DEV Community: Rodrigo Veiga

Micro-Commits: Why You Should Do 'Em

Rodrigo Veiga — Thu, 02 Jan 2025 22:02:48 +0000

What's a Micro-Commit?

Instead of slamming all your changes into one big commit, break 'em down into tiny ones. So, instead of one massive "I changed everything!" commit, you might do three smaller ones.

Why Bother?

Keeps Things Clean: Easier to see what changed when and where.
Less Stress: No more sweating over pushing a huge update. Small steps mean small risks.
Team Love: Helps your team follow your changes without needing a treasure map.

How to Start:

Don't Change Much: Just commit more often. Like, if you're tweaking functions for a new library, do:
- "Processing functions now use new lib"
- "Calculations updated for new lib"
- "Logging with new library setup"
Clear Messages: Tell what and why in your commit messages. It's like leaving breadcrumbs for your future self or your team.

Tools to Help:

Git: It's built for this. Commit away!
GitLens: Or similar tools in VSCode show your commits nicely. Even without it, git's basic stuff works.

Try It Out:

Challenge yourself for a week. See if it feels less like a chore and more like a breeze.

Wrap Up:

Micro-commits might seem like more work, but they make your life easier in the long run. Less headache, more control. Give it a shot, and let's talk about it in the comments!

Challenge: Go for it this week, then share how it went!

Why simple and easy apps are not a future but a choice

Rodrigo Veiga — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 22:51:33 +0000

So your thinking... Shouldn't the future be simple and easy apps because people as time goes want to do less and produce more.

I will respond in a way that will change your point of view in the situation. It's going to be a long article, if you don't want to read go to the bullet points section at the end 👍

A trip to the past

It's 2007 and the world is watching Steve Jobs introducing the first ever smartphone "The iPhone". When it is announced we are introduced to mobile apps, applications conceived to small devices with a 9:16 ratio that work by touch

The first apps are designed with an UI that mimics the real world with a REALLY complicated name "Skeuomorphism". This was the default option in the time because it made people familiar with the buttons and shapes because they were similar to the everyday life objects

Then the company's start changing the design because there's always room to innovate so they come up with flat design. Flat design doesn't mimic the real world but makes everything easier to draw and simple to see

For example let's say you are designing a calculator app logo, you have two options:

The option of "Skeuomorphism design" (the left one)
The option of "Flat design" (the right one)

Maybe you chose flat or maybe you chose skeuomorphism but that's not the thing in discussion, the thing is that we can all agree that the first option seems outdated. Why is that? Well obvious, it was introduced first and then replaced.

Why are we talking about the mobile app UI history?

This introduction was to show that the landscape always evolves, for better or for worse it always evolves.

The UI is a thing that matters a lot in an app and the way the industry is moving is hinting to a new shift...

The AI User Interface

AI is a thing that's coming to stay. Whether you like it or not it's true.

As the AI evolves it starts to do a lot of things maybe even too much. This means that some apps in the future could be just a text box or a text voice input and it does the thing for you.

This idea is not made by me... Apple it self is encouraging developers to implement a new feature in their IOS apps called

And now you're going to say: "App intents just allows Siri to do actions of the app but the apps still have UI"

And that's correct but I don't doubt that maybe just MAYBE we could see a future that an app is just a App intent and you just say Siri to do a thing and it does the action of the app

Of course this is speculation but it could happen 🤷

The main point

So are simple apps the future? Yes and No

If a simple app is just an AI doing an action, me personally I don't like that future

If a simple app is an app with simple UI and simple UX that the user does the essential and it gets the job done, I don't see it in a bad way but there's some flaws:

If you want the user to do the bare minimum or the essential the app becomes less exciting because there's just one thing or two to do and it does the rest. But why is this a bad thing?

Me as a user of a website or app I want to use it, experiment and maybe try new things in the app. I like to have settings and experiment but not too much. Just the essential...

So this comes to a conclusion of three ways:

Or you have a SIMPLE app that is an AI doing an action and nothing else
Or you have a simple app that has the essential features and settings to keep the user excited to use the app. They may or may not have AI to assist but isn't the main way to interact
Or you have a complex app with a lot of features and settings that keeps the user excited but can be a little overwhelming without the right tutorial

What is the right way? It's in the title "A Choice"

Bullet points ⏱️

App design has evolved from skeuomorphism to flat design
AI User Interfaces may represent the next major shift in app design
Apple's App Intents feature hints at a potential future of voice-controlled apps
The article presents three potential futures for app design:
- AI-driven apps with minimal UI
- Simple apps with essential features that may or may not have an AI assist
- Complex apps with numerous features
The "right" approach depends on user preferences and specific use cases
The future of app design involves balancing simplicity, functionality, and user engagement
AI integration in apps raises questions about the role of traditional UI elements
The evolution of app design impacts both users and developers

Ignore

I'm the developer of the app "QuickCoords". It combines simplicity with accuracy and presents a simple way to calculate and navigate to coordinates. See more in: https://rodriveiga01.github.io/quickCoords_website/

Thank you for reading the article 😁

How to update your favicon on your website

Rodrigo Veiga — Tue, 27 Aug 2024 16:51:03 +0000

Hello I'm Rodrigo Veiga and I'm the developer of the app QuickCoords (an app of compass exploration and calculation of coordinates).

What's a favicon

A favicon (short for favorite icon) is a file containing one or more small icons associated with a particular website (Source)

In simple terms a favicon is the little top icon before your website domain that represents normally the logo of the website. Here's an example of the favicon of Wikipedia:

How to change the favicon of my website?

If you're like me you're struggling to do such a simple thing as changing a favicon. Don't worry I have a complete solution for you 🙃!

🚫 Favicon.ico 🚫

A simple solution seems to create a favicon.ico file and just use it but unfortunately it's not that simple

For example, if you see your website in an Apple device you would not see any favicon... Why? Because Apple requires an additional configuration called "apple-touch-icon"

For Safari you need a SVG file because of some MacBooks Touch Bar and pinned websites

How to do it?

So let's get to work 🔨:

You could generate all by yourself but I don't recommend because you could get errors. What I recommend is using this website

As you see the website supports the most famous platforms and browsers

After you upload your logo the website will give you options for each platform and browser. It's not bad keeping all by default but you should pay attention to detail 😉
Then just download the pack of the files and put in the public folder or other folder on your website directory

And finally you just insert the code in your index.html. Normally it should look like this or similar:

How to clear caches of favicon in Safari

Safari has a cache of Safari and when developing the website in localhost it sometimes show the previous non favicon because its in cache.

To clear it:

Quit Safari. Select safari and do CMD + Q
Using Finder, click Go then Go to Folder
Enter ~/Library/Safari/Favicon Cache/ in the window that pops up and go to this location
Select all the items and delete them. Also clear your bin

Done!

If you've done all this and its not working restart your browser or clear caches.

Now your done, you now have your new favicon 🎉

If you have any more questions please let me know in the comments 😁