DEV Community: Julio Lozovei

GitHub acquires npm, Inc.

Julio Lozovei — Tue, 17 Mar 2020 11:54:06 +0000

Yesterday, March 16th, Isaac published on the npm blog that GitHub will be acquiring the package manager. Also, there's a nice blog post on GitHub's blog, written by Nat.

And, practically, what does that means for us?

Well, after seeing the acquisition of GitHub by Microsoft - where people changed their VCS to GitLab or BitBucket - I believe people may replace npm to yarn. yarn is on the game since 2016 and in the past few years it has overlaped npm on usage, security and speed (as theirselves claims). Back in the day I remember to see those posts about "how yarn is faster than npm" or "how yarn is more secure than npm".

Competition always lead to improving services, and personally I see npm getting better and better as time time flies. Today, most people yet think about technology/tools itself, and not what you can do with them.

In my opinion...

Today I don't see a huge difference between the managers, and I believe npm is on the rise of overlap yarn - Isaac said that npm's v7 (it's getting close!) and v8 are already being planned, and they'll be focused on experience and speed. So we can expect nice things on the move.

In 2020, I see a bright future for npm - talking about the startup and the service as well. 🎉

Zeplin 3.0 is out!

Julio Lozovei — Wed, 26 Feb 2020 17:21:34 +0000

Yesterday, the Zeplin Gazette announced the release of the new 3.0 version! And, within the announcement, there are 2 new big features:

1. Connected Components

Now developers can link their codebase to the design - using Storybook, GitHub, and even open it within your IDE; as they say:

"a living source of truth"

This would give us flexibility and confidence, since we'll always get the component's current updated design/code.

2. The new Zeplin API

You can access your organizations, projects and your project's colors, text styles, screens... All within the new API - this way, you can create apps using the API, like a components' showroom.

Also, now we can customize our workflow using extensions - generating snippets from the uploaded layers, or export the texts. The possibilities are uncountable! 🚀

If you don't know what is going on:

Zeplin is a handoff tool (often called handover or even handshake).

What is a handoff tool?

Handoff tools help designers to export their designs (from Sketch, Photoshop...), and also can include stakeholders to the process, facilitating feedbacks about the job.

Is there any handoff tool besides Zeplin?

Yes, there are many! I'm using Zeplin for a while; but the two below are worthy to check out:

Front-end components/features names

Julio Lozovei — Tue, 25 Jun 2019 14:49:53 +0000

As a front-end developer, quite often I need to deal with components and/or features naming conventions. I'm not talking about variables' names, functions and all of this...

I'm talking about components - alert, modal, dialog, popup, dropdown... And I believe this may be a struggle to many people whose are working with non-dev/non-technical people.

Constantly I hear people talking "we need to create a new popup (...)" - so, do you mean a prompt or a confirm?
Or, when you're using a tool like HubSpot, you have a component called leadflows (now called popup forms)...

If you're using Bootstrap, Foundation, Material Design... This confusion with names can increase.

In fact, they don't need to know the "correct name", or the "fanciest name" for a specific component; but, sometimes, this may create a misunderstanding.

Obviously, after some time talking about the new component/feature with your teammate(s), you can call it in a more friendly name when developing (modal.js, steps-controller.js...)

Whatever... I'd like to hear your thoughts about this and how do you deal with those requirements, or even what do you consider to name a component.

Communication - between problem and solution

Julio Lozovei — Wed, 27 Mar 2019 18:56:40 +0000

Working on a multidisciplinary squad/team can be hell or high water - the choice is yours. And for many reasons, the communication between people can be the reason of those problems, and the solution for all of them as well.

Today is almost impossible to not keep up with your colleagues - Slack, RocketChat, Trello, Jira, Asana... Those famous names compose a huge toolkit to elevate your communication and productivity. But, even so, we'll find ourselves in a trap - are we communicating correctly?

