DEV Community: Jacob Baker

What tech did you use to build your personal website/portfolio? 2020 Edition!

Jacob Baker — Thu, 17 Dec 2020 10:26:03 +0000

Exactly one year ago I asked the dev community what tech they used to build their personal website/portfolio and later compiled the answers.

dev.to community’s top tech to build a website/portfolio

Jacob Baker ・ Mar 1 '20

#discuss #webdev #career #showdev

So to carry on the tradition (tradition!):

What tech did you use to build your personal website/portfolio?

Bonus question if you answered last year: has it changed?

Feel free to shamelessly plug your website/portfolio if you answer!

Typescript, React, Redux, Thunk, and Material-ui template -- now with less boilerplate!

Jacob Baker — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:13:24 +0000

tldr : I've forked the official Redux Typescript create react app template, switched it to use functional components and added Material-UI support. Source code is here, follow me on Twitter for updates and nonsense, stay safe and wash your hands ❤️

Last week I wrote about the updated version of my Typescript, React, Redux, Thunk, and Material-UI skeleton app.

Well, as is the case with most tech stuff, it has been superseded by a new and improved version!

In the comments of the previous post I was kindly pointed towards the official Redux+Typescript CRA template by a maintainer which, amongst other things, uses Redux Toolkit to reduce the amount of boilerplate needed.

Just as a brief example of just how much is cut out, in the original skeleton you have the following breakdown of files for each feature:

actions.ts
types.ts
reducer.ts
thunk.ts

Whereas using Redux Toolkit you end up with:

slice.ts

Equally nice is there is no more need for connect or mapStateToProps and the confusion they bring.

So, for a concrete example, here's how I had the counter implemented without Redux Toolkit:

types.ts

export interface ExampleState {
    isFetching: boolean;
    count: number;
    error?: {
        message: string
    }
}

export const FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST = "example/FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST";
export const FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS = "example/FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS";
export const FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE = "example/FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE";

interface FetchExampleRequestAction {
    type: typeof FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST,
    payload: {
        isFetching: boolean
        error: {
            message: string
        }
    }
}

interface FetchExampleSuccessAction {
    type: typeof FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS,
    payload: {
        isFetching: boolean
        count: number
    }
}

interface FetchExampleFailureAction {
    type: typeof FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE,
    payload: {
        isFetching: boolean,
        error: {
            message: string
        }
    }
}

export type ExampleActionTypes = FetchExampleRequestAction | FetchExampleSuccessAction | FetchExampleFailureAction;

action.ts

import { FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST, FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS, FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE } from "./types";

export function fetchExampleRequest() {
    return {
        type: FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST,
        payload: {
            isFetching: true,
            error: undefined
        }
    }
}

export function fetchExampleSuccess(count: number) {
    return {
        type: FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS,
        payload: {
            isFetching: false,
            count
        }
    }
}

export function fetchExampleFailure(message: string) {
    return {
        type: FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE,
        payload: {
            isFetching: false,
            error: {
                message
            }
        }
    }
}

reducer.ts

import {
    ExampleState,
    FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST,
    FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS,
    FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE,
    ExampleActionTypes
} from "./types";

const initialState: ExampleState = {
    isFetching: false,
    count: 0,
    error: undefined
};

export function exampleReducer(
    state = initialState,
    action: ExampleActionTypes
): ExampleState {
    switch(action.type) {
        case FETCH_EXAMPLE_REQUEST:
            return {
                ...state,
                isFetching: action.payload.isFetching,
                error: action.payload.error
            };
        case FETCH_EXAMPLE_SUCCESS:
            return {
                ...state,
                isFetching: action.payload.isFetching,
                count: action.payload.count
            }
        case FETCH_EXAMPLE_FAILURE:
            return {
                ...state,
                isFetching: action.payload.isFetching,
                error: action.payload.error,
            }
        default:
            return state;
    }
}

thunk.ts

import { Action } from "redux";
import { ThunkAction } from "redux-thunk";
import {
  fetchExampleRequest,
  fetchExampleSuccess,
  fetchExampleFailure
} from "./actions";
import { AppState } from "../";

export const fetchExample = (
  count: number
): ThunkAction<void, AppState, null, Action<string>> => async dispatch => {
  dispatch(fetchExampleRequest());

  setTimeout(() => {
    var randomErrorNum = Math.floor(Math.random() * count) + 1;

    if (randomErrorNum === count) {
      dispatch(fetchExampleFailure("Unable to increment count."));
    } else {
      dispatch(fetchExampleSuccess(count + 10));
    }
  }, 1000);
};

Which I might add is an incredibly small, novel, feature and that level of boilerplate is needed for each feature added. It can get quite irritating.

