Spice up your Angular project with some new tools, and dive into the topic of tech diversity. Dan Wahlin, Lukas Ruebbelke, and Austin McDaniel go over the many ways you can implement Angular. Guest speaker Shmuela Jacobs introduces her group Ng Girls and discusses the importance of diversity in Tech.
Learn about Docker, Typescript, Desktop Applications, and even Virtual Reality -all done with Angular!
Using Other Technologies with Angular
Docker and TypeScript with Angular — An Interview with Dan Wahlin
Dan Wahlin, a Google Developer Expert for Angular shares some ways to improve developing with Angular: using TypeScript and Docker.
Typescript and Angular
For those who aren’t yet familiar with Typescript:
Typescript is a superset of Javascript that provides static typing to the language. So instead of having your let foo = 0; you’ll need to specify let foo: number = 0;. Everything is precompiled before being shipped off to the browser.
While this may seem counterintuitive for an explicitly dynamically typed language, Typescript is actually very useful to ensure consistency across your project and allows backend developers to more easily understand front-end code. For beginners, Typescript’s strict typeset provides guardrails that catch more bugs and “smelly” code, and is a great way to gain a higher understanding of the code.
Using Typescript with newer versions of Angular is no problem, as the angular-cli already bundles them together. Even the docs use Angular + Typescript examples!
Docker
Docker may not be front-end specific, but it is a great solution for creating development environments that match your production environments. While there is a bit of a learning curve, Dan Wahlin assures that the platform is a fine solution for deploying multiple containers.
More on the use of Docker and Typescript in his interview:
Desktop Applications using Angular and Electron with Lukas Ruebbelke
Lukas Ruebbelke is a frequent tech blogger, Angular developer, and Google Developer Expert with a penchant for incorporating music into his projects.
Electron
Electron is an open-source framework that allows the use of front-end components to build desktop GUI applications. This means that you can use Angular while accessing OS specific tools, rather than needing to be concerned over browser types and version compatibility. Electron also allows client profiles for the user, reducing repetitive script calls when switching between clients and projects. Electron takes a node.js runtime and utilizes Chromium as a renderer to build the applications.
VR & WebGL with Angular — Austin McDaniel Shares New Projects
Austin McDaniel has been working extensively with Angular, WebGL, and VR these days, while also hosting Angular Air on a regular basis.
Virtual Reality
For those VR and WebGL fans, the future has come for you in Angular. Austin talks about how Angular has enabled him to create a WebGL renderer far less error prone than other technologies. His Angular tool takes ThreeJS (a popular javascript WebGL library) and breaks down the objects into easy-to-use angular components and is open sourced for others to use.
Just another amazing example of how technology has progressed, and Angular’s flexible use cases!
Tech Diversity
Introducing NgGirls — An Angular Diversity Initiative with Shmuela Jacobs
It’s no secret that there’s a lack of women in the tech industry, but groups like Ng Girls are popping up to help alleviate the issue.
Shmuela Jacobs is a front-end developer with a passion for Angular and sharing knowledge with others. She’s the founder of NgGirls, an organization that aims to promote diversity in tech. Shmuela discusses the importance of diversity in the tech field and is trying to educate people that gender does not play a role in your joy or success in programming.
Although NgGirls is aimed towards women, men are also welcome. NgGirls creates a safe place for people to respect one another regardless of any differences and learn Angular together. NgGirls is growing, and you can even start your own local NgGirls group. Learn more about NgGirls at http://ng-girls.org/.
Thank so much for reading this article. We hope you enjoyed!
For more information on Angular, be sure to check out http://angular.io.
This article was co-written by Nadia S.C. and Tracy Lee
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