DEV Community: Tess

2 Minute Intro to GreenSock Animations

Tess — Tue, 29 Sep 2020 21:46:05 +0000

Interested in making animations in Javascript? Follow these tips to get started in 2 minutes:

Prerequisites:
*Familiarity with HTML
*Familiarity with Javascript; jQuery also helps!
*No prior experience with GreenSock animations! This tutorial is not a comprehensive training, and is intended to help you get started.
*Optional: CSS

Shout out to DrawKit for the illustration we'll be using today!

1) Open up a new Pen by forking this starter Codepen. (Click "fork" at the bottom of the page).

2) GreenSock should already be imported to your Pen, but you'll need to import GreenSock for any future animations. To import, click on the settings icon next to the Javascript tab. Type gsap into the search bar or add: https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/gsap/3.5.1/gsap.min.js

This allows us to access the GreenSock animations library in our Codepen project.

3) Each hand and sign in the illustration is already labeled with the class "sign." We'll start our animation by calling for each element with the "sign" class.

gsap.to(".sign",{insert animation code here})

*"gsap" refers to the GreenSock animation library

*Today we'll be using .to() since we want to customize the destination of our animation, but another option would be .fromTo() or .from()

*Inside the curly brackets, we'll list out any animations that we want to apply to the sign class.

4) We'll start by scaling the signs or making them "grow" larger. We'll also add a stagger property, so that each element with the sign class starts growing 0.75 seconds apart. Copy and paste the following code line into the Javascript tab:

gsap.to(".sign",{scale: 1.2,stagger: 0.75})

5) We want the movement to look a little bit more realistic.
We'll slow it down and direct the animation to stretch up from the bottom rather than scaling towards us.

duration: 5, //add a duration of 5 seconds.
transformOrigin: "bottom" //Stretch up from the bottom

6) Lastly, we'll want this animation to loop on repeat:

yoyo: true, //repeats the animation backwards & forwards
repeat: -1, //loops your code for endless repetition
ease: Bounce.easeInOut //adds a more natural movement

You can see the final code under the JS tab:

Beginners Guide to Hacktoberfest

Tess — Mon, 28 Sep 2020 00:53:24 +0000

Contributing to open source is a great way to gain experience and confidence as a developer.

Anyone can create an open source project, but examples of major open source projects include Dev.to, Facebook's React.js, and Microsoft's VS Code.

Hacktoberfest is a great time to get started with open source because there are so many resources and projects that are welcoming new developers.

Table of Contents

Key words to help you get started
Find an Open Source Project
Git practice for total beginners
Make your first Hacktoberfest Contribution _____________________________________________________________

Key Words:

let keywords={                                        

git: "A version control system that tracks 
   file changes",

Github: "A website that uses git to save and track coding 
   projects",

Hacktoberfest: "A month long celebration of open source 
   hosted by DigitalOcean",

maintainer: "The person that owns the upkeep and 
   communications for an open source project.",

mergePullRequest: "When your contribution is approved, 
   the maintainer will merge or add your code to the 
   original project",

openSource: "Publicly accessible code",

pr: "PR, or pull request, is a request to add changes to 
   an existing code base.",

repo: "A repo, or repository, is a code project"}

Find an Open Source Project

For 2020, Hacktoberfest is requiring 4 open source contributions. Once you have found a repo you want to contribute to, make sure it meets the quality standards. Not sure where you want to contribute? There are several ways to find projects:

1) Search for some Hacktoberfest key words directly in GitHub (ex. Hacktoberfest, first-timers-only, beginner-friendly)

2) Contribute to an open source website or technology that you already use in your tech stack (i.e. Dev.to, Women who code, React.js)

Is this your first time ever making a pull request? I recommend getting comfortable with git by practicing on your own repo:

Practicing making a PR on your own code is a great way to learn the process with the assurance that you won't mess up anything. 😅

1) Make a practice repo.

2) On your terminal, make a new directory for your practice repo and add a README file. This will act as our original project. Next, we'll make a pull request to add a new file to the original.

Run the following in your terminal:

mkdir pr-practice
cd pr-practice
git init
touch README.md
git add README.md
git commit -m "first commit"
git remote add origin https://github.com/*insert-your-github-username*/pr-practice.git
git push -u origin master

3) We now have our practice open-source project on GitHub. We are going to make a pull request to add a new Hello World file. In your terminal, run the following:

git checkout -b newbranch
git remote add upstream https://github.com/*insert-your-github-username*/pr-practice.git
touch HelloWorld.js
git add HelloWorld.js
git commit -m "Adds new Hello World file"
git push -u origin newbranch

4) Refresh the repo on GitHub and click "Compare and pull request."

5) Make sure that the base is your master branch (the original project with our README file) and the compare branch is the new brach we created with the Hello World file. The title of the merge request should be a brief description of the changes.

