Someone discovers the hidden treasures of PHP, and makes money with it!
We received a comment from someone (check out the VLOG), who states that since they started learning php, a whole new world has started opening up for them. They’ve…”discovered all these scripts for all kinds of things you can’t buy anywhere, [and]…if you refactor it, you can make it compatible with the most recent version of php.” So if you put in the time and work you can have a whole new app, or software solution, etc… And they go onto say that they are bringing solutions into the work place that their co-workers haven’t even thought of, and all we can say is, ‘We salute you Sir or Madam’.
Long have we sung the praises of that workhorse: php. A programming language that’s been around for an arguably long time, but shows no signs of going anywhere, due in large part to it’s flexibility and (relative) ease of use. “That’s one of the strengths of php, by the way… It’s been around for so long; so many people used it in the real world contexts: to get stuff out, to hack stuff out, but there’s tons of stuff out there. A lot of it’s not well written…but you may have 75% of the guts of what you need there, and you can just grab it, improve it; refactor (you know, it just means rework it), fix it up, make it work and then BOOM! Drop it on where you need to have it drop in and Bob’s your uncle. And that’s perfectly reasonable thing”.
Check out the VLOG for a sharper explanation and some more beautiful MTL skyline. Keep on digging through scripts and libraries and you never know what you might find… -Enjoy!
PS- WPForms is our sponsor for this VLOG and they provide plugins for WordPress that give you drag-n-drop capabilities, plus other really powerful forms, etc., and if you click the link (below), they’re offering a sizable discount.
Young developers are hyper concerned about learning the newest programming languages and frameworks only … but the most popular languages today are 20+ years old!
Alright yung’uns, gather ’round the fire… I know, everyone has indoor heating and there’s no need for fires anymore but this is gonna help with the over all ‘flavor’ for this blog…
Many you young devs are focusing on the shiniest, newest programming languages and frameworks, and while I salute your moxi, your gusto, heck; even your gumption… I’m here to tell ya, that there’s a difference between new and popular. I know when you’re listening to your CardiB’s and your Lizzo’s, you may not see a distinction but in the programming world, lemme tell ya, bucko, there is definitely a difference…
“…For a long, long time -like 10/20 years- especially when it came to the web stack, the technology changed so often…websites and web apps…it has changed so radically.” Now, as I understand with you yung’uns, 10 or 20 years ago might as well be 100 years ago but, “…when it comes to the actual programming languages (the popular ones that are used to date), …they are pretty much entrenched. I think you’re not going to see a big move away from the major players over the next long time. Why? There’s just no need to. Now in the past you would create a programming language because there was a particular need that was very important, but it was not addressed by current languages.”
Also, over the years as computers have become markedly faster (CPUs and memory both have become faster and cheaper), the need for highly optimized programming languages have become arguably less and less important, because a human eyeball won’t necessarily notice execution speed on most modern computers because they process that information much more efficiently than a computer from 10 or 20 years ago.
The VLOG goes into waayyy more detail, we’re talking SQLs, Bootstrap, even RUBY (and only an inkling of an insult too). But, “when it comes to the major programming [and coding] languages of today, not much has changed in many years. …On the advanced stuff yeah, but in terms of language, not much has changed. …When you’re looking at the languages, at the technology, it’s not as critical to have stuff that was created in the last two minutes. The big ones [programming languages] they’re not going anywhere because they’re good, they’re good at what they do and the problems they may have can be addressed with some small updates, and they just keep getting more performance with the updates…”. Now, it’s almost 4pm so you better git gone and think about what I’ve said while I get ready to sit down to my dinner… -Enjoy!
Will AI replace software developers in a short time?
For those of you keeping score at home we actually dove into this a year ago, but since a newly published Forbes article has pointed out some advancements in AI learning, we’d like to comment on the, ‘next step towards Skynet’.
So in the interest of calming your fears, we’re going to heighten them -only for a little while, I promise! But essentially, “… AI has really accelerated quite a bit over the last ten years, and they’re saying it’s about to go into a hyper-accelerated wave…”. There are very understandable reasons for this: 1- I Got the Power!: From a purely material stance, specialized AI chip sets have greatly increased their computing power. 2- We’re Feeding the Beast: For AI to work, it needs data, “…so the nerds came up with these things called data lakes -where all the data is pooled- so you can throw your AI at it and the AI can learn. The more data, the better the data -the better the data is segmented- , the better your AI will operate.” 3- Smarter, Faster: The AI algorithms are just getting better.
