Logic Based Creativity

Notes from a journey of software/self development

[logic-based-creativity]

How I explained TDD to a non-developer friend and got a job offer over tacos

A little while ago, the strangest thing happened. I was catching up with a lawyer friend. As we munched on tacos, I found myself trying to…

[logic-based-creativity]

Exciting stuff! Also, go to https://threejs.org/ once you’re done watching and have a play with some cool web apps ;) 

[logic-based-creativity]

I started off a mechanical engineer and ended up also becoming a software one. From day one I couldn’t help but compare the way things are…

[logic-based-creativity]

5 Easy Steps to Understanding JSON Web Tokens (JWT)

In this article, the fundamentals of what JSON Web Tokens (JWT) are, and why they are used will be explained.

I’m adding chat functionality to our Platypus Career Change app (platypuscareer.com). It’s a Rails app and I’ve decided to use Twilio Programmable Chat. As it turns out, it involves having to use JSON Web Tokens. First time I’m hearing of those, so I went googling and this was the best explanation I found. 

[logic-based-creativity]

Make it rain!

I was building a simple landing page to help with testing/explaining a business idea I had in response to yet again getting drenched in Glasgow (see other post), when I came across this little gem! I haven’t had the chance to play around with canvas much, so it was really cool to see how Brian went about implementing his idea of rain over an image. Though I didn’t end up using it in my landing page, maybe you will? https://modernweb.com/creating-a-realistic-rain-effect-with-canvas-and-javascript/

[logic-based-creativity]

Have been reading over the past few months. Would HIGHLY recommend to anyone who has decided to jump into software development from another background. It’s super interesting, engaging and... leaves you with more questions than answers :D Which, actually, is an excellent thing! There is so much I now know that I do not know about software engineering and computer science. So many books I just added to my reading list! But, really, I learned loads <3 If you’ve just finished a dev bootcamp, grab this book asap.

[logic-based-creativity]

Postgres on Bash on Ubuntu on Windows

Wow. So many “on”s in that headline... Anyway, I started working on a Rails app on my Windows laptop thanks to the magic of the beta Windows-built-in Bash command line (WSL). To date things have been going very smoothly. Then I remembered I forgot to change my db from the default SQLite to Postgres... Turns out Postgres is not as straight forward on WSL. After hours of googling around, here is a guide for posterity:

1. Install postgres (9.3! that’s the one that comes bundled in WSL’s Ubuntu)

sudo apt-get install postgresql postgresql-contrib postgresql-server-dev-9.3 libpq-dev

2. Start postgres

sudo service postgresql start

3. Change to postgres user (the tricky bit really)

sudo sudo -iu postgres

4. Create a user with your username to avoid future sudo inception

createuser -drS <<Username>>

In place of <<Username>>, put the bit before @. E.g. in my case “DagmaraSz”

5. Get back out of the postgres user

logout

6. Now you can get into psql if you remember to always type “psql postgres”, but really, just make a seperate db

createdb <<Username>>

7. Done! Access the promt whenever you like

psql

Finally, here’s a cheat sheet of commands for viewing tables etc: http://blog.jasonmeridth.com/posts/postgresql-command-line-cheat-sheet/

[logic-based-creativity]

Image comparison with javascript

I had a project perfectly suited for a before/after comparison: http://manolano.eu/  And I found a js framework perfectly suited for coding it up: TwentyTwenty by Zurb! It’s a pleasure to work with and lets you customise a lot. Enjoy!

[logic-based-creativity]

Recently, a friend asked about what I would recommend for someone completely green, thrust into the world of IT Infrastructure. Well, this is a book I bought and read as soon as I realised I would be joining Global Technology Infrastructure at JP Morgan. Because, you know: I had basically NO idea what that even meant :D Oh, the fun of leaping into a new career path! It’s not a thrilling read, but it lays out the basics and helped me not feel like a fool when acronyms like SAN and NAS and SHA were mentioned.

[logic-based-creativity]

Agile Scrum board with Waffle

In the last two weeks of Makers Academy, we’ve been working in teams on small projects: MakersBnb - a simplified clone of AirBnb and Notes App - really also a clone, this time of Evernote. A lot has happened in these projects, but I wanted to write a few about how we managed them. I’ve done agile projects before in two ways: with a simple whiteboard listing all our tasks and using Jira. Neither were available to us. Luckily, a senior recommended Waffle. And I love it <3

Waffle how to:

1. After you’ve created your project on Github and added all the collaborators, head to https://waffle.io/ and login with your Github account. This will allow you to link your Github repository.

2. Waffle will auto-generate a nice scrum board for you, which you can adjust in the settings panel. You can rename, add or remove columns, as well fiddle with the automation of Waffle.

