DEV Community: Wes Dunn

How would you build it? - Cross-platform Desktop GUI

Wes Dunn — Wed, 16 Oct 2019 17:34:45 +0000

If you were going to build a GUI for a cross-platform desktop application, what would you use?

I haven’t seen a lot of desktop app content in discussions/articles on DEV, so I thought I’d start one! Just curious how others would approach the task.

Parameters:

You cannot use Electron
The GUI is decoupled from other app code and communicates via some local RPC/API
You can use commercially licensed libraries/frameworks

I’m currently involved in maintaining an existing cross-platform desktop app, and have been thinking about some different approaches:

Serve the GUI as a locally hosted site. Users interact with the app’s GUI in the browser of their choice.
Separate codebases: use Cocoa/native libraries for Mac, Qt for Linux, WPF for Windows.
Single codebase: Use Qt or wxWidgets for all platforms. (This is the approach I use today)

So... how would you do it? What choices would you make?

How do you "label" yourself as a professional developer?

Wes Dunn — Mon, 27 May 2019 22:27:01 +0000

Cover image: "Homeward" by Kathrin Loges and Jan D. Wunderlich is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

Over the past (nearly) 6 years I've been less than great about keeping my résumé up to date. Over the Memorial Day weekend, I've started working on a personal blog/resume/showcase website. While exploring examples of these types of websites, I've noticed that many include a "self-label" or "self-title"... something along the lines of:

I'm a blank developer interested in blank.

I don't know how I would answer this question for myself

If forced to answer, I'd probably use a word like "generalist" or "polyglot." I've worked on web apps, REST APIs, cross-platform desktop apps, databases, internal tools, build systems, etc. I definitely don't feel like I have a specialization, and honestly I don't know if specialization is the "right" path for me. All-in-all, I'm at a loss for how I would label/title myself as a developer.

So, dearest Dev.to community, I'd love to get your feedback on how you answer the question of "What kind of developer are you?" and how you came to answer that question for yourself. I'm super excited to engage in the comments! Thanks in advance!

How do you onboard a new developer?

Wes Dunn — Thu, 31 Jan 2019 22:35:49 +0000

I feel like joining my team is like walking through a desert

I’m curious...
Having recently become the hiring manager fo my dev team, and not having any documentation around how to get a new developer up to speed, what are some best practices for onboarding a new developer?

I’d love to hear your experiences as a new developer on a team or as a manager bringing on a new developer. What works? What doesn’t work?

Thanks!!

Hi, I'm Wes Dunn

Wes Dunn — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 20:56:00 +0000

I have been coding/learning to code for about a year.

You can find me on Twitter as @MrWesDunn

I live in San Antonio, TX

I'm a product manager at Jungle Disk

I mostly program in these languages: JavaScript, SQL, and a tiny, tiny, TINY bit of C#.

I am currently learning more about C++.

Nice to meet you.