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Peter Kim Frank for The DEV Team

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Top 5 DEV Comments from the Past Week

This is a weekly roundup of awesome DEV comments that you may have missed. You are welcome and encouraged to boost posts and comments yourself using the #bestofdev tag.

@cassandraspruit leads things off by describing their answer to What are the hardest coding terms to search for?:

SOAP. Back in the day when I was first learning how it worked, I wondered if I could make Ajax work with it somehow.

So I googled "ajax soap".

I don't know what I expected

@tobiassn offers their opinion in What's the most wasteful software?:

Electron. I mean, I don’t mind it all that much if a full fledged app that I use a lot uses it, but the moment you use it for an app that flashes disc/disk images, you loose all hope from me.

@aleksandrhovhannisyan shares some useful perspective about perfection vs. progress in response to Clean code, dirty code, human code:

Yeah, honestly, I once got sucked into the clean code rabbit hole, and it nearly ruined my ability to program. I'm not exaggerating. When you become preoccupied with writing clean code obsessively, you redirect your attention from solving the problem at hand.

Nowadays, my process is simple:

  1. Write the code that gets the job done, no matter how ugly it may be, unless a better alternative is reasonably doable without investing more time.

  2. Refactor the code to make it easier to read and/or more performant.

That's it. I think that's all you really need.

The Tell me about the worst CSS you've ever had to deal with thread had some great replies, but none better than @lukeshiru who talks about a true war of sorts:

One for a popular marketplace that I can't mention, but let's say if I had to make a movie about it, it would be called: "CSS: The !important Wars" 🤣

@ryansmith provides some great tips in response to Has your job impacted your physical health?:

Aside from occasional eye irritation, nothing too concerning here. I am very mindful of the potential issues and try to avoid them. Here are my tips:

  • Invest in a good chair. I have the Steelcase Leap which is not cheap, but worth the investment since being at the computer is my job and hobbies, so I spend a lot of time there.
  • Sit with good posture. Having the nice chair isn't enough, don't hunch over the keyboard or "zoom in" with your neck.
  • Invest in a comfortable keyboard. I prefer ergonomic keyboards because they more naturally fit your hands and wrists. Microsoft's Ergonomic Keyboard is not too expensive and has served me well. That fancy RGB-lit mechanical keyboard may be a dream to type on, but if you have to strain and contort yourself to do so, it isn't worth it.
  • Do wrist stretches every so often to help prevent carpal tunnel or repetitive stress injury.
  • Take a break every so often and go for a walk.
  • Exercise in your free time.
  • For the eyes, I have screen brightness set fairly low and use the night light overlay.

See you next week for more great comments ✌

Top comments (2)

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peter profile image
Peter Kim Frank

Congrats to @cassandraspruit , @tobiassn , @aleksandrhovhannisyan , @lukeshiru , and @ryansmith for making the list this week!

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tobiassn profile image
Tobias SN

Thanks!