3. Create issues (either on Github or directly in Waffle) to plan your work and split tasks between team members. You can tag issues with standard Github labels like “bug” or “help wanted”, but we mostly used custom ones like “user story”. There is also the option of setting up milestones (e.g. MVP iterations) and labeling issues with them. The reason you would want to label at all is the super useful filtering option Waffle provides (see top right corner of your board). Since your issues should be really, really small pieces of work (to increase frequency of merging to master as well as improve communication and understanding of what you’ve built so far between team members), you can end up with even a 100 of them for a small project. Thus, filtering becomes essential in stand ups and planning sessions.

4. When you choose an issue to work on, create a new Github branch for it. I highly recommend using the Waffle naming convention to automate your board! The branch name should therefore contain “#<issue number>”. As soon as you checkout a branch named this way, Waffle will move the corresponding issue to “In Progress” and assign you to it. Trust me, this is super exciting! :D

NOTE: If your command line uses zsh, make sure to use “” when putting branch names into git commands. Zsh uses # for some special functionality...

5. After you finish working on a given issue, in your final commit to the branch include the following text: “closes #<issue number”. This will tell Waffle to move the issue into the “Done” column as soon as the pull request for the corresponding branch is approved.

6. Submit a pull request. In our Waffle board we decided to create a “Ready for review column” and set it up so that a pull request would move the issue into this column. Refer to the settings picture above.

7. Your pull request is approved and Waffle magically moves it to Done! Yay!

BONUS: If you would like to show off how your project is progressing (e.g. in your readme), Waffle can help with that too! Just copy paste a badge code snippet from the settings panel and adjust it to your needs.

[logic-based-creativity]

Git Standup

https://github.com/kamranahmedse/git-standup

The solution to “what the hell did I even do yesterday?!” panic when you go to a morning standup. Now if only I could get that on my mobile phone for when I’m rushing in to work in the morning...

[logic-based-creativity]

Noisli - Improve Focus and Boost Productivity with Background Noise

Noisli is a fantastic background noise and color generator for working and relaxing. Plus Text Editor for distraction-free writing and Markdown support.

Recommended by a fellow student at Makers. Related to my prev post about Coffitivity.

[logic-based-creativity]

Rspec and TDD

This week was all about TDD. To that end, we had to start using Rspec and were simply chucked into the deep end. There’s no tutorial?? Nope, we just had to google things. So I wanted to consolidate the various bits of info I’ve collected to date.

1. Describe vs. context

Basically, they are the same thing. At least as far as functionality is concerned. Yet, to improve readability you could use context as a “case” of the test - what state the thing you’re testing is in. Great article here: http://lmws.net/describe-vs-context-in-rspec

2. Let or subject?

Allow you to declare instance variables. Subject refers to the thing you are testing, for all other classes you instantiate consider using let. If your describe includes the name of the class under test (rather than a string) you can simply use the variable subject wherever you need an instance of the class. Example:

3. Doubles and mocks

These let you remove dependencies by mocking other objects you need to draw upon in your tests. This way you are ONLY testing the behaviour of the class you are focusing on (describe). Honestly, doubles and mocks can get kinda crazy and we got a bit lost in a case of double inception today... but on a simple level they seem like great idea! (I’m sure they’re great overall, I’m just not feeling the love quite yet)

[logic-based-creativity]

Day 1

First real day at Makers! I had mixed feelings, I had doubts. I finished the day excited about to tomorrow, thrilled I chose Makers, convinced I’ve already made real progress on my way to being a software developer and that I will only be making LOTS more. 

[logic-based-creativity]

When in a repository directory you can show the name of the currently checked out Git branch in the prompt, making it easier to track where you are (and where you’re about to commit). The following instructions are written for Mac OS X (Lion) or later, using a terminal ...

Really helpful little tweak you can do to your terminal

[logic-based-creativity]

Battling the Mac

I feel like my grandma when I work on the MA-provided Air - can’t do the simplest things. How do I right click? Take a screenshot? WHERE’S THE DELETE BUTTON??? ARRRGH. Anyway, a helpful crib sheet to the terminal. For me and other Mac-impaired friends.

[logic-based-creativity]

MA - Day 0

Technically, it was day 1. I felt like day 0 would be a better description tough… That’s because we basically just listened to a lot of introductory talks about how things work at MA, what the philososphies arew, about lots of “fuzzy” stuff: mindfulness, knowledge workers, emotional intelligence, meditation. I think overall today left me with more questions and more doubts than the ones it resolved. I mean I understand why we do these “fuzy” talks, but my practical brain just kept going: can we finish this already and move on to some ACTUAL leanining?? I expected maybe 2-3 hours of intro and then moving on with the lessons.  Anyway, I’m very curious what tomorrow wil bring!