Now on to the new implementation that takes advantage of Redux Toolkit.

slice.ts

import { createSlice, PayloadAction } from '@reduxjs/toolkit';
import { AppThunk, RootState } from '../../app/store';

interface CounterState {
  value: number;
}

const initialState: CounterState = {
  value: 0,
};

export const slice = createSlice({
  name: 'counter',
  initialState,
  reducers: {
    increment: state => {
      state.value += 10;
    },
  },
});

export const { increment, incrementAsync } = slice.actions;

export const incrementAsync = (): AppThunk => dispatch => {
  setTimeout(() => {
    dispatch(increment());
  }, 1000);
};

export const selectCount = (state: RootState) => state.counter.value;

export default slice.reducer;

And that's it for definitions!

You would be right in asking where the isFetching part went. In this example I've replaced it with a State Hook in the component:

const [isWorking, setIsWorking] = useState(false);

// [.. snip...]

const doAsyncIncrement = () => {
  setIsWorking(true);
  dispatch(incrementAsync(Number(incrementAmount || 0)));

  setTimeout(() => {
    setIsWorking(false);
  }, 1000);
};

// [... snip...]

<Button 
  className={classes.button}
  onClick={() =>
    doAsyncIncrement();
  }
>
Increment
</Button>

It such a nice way of working that I've forked the CRA Redux Template and ported my original skeleton app. I've added Material-UI support and switched it to use functional components.

You can find the source here:

Github: https://github.com/jacobbaker/cra-template-redux-typescript-mui

Or start a new project using it with:

npx create-react-app my-app --template redux-typescript-mui

Let me know if you've any comments or questions here or @thatonejakeb.

Loneliness in tech

Jacob Baker — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 11:05:51 +0000

I'll preface this with a quick bit about me: I've been a remote worker for just over 5 years now, typically I'll try to go to the office once a week. This is certainly something I have had to deal with.

With recent world events looking to increase the number of people working from home, particularly with the added difficulty of lockdowns reducing opportunities for social interaction, this is a topic worth discussing.

I'll list a couple of things I've done over the years to help with loneliness, but I'm really interested in hearing what tips and advice the community has to offer.

Join online communities

I mean actively; not passively lurking. Be it Twitter, Reddit, dev.to, Slack, Discord, or anywhere. Start the conversation or join in. You're here, reading this! Drop something in the comments.

Get some fresh air

I appreciate the irony in this. Usually my advice would be to seek out places you could work outside of a home office occasionally, e.g. co-working space or coffee shop; however, this becomes much more difficult where everything but essential travel is restricted.

Even if you have a garden space, no matter how small, it can help to get out and take in that fresh air. Even if it is just an open window.

Favour video rather than audio only

Seems like a no-brainer but for the longest time meetings and informal chats were always audio only for me.

What advice do you have for dealing with loneliness? What experiences have you had?

I'm more than happy to have a natter on Twitter with anyone, about anything @thatonejakeb.

Typescript, react, redux, thunk, and material-ui template

Jacob Baker — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 23:26:24 +0000

Over the past day I've revisited the skeleton application that I use as a bootstrap when creating projects. The last time I wrote one with this tech stack was 14 months ago, which in development years is a lifetime!

The app includes:

typescript
react
redux
thunk
material-ui

Whenever I write a skeleton app I like to add a short, simple, example because without fail after not working with this tech stack for a while I'll forget how everything ties together.

The example in this shows a simple button that adds 10 to a count after a short delay each time it is clicked. The function that adds 10 can (very rarely) intentionally fail to show how the error works.

Feel free to use it, and if you've any questions or suggestions let me know!

Github: https://github.com/jacobbaker/skeleton-ts-react-redux-thunk-mui-2020
Twitter: @thatonejakeb

An update...

Like I said; a lifetime in developer time.

Since writing this the other day I was pointed toward the official Redux+Typescript CRA template which, amongst other things, uses Redux Toolkit to nicely reduce the amount of boilerplate needed.