The latest application of AI has been the ‘Tab9‘ project wherein, “…a couple of guys basically took their AI, pointed it at 2 million github files and now they have a plugin…and the AI can do code completion much more effectively than traditional code completion”. But don’t start stocking up on canned food and making plans to reinforce your basement just yet, because now that we’ve whipped you into a frothing mass of fear and foreboding, we’re going to calmly bring you back down to the serene, put together, and well mannered developer you are…
The Road is Long… We’re not going to lie to you; AI is a growing technology and everyday new applications are being found. But that doesn’t mean that AI will be taking your job anytime soon. “…they’re not replacing developers, they’re [AI] just assisting developers in [their] process.” However, we can’t say with great certainty that everyone else’s job is safe; “…long before AI replaces software development, it’s going to replace truckers, replace accountants, many legal jobs, many medical jobs -you get the idea… .” But just in case you’re not a programmer and you’re reading this blog and feeling a little ‘tight’ in the chest, let us offer you an olive branch; “…before it gets to developers, AI will have replaced huge parts of industry, and as a result of that, …the entire infrastructure of society will have to be modified accordingly -so I wouldn’t worry about it because there’ll be warning sign years in advance before developers will be taken out by AI.”
The VLOG goes into way more detail and some more sweet scenery of the MTL skyline. Plus, we’ve teamed up with InMotion hosting for a really amazing offer where they pay for you to take our courses and learn how to become a web developer. Link below. -Enjoy!
Vue.js, React and Angular are the big three JavaScript frameworks. But which one is the best in 2019?
There are many JavaScript frameworks out there but Vue.js, React, and Angular are easily (though, I guess also arguably) the top three. All three have their strengths and uses, but if you want to find the best one for your needs, let’s look at a brief overview (more details in this VLOG and way more in the article).
Before we get started, this is the article we are …framing?… our references around, and full transparency: we use Vue.js (henceforth called ‘Vue’) for our needs with StudioWeb. Here we go:
Angular: Developed by Google in 2010 (making it easily the most mature), this behemoth (500kb) is more in the realm of big projects with ‘advanced developers’. “Angular is basically positioned for larger projects. There’s a much steeper learning curve with Angular, …it’s a very powerful framework.” Another feature of Angular is that, “it separates out the logic from the application/the behavior of an element and the element itself is separate.” So while you would be gaining flexibility with Angular, you might be sacrificing a certain amount of simplicity that you would get with the other frameworks..
React: Developed by Facebook in 2013 this slimmer framework (100kb), offer way more simplicity than Angular (at the cost of some flexibility) and has an equal market share with Angular. This Framework tends to be adopted by more flexible small-medium sized companies.
Vue: Open source-developed, holding approximately 20% of the market share (and growing), weighing in at about 80kb (soaking wet), we have the staple of most start-up/small businesses: Vue. Boasting an easy, practically non-existent learning curve, Vue is the compromise between flexibility and simplicity.
So what’s the best option for you? Well, all these frameworks have their strengths and weaknesses, and they’re all used by many companies, businesses, and corporations, so they’re not going to vanish anytime soon… I guess it all comes down to what you want to do… Want to work for a big corporation? Angular. Spunky start-up with a can do attitude? Probably Vue. We really want to stress that one framework is not better than the other, they just offer different options, benefits, and drawbacks.
Check out the VLOG for a deeper dive into the pros/cons and features of all three frameworks, and remember, “…your choice of framework -of any technology- largely depends on the type of work you wanna do, the job market, a personal choice… there’s no language that is ultimately best, …no framework that is ultimately worse; it really depends on what you want to do.” -Enjoy!
All jokes of ominous soothsaying and portents aside, Oracle has released Java 13 with a promise of updates every six months. This is kind of a big deal because they are famous for releasing updates every 3 years, up until about 2017…
This article goes into more detail and provides a little historical content too, but let’s focus on a few things; mainly two new features:
Text Block: “The Text Blocks feature is designed to simplify writing Java programs by easily expressing strings that span several lines of source code without escape sequences.”*
There is the caveat that these are ‘preview features’, which means they may be removed in the future at some point or not, but this coupled with other improvements has given Oracle the image of coming out of the gate swinging.
