Another fatality in the war of ‘generalized’ vs. ‘specialized’?
A ZDnet article claims that the R programming language is on the decline, even in the face of a boom in statistical jobs, thanks in large part to devs and programmers using Python as the go-to language. We spoke to Kevin, one of our freelance developers and friendly pirate for confirmation and his reply was, “…yes, that is correct.” – Kevin is a consummate professional and doesn’t like to mix his freelance work with his other ventures in privateering and high-seas chicanery (long walk to get to that joke, but I get paid by the hour…).
Why should this not be surprising? (the R language thing, not the fact we have a pirate working for us). We would imagine, “that the people who love the R programming language will argue (and perhaps quite rightly), that R is better than Python in certain areas.” Well, we’ve said it in past articles and we’ll say it again here, “Open technologies/open languages that have more flexibility for you; easier to work with, they typically win out even over more ‘performante’ technology or languages.”
The VLOG is short but sweet and touches on the importance of the previous statement/lesson. Check it out and while you’re at it, look into our Python course that we offer in the links down below. In the words of Kevin, “Yarrr, there be no regrets here, because regrets are for the dead…”. Good guy, that Kevin…went to his wedding 2 months ago: amazing venue… -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!
GitHub is a good indicator of how popular programming languages are.
GitHub is an American company that provides hosting for software development version control using Git and it is a subsidiary of Microsoft. The article we got this list from is here and it’s pretty much the usual suspects…
Check out the VLOG for our take on the list and a little bit of info on the entries. -Enjoy!
…and other wide-ranging subjects in this ‘car-talk’ vlog…
Alright, usually there’s an intro and then we maybe make a joke about something (mostly RUBY) and then we go into the subject matter, but this time I’m really going to recommend you just watch the VLOG. We jump from subject to subject with no real connective tissue to any of them, including a shoot-from-hip review of “Avengers: Endgame” and a chat about our lizard brain… I mean, it’s super fun and you’re gonna have a good time, but from a writing standpoint, it’s like herding kittens: cute and cuddly but hard to pin down…
One major cool piece of news: We’re going to be offering certifications for our courses very soon; it’s in the works. Not only do you get the benefit of all that knowledge and experience after completing our programming courses, but now you have a piece of paper for those sticklers that demand physical proof -take that, suckas!
Really, just check out the VLOG, maybe have a cuppa coffee and sit back and feel that smile just slowly make its way up… -Enjoy!
Python is the Fastest Growing Language of 2019. In some cases it’s even more popular than JAVA.
Don’t believe the hype? Here’s the link to the PYTHON article… Now it’s important to note that the article is saying that it’s the fastest growing language; it’s not better than JAVA, please don’t DM us with arguments or nerd rage. But yeah, so far PYTHON is the fastest growing language of this year by about 2 million new developers.
A pretty good reason for this is, “…most of that growth is in AI machine learning development…Python is a language that glues systems together, so PYTHON is used to automate back-end processes, …monitoring system alerts, making sure processes just work well – it’s one of those great general purpose languages”.
Other things that may contribute to PYTHON’s growth is its popularity in the community, the libraries available, and the ease at which it can be learned. And on that note, it’s shameless plug time… We offer a PYTHON course that is quick and efficient and fun (although that last part is up to you.). Links to that and another great web development course are down below the video.
Check out the VLOG for our quick and dirty ‘code on the go’ segment on PYTHON as well as some more details and facts about PYTHON and it’s sudden rise in popularity. -Enjoy!
…That’s ‘Positive Mental Attitude’ for ‘Progressive Web Apps’…
We keep on getting requests to cover PWA/RWD’s and because we’re not DJs or that small band at the back of the bar that’s playing ‘only originals’, we’re taking those requests…and 5-6-7-8…
So a PWA is a progressive web app and an RWD is a responsive web design. How are the two related? Well first off, “RWD is basically writing your HTML5 and your CSS code so that the layout of the site will flex and change depending on the size of the screen of the web browser that is visiting your site. So if you have a smartphone or a 75 inch flat panel TV, a properly coded responsive website or web app will look just fine.” So the idea being that fonts, images, layout, etc. will change size depending on the size of the screen you’re viewing them on. As you can imagine, with the way consume data and media, it was a pretty big deal.
Okay, but where does the PWA come in? “…A PWA is basically taking RWD to its ultimate highest level. Essentially…you can think of it as RWD on steroids, because it brings in all the power that comes with native HTML5 and CSS (and you throw in some JavaScript to add some extra capabilities, of course…).” “The big advantage of using a PWA over native is you have one code base, so instead of having to write one app in iOS with SWIFT, and then having to write the whole app again from scratch for android in JAVA or KOTLIN. PWA is a lot cheaper to get your app out there, and [while] you don’t get the full benefit with a PWA that you get with native, you get a lot of the benefits.”