It such a nice way of working that I've forked it and added Material-UI support which can be either be found here:

Github: https://github.com/jacobbaker/cra-template-redux-typescript-mui

Or when creating a new app:

npx create-react-app my-app --template redux-typescript-mui

Musicians (and others!): the Box of Scales is now bigger

Jacob Baker — Thu, 05 Mar 2020 20:07:11 +0000

Goooood evening! Or good morning/afternoon, depending on where or when you are...

Wanted to update you on my side project that started out as shuffling scales to practise.

Box of Scales will now (on the fly) generate the notes (ascending and descending for melodic minor!), left/right hand finger patterns, and play the scale for you using Tone.js (based on WebAudio).

On the technical side of things I've moved away from bootstrap and over to material-ui and what a difference it has made to ease of implementation. A little hiccup to start with having to convert my components from classes to FC's but I got there.

And yes the project at the moment is very much taking function over form at the moment (a polite way of saying it is ugly as sin... but at least responsive), but this is now the second project (personal website is the other, but that's a post for another day...) I've switched to using mui and it's just a revelation.

On the topic of developer religious experiences, I'll also be moving the hosting over to Netlify after again revisiting my workflow on another project. I'm used to spinning up and managing servers, but it has been a joy to use Netlify with the git push continuous deployment. So easy to use.

For those interested in the full tech stack its:

TypeScript
react
redux
redux-thunk
material-ui
Netlify (just need to switch DNS this evening)

I've almost got the codebase how I'd like it in order to open source it.

So far it has been a nice change of pace in the evenings from what I work on in my day job (essentially IoT stuff) and the really neat thing is there are piano teachers actively using it with their students daily.

Anyway, enough ramblepost, here's some links if you're interested or the least bit curious.

Website: https://boxofscales.com
Twitter: @boxofscales

Musicians! I made a random scale picker: Box of Scales

Jacob Baker — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 15:57:59 +0000

Website: https://boxofscales.com
Twitter: @boxofscales

Made this initially for my own personal use for practising scales for exams. Figured it might be useful to others so I've unleashed it upon the internet so you too can improve your daily scale practice (that you definitely do, oh yes, every day...).

Just select what you want included and it will shuffle all combinations.

The only mildly interesting technical part is the example of the scale is dynamically generated each time rather than being a static image.

I will at some point open source it, but as is usually the case with unplanned projects it could do with a tidy up first.

If anyone uses it and finds an issue please do Tweet/DM or message me here and let me know. Equally, if it is of use and you've any feature requests let me know!

dev.to community’s top tech to build a website/portfolio

Jacob Baker — Sun, 01 Mar 2020 13:35:37 +0000

Just before Christmas I asked the community what tech they used to develop their own personal website/portfolio.

What tech did you use to build your personal website/portfolio?

Jacob Baker ・ Dec 17 '19 ・ 1 min read

#discuss #career #webdev

With the best of intentions I had planned to compile this write-up just after New Year, but as happens life just gets in the way!

So, without further ado, in no particular order, here’s the most popular tech used by the dev.to community and some example stacks in use.

Languages

HTML & CSS
Go together like a horse and carriage.

SCSS
An extension of CSS3. Sassy.

JavaScript
Is not related to Java.

TypeScript
Is related to JavaScript. Adds static typing, classes, interfaces and more.

Python
Not related to snakes.

Frameworks/Tools/Libraries

React
Open source JavaScript UI library typically used for Single Page Applications.

Gatsby
An open source static site generator based on React.

vue.js
Open source JavaScript framework for developing UIs.

WordPress
PHP based open source CMS.

Jekyll
Static site generator. The engine behind Github pages.

Gulp
Task runner used to automate development tasks.

Gridsome
vue.js based framework for generating static sites.

Emotion
Library for writing CSS in Javascript.

Laravel
PHP based MVC framework.

Templating

Markdown
Lightweight markup language.

AsciiDoc
Another lightweight markup language.

EJS
Templating language that generates HTML with Javascript

MDX
Allows the use of JSX in Markdown.

Hosting/Deployment

Github Pages
Pages hosted from their Github repository.

Netlify
All in one hosting and automation. Has a whole bunch of useful stuff.

AWS S3
AWS S3 can be used to host static sites.

