DEV Community: romanwrites

How to test ideas faster

romanwrites — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:48:37 +0000

I have a lot of ideas for pet projects, but now I manage to implement only a small part of them.

I've long wanted a telegram bot that I could write a message to, and it would go to todoist api and create a new task there.

I've done one approach before, then I wrote code in go language to get acquainted with go at the same time, deployed it on free heroku and it was pretty easy. But then heroku stopped providing resources for free and I temporarily froze it.

I wanted to do it all over again, write good code in kotlin that would be easy to maintain, make my own VM in the cloud, set up CI/CD.

And each of the supposed steps are not as easy as they seem, and resources are limited. So it took a long time to implement.

Yesterday I decided to simplify and make a working MVP. Decided to hand-deploy the function into faas. With my old code ready to go. Spent 3-4 hours to figure out how to set up the function, edit the old code, learn how to deploy it, and debug it. Because todoist updated the v1 -> v2 api.

Everything works. So I uploaded the code to github. It is far from perfect, but will do for MVP. From here on I can improve and set up the CI/CD from the githab to the function. But the main thing is that the product already works. And it took me a few hours.

Abstraction is growing

romanwrites — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:47:15 +0000

As AI progresses, I see the level of abstraction skyrocketing. There are many fantasies on this topic, I can offer my own.

The level at which developers write code now - in the near future will seem low.

Technical solutions will be created by the principle of "black boxes". You will be able to say to AI: "Make me a box according to a not very formal specification". And AI will make a complete module right away.

It seems the abstraction will grow even more.

What to do?

I think it's very important to develop soft-skills. And that's why I choose to talk about soft-skills on my blog so often.

5 principles of effective communication with a team-lead

romanwrites — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:46:33 +0000

Try to make your work more clear. So that the supervisor doesn't have to come to you asking, "What's up?" Proactively provide the current status of the task. Especially if it's on fire.
If you don't know what decision to make, don't just come to the team-lead with a question. Come with a solution to your issue. If one option is not enough, offer more than one option. But one is better. Perfectly, the answer to your question should be: "Okay." 3 If you can do something yourself and you don't need the team-lead’s approval, do it yourself.
Prepare a list of questions for the meeting. So that you can go through them all at once.
In your messages ask one question at a time. It's difficult to answer to a big list all at once. When you come in with a small question for a minute, you reduce friction.

What are your useful principles?

Why do we need tests?

romanwrites — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:45:08 +0000

To easily make changes to the code.

When you work with someone else's code, there may be a lot of troubles:

The code is unfamiliar. Implementation details are not obvious.
The code can be toughly coupled.
It can be difficult to track where else the code is used.

Functional tests make life much easier. Not these that just check the code coverage. But those tests that test exactly the behaviour, functionality of a program.

Tests are like a safety net on a construction site. When they are exist, you can cut out or add features bolder. The features will get to the production faster. And it will be beneficial for the company in money.