6) If there are no conflicts with your pull request, go ahead and merge the new code with your original project by clicking "Merge pull request" & "Confirm merge"

7) Congratulations! You have merged your new file.

How to make your first contribution for Hacktoberfest:

So, you're ready to make your first open source contribution (yay)!👩🏿‍💻

There are a few extra steps you'll need to take when submitting a pull request on an open source project. Before you start writing code, make sure to sign up here so that you contributions count

1) Check out the repo's README to see if they have any syntax (style) standards that you need to follow. Click on the "issues" tab of the repo to get an idea of where you may be able to contribute.

2) Fork the repo: The first step is to "fork" or copy the current version of the project. When we fork a repo, we get a copy of the code that we can edit on our own computer without impacting the original code.

You can think of this like the "save a copy" feature in Excel. When someone sends you an excel file and it comes to you as read only, you have the option to edit the file. When you edit and save a copy of their original file, it is updated on your computer only.

2) Github will take you to your forked repo. Copy the link to the repo so that we can start coding:

3) In your terminal run the following using a directory-name that describes your project:

mkdir directory-name
cd directory-name
git clone copied-fork-repo-link
cd repo-name
git checkout -b newbranch
git git remote add upstream copied-fork-repo-link

4) Time to code!

5) When you are ready to commit your changes, go back to the terminal and run the following:

git add new-file-name (if applicable)
git commit -m "Description of your contribution"
git remote add origin copied-fork-repo-link
git push -u origin newbranch

6) Go back to your repo on Github. You should see the option to submit a pull request:

5) Make sure that the base is the original repo and the compare branch is the new brach you created on your own repo. The title of the merge request should be a brief description of the changes. Click Create pull request to submit.

6) Now we wait to hear from the maintainer! When it comes to making an open source contribution, you need to be aware that not all PR requests get approved. It is also common for the maintainer to send you some feedback of things you need to change before your contribution is merged.

Disclaimer: Learning how to use the command line & learning how to use GitHub can be really challenging at first! The most important thing to remember is that pretty much any mistake you make can be reversed. 🙌🏽 Even for experienced devs, practice makes perfect when it comes to using GitHub.

An Actionable Guide to Managing Introverts

Tess — Sun, 18 Aug 2019 23:09:40 +0000

Imagine a world where you're constantly discouraged from speaking too much or from talking too loudly. Imagine a work environment where socializing with others is actually seen as a distraction, rather than a source of energy and resourcefulness. What if success was determined based on your ability to build relationships through written communication, rather than speaking and networking? Would you feel out of your element? Would you be biting your tongue? Would you be compromising part of your personality to fit in?

This is how many introverts feel all the time. They are expected to change their inherent personality traits in order to earn respect and professional success. It is exhausting. As an introvert who loves leading teams with both extroverts and introverts, this is my actionable advice:

Tell them that the fact they are introvert is valuable to the team/organization. This is so important. I once had a department head, who was known for her extroverted, positive, commanding personality, tell me that she admires my introverted traits. She told me that she was trying to break into the C-Suite, but it was hard because they were all introverts and she wasn't. Hearing her go on to say that my introverted personality would actually help me earn respect and success at a higher level of leadership was astounding. I'd never heard anyone say that before. Up until that day, I'd only ever been asked to change my personality to fit in. I've since left that company and industry, but the confidence I gained through that one conversation still motivates me.
Offer multiple sources of feedback and ideas. The key here is that you cannot assume that someone does not have ideas to share, just because they did not voice them out loud. You will have employees that are totally out of their element in a 1:1 or team meeting, but if you ask them for feedback or ideas via online or written communication, they may have tons to offer. Writing ideas instead of speaking ideas does not make the ideas themselves any less valid.
Create spaces where they can share their ideas with others, without getting bulldozed over or cut off. As a leader, it is your job responsibility to combat people who are cutting off introverts, even if they are doing so unintentionally. Something as simple as "Thank you [well intentioned person with a loud voice]. We will get back to that, but I want to make sure we also hear everything [introvert with great ideas] has to say," can go a long way.
Do. Not. Ask. Them. To. Change. When I worked as a stock broker, I was constantly being told by my managers that if I wanted to be successful I would have to become an extrovert. There is a reason that Myers Briggs tests are split into I & E. Introverts exist. They are not going any where. Being an extrovert is not a job qualification. What I actually needed was someone to help me share my unique voice. Maybe the introvert on your team gets drained by your noisy co-working space. Is there a room they can check out to recharge? Maybe the introverts on your team don't know how to network in your organization. Is there a leader or IC you can introduce them to? Maybe the introverts on your team find it hard to share ideas in meetings. Can you help them learn to ask thoughtful questions in meetings as a way to show they are engaged and impactful?

For me, the golden rule of managing introverts is that you cannot assume that not speaking up in meetings translates to a lack of interest. You can, however, work with the introverts on your team to diversify your team's perspective and generate better results.