Circle CI
Continuous integration and delivery platform.

Community Stacks

iamdeveloper.com/thanks/
React, TypeScript, Gatsby

.ltag__user__id__9597 .follow-action-button { background-color: #fb4881 !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #fb4881 !important; }

Nick Taylor (he/him)

Senior software developer at DEV. Caught the live coding bug on Twitch at doingdevfordev.com

nickytonline nickytonline https://www.iamdeveloper.com

traekwells.com
Plain-old HTML, CSS, and JavaScript

.ltag__user__id__235230 .follow-action-button { background-color: #093656 !important; color: #dce9f3 !important; border-color: #093656 !important; }

Traek Wells

I'm a Front-End Web Developer who cares about people more than tools. Pixel peddler, animal lover, Mortal Kombat enthusiast. I believe people have a responsibility to help each other. #WebDevelopment

TraekWells TraekWells https://traekwells.com/

Drewtown.dev
Vue, Gridsome, Tailwind CSS, hosted on Netlify

.ltag__user__id__164639 .follow-action-button { background-color: #CC1F1A !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #CC1F1A !important; }

Drew Town

I'm Drew Town a web developer and systems engineer in Colorado. Always learning, traveling and exploring. Sharing updates, trials and tribulations in tech and life.

drewtown_chi drewtownchi http://www.drewtown.dev

saurabhdaware.in
Plain-old HTML, CSS, JavaScript

.ltag__user__id__174161 .follow-action-button { background-color: #a4dcf6 !important; color: #444444 !important; border-color: #a4dcf6 !important; }

Saurabh Daware 🌻

21, JavaScript Fanboi. Building Abell, A new static-site-generator. also sunflower is my favorite emoji🌻 (He/Him)

saurabhcodes saurabhdaware https://saurabhdaware.in

https://waqasali.dev/
Jekyll hosted on Github pages

.ltag__user__id__277980 .follow-action-button { background-color: #19063A !important; color: #dce9f3 !important; border-color: #19063A !important; }

Waqas

A undergrad working on a social network for students (studentbase.app)

totally_waqas https://waqasali.dev

fullstackstanley.com
Middleman hosted on Netlify

.ltag__user__id__63099 .follow-action-button { background-color: #1C0BBA !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #1C0BBA !important; }

Mitch Stanley

Developer of Snipline and other cool stuff.

mitchartemis acoustep https://snipline.io

factualsearch.news
React (TypeScript), Plop, and AWS S3 for hosting

.ltag__user__id__236482 .follow-action-button { background-color: #0D4D4B !important; color: #fdf9f3 !important; border-color: #0D4D4B !important; }

drmikecrowe

A lifelong geek who loves solving problems and discovering new technologies

drmikecrowe

maksumrifai.netlify.com
material-ui kit, GitHub, and Netlify for deployment

.ltag__user__id__246969 .follow-action-button { background-color: #000000 !important; color: #c9d2dd !important; border-color: #000000 !important; }

Maksum Rifai

Hello, I am Maksum Rifai from indonesia. interest in Programming, Copywriting, Teaching. Founder of MaxsumWeb & DesainerHub

MaksumRifai MaksumRifai https://desainerhub.com

https://desiremcarmona.com/#/
vue.js and SCSS

.ltag__user__id__222379 .follow-action-button { background-color: #121212 !important; color: #9f45d6 !important; border-color: #121212 !important; }

Desiré 👩‍🎓👩‍🏫

Create and connect. She/her. Worked in Smart City development for the European Union. Instructor in LinkedIn Learning.

helleworld_ https://desiremcarmona.com/

https://www.upyoura11y.com/
Gatsby

.ltag__user__id__197075 .follow-action-button { background-color: #fdbfaf !important; color: #000000 !important; border-color: #fdbfaf !important; }

Suzanne Aitchison (she/her)

Software developer based in Edinburgh, with particular experience in React and creating accessible web experiences.

s_aitchison aitchiss https://www.upyoura11y.com

byteschool.io
Headless WordPress, Gatsby, running on Netlify

.ltag__user__id__261044 .follow-action-button { background-color: #ffb813 !important; color: #040404 !important; border-color: #ffb813 !important; }

Marc Philippe Beaujean

Frequent writer of code and articles.

