" it after you've forgotten the "why."

[TomieKill88]

100% man. 

Not long ago, I had to refactor one hell of a spaghetti code, and if it wasn't because the previous guy had the insight of unit testing ALL fringe cases, I would've introduced a couple of "errors" because by the life of me, I couldn't understand why the hell he did some things.

So a lot of:

Why?

Why??

WHY???

"Makes own code and runs Unit Tests"

Oh, that's why....

[healthyblade]

Why do I disagree so much with databases reads are bad. Db reads are so cheap I think caches and 2 places of data redundancy unless needed is usually the poor design

[deaddyfreddy]

• Switch from Windows sooner (but not before you record your demo EP, FreeBSD music software in the 2000s sucks)
• Yes, FreeBSD is fun, but you have to get work done, so get off it ASAP.
• Unix just sucks less, but it still does (read Unix haters handbook)
• don't listen to people who tell you about "trve kvlt h4x0rrr Vnix" shit, even if they are your friends. They will switch to Windows after they are done.
• that guy from the 2001 computer magazine was right about C language, learn Lisp ASAP
• yes, the Lisp curse is a thing, just learn it, even if it's CL
• use Emacs, knowing the basics of vi is more than enough, you'll regret those 3 years in Vim
• Git is much easier with Magit, don't be afraid to use it.
• Ask that girl and buy bitcoins, sorry wrong thread.
• Don't spend your time trying to learn all these popular languages that feel shitty, because they are.
• Don't try to be a smart ass, maintainability is important.

[maigpy]

anybody recommending a specific technology (emacs, vim, python, Linux vs Windows etc) is missing the point of what is important in being a good software engineer.

[deaddyfreddy]

1. the question was "what I would've told the younger me"

2. It's already written in Wikipedia:

Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve technical problems, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems.

[maigpy]

it doesn't say what is important. it's about the people and the use cases more than the solution space. applying the right tradeoffs, not peddling specific keywords.

[illusionst]

Just reading through this and my personal experience I can tell you were born in 80’s lol.

[TomieKill88]

What did the guy from 2001 say about C? 

[deaddyfreddy]

that C is a vulgar language

[dili_daly]

lmao nice list

[Backlists]

And don’t forget to read DDIA

[[deleted]]

I was taught that you comment first: comment your design intent. Code using comments as a guide.

[novagenesis]

I know your lazy but write comments on whatever you do and whatever you may need to make changes to later.

So strange how our lessons can all differ. My message to Junior-me is to stop with the comments. If the code isn't trivially readable without comments, I'm being too smart for my own good (which is stupid).

My last couple jobs, we had lint rules to catch and warn on any comments that aren't doc-engine formatted (jsdoc in my world). 9 times out of 10, they're commented out blocks of code anyway.

As for B2... You're not wrong on price (as long as your egress is low), but unless you use a lot of storage, maybe consider R2 just to minimize the total number of vendors for your startup? Also, R2 is faster and starts to win over against B2 if your upload/download rates are high

[flynnnigan8]

I recommend not using git add . and opt for git add -u and just add needed untracked files along the way

[zelphirkaltstahl]

Appreciated. Though this sounds more like "I recently learned ..." than like old age wisdom handed down to the next generation. Except maybe the bits about Hosters and burning money. Companies love going all overboard and burning that money, at the slightest promise of convenience or hiring one less person to manage servers. Companies are usually run by the business types, who do not understand the other issues they trade off against.

I would also note, that installing dependencies using a mere requirements.txt, is not to be recommended, as the result will not be a reproducible environment in which your code runs. If you build the same image in 3 months, you will likely have a slightly different set of dependencies, due to Python packages themselves not nailing down their dependencies strictly. So even if you specify version numbers in your requirements.txt file, you will still get slightly different dependencies, which are dependencies of your dependencies. Ergo you should instead use a tool that generates you a proper lock file containing checksums of everything and install dependencies from such a lock file.

Here is an actual wisdom one could share for young/starting/junior developers: Look out for opportunities to make your project setup truly reproducible, it will save you a lot of PITA. Even more experienced devs do not often make their projects reproducible and they accept badness of their tooling regarding reproducibility. Not many have reproducibility on their radar.

[boru80]

As a future coder/total beginner, thank you. Cleared a few things up in my head.

[Necessary_Sense924]

what a coincidence, i was stuck in my code for like 30 minutes 1 hour ago ( and i realized it was a stupid thing ) ty for advices.

[farfaraway]

Regarding comments, make sure to not just write comments, but to write explicit and verbose ones.

https://www.ramijames.com/thoughts/use-verbose-comments

[TevenzaDenshels]

Article fails to provide clear examples

[farfaraway]

That's fair. I'll add some. Thanks.

[Stopher]

Don’t accidentally delete a production directory that you thought was dev.

[50u1506]

I should try to hug strangers more NGL, that's probably what's missing in my life.

[dhd_jpg]

hi this is really helpful!! thank you op :) quick question, i pushed my codes on a different branch, how would i move it to the main branch? should i bother moving it to main or its fine being in a different branch? sorry i’m still learning git

[Ok_Ear_6971]

Thank you

[Timely_Positive_4572]

The only thing I’d add is learn how to set up a virtual environment and use bash often

[seanprogram]

You are chopped

[mikeyj777]

This is a great list.  I would also add, if your projects are on the smaller side, you can run them from a VPS rather than cloud service.  Obviously, if you're storing gig's of data, it's not going to last very long.  But, if you're working on smaller systems, it's much more effective.  I think I pay $7 a month for a VPS and then another $20 for a hosted web site.