July 13, 2022

Better Than 'foo'

There’s almost always a better variable name or value than ‘foo’. It’s useful as a debugging placeholder, but it almost never belongs in production code, even and especially in automated tests.

July 11, 2022

Database Migration Checklist

I think a great migration database migration is: correct, atomic, reversible, consistent with the style of the application, and (mostly) uncoupled from your application and RDBMS.

July 7, 2022

Logging an Object in JavaScript

When printing a JavaScript value to the console, I suggest using an object literal over the raw value.

June 30, 2022

Why Ruby?

Why should someone learn Ruby in 2022? Ruby was my first programming language, and although I’ve drifted elsewhere, I write Ruby every day. Many people in my network are Ruby diehards. As a result, it’s been a long time since I’ve gotten the chance to sell someone on Ruby.

June 27, 2022

What Are the Tradeoffs of Passing Objects as React Props?

A common React pattern is to pass an object as a prop. Let’s consider the ways this can be used and tradeoffs of each.

June 23, 2022

Naive Implementation: The Art of Artless Programming

A naive implementation is a programming technique that prioritizes imperfect shortcuts for the sake of speed, simplicity, or lack of knowledge.

June 21, 2022

Authentication vs. Authorization

Authentication and authorization are two distinct concepts. Yet, I’ve found they’re sometimes used interchangeably. In this post, I’d like to define these terms.

June 15, 2022

Spell Checking with Vim: Tutorial and Best Practices

I write each post for this blog in Vim. Writing in the terminal makes me feel like a programmer, even when I’m not specifically programming. In this post, I’ll share how I spellcheck in Vim.

June 13, 2022

How to Write a Perfect Bug Report

Bugs are part of software, and so is bug reporting. Reporting well is a necessary skill in an ever-growing number of job titles. In this post, I’d like to explain how to write a perfect bug report.

June 8, 2022

Make a Prediction

Imagine you’re debugging, and you’re stuck. I have a technique that’s going to help. Think of an action you might take. Predict what will happen when you take that action. Take the action. Check if you were right or wrong, consider that information, and repeat.