Personal Experience

I've worked with a developer-based team, where my colleagues were front and back-enders, and also worked with a multidisciplinary squad alongside a designer and SEO analysts - I was the only dev.

In both contexts, we've always used team-based communication tools, we "used" the sprint model among our delivers (at least we tried). But, I've always felt that something was missing - concernment.

You can be the quiet person, or the extroverted one - in this case, those characteristics doesn't matter. But, I believe that a connected team can deliver more stuff, both in quantity and in quality.

If you care about your partner's performance, the quality of his/her delivered stuff, you'll be more effective - as individuals, as a team...

And, this is much important for managers and leaders - even the words you choose can keep your team motivated.

Discussion

In the end, doesn't matter if you're a dev and who else surrounds you (as a team, squad...) - what if your colleague is a high-level Python/Java/Go coder but you can't communicate?

Communication is a single component - but, it's also a powerful component between relationships.

Why I chose front-end?

Julio Lozovei — Mon, 22 Oct 2018 13:18:00 +0000

Why will you take the front-end path? What it has to offer? First of all, I can say to you this path is long, but it’s worthy!

I've been working with front-end development for some time and today I feel a great pleasure to be part of this team. But after all, what is front-end and what it has to offer?

Front-end is the area responsible for turn into code and give life to that beautiful static design — put simply, it is the dev guy who takes care of your website's/blog's/web system's interface and usability; the CSS guy.

Today we're living in the Information Age. And with a huge convergency for web apps and systems, great on-premises platforms are turning into cloud available applications.

All this change plus those new services which already are born into the web ecosystem puts the front-end developer role in evidence, leading to a huge demand for new trained developers to manage this all. A good front-end dev can make your product such an another result on Google search or make it a stand out, attractive result to your customers.

Talking from the dev perspective, beyond the projects you would be taking part on and all the networking you'll develop, the front-end universe could offer you:

1) Contact with fancy technologies

In the world of development, in general, you'll have contact with several and wonderful languages, tools and platforms (PaaS, SaaS, IaaS) whose make your job easier and more flexible.

Today it's such a mistake thinking that front-end development limits itself to HTML + CSS! The technical and knowledge level for front-end devs gets higher each day — to be a successfull dev, you must master HTML, CSS and JavaScript (only jQuery isn't enough!), have a good design sense (it's a good differential if you have some experience with graphical software), have a good knowledge about projects architecture and infrastructure, design patterns (not everything in life is a singleton)… This list gets bigger every single day…

2) Contact with a huge community

Today the web devs community (front + back) is very large and some fantastic people are inserted in those communities. Github, forums, Facebook + Telegram groups, there are several channels to knowledge's dissemination. It's very difficult to have a doubt or to find a problem which cannot be solved in a short amount time with such quality support.

3) Acknowledgment and feedback

All the development segments have acknowledgement, logically. But I believe that it's such a front-end's glamour — the people really view and interact with your stuff. The users will click the button you've coded, they will like (or not) the website layout, animations and usability — and at this point the feedback is really fast!
Any change you make will affect the user's navigation (either visual or performance stuff) and it can improve or worsen your website's or blog's conversion rate. All the actions made on the applications' visual layer (where front-end devs spent 90% of their time) will generate chain reactions that can be seen in short time slots.

4) Job Vacancies

Today it's really hard to a front-end dev find yourself without a job. There's a "we're hiring" ad at every corner — either JR, PL or SR — not mentioning the freelancer opportunities. Technology companies are investing really hard and valuing each day more this area, because if the product/service being offered is really good rated and it has a simple interface with easy assimilation to use, your visitor will become a customer in a very short time range; and that's good for everyone involved.
Particularly, every day I get about 5 to 10 job vacancies on my email, requesting trained front-end devs with a specific mastery (beyond HTML + CSS) — React, Angular, Vue, WordPress, Mobile Hybrid Apps, Mobile First… Besides those jobs you can get on websites like Freelancer and Fiverr.

