https://www.clairecodes.com/categories/longread/ Recent content in Longread on clairecodes Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:19:54 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2019-08-16-blogging-seasonally// Fri, 16 Aug 2019 13:19:54 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2019-08-16-blogging-seasonally// An idea to improve productivity. When I want to build a habit to blog or code regularly, I often make a commitment to myself like: I will publish one blog post a week. Or: I will code for 20 minutes three nights a week. And I inevitably fail after a few days. Perhaps adding another section to these pledges will improve my success rate. I mentally read the previous goals as: https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2019-06-21-switching-from-atom-to-vs-code// Fri, 21 Jun 2019 11:43:45 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2019-06-21-switching-from-atom-to-vs-code// I’ve been a long-time user of GitHub’s Atom, using it as my primary code editor for three years (and three years is a lifetime in the world of frontend development right?). But after seeing so much positive reaction to VS Code, I decided it was time for a change. It’s been six months since I made the full-time switch to Microsoft’s VS Code, which I thought was a good point to reflect on the experience so far. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-23-welcoming-language// Tue, 23 Oct 2018 21:51:07 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-23-welcoming-language// This might be obvious to you, but it occurred to me the other day and I wanted to elaborate on it. When you write an invite to an event, description for your meetup, sign off on your email newsletter, write your bio on your personal website or otherwise expect a response from a stranger online, don’t forget to leave a positive invitation or call-to-action at the end. What do I mean by that? https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-22-when-not-to-go-for-a-job-interview-uk-software-developer-edition// Mon, 22 Oct 2018 21:39:42 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-22-when-not-to-go-for-a-job-interview-uk-software-developer-edition// I’ve always shied away from blogging about finding a job - I feel it can be controversial and I don’t see many other people doing it. However I’m going through the process myself again at the moment and wanted to share some advice. This is advice I’ve learnt myself before and always forget! Think of this as a memo for Future-Claire. Note: I’m a software developer in the North of England. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-21-is-that-really-pair-programming// Sun, 21 Oct 2018 09:32:50 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-21-is-that-really-pair-programming// Pair programming is when two developers sit together at the same computer to write code. There’s lots of different techniques for pairing and takes more than just moving your chair over to your colleague’s desk. Discovering the most effective way to pair takes some effort, and looks different for each pair of developers. Pairing can be very useful, but there are other times when it isn’t necessary, or when the term is misused. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-20-takeaways-from-lean-in// Sat, 20 Oct 2018 21:45:52 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-20-takeaways-from-lean-in// I recently finished reading Lean In by Sheryl Sandberg and really enjoyed it. There were a lot of inspiring stories and messages throughout the book and it gave me a lot to think about. Here a few points that stood out to me as I was reading it: Are you my Mentor? This was the title of a chapter in the book and Sheryl had a really refreshing take on mentorship. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-14-why-i-like-blogging-as-a-developer// Sun, 14 Oct 2018 21:47:31 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-14-why-i-like-blogging-as-a-developer// Every software developer should blog in my opinion. If there are ever a set of qualifications or standards needed to be a qualified developer, then I definitely think that writing technical blog posts should be a required skill. But instead of telling you why you should start blogging, I’ve decided to list some of the reasons that I enjoy blogging, as well as take a short trip down memory lane. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-13-womens-wednesday-interview// Sat, 13 Oct 2018 22:45:57 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-13-womens-wednesday-interview// I’m an active member of Instagram though my coding-themed account claire_codes. There’s a lot more developers posting on Instagram than you think - it’s a very positive, supportive community and I have a lot of fun interacting with people and finding new ways to communicate with them. Daniela (who runs the account coding.misslild)) runs a feature in her Instagram stories every Wednesday she calls “Women’s Wednesday”. She asks a female developer a series of questions and posts their answers. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-12-what-a-green-github-graph-doesnt-show// Fri, 12 Oct 2018 22:27:44 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-12-what-a-green-github-graph-doesnt-show// The GitHub contributions graph is the dashboard visible on a user’s GitHub profile page. It shows the number of contributions you’ve made to repositories over the past year. Contributions are marked on each day with a different shade of green, depending on how much you did that day relative to the rest of the year. A contribution is defined as: opening an issue creating a pull request reviewing a pull request making a code commit Most of your contributions probably come from commits, especially when starting out and working on personal projects only. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-07-blogging-on-your-birthday// Sun, 07 Oct 2018 22:44:02 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-07-blogging-on-your-birthday// Note: my original intention for this blog post was to write it on my actual birthday (which was yesterday, 6th October), but it turned out I didn’t get chance. But I did think about what I was going to write, so I the thought was there. A Birthday Haiku A birthday blog post Implies I’m having no fun The cake is a lie A coding poet Embarrassing isn’t it? https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-05-current-development-learning-goals// Fri, 05 Oct 2018 22:52:54 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-05-current-development-learning-goals// I’m coming up to my five-year anniversary of working professionally as a web developer this November. I am still enchanted by the challenge of writing software, particularly as I’ve moved solely into frontend web development. One of the things I love about being a developer is that there are always new things to learn, and that it’s part of your job as a good software engineer to keep learning them. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-03-using-email-newsletters-to-stay-up-to-date-with-web-development// Wed, 03 Oct 2018 10:02:44 +0200 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-03-using-email-newsletters-to-stay-up-to-date-with-web-development// Click here to scroll directly to my list of newsletter subscriptions. Hi, my name’s Claire and I’m a frontend web developer. The exact definition of frontend development varