DEV Community: Vaibhav

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Mon, 06 May 2019 12:13:28 +0000

Hi folks! I took a break from writing this series for a few weeks but now I'm back with another installation of Alien Articles. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
Hope you like them!

1. 7 Steps to Planning a Fantastic User Experience

A good user experience is needed if you want your users to enjoy using the app. And this article by Sunil Joshi explains the planing phase of UX design which covers some of the important steps during this phase like developing user stories, defining user flows, brainstorming and sketching and so on.

2. How to Design an Effective Landing Page

A landing page is one of the most important webpages for your business. A good landing page can convert visitors into customers. This article by Natalya Ageychenko can help you create an effective and high-quality landing page explaining the principles of landing pages, common mistakes that can impact conversion, and steps for creating effective landing pages.

3. 19 cool CSS animation examples to recreate

This article by Steven Roberts has a collection of CSS animation examples from websites around the world and it also explains how these can be achieved, what types of animation there are, how to implement them and use correctly with the help of some useful tips.

4. Introduction to Nest.js for Angular Developers

Nestjs is a framework for building nodejs application and in his article, Ahmed Bouchefra introduces nestjs for angular developers. He also explains how to make modules and controllers with Nest CLI and demonstrates it with the help of an example project.

5. Why every dev team should adopt a DevOps culture in 2019

In this article Matt Shealy explains how adapting to a DevOps culture can increase your development and testing speed with fewer errors, how it completely breaks down the walls between departments and work units by providing stronger communication, and how it can be advantageous for your organization.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments which article you found most useful! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and share what you've been reading recently. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 14:17:52 +0000

Hey guys! I hope you liked my previous article. I'm here to bring you another scoop of awesome alien articles from this past week. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
Enjoy!

1. Why you should choose mindfulness over multitasking

Switching between different tasks can be a real pain. You, too, must have observed that sometimes your mind comes to a state where it cannot process any new information, and it suddenly stops working because of this thing called "decisions fatigue". This article by Sarah Wall explains why you should choose mindfulness over multitasking, and how taking small breaks can be good for your mental health and an increase in your productivity.

2. How to cope with burnout

Are you feeling burnt out at work because of increase in stress or overworking yourself? Are you not able to handle it which, in turn, is affecting your personal and professional life? Then you definitely need to check this article by Jessica Rose which explains how to prevent and recover from burnout.

3. Animation Performance 101: Browser Under the Hood

Who does not want those smooth and silky web animations? But achieving this depends upon a number of variables. Chloe Hwang explains how the browser renders elements, what you should and should not animate, why you should use CSS over javascript for animations, and how the browser automatically hardware-accelerates any element with a CSS transition or keyframe animation on transform or opacity.

4. 5 quick-fire portfolio tips from design experts

A design portfolio represents your talent, skills, and experience. Having a good portfolio can push you toward success, attract more audience, and get the work you want, while a bad one can have the completely opposite effect. So it's worth putting some effort into getting your portfolio in the best shape, and this article by Lisa Hassell shares some important tips that you should follow.

5. Inspirational Websites Roundup

This article by Mary Lou shares a list of unique web designs that you might like.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments which article you found most useful! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and share what you've been reading recently. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Thu, 04 Apr 2019 10:07:22 +0000

Hello to all! I hope you enjoyed my last article. Last week was super hectic for me and my team, with the launch of Dragula and everything that followed. That's why I'm a little late for this week's article, but anyway, here are this week's top alien articles. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I hope you guys enjoy them!

1. 20+ Best JavaScript Modal Window Plugins

Modals can be used for multiple purposes in your website, e.g image gallery, to show error messages, filling a form, etc. This article by Prechu shares a list of Best JavaScript Modals that you can pick to implement in your web apps.

2. Integrating and Enforcing Prettier & ESLint

Consistency and quality of code matter a lot while developing an application and it can be improved by using some tools. This article will explain and help you achieve that by integrating the two most popular tools Prettier & ESLint together.

3. Cool uses of the ::before and ::after pseudoelements

There are so many things that can be done with ::before and ::after pseudoelements and this article by KBall covers some of them, like adding icons with a particular class, adding quote marks at the starting and end of a line, making shapes and so on.

4. Things nobody ever taught me about CSS

This article by Charlie Gerard shares some of the important things about CSS that you might not be aware of.

5. Let’s decode the CSS Specificity

Sometimes we notice that the styles we apply on an element do not get reflected as it is expected to be, and it all depends upon the specificity. Based on this specificity the browser determines which selector is to be picked. This article by Neha Sharma shows a quick overview of this which will help you get better at it.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments which article you found most useful! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and share what you've been reading recently. Have an awesome day! ❤

P.S. If you have a few minutes to spare, please try Dragula. And if you like it, please let me know!

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 10:59:42 +0000

Hello to all! I hope you enjoyed my last article. Here are this week's top alien articles. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I hope you guys enjoy them!

1. 10 Common Design Mistakes… and How to Avoid Them

Many of us have made or are still making a lot of mistakes while designing. And there can be many reasons for this, like lack of planning, selecting bad typography, inadequate padding and spacing, messy iconography and more, that can have a very bad impact on our platform. This article by Maria Pisarenko explains some of those mistakes and how they can be avoided.

2. What Nature Can Teach Us About Notifications

Notifications play a very vital role in our life. Whether it is game notifications, message notifications or email notifications, it always helps us to keep an eye on the latest updates. But have you ever noticed how different type of notifications affects our mind? This article by Emmi Laakso explains some interesting stuff related to notifications.

3. What to Expect When Building A Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

What is MVP, why is it needed, what should be your expectations while building an MVP and what should you do after building an MVP? This article by Melissa Southern answers all these questions that will help you understand why we need this approach.

4. Preload, prefetch and other tags

Did you know about preload, prefetch, preconnect, dns-prefetch and prerender link relation type? Ivan Akulov explains all these in detail with their syntax and when to use them which will help you increase the app's performance.

5. Executing arrays of async/await JavaScript functions in series vs. concurrently

It becomes tricky while trying to execute async/await functions in series or parallel. This article will explain and help you understand how you can implement both these cases.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments which article you found most useful! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and share what you've been reading recently. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 10:45:02 +0000

Hello to all! I hope you enjoyed my last article. Here are this week's top alien articles. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I hope you guys enjoy them!

1. How to manipulate CSS colors with JavaScript

Javascript is everywhere because it can do so many cool things. Whether you are working on it or not, you are bound to be surrounded by this language. But have you ever used it to manipulate colors?. If not, then check out this article by Adam Giese where he shares some methods to manipulate colors with javascript.

2. 15 Top Prototyping Tools Go Head-to-Head

There are so many prototyping tools available in the market right now for wireframing and design handoff, which makes it hard to figure out which tools meet what demands. This article by Dave Kearney and Daniel Schwarz explain some of these tools with their video overviews, which will make it quite easy for you to pick the best tools for your needs.

3. Understanding Memoization In JavaScript

As our application grows, it becomes necessary for us to optimize it so it runs fast and stays light on resources. And this can be done with a number of techniques. This article by Philip Obosi explains one of these techniques, known as Memoization, that will speed up applications. It does so by storing the results of those function that take more time and memory, returning the stored results when the same inputs are applied to them.

4. Create an Automated Scoreboard that Senses Your Score with a Raspberry Pi

Have you ever thought of creating your own automated scoreboard with Raspberry Pi? Well, if you have then you should definitely check out this article by Patrick Catanzariti where he will guide you through the whole process. Raspberry Pi in general is a very useful device to have, and since it's so cheap, I recommend every engineer own one. You can even create your own Linux dev server for less than 50$/life with a Pi.

5. 10 Must-have VS Code Extensions for JavaScript Developers

VS Code is easily one of the best - if not the best - IDEs since it provides so many cool and super useful extensions for javascript developers. Michael Wanyoike shares some must-have extensions for Snippet, Syntax Highlighting, Linter, and Browser in VS code that will help you to write and debug js code efficiently.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments which article you found most useful! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and share what you've been reading recently. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Sun, 10 Mar 2019 16:56:37 +0000

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed my last week's article. I am back with this week's scoop. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I think you guys will enjoy them!

