The “MacOS Feel” that Developers Love

IMO, it comes down to a: Controlled UI, Consistent user experience, and Dev-friendly choices. Windows controls the desktop, but only has so-so consistency (many windowing toolkits in evidence in the OS). And the choices aren’t dev-friendly (more below). Linux has nearly zero control over its own UI: The Chrome browser, for example, refuses to follow … Continue reading The “MacOS Feel” that Developers Love →

How to produce a JSON tree with nested data from Scrapy

This was an interesting puzzle: creating one single well formed JSON from a hierarchy of web pages. E.g., the sporting goods hierarchy of an e-commerce site could be Categories, Brands, Products. And so you'd like to output JSON like this: https://gist.github.com/dogweather/cb364044df65bd104a0b051f257ae1f6 [Etc.] As an aside, I like architecting my systems to generate this kind of … Continue reading How to produce a JSON tree with nested data from Scrapy →

Making mistakes: Django startproject and Rails new

I like to see how software reacts when I step off the happy path and make a mistake. Today I found this interesting difference with an unknown (or misspelled) command line option: "--derp": https://gist.github.com/dogweather/aac2dce97936484e765c04105ef6fa06 https://gist.github.com/dogweather/937420a48708ee36f3d0268161d61b80 An interesting difference! Personally, Django is reacting like I'd expect. And so for me it's following the principle of least … Continue reading Making mistakes: Django startproject and Rails new →

The perfect IDE in pictures: Part 1, it works for you

I don't think the perfect IDE exists. But all the right ingredients are out there. Allan MacGregor wrote a post about VIM as the "perfect IDE" that started an interesting discussion on dev.to. But I'm skeptical about the pages-long config file, the dozens of independent plugins, and whether the result is really an "IDE". This reminded … Continue reading The perfect IDE in pictures: Part 1, *it* works for *you* →

Testing the multi-subdomain Rails app

Writing tests for a multi-tenant, multi-subdomain app turns out to be very tricky to figure out, e.g.: I saw that, and understood the frustration. Integration tests ("request specs" or "feature specs") are built on a stack of frequently changing libraries and shifting API's. And the recipe for subdomain-aware testing isn't documented in any particular tool's notes. … Continue reading Testing the multi-subdomain Rails app →

What is a Design Pattern? (Answered.)

I recently answered that question: The entire concept of Design Patterns for software was popularized and maybe invented by the Gang of Four. This is the book. It's an amazing artifact, organized differently from any other book I've seen. It's worth checking it out from a library and reading at least the introduction and a … Continue reading What is a Design Pattern? (Answered.) →

Twitter scam: Ethereum / BasicAttentionToken “giveaway”

E-coin faucets have been around for a while, and I’ve never had a problem with them. So I clicked the link, and saw the dwindling amount left to give away.

I switched from iPhone to the Pixel 2: One-week report

...the bottom line is, the experience is simultaneously high-end luxury yet while staying informed and in control of the device.

A Docker dev config for Ruby on Rails

I use Docker for all my client work, and most of my personal projects too. I love it. It's saved me a ton of money because it uses so much less RAM than Vagrant — what I had been using. Benefits of this config Just docker-compose up to set up and launch the dev environment … Continue reading A Docker dev config for Ruby on Rails →

Setting up a Docker dev environment for Elixir+Phoenix

Benefits One-line setup and bootup: docker-compose up. It creates the database, does the Dialyzer pre-work (if the project has Dialyxer installed), etc. A true development-oriented config: Source code is mounted so that changes in the container appear on the host, and vice-versa. Fast re-builds because the DOCKERFILE is written to help Docker cache the images. Syncing with the … Continue reading Setting up a Docker dev environment for Elixir+Phoenix →