Whether in a startup or in an enterprise environment the front-end dev role has great benefits and an incredible journey to offer you! To be a successful player in this field, you only need to have willpower and creativity!

P.S.: EBANX is always looking for new devs! Take a look at our carrers page and come dream big with us!

Cover photo - 8Photo by Maik Jonietz on Unsplash

Are you a happy developer?

Julio Lozovei — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 20:56:38 +0000

If you still haven’t found the happiness between your code lines, this text may be helpful to you!

I'm not such a great or a famous developer, but today I'm a realized developer and someone who really love and enjoy what I do.

But, what is the magic recipe to reach that satisfaction level with your job?

There's no magic formula! In the world of development, specially at the front-end development universe, you must follow a set of steps to make even better projects, with easiness and pleasure.

These tips are destinated to the ones who already are developers or to the ones who want to enter this mystic and growind world called Front-end (my current job role), but certainlly can be applied in any area, either development or not.

1) Learn something new EVERYDAY

A new language, a new speech, a new methodology, a new framework or a new way to do something you already know how to do — exercise your brain! It's good for your health and for your career. Like any body's muscle, your brain needs an exercise routine. Beyond optimizations and new discoveries you can make, you can search for specific and oriented activities, like this Aline Bastos' repo at Github, with a lot of code challenges.

2) Take note of your progress

Sometimes we look to our old projects and think "how does it work?" — take a look with another eyes and analyze how much you evolved since there! Take little steps, celebrate each new achievement and you'll have a clear view from where you are now and where you want to get.

Spreadsheets, lists, git-flow, here you can unleash your imagination and use any or all the tools that technology offers you!

3) Stay tuned at the Community

Forums, FAQs, study groups (Facebook, Telegram), Github, Stack Overflow — there's always someone needing help and someone who wants to help. Do your part in the knowledge's circulation and dissemination, this will help you to stay tuned at new tendencies, tools and methodologies. Here we can quote "teach to learn", because the best way to learn is to teach someone about it.

4) Put yourself on the user's shoes

If you have work to do, that's a good sign — the user is using your product/service. The better your product/service is, the most it'll be used (of course!). So, always give a good experience for the user, a good interface with easy assimilation and use — if he likes it, for sure he will come back and even recommend your brand.

Use the inbound marketing methodology and turn your visitor into your customer, and after he'll become a promoter of your product/service. To get there, always offer quality and added value to your user.

Would you use the product/service that you develop?

5) Know how to handle people

In the world you won't handle only codes, you'll handle a lot of people — and they're inconstant and unpredictable. Having a good interpersonal relationship is fundamental in this area — either with your squad, customers, family, colleagues… Everyone has something to offer, and the manner you absorb it is the key piece of it all.

Verbal, written and body communcation are your great allies at this point. Many developers have such fantastic ideas, but mostly they can't communicate it to their colleagues. To solve it, you must have a great vocabulary and always be concise and direct when you need to expose your opinion or your ideas. Besides being a good speaker, also have to be a good listener!

“When you talk, you are only repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.” — Dalai Lama

6) Know how to handle your ego

Receive compliments for the good job done is very good — and it's fair too. But, don't let it became a purpose, it only must be your job's consequence. Nobody likes superb people, even more in the tech world — humility will take you further. Never let your ego clash on your way to success! It's very connected with a good interpersonal relationship.

People come and go, but the knowledge remains.

7) Be flexible and smooth

Every day a new JavaScript framework is born — it's not a joke. The world doesn't belong to the strongest, it belongs to those who adapt faster! You don't have to know everything, but you must have a good idea of what each tool can and can't offer you, always pondering the best choice when you will start a new project.

Listen to your squad/team, have brainstormings and make diagrams if needed, but don't be shy to ask for help. Always have a lot of impressions and possibilities surrounding you — this way you can be sure you'll be taking the right path.