Engineer Away

Continuous Development, Continues Integration

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Tentative Projects

1. Quire VS Code Extension to manage TODOs as Tasks on Quire.com (new) 2. PWA with Instagram SSO (old) 3. VS Code style IDE Chrome Extension or in Chrome Developer Tools (old)

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Optimizing Your Team's Development Environment: An Opinionated Guide to Choosing the Right Tools and Workflows circa 2023

Recently, I have setup and managed High Performance Teams using the following Development Environment tools:

1. Chrome (awesome development tools),

2. Windows 11 (free upgrade from Windows 10 and way cheaper than anything Apple),

3. Git Bash for Windows (available in Powershell and VSCode as Default Terminal) with Rebase workflow (instead of Merge workflow),

4. NVM for Windows (available in Powershell and VSCode),

5. VSCode as the primary IDE, and

6. Notepad++ as the commit editor/text editor.

7. More later

Some candid and quick thoughts on:

Windows vs. Apple Mac: use whatever you are comfortable with BUT if you are working with a team use what everyone else is used to using before suggesting changes.

Angular vs. React vs. Vue: See above first, then know that I’ve taught many developers Angular+ (Ngx) over the last 7 years and ALL of them eventually felt that they didn’t want to use React anymore (Developer experiences ran the range of Senior Engineers thru recent Bootcamp graduates who had just completed 3 months of React). I haven’t focused on React or React native as a result although I’ve don’t projects in React including a UIs which compared performance and application footprint of the exact same application built in Angular 8 to React. Who has time to develop an expertise in all three so that they can recommend one? I certainly don’t.

Typescript vs. Javascript: See all above first, then know that I do not consider myself an expert in Typscript or Javascript BUT I have a preference which is using Typescript in Node and for the front end. This is primarily because Interfaces are performant, useful, and quick to learn.

Tumblr vs. something else: I’m investigating as Tumblr seems to have editor problems. Your recommendations are welcome and thank you in advance (I really do appreciate it 🙏 ).

Original title vs Title by ChatGPT3 on OpenAI: Three tries with ChatGPT3 allowed me to change the title of this post to what it is now from “Windows 11 IDE setup with Git Bash, VS Code, and NVM circa 2023”. I will also use it to generate Hash tags for Tumblr.

Opinionated vs. Ambivalent: I prefer to be opinionated when making a recommendation as long as I’m providing the backup for my opinion so others can provide constructive feedback.

It took me around 60 minutes to write this article. ChatGPT3 estimates it would take 2-3 minutes to read this article.

More later with links for setup.

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My IDE on Windows 10

Here’s how I setup my IDE on Windows 10 (now that my dry skin is gone posted on May 15th, 2016 at 10:39am US EST):

Chrome 64-bit (great Dev Tools, Plug-ins, Extensions, AngularJS etc.)

Java Development Kit (JDK includes JRE, Java Run-time Environment)

Node.js (because I’m a Fullstack JavaScript Software Engineer now)

Git Bash (more later re installation options, like setting home directory)

puTTY and puttygen (for SSH and/or key generation, or you can use git)

Notepad++ (for text editing and storage)

Webstorm(linting and contextual highlighting for clean, bug-free coding)

Oracle VirtualBox (Win 10 Home*) or Hyper-V (Win 10 Professional)

Firefox, and IE (for cross browser testing)

roboMongo or SqlWorkbench (for db visualization)

gulp/grunt/karma/jasmine/other packages for js builds

git config --global user.name “Your Name” git config --global user.email [email protected]

git config --global core.editor notepad

*requires enabling virtualization in BIOS and repairing VirtualBox installation.

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Programming and Dry Skin

I thought I would update my blog with the two projects I am currently focused on: my Programming and my Dry Skin.

Programming

As you probably know, I taught myself to develop a full LAMP stack in Dec 2013. In Feb 2014, rolled out the functional version of my real-estate system to one client where I trained 11 employees to use the system. A month long test was successfully concluded by Mar 2014 and the client's board approved it for use. The system has been in use since without any problems. I used PHP/MySQL on an Amazon's EC2 Linux instance (HTTP1, not yet HTTP2) for this first version.

However, when I tried to create the latest version, a Web App with a prettier and cooler user interface, I ran into several time-draining troubleshooting problems; I was spending too much time debugging my JavaScript code. I had taught myself JavaScript so that I could program the complex behaviors; behaviors that we all take for granted when we use the web or when we use apps on our phone. This was a mistake. 

As I learned the hard way, JavaScript has become the goto language for web programming on both the client's browser and more recently on the server (instead of PHP, Java or Ruby). JavaSript now has various supporting libraries including JQuery, Node.js, Angular.js, Backbone.js, Bootstrap, Ember.js and many more making development fast and standardizing maintenance.

I am confident that learning JavaScript for the full stack will speed up the rate at which I develop and test initiatives in addition to add to my skill set; PHP, Java and Python. I also expect hiring will be easier when I have to pass on my work.

I've been considering a (more than) full-time intensive programming course at Fullstack Academy in NYC. It's a three month long intensive which starts on Mar 2nd 2015 and ends on May 29th 2015.

The intensive starts with 4 weeks of prerequisites to make sure that the entire class has the minimum core competencies. The first project would be finishing up a project and to complete a workshops which are considered the foundations. The gateway assignment is to develop an automated mailer which will email recent blog posts to a list of friends. By the end of the 13 week onsite intensive, students are expected to have multiple projects completed some of which will be at or above the level of a Facebook or Twitter (according to the company website).

Most students expect to enjoy every moment of this intensive program EXCEPT the grueling hours (9:30 pm to _at_least_ 6:30 pm M-F). I certainly don't think a course like this is going to help the present state of my dry skin!

Dry Skin

I've always suffered from dry skin but this winter in NYC has been murder on my skin. The irritation causes itch which leads to exhaustion because it keeps you awake at night. I have no other option other than to seek medical treatment after exhausting my stores of moisturizer AND discovering that Wholefoods all over the city have run out of the Natralia Dry Skin Lotion which I rely on. 

I have finally "rediscovered" diphenhydramine HCl (Benedryl) to help with sleep and possibly help control the itch (histamine reaction).

If you have any advice or suggestions please feel free to connect with me.

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Why I choose to code.

I consider myself lucky, having contributed significantly in several different positions across industries, and as a result, having learned quite a bit from those years of varied experience. 

I learned most initiatives have one thing in common; quick execution is often critical to success (AGILE). I found that because I manage projects and write code (and enjoy it) I've been instrumental in making an impact. I feel that combined with the scarcity of experienced developers and visionaries, previously inconceivable, groundbreaking, innovative, ideas may never see the light of day. I feel the need to contribute as part of team like that and hence I code and develop my skills. 

When asked what influenced me to learn how to code, I respond:

1) the demand for it (from my industry experience), 

2) I enjoy it, 

3) and I feel I can make a significant and beneficial impact by learning more.

These are some of the reasons which, when combined, make it clear why I continue to learn to code. If I was to cite one example specifically, it would be the most recent one:

I've had many great ideas over the years but I was never as able to execute on them as when I taught myself PHP and AngularJS in 2013 and actually rolled out a service as a Web App. It brings me great satisfaction that the Web App brought great utility to the users. And it brings me great pleasure that it is till in full use today (last updated 2017). I was lucky to have chosen to undertake such a project. The user feedback combined with the success of the project continues to fuel my passion to continue learning how to code.