Which brings us to the big question, should you learn Java in 2019? “Why not, you can’t lose. If you want to get jobs in the enterprise/android development, Java is going to be good for a long time. …And if for some reason an asteroid hits the earth and Java starts tanking in terms of popularity, you will have the [nerd] background to be able to move to any language you want.” This of course referring to the fact that Java is one of those big languages that has inspired so many other languages after it, and as such has many roots (for lack of a better term), in so many other languages that learning those other languages when you have a competent understanding of Java makes it so much easier. “…Java teaches you all these different concepts, best coding practices and so forth, which carries over 102% into any other language.”
The Vlog goes into some more detail and is worth a look. Plus, we’ve teamed up with InMotion hosting for a really amazing offer where they pay for you to take our courses and learn how to become a web developer. Links to all these offers are below. -Enjoy!
*: To quote Liam Tung’s ZDnet article (link above).
Should you get a college degree or learn online to quickly get into freelance web design and development?
If you feel like you’ve already read about this in a previous article or saw it in a previous VLOG, yes and no. That previous work was about education in North America, “where student loan debt is an issue, where college is not free…”, and this one is about education in places like Europe, which are a little different because, “in Europe college is free…well it’s paid [for] by the taxes, so in essence you’re paying for it whether or not you go, because it’s built into the taxes.” In all honesty, we brought this up because we were contacted by someone in Europe who’s thinking of going to school to get their degree but was wondering about completing online courses and going into freelancing instead.
Now, we made a lot of assumptions on this person’s part: we assumed they were pretty young because they mentioned that their parents wanted them to go to college, which made us further assume they were probably living at home too, so while the advice we’re about to give may seem oddly specific, we still feel most of it can apply if you’re living in Europe or a place that has a similar educational setup. “If you live in a part of the world where the education is free, you’re living at home so you don’t need to make money immediately, and you’re going to pay for it in taxes anyway, right? The government pays, so it means you pay in some form …it’s only a year and a half/ two years, then you know, might as well do it.”
Now there are way more angles to this and the VLOG, of course, goes into more detail and is worth checking out but we want to let you know about a really cool offer by clicking here. We’ve teamed up with InMotion hosting for a really amazing offer where they essentially pay for you to take my course and learn how to become a web developer. Links to the offer below as well. -Enjoy!
OR ‘how did I get started as a web developer?’ OR ‘you kids today don’t know how good you’ve got it…’
Gather round the fire again, younglings, it’s story time. Some of you have been asking how I got my start as a web developer…well now, I reckon I can’t remember that far back (and every time I try, I see quick flashes of people with pitchforks and dragons: greedy and terrible), but I’ll try fer ya…!
It was the 1990’s…’94 to be exact and I had no idea what a website was. In fact, I wasn’t even working anywhere near computers…I did have my own business but you’ll have to checkout the VLOG to find out what is was (mostly cuz I forget…).
You can stick around to the end of the VLOG or click here for a really cool offer. We’ve teamed up with InMotion hosting for a really amazing offer where they essentially pay for you to take my course and learn how to become a web developer. Links to the offer and my courses are down below, but this is a really great opportunity and who knows, maybe one day you’ll be telling the story of how YOU got your start. -Enjoy!
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The concept of responsive design is not a big breakthrough, but it has attracted a lot of attention recently due to the growth of the mobile device market, mainly tablets and cell phones of varying sizes and resolutions.
In this new context of browsers and various resolutions, responsive design emerges as a logical evolution of website design, mostly known as web design.
Early on, much of the internet was composed by very similar resolutions and browser options. Until recently, it was just fine to make a website that worked on Internet Explorer with a maximum resolution of 1024 × 768 pixels and everything was solved. Of course, there were other features, but the vast majority was in the same group. At the opposite side of the spectrum, there were users of Mozilla Firefox. And that was about it.
Today, everything has changed. There are 50″ inch TVs accessing the internet, phones that have 2″ to 5″ screens, 5″ to 7″ “phablets”, 6″ to 14″ (or even more) tablets. And that is not including the computers themselves, which have screen sizes up to Apple’s iMacs, making it a range from 11″ up to over 26″ inches.
So let’s get started by asking one of the most obvious questions, which is of course, the first that comes to mind…