1. 12 great CSS animation resources

Animations are often the most beautiful part of a website that you will ever notice. But sometimes it can become so frustrating to create those gorgeous, smooth animations that people love. This article shares some of the resources that you can choose from to help you add animations in your project.

2. How to design an accessible color scheme

Accessibility has become a huge topic lately, and for good reason. It is our responsibility to make sure everyone can access what we create, and a good color scheme is a major part of this. It impacts readability, accessibility, and how it looks on everyone's devices. This article by Katie Riley will guide you through a process of creating an accessible color scheme.

3. How to use the spread and rest operator

Most of us are aware of the rest and spread operators from ES6. Though they look the same, they perform differently, and that is why it becomes confusing for some folks to understand how they work. Nihar Raote provides a quick guide in this post and shows some examples of how to use spread and rest operators in ES6.

4. Make your own NPM package and publish it.

NPM is a package manager for the JavaScript programming language. It also fosters a large community where developers contribute and make use of pre-made packages. But if you want to create your own NPM package and publish it on NPM, you can totally do it with the help of this article by Syed Rafi.

5. ECMAScript 2019(ES2019) — New Features with Examples

The new ECMAScript has a bunch of really cool and useful features, which makes it really important for us to understand them well in order to make use of its full power. This article by Viktor Borisov will show you those features with some solid examples.

Let me know what you think!

Tell me in the comments what you thought about these articles! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs and what you guys have been reading lately. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 13:00:34 +0000

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed my last week's article. I am back with this week's scoop. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I think you guys will enjoy them!

1. Create Your First Visual Studio Code Extension

Most devs I know use VS code, and it is quite popular among devs for good reason, because it provides us so many extensions to increase our productivity. But have you ever thought of creating your own custom plugin in VS code? Maybe you have a very specific, very niche requirement from your IDE. Well, then this article by James Quick will help you make plugins that will do exactly what you need.

2. 7 JavaScript Playgrounds to Use in 2019

Whether you want to help a teammate, show off your skills, help anyone else in coding, or want to receive feedback from any of your colleagues, online code editing platforms really come in handy. Peter Ekene shared a list of some of these platforms that you will love. Tell me which one's your favorite in the comments!

3. How to choose the best code conventions for you and your team

Every developer has their own coding quirks and set of conventions they like to follow. But when you are working in a team, chances are high that coding conventions you might be using will be different from other developers, and it makes collaboration difficult. In this article, Ofer Vugman will help you understand the need of coding conventions and how to choose the best coding conventions for your team.

4. Responsive Designs and CSS Custom Properties: Building a Flexible Grid System

Want to create your own flexible grid system without using bootstrap? Then this article by Mikolaj Dobrucki will help you make your own flexible grid system with some custom CSS properties, which will save you some precious KBs on page size. In the end, he also shares a comparison between grid system from Bootstrap and CSS custom properties.

5. Angular Reactive Forms: Tips and Tricks

If you are an Angular developer then this article by Netanel Basal is for you. It will show you some tips and tricks related to Angular reactive forms that you might not be aware of. I found some really neat tricks myself. Check it out!

Let me know what you think!

What are your thoughts on these articles? Love them? Hate them? And what all have you guys been reading? Tell me in the comments, please! Also tell me about your favorite dev blogs. Don't forget to have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Thu, 21 Feb 2019 12:49:44 +0000

Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed my last week's article. I am back again with five more alien articles of the past week that are worth reading. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽
I think you will like them!

1. How to write code you will love in the future

We all want to deliver the project on time, but sometimes we compromise on code quality and forgo code comments. This can make the code a huge pain to understand for another teammate and for newcomers too. And sometimes, we don't even test our projects as a real user would. In this article, Lusan Das shares his experience, covering most of these things that we should and need to understand to be more responsible developers.