Now the VLOG will go into really good detail weighing the pros and cons of PWA or native (and believe me there are way more pros), but as a dev or a freelancer you should always be thinking about where businesses are coming from. Most of the time they’re not interested in the “nerd” implications of the languages, frameworks, etc. that you use, they just want to get up and running fast and get the product or service out there and PWA is your best bet. -ENJOY
JavaScript needs no introduction… even a quick google search will give you all you need to know. But at one time JS had a rival, a new kid on the block and it was called CoffeeScript (You can google it if you want but don’t bother…). “A few years back people were like ‘oohhh, CoffeeScript!’, the hipster nerds were, ‘Ooooh, CoffeeScript runs faster than JS, it’s better – you gotta use CoffeeScript!’.” And the sad thing was CoffeeScript did have some advantages and was actually slightly faster than JS but, “Rule of thumb: when you have a technology, whether it be a programming language or framework but it’s extremely dominant in the marketplace, for it to be replaced there would literally have to be some paradigm shift for that to happen. It is very very rare that you see a very established technology replaced by something that’s maybe 20% or 30% better…It has to be 5 times better! …or more.”
“Now CoffeeScript was faster blah blah blah, JS was so dominant that all JS people had to do was come in with es6, which is the latest version of JS…and CoffeeScript is now {indicates ‘thumbs down’ motion and ‘failure’ sound effect}…no more.”
This falls into something we talked about herenot too long ago, called ‘the shiny tech trap’, which is abandoning more mature/tried and true/old technology for something that’s brand-spanking new and purports to do things slightly faster and better. Unless it’s a HUGE leap forward the absolutely changes everything for the better, it’s generally not going to happen…
Take a sip of the steaming-hot cuppa VLOG to really get a sense of what we’re talking about and as a bonus, we talk about RUBY but not in a terrible way…I mean not a great way, but not terrible. Check it out. -Enjoy!
The belief that the cutting edge tech must be the tech you use in your projects.
You may have heard your dad or your grandpa say something pretty close to this while grumbling about cars, phones or television sets; and that’s ‘shiny and new isn’t always better’. “As beginners you hear about this new technology is so great, that new technology is so great, etc, etc, and you can get overwhelmed and caught up with all this. …It’s chasing the illusion of perfection.”
And no demographic is more vulnerable to this illusion than young developers. For ease (and fun) let’s refer to this demographic as “noob” developers. “…[Noob] developers will chase perfection in their application development looking for ‘the better language’, or ‘the better framework’.” No only is this a waste of precious time but also a brisk jaunt into the realm of madness. “Don’t get me wrong, there are frameworks that are more ‘mature’ [or] ‘better’ than other frameworks given the application that you want to build. [For example]…If you’re building an AI based system, you’re not gonna wanna do that with PHP…you could…people have done machine learning with PHP – I wouldn’t do it – no, no you do PYTHON because that’s where all the action is, that’s where the market share is: that’s where it’s ‘mature’. …[But] you’ll find that any of the prominent frameworks and languages out there today…they’re going to produce good work…whether the app is good or not is up to you.”
Break your foot off on this VLOG for a very in-depth (and tangent-filled) dive into the “new tech trap” and remember, “in general all these frameworks and languages have pros and cons and everything looks greener on the other side of the fence until you get there.” -Enjoy.
Marketing yourself as a developer is the best way to get the word out so you can build a reputation and secure work for yourself, especially if you intend on being a freelancer. Great, so what do I need to start getting myself out there? I’m Glad you asked…there are essentially 3 things you need to get started: 1- Skill Sets (both Technical and Social) – Skills you’ve developed through education/experience. 2- Reputation – The better it is, the better the chance you have of getting work. 3- IP (Intellectual Property) – What have you done in the real world. Projects you’ve worked on, jobs you’ve completed: for free or for pay.
Now, I know you’re looking at this and thinking these are all things that you get by doing real world work, how can I get real world if I don’t have these things? Ahhhhh…the catch 22, my friends…
The short answer is by any means necessary. Go out and do some free work/small project(s) for a small local business (not a long time, maybe 3 months or until the small project is done). At the end of that, yeah you may not have any money, but you’ve just got all three things you need to put towards getting a paying job (it might not pay much, but it’s a start), and when that paying job is done, you’ve got even more skill/rep/IP to put towards your next gig. From there you rinse/repeat ad nauseam and BOOM! work/life balance and a happy ending, LOL. Just kidding,, but it’s a good start.
Wriggity-wreck yo’self on the VLOG for some great advice on this subject from an almost 3 decade experienced ‘warrior of the code’ turned ‘diplomat of the code’, I guess… also a great analogy that might make you real hungry…you’ve been warned. -Enjoy
Ever wondered how different apps or OS communicate with each other? For example, maybe your working on a JAVA app but it has to communicate with another app in California and they’re not the same app? Or you have an AI developed in PYTHON and it outputs a certain amount of data, how does it get that to a PHP web app (for arguments sake, I don’t make up your own scenario…)? How are the two going to communicate to sync or rectify data?
Well way back in the day there was RMI (Remote Method Invocation) and that was possible in JAVA world only. After that they used XML (eXtensible Markup Language), “XML code was so verbose, meaning there was so much XML code, …often times there was more XML code than data you were exchanging from system A to system B…”
These days the most commonly used method is something called JSON (JAVAscript Object Notation). “JSON is just basically a little bit of JAVAscript code wrapped around the information event you want to send from computer system/software A to software B. It’s pretty much the universal standard these days.” “It’s much more lightweight than the XML solutions…typically if something is easier and faster, it wins.”
If you enjoyed this soupcon into inter-operability, then check out the VLOG for a meaty main course and a little ‘digestif’ of advice on what to learn to be able to handle JSON effortlessly should the need arise. Keep on doing your good work and ponder the thought of two computers in a room trying to talk to each other in a human language…what would they even say? -Enjoy
