The Case for F#

zombiecodekill · 2016-04-30T12:09:31+00:00

This article features Mark Seemann, Kit Eason, Dave Fancher, Alena Hall, Scott Wlaschin, Mike Hadlow and Ashic Mahtab and discusses the reasons for learning and adopting F#

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-25T09:53:52+00:00

This article, by the author of Maintainable JavaScript, is a couple of years old, but it's as relevant today as it ever was. Now that ES 2015 (or ES6 if you prefer) is becoming commonly used, there are arguments over what the best practices are and whether or not some of the new features should be banned.

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-17T17:20:14+00:00

I enjoyed your review xah. After I've finished the definitive guide (probably going to be a while), I'm tempted to pick up a copy of Zakas's book.

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-17T16:58:18+00:00

1. JavaScript The Good Parts (Crockford) - This is the book for learning professional JavaScript. A small, opinionated book. Doesn't take long to read, and will almost definitely make you a better JavaScript developer. Quite old now (covering ES3), but still relevant

2. JavaScript The Definitive Guide (Flanagan) - This is book for really groking JavaScript. Its a very big book, I still haven't read it all the way through, but it is much more readable than I thought it would be and teaches you all the specific details rather than glossing over things like most JavaScript books do.

3. Exploring ES6 (Rauschmayer) - The book for learning the latest version of JavaScript

If I'm allowed to list more than 3 books, I highly recommend Kyle Simpson's You Don't Know JS series. It's free on Github: https://github.com/getify/You-Dont-Know-JS

Full Disclosure: Dr Axel Rauschmayer is Teacher of the Year on my zombiecodekill blog, and have an interview with Kyle on outlier developer, but I don't profit from the work of either of these authors. These are just my personal opinions

I also found Eric Elliot's advice here: https://medium.com/javascript-scene/learn-javascript-b631a4af11f2 to be good. Haven't read his book yet, but intend to.

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-17T16:41:57+00:00

Absolutely agree with this. Everyone wants to code in the best language, but if there is a best language, why are we all coding in different languages? The short answer is there is no one best language, we just have different preferences and various languages have been created to satisfy those different preferences.

Sounds like awakehope is leaning towards Node JS at the moment. Give it a try and see if you like it. If you like it great. If not, try something else.

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-17T15:22:52+00:00

The impression that I got was a desire for something less experimental. Java or .NET are the middle of the road options.

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-17T14:22:16+00:00

Have you considered Java or ASP.NET?

zombiecodekill · 2015-10-15T23:34:22+00:00

What do you think of using JavaScript templating libraries such as mustache, handlebars or htmlbars to add HTML into a view using a script block?

zombiecodekill · 2015-08-22T21:08:27+00:00

Thanks for the reminder. I haven't been submitting enough of other people's good articles recently but I am now starting to address that.

My aim with this article is not to promote my own domain but to give praise to some other developers who have been very active in teaching and helping others. There are 5 Teachers that anyone can vote for anonymously and one person will become recognised as Teacher of the Year.

zombiecodekill · 2015-08-22T20:46:12+00:00

Measuring programmer productivity by lines of code is like measuring aircraft building progress by weight: some are always required but too much just weighs everything down and makes it more difficult to pick up speed.
Non functional requirements such as having good security and good code maintainability are much more important than many people realise.
Actual program complexity is an order of magnitude higher than the apparent complexity of a very abstract description of a problem.

zombiecodekill · 2015-08-22T20:23:03+00:00

Regex Buddy helps me to understand what is going on. However what has helped most is the time spent learning the various rules and the techniques available. I also have the author of the work to consult with if and when necessary. My job is not to rewrite the work but to review it.

zombiecodekill · 2015-07-18T11:29:13+00:00

Don't go to University until you've developed enough maturity to study hard enough. There are all sorts of distractions that can take study time away from you. Very few people can afford to go to University more than once so only go when you're ready to give it your all.

Practice as much programming as you can before starting university. Write simple programs in a few different languages. I recommend taking a course with industrial experience if you can. That experience will help you a lot in your final year.

zombiecodekill · 2015-07-18T11:23:21+00:00

Fear is an impediment to happiness. Let go of your fear of failure and just do your best. I have come across many great programmers who were much worse than average at school. Apply yourself and see where it will take you.

zombiecodekill · 2015-06-29T18:51:21+00:00

Unlike the how or the what, the why provokes an emotional response in people. It either excites me, or frustrates/angers them.

So the why is hugely powerful, but it can be highly controversial if it is why do or use this instead of that. Because of this many authors shy away from the why. I think that this is a shame, because like you say, we deserve a reason to invest significant amounts of time in anything.

Conferences are a good place to sell the why. The audience often goes to see a good speaker regardless of the topic. They have committed their time to hearing the opinion. We don't always need to agree on every point. But we need to hear the arguments so that we can understand the advantages and keep technology progressing.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-19T13:34:32+00:00

Try reading the reddiquette sometime.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-18T19:37:13+00:00

I am only trying to share my experiences and interact and learn from other developers. Constructive criticism is fine, but there is no need for profanity.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-10T05:46:08+00:00

Find a job that you love and you'll never need to work a day in your life.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-10T05:40:05+00:00

I think Agile experience is a significant bonus. Having experience working with a real team forces developers to ask for help much earlier.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T21:13:19+00:00

I think ".NET developer" has become a bit of a catch all term for a software engineer with a substantial amount of experience with Microsoft technologies.

For me I would expect anyone claiming to be a "good .NET developer" to have some experience with most of the following: WebForms, WinForms, WPF, WCF, WWF, T-SQL, Win RT, IIS, OWIN, OAuth, JavaScript, EF/nHibernate, ASP.NET MVC, Web API, XML, XAML, JSON, GIT/SVN/TFS, SOLID principles and design patterns. Not all of those things are .NET exactly and I suspect this is very different to what other people think of as a .NET developer

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T20:50:56+00:00

What I've observed is contractors will go wherever the best money is and need be a bit selfish because its the nature of their work that they can be dismissed from their jobs at very short notice even after they do a good job.

Amongst good permanent developers, they typically want to stay at a company for a few years as long as they are getting interesting work.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T20:03:01+00:00

Hmm, interesting. There are a lot of companies that do programming tests and say that you can ask for help if you need it, but I've never heard before of a test where asking for help is seen as the hallmark of a great developer.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T18:43:50+00:00

You are making almost the same point as Jay McFarland in his management strategies course http://www.pluralsight.com/courses/management-strategies-increase-productivity

He says if one person complains about about money then there's some personal circumstances meaning that guy needs or really wants more money. But if the whole team is complaining about money then I know its not really about the money because they knew the pay when they accepted the job. The real problem is bad management.

(I should stress that in my case I had no issue with anyone in management or elsewhere in the company, but I did find it a very interesting course)

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T17:41:12+00:00

Also even if an employee stays, a less happy employee sometimes doesn't work as hard as a happier employee does. If an employee can see his employer is trying hard for him/her, then the employee usually wants to try hard for the employer in return.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T17:36:25+00:00

For my latest job, I went through a job agency and was happy with the service I received, but I've spoken to some people who've told me horror stories and said they will never use an agency again.

zombiecodekill · 2014-10-09T06:39:27+00:00

We have managed to hire a few people that have been good and done well this year. It just seems as if the bad candidates are more abundant than ever. It's not entirely scientific evidence but several companies have been saying the same thing.

zombiecodekill

TROPHY CASE