MarcBeaujean marcphilippebeaujean-abertay https://byteschool.io/

https://www.danaottaviani.com/
vue.js and Gridsome

.ltag__user__id__188922 .follow-action-button { background-color: #4de2ea !important; color: #ffffff !important; border-color: #4de2ea !important; }

Dana Ottaviani

I'm a software developer with a main focus on the front-end. She/Her

Dana94 https://www.danaottaviani.com/

https://shushugah.com/
NetlifyCMS and Jekyll hosted on GitHub or Netlify

.ltag__user__id__196514 .follow-action-button { background-color: #060C38 !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #060C38 !important; }

shushugah

Passionate about human rights, community, Ruby and caffeine

shushugah shushugah https://shushugah.com

https://gergely.polonkai.eu/
Pelican

.ltag__user__id__86806 .follow-action-button { background-color: #010C1F !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #010C1F !important; }

Gergely Polonkai

GergelyPolonkai gergelypolonkai https://gergely.polonkai.eu/

chadalen.com
React, Gatsby, React Material UI, Disqus and Netlify

.ltag__user__id__94831 .follow-action-button { background-color: #19063A !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #19063A !important; }

Chad Alen

I'm a full stack developer with a passion for building web, mobile and desktop apps.

chadalen https://chadalen.com

ophasnoname.de
Laravel and Markdown

.ltag__user__id__9513 .follow-action-button { background-color: #160604 !important; color: #ffffff !important; border-color: #160604 !important; }

Arne

Former PHP Developer now exploring the funky DevOps world.

opHASnoNAME opHASnoNAME

https://caughtmyeye.dev/
CloudCannon, Jekyll, Liquid, JavaScript, SCSS

.ltag__user__id__272844 .follow-action-button { background-color: #1b1b1b !important; color: #e2e2e2 !important; border-color: #1b1b1b !important; }

mark l chaves

freelance web developer in bali indonesia. i feed stray cats & dogs.

marklchaves https://www.caughtmyeye.cc

https://workalicious.com/
vue.js and Foundation CSS Framework

.ltag__user__id__286306 .follow-action-button { background-color: #093656 !important; color: #ffffff !important; border-color: #093656 !important; }

David Kaplan

I'm a visual designer web developer. I'm an older guy, started as a graphic designer. I like to make bread and pizza!

workalicious_yo kaplan

https://bonfiglioalessio.github.io/
React, Reactstrap, Bootstrap

.ltag__user__id__271343 .follow-action-button { background-color: #ffcb13 !important; color: #000000 !important; border-color: #ffcb13 !important; }

<A.BONFIGLIO/>

I'm a Junior Frontend Developer!

bonfiglioalessio https://www.labstuff.it/alessio/portfolio

https://ogaston.com/knowme/
Gatsby

.ltag__user__id__115159 .follow-action-button { background-color: #1C0BBA !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #1C0BBA !important; }

Omar Gaston Chalas

Hi, i met Javascript and fall in love!

ogastonc ogaston https://ogaston.com/

https://shayaulman.netlify.com/
vue.js and Gridsome

.ltag__user__id__169959 .follow-action-button { background-color: #319795 !important; color: #ffffff !important; border-color: #319795 !important; }

Shaya Ulman

shayaulman

https://vbelolapotkov.com/
Gatsby, Netlify CMS, Gitlab Pages for hosting

.ltag__user__id__261387 .follow-action-button { background-color: #61122f !important; color: #ffffff !important; border-color: #61122f !important; }

Vasily Belolapotkov

vbelolapotkov

https://heyayush.com/
Gatsby, Netlify, and Circle-CI

.ltag__user__id__181720 .follow-action-button { background-color: #093656 !important; color: #FFFFFF !important; border-color: #093656 !important; }

Ayush Sharma

Full-stack developer, front-end specialist

heyayush https://heyayush.com

http://www.cpuremake.tv/
HTML, CSS, JS

.ltag__user__id__201503 .follow-action-button { background-color: #ffffff !important; color: #fb6a6a !important; border-color: #fb6a6a !important; }

C. Pure

Your friendly neighborhood Animator that's learning web dev!

CourtneyPure courtneypure http://CPureMake.tv

If any of the examples I’ve linked are out of date, or you have one you would like added, let me know and I’ll update/add them!

What tech did you use to build your personal website/portfolio?

Jacob Baker — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 10:02:39 +0000

Over the festive period I'm planning to redo my personal website.

So, for a hit of inspiration, what tech did you use to build yours?

And feel free to shamelessly plug it if you answer!

Dev Christmas Songs

Jacob Baker — Sun, 15 Dec 2019 20:27:31 +0000

The festive period is upon us, let’s here your cheesy developer versions of classic songs!

3 More Common Beginner Python Mistakes

Jacob Baker — Sat, 14 Dec 2019 12:01:03 +0000

Another year, another set of bright-eyed enthusiastic students.

Now we're coming to the end of the first semester, here is 3 more common mistakes I've come across whilst teaching beginners.

Copying and Pasting Code

This is a bugbear more than anything; however, it does have some potentially serious side effects. It is slightly different to the classic copying and pasting from a source without understanding what the code is doing

Without fail this crops up every year, a completely random error in perfectly fine looking code.

Take a look at this:

x ‏‏‎= 100

print(x)

If I copy and paste that snippet in to Visual Code and try to run it I get:

    x ‏‏‎= 100
      ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

Uhhh, what? I'm pretty sure that is how you assign a value to a variable...

So why does it fail...? Because I've added a hidden character to it.

The problem here is I've had new developers sit and stare at their screen in frustration for longer than they care to admit because they can't figure out why this seemingly simple piece of code doesn't run.

Just be careful when copying code from PDFs, online, or wherever because quite often you'll run in to random errors but more importantly you may even end up copying something malicious.

Of course you could end up with someone doing it on purpose like a certain lecturer I had at University to force us to write the code out...

Variable Scope

What does this snippet print?

x = 5

def foo():
    x = 20

    print(x)

foo()
print(x)

Those that said 20 then 5 give yourself a pat on the back.

We had just introduced the concept of functions to the students, and how to use them to eliminate repeated parts of their code, and all of a sudden it was acting weird.

What the above snippet demonstrates is local function v.s. global scope. x here is defined inside the function as a local variable to that function that shadows the global variable named x.

Python uses the LEGB (Local, Enclosed, Global, Built-in) rule when resolving variable scope. This is the snippet I use to show students how scope bubbles up:

from math import pi

#pi = 10

def foo():
    #pi = 20
    print("local: ", pi)

    def bar():
        #pi = 30
        print("enclosed: ", pi)

    bar()
foo()

print("global: ", pi)

Which gives

local:  3.141592653589793
enclosed:  3.141592653589793
global:  3.141592653589793

Or with the pi variable declarations uncommented:

local:  20
enclosed:  30
global:  10

So what is the output when I try this next snippet?

x = 5

def foo():
    x = x + 2

    print(x)

foo()

2? No… 7? Nope… UnboundLocalError? Yep.

But why? The other example quite happily gave us 10 when just printing!

There are some good and in-depth explanations as to why this is the case and do a much better job of explaining the why than I could here.

Nonetheless, the solution to this is adding the global definition so that Python knows where to find the value of x before assignment:

x = 5

def foo():
    global x
    x = x + 2

    print(x)

foo()

Redefining Built-in Functions

This really is a follow on from the previous point about scope and how it can crop up in other places.

... snip...

input = ("Continue? (Y/N): ")

... snip...

A fair number of students had this in their code where they had accidentally redefined the input function in the program, then tried to use it later on.

As the pi example demonstrated what has happened is input now has the value of that string rather than being the built-in input function.

I still have to Google...

Jacob Baker — Fri, 13 Dec 2019 23:15:39 +0000

Javascript foreach loop syntax.

for(var x as y) {

No...

foreach(var x in y) {

Nope...

... checks...

x.forEach(function(y) {

That’s the one I’m after!

Hi, I’m Jake, a lead developer. I’ve been programming for 15 years, 10 of those professionally.

This is something I continually try to get over to students/new developers. Even after all these years there are things I can’t remember and have to look up.

So, what do you have to google?

What tech & dev related podcasts should I listen to?

Jacob Baker — Wed, 11 Dec 2019 23:04:15 +0000

Lately I’m finding myself catching the train to work more often and as a result having extra time to zone out.

There is a distinct tech and dev shaped hole in my podcast library that I would really like to fill— so, what podcasts would you recommend?

I’m a full-stack lead developer in my day job so I’m open to any topics relating to tech or the industry!