2. Where Do You Learn HTML & CSS in 2019?

Nothing over the top here. Just a simple guide to help you learn HTML and CSS in the most efficient way possible in 2019. There are always new books and courses popping up, so this is a good place to start your journey without getting overwhelmed. Chris Coyier covers some of the books, courses, and boot camps available on the internet. And in the end, he also provides some tips that will help you implement your skills in real life.

3. CSS Scroll Snap — How It Really Works

Want to create beautiful scrolling galleries and slide shows? The good news is you don't need javascript to do it anymore. Yeah, you heard me right. Itzik Pop will show you some neat CSS tricks to create those beautiful scrolling effects. You should definitely check out this article. CSS is extremely powerful today.

4. Asynchronous programming. Await the Future

Most of us know what synchronous and asynchronous tasks are. But do you know which one is more efficient, fast, resource saving, expensive and easy to write? Or are you still confused about asynchronous vs synchronous execution? Then you need to check out this article by Kirill, he covers some of the topics like Synchronicity (Single-threaded, Multi-threaded), Asynchrony, Asynchrony and context switching, Event loop.

5. Visual Studio Code Settings and Extensions for Faster JavaScript Development.

VS Code is quite popular among javascript developers because it provides us so many plugins which increase our productivity and save a lot of our time, too. Another reason which makes it popular is that it is made in electron which is a javascript framework. Every single person in our team loves working on VS Code because of how customizable and powerful it is. So I give you this article in which Tilo shares some of the best extensions and code settings for VS Code that can help us be more productive.

Let me know what you think!

What are your thoughts on these articles? Love them? Hate them? And what all have you guys been reading? Tell me in the comments, please! I would also love to know what are your favorite dev blogs. Have an awesome day! ❤

5 Alien Articles of the Week Worth Reading 👽📖

Vaibhav — Wed, 13 Feb 2019 20:13:36 +0000

Hello to all of you! I've been doing a lot of reading lately so I thought why not share the knowledge. Here are my favorite bits from the last week...ish. These are the articles posted outside Dev.to, hence the moniker "alien". 👽

1. It's not me, Google, it's you - from GA to Fathom

For those of us who're tired of Google monetizing the hell out of people's data. If you want to keep track of the analytics without using GA, check out this article by Jeff Geerling. It talks about Fathom, which is gaining popularity very quickly. We all know that Google sells our data and our site's user data to third-party businesses, and many of us are starting to realize how bad this can be in the long run. This is where Fathom comes in. With Fathom, you don't have to agree to share any data with those third-party apps, because every user tracking data will be stored in your own website only.

2. 5 Tasks You Didn't Know Could be Done with Pure HTML and CSS

This article by August R. Garcia shows us just how powerful pure HTML & CSS can be when used right. It's a short read, but many of us might be unaware of these things, so it's definitely worth checking out. It also talks a little bit about how CSS frameworks can add unnecessary bloat and complexity, which you can read more about here. Now go ahead and be an HTML ninja!

3. Performance vs Readability

In the world of software development, team changes takes place constantly. People come and people go, but the code stays, so it becomes super important to maintain both the readability and performance of our code. But there are times when we have to sacrifice one for the other. This article by Riccardo Polacci can guide you on when and what to prioritize, depending on the needs of your project.

4. How to create a beating heart with pure CSS for your Valentine

So Valentine's Day is just around the corner and you want to do something special for your Valentine. Why not put your coding skills to good use? Check out this article by Dimitris Kiriakakis. He uses his CSS skills to create a beautiful beating heart.

5. A not-to-do list for beginner programmers.

As beginner programmers, most of us are prone to making silly mistakes during our learning process, some more so than others. This can sometimes lead to frustration and delay in mastering new skills, which can be easily avoided. I've made my fair share of rookie mistakes, which is why I can appreciate this article by Srivats1212 on Reddit, covering easily avoidable beginner mistakes. I'm sure you will too.

Let me know what you think!

What are your thoughts on the above mentioned articles? And what all have you guys been reading? Tell me in the comments please! I would also love to know what are your favorite dev blogs. Good day! ❤