DEV Community: robencom

MacOS v Linux v Windows?

robencom — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:50:19 +0000

Which OS are you using for work? Also, out of pure interest, which OS are you using for personal use?

In some companies, they don't wanna even hear the word "Windows".

Most devs, especially "NEW DEVS" are preferring Mac..

I usually used Windows as it was the OS provided by the company, but one company suggested Linux, so yeah, Linux was also good, no big differences.

I wonder if Mac has any sort of advantages over the others? Besides the iOS thingy...

Thoughts?

Laravel Sail on Windows

robencom — Thu, 26 May 2022 14:52:01 +0000

I wanted to write my own detailed walkthrough on how to setup Laravel Sail on a Windows machine.

0- Install Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store.

1- Check if Virtualization Technology is enabled in your BIOS:
UEFI BIOS (Advanced > CPU Configuration > SVM Mode or Virtualization Technology..

2- enable WSL with this command (via terminal or command prompt with Admin privileges):
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux /all /norestart

3- enable VM with this command (via terminal or command prompt with Admin privileges):
dism.exe /online /enable-feature /featurename:VirtualMachinePlatform /all /norestart

4- Download the Linux kernel update package:
Download WSL2 Linux kernel update package for x64 machines

5- Set WSL2 as your default version (via terminal or command prompt with Admin privileges):
wsl --set-default-version 2

6- Instal Ubuntu 20.04.4 LTS (or whichever Ubuntu you desire) from the Microsoft Store and follow instructions

7- Run the command (via terminal or command prompt with Admin privileges) wsl --list --verbose to verify your installation.

8- Now, download and Install Docker Desktop

9- Open Docker Desktop:

in the General tab, click on the gear icon and make sure "Use wsl2 based engine" is checked.
in the Resources tab, check your ubuntu Integration and click Apply

10- Open Windows Terminal and cd ~ (to go to the home dir) then type this command to install a fresh Laravel project:
curl -s https://laravel.build/test-project | bash
Obviously, change "test-project" to whatever the name of the project that you desire.

11- To find the files of this project, just open your File Explorer and type: \\wsl$ then you can go to Ubuntu-20.04\home\YOUR_USERNAME\test-project

12- now in the terminal, cd to the new project (cd test-project) and type this command to start sail:
./vendor/bin/sail up
(this will take time for fresh installation)

13- to make an alias, in the terminal :
nano ~/.bashrc
then at the end of the file write:
alias sail='bash vendor/bin/sail'
then apply the change . ~/.bashrc

14- now we can stop it with sail down and turn it on with sail up, we can also pause it with CTRL+C, or as detached mode : sail up -d

15- If using PHPStorm: click File > Open > then type \wsl$\Ubuntu-20.04\ and look for your project

16- IMPORTANT: to shut down the VM, type in terminal:
wsl --shutdown
This will make sure that the VM is not taking memory when you are not using it!

17- As for the database, you can run sail artisan migrate to run the migrations.

18- To connect to the database through MySQL Workbench (or any other database IDE): connecting your SQL Management Software using localhost with the default username: sail and password: password.

DONEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

So the daily routine after this would be:

        - open terminal
        - type wsl
        - cd ~ then go to the project dir
        - sail up -d
        - then open PHPStorm

For more info, this was the reference I used: REF

Backend vs Frontend vs Full-Stack?

robencom — Wed, 25 May 2022 10:50:06 +0000

Which one are you: backend, frontend or full-stack developer?

I've been a developer for the past 10 years, and along this time, I came in contact with many developers who cannot answer this question for one reason or another.

Clearly, a full-stack developer is much more appreciated than the rest for the obvious reason that a full-stack dev can do both backend and frontend, which makes them more appreciated by their employer and by their colleagues.

But I came to realize that most of the devs I worked with had a preference: either backend or frontend. Also, you gotta be better, even if slightly, at one more than the other.

Long ago, I realized that I preferred backend over frontend, which wasn't a surprise since my "main" languages were PHP and Python, although I used JavaScript since the beginning of my career.

Sadly, till this day I see a lot of full-stack jobs (such as Laravel/Vue.js).

Percentages:

As you see, the backend and full-stack percentages are almost identical, because it is a common misconception that "if you can do the backend part then how hard is it to also do a bit of JS/HTML/CSS (frontend) to finish up the application/task?"

Hence:

This picture explains it very well:
Backend: kitchen
Backend Devs: chefs, sous-chefs
Frontend: the restaurant hall, tables, chairs..
Frontend Devs: waiters, manager, receptionist, cleaners..
Full-Stack: Fast food truck
Full-Stack Devs: Fast food truck operator (drives it, cleans it, prepares food, greets customer, serves food, gets paid, gives back change!)

So next time an employer offers you a Full-Stack job, remember this picture.

Personally, I'm pushing towards the dismantle of Full-Stack mentality. In my last 10 interviews throughout the last couple of years, I pushed for the segregation of backend from frontend (reminds me of the SOLID principles I). I managed to do backend with a TINY bit frontend in my current gig, and I am pushing currently with couple of future employers with the same result.

I implore you all, if you agree with me, then let's push employers to understand, that backend and frontend are different things and need to be done by different people. Some companies understood this, mostly big companies. But the medium and even smaller ones need to adapt this mentality as well.

In case you enjoy Full-Stack development, then ignore this article :)

Don't expect a change in IT

robencom — Wed, 20 Apr 2022 07:01:50 +0000

I've been in the IT sector, as a developer mainly, for about 10 years, and although new technologies arise every day, sadly some things aren't changing/improving such as job interviews.

From my latest experience, I did an interview with a company and they LOVED me, they became so desperate to get me. A few days later I did another interview with another company, and they gave me such a horrible feedback which equals to "is this person a developer even?".

How come some developers (interviewers) see that you are good and others think that you are bad, even when they ask almost exactly the same questions?

Maybe we finally need a STANDARD to qualify and rate developers skills. I wrote about this about 5 years ago, and now I am geting interviewed again, and I find this exact same problem still exists, exactly how it was 5 years ago.

I'm thankful that I have much more confidence now than before, but still, even if you have the confidence of the whole world, couple of rejections (and negative feedback) will hit your confidence (and psyche) hard.

We need to have this discussion more often so this problem gets fixed, especially to the newcomers who often complain about this annoying problem.

I do believe there are qualified people who can come up with SCIENTIFIC way to test the skills of a developer and through it determine if that person is junior/mid/senior, and also determine how much of the desired Tech the developer knows and so on. We need these people to gather up and figure it out.

Tell me, my friends, what STANDARDS do you want to see in IT, especially when it comes to job interviews? Maybe we can start this here together.

What do you do when you are not working?

robencom — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 10:49:53 +0000

Most of us work 8-9 hours a day at our jobs.

Most people sleep 6-8 hours a day, leaving them with 18-16 hours of awake time.

Lately I realized, that for years, in my free time, I used to LOSE myself in the virtual world. It is too easy for a developer to keep in their computer even if they are not working. This includes, gaming, surfing the internet, watching YouTube/series/movies or any other online activity.

It is easy to tell someone to get a hobby, or exercise or read a book. But what if I don't like any of these? What if I already do them, but I still have free time on my hand?

How do you spend your free time? What advice do you have for someone who just got 6-8 hours of free time on their hand, and they don't know what to do for that long, every day! (even more on the weekends!)

dev.to Follow Challenge!

robencom — Wed, 24 Apr 2019 07:16:02 +0000

Follow Challenge

I recently realized that I'm followed by 688 devs and I'm following only 103!

I try to follow every developer who impresses me with their ideas.

So I decided to try to increase my following numbers by reading much more articles, where I am sure I am gonna find much more brilliant developers with brilliant ideas.

Would you do the same?

PHP Devs: Explain to me PHP 7's performance boost!

robencom — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 07:52:55 +0000

Hello, PHP community.

As you already know, PHP 7 offers a huge performance boost, whether it is the memory usage, or the requests per second (which is almost doubled).

Now, we know this is due to the new Zend Engine 3. Let me quote from the Rogue Wave (Zend) website :
"Thanks to the new Zend Engine 3.0, your apps see up to 2x faster performance and 50% better memory consumption than PHP 5.6, allowing you to serve more concurrent users without adding any hardware."

Can you guys explain to me, or at least find me references/articles/docs, what are the reasons that PHP 7 is that much better performing than PHP 5.6? What are those changes in Zend Engine 3 that make all the difference?

I'd appreciate both your explanations or any articles you can find for me to read.

Thanks!

Why do developers have the toughest interviews in the world?

robencom — Fri, 20 Jul 2018 13:07:14 +0000

Reading this article inspired me to raise some questions to the developers community.

In case you don't want to read the post, the writer, Anton Frattaroli (https://dev.to/antonfrattaroli) says that he was asked a question in a job interview, and the question was: "What happens when you type 'google.com' into a browser and press Enter?".

Why is this even an interview question for a DEVELOPER?

Why a basketball player is NOT required to also know how to play football or tennis?
Why a Math teacher is not also required to teach Physics or Chemistry?
Why a house painter cannot paint cars or paintings as well?
Why a dentist cannot operate on your heart?
...

WHY is it when it comes to DEVELOPERS, we are supposed to know NETWORKING, OS shell/bash/commands, other languages, the WEB, the INTERNET, COMPUTER HARDWARE etc..?

I believe, as developers, we are required to know our language (PHP, Java, Python..) very well. We also should be required to know couple of frameworks and technologies accompanied with that language, such as Laravel(framework), MySQL(database). And we should know some "global" tools such as an IDE/Editor (PHPStorm, Sublime), versioning tool (git, SVN) and so on. For a web developer, HTML/CSS/JavaScript is a must. But beyond those, I really don't see why a PHP developer would stuff their head with Networking or OS specific info.

Surely, knowing more is better, but I don't think it makes you better developer than someone who REALLY understands PHP.

The thing is, as developers, we usually get to know things, about networking, OS, the WEB and so on JUST to get the development process ahead. I remember installing PHP and MySQL on a Redhat server just so I can write some applications later on. I cannot say how MAD I was when I was asked to do so and how HAPPYYYY I was when i did it! I enjoyed learning a new thing. We all do as developers. Which is why, I think, people who are not developers EXPECT from us to know everything!

We need to set boundaries. Ask us about what we love to do, what we learned and did for thousands of hours. Don't ask us about the few hours we spent reading an article about Networking, or the few hours I spent installing PHP on a server. We are ADAPTABLE bunch, us the developers. We can do almost anything! But let us do what we are BEST at it!

In case I missed something, feel free to add your thoughts!

Do you get exhausted from working or studying?

robencom — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 11:43:53 +0000

P.S: bear with me, I wanna try a playful style of writing my thoughts as a code:

function Success(you) 
{

    if (you == wanna_be_successful)
    {

        study new things, after work, every day (5 days a week), 
        for at least 1 hour a day,
        to keep you = up-to-date and aware of all the new technologies;       

    }
    else
    {

        you = lag behind your peers and you kinda become value-less 
        in the market;

    }

    return you;

}


function Lately(I, experience)
{

    let I = PHP Developer
    let experience = 5 years
    let me = []

    2 weeks ago, I refreshed my knowledge of HTML/CSS/JavaScript;
    It felt amazing to catch up with the new additions (especially ECMA6);
    me.push('happy');

    I could study all day long;
    I studied every day, even in weekends;
    me.push('consistent'); 

    I thought about it whenever I was hanging out with my family and friends;
    I couldn't wait to go back to study more and more;
    me.push('confident');

    return me;

}

function now(me)
{
    me = [];    

    after those 2 weeks, I couldn't read a single word without feeling
    that my brain is gonna explode;
    me.push('exhausted');

    I moved on to do some working on my own website;
    But I still feel like my brain has shrunk or something;
    I cannot focus;
    me.push('empty');

    My intuition tells me that my brain is tired and needs time to relax;
    My (personal) deadlines make me nervous;
    me.push('nervous');

    return me;

}

function YourThoughts(yourThoughts)
{

    what are your experiences with this;
    Too much working, too much studying;
    Should we rest after too much work/study;
    How long should we rest;

    It's been almost 3 days that I cannot do a significant work,
    but I NEED to work, the "world" cannot wait for me that long;

    return yourThoughts;

}

The Job Interview Battle!

robencom — Sat, 03 Feb 2018 08:04:25 +0000

Intro

I've been into many interviews here in Yerevan, Armenia. I get it: Armenians are mostly aggressive people. But should a job interview be aggressive as well?

Your Experience

Girls and Guys, I want to know what kind of experience you had in your interviews throughout the years. Also mention your city/country and the position.

A Plea

First of all, let us all work on making "What are the most important principles of OOP?" question a thing of the past! Sure, you can ask that question to an intern and MAYBE even to a junior developer, but above that, PLEASE do not ask that question!! A senior developer has, most-likely, already heard of OOP by now!!!

The Interview (Battle)

Now to the job interview. The moment you enter the office where the interview is going to happen and as soon as the person who invited you, usually from HR, finds you and shakes your hand, the battle begins!

1- They make you sit and wait, although you are there on time or early. They wanna make you understand who is the boss!!

2- They ask you to enter to the interview room, the battlefield!

3- They tell you to sit on a specific chair.

4- They sit on the opposite chairs, outnumbering you at best 2 to 1, or worse 5 to 1!

5- They start gently and slowly : "Talk about yourself.."

6- As soon as you feel a bit relaxed, they start the bombardment of questions. They even interrupt each other to ask you series of questions and riddles. It's like they are competing to take you down!

7- If you are prepared enough, you can answer about 66% of their questions. And that is good, but not for them. For them, usually, they want you to know all the answers for all their questions, also, they want you to know all the answers for all the questions for which they don't even know the answers!

8- None of them smiles. They are at war with you. They hate you. They think you are scum, evil! Not even your jokes passes by them.

9- Senior developers in an interview are fragile as a butterfly: they don't want to look bad in front of HR. They become extra aggressive as you answer their questions.

10- When the time is up, and they somehow didn't manage to "kill" you, they have to decide, themselves, if they won or not.

Change?

Why can't we be nice to the person who is being interviewed? Make him feel home? Because if he feels the aggression he might not come back to the 2nd interview nor to work for you, even if you give him the best offer!

Your Opinion

In my opinion, and I would LOVE to hear yours, interviews should be FUN! People should want to go to interviews, not to be nervous about them.

Conclusion

Also, when it comes to developers, there really should be a standard interview procedure that is both FAIR and SMART! Sometimes they send you a test (like hackerrank) or a task to do at home which can be done by someone else, who would find out? Sometimes, they ask you to do a test at their office, in that "hostile" environment etc. Sometimes it is hours of questions, or minutes of questions upon which they will determine if you know your stuff or not.

Short Conclusion!

We need to have MUCH better and faster way to determine if a person is good enough for the position they apply for.

Non-stop learning

robencom — Mon, 06 Nov 2017 23:29:25 +0000

As a junior developer or a beginner, you surely have a lot to learn, and if you are working, then you are forced, on a daily basis, to learn new techniques, new functions and new ways to overcome problems.

When I first started working as a junior web developer, I used to work from 9:00 AM till 6:00 PM, but usually I used to stay a bit longer than 6:00 PM to further advance in my work and secure my position in the company. But I had little time to read books or to learn new things.

Then, one day I had a discussion with one of the senior developers. He told me that every evening, after he goes home from work, he reads articles about new technologies and any other work related topic. He used to work from 8:00 AM till 8:00 PM in average.

Knowing that every day he came before me to work and every day he stayed longer at work, far after I was back home, and the fact that he was married with 2 kids, while I was a single guy living alone, I couldn't stop asking myself : how can he find time to read every day? Why would he spend that much time on reading while he can relax and unwind?

For many years, that is exactly what I did. I worked during the day, I had fun in the evening. No reading whatsoever.

In the programming world, web or other programming, experience is everything. Time will teach you more than the best instructor. And time taught me, that although we should always unwind and have fun after work, but if you are willing to have a successful career in programming, you'll need to learn how to love learning!

Learning shouldn't be regarded at as a hassle. Learning should be your friend. Let's face it, YOU HAVE TO DO IT! But don't feel bad about it. In the contrary, you will be happy to learn, because constant learning, even if it is for 15 minutes per day, will boost your confidence and raise your value among your peers.

I wouldn't recommend learning after work for more than an hour, unless you are genuinely having fun doing it.

One good advice that same senior developer gave me was to always rest your mind after a long day at work. A tired brain is not a programming brain. It will not be able to create code. Coding is creation and imagination, you'd need a calm and relaxed brain for that. But also, you need to feed it knowledge at a daily basis, so you can expand its imagination and creativity.

All us developers, doesn't matter what level we are at, we all know what we should improve, what we should learn from scratch and what is going to take us to the next level. We just have to do it, day after day, until we reach that place in our careers.

Remember though, the programming world is as big as you can imagine. There's endless things to learn in it. You don't need to learn it all. You only take what you need to deliver A class software/apps.

Each day you'd read for 1 hour is a success! Feel good about yourself! Feel that creativity box in your head leveling up. Boost your confidence. After all, in one hand, time will give you experience, and in the other hand, your constant learning, over time, will boost your confidence, and with both, you will always find a job and you will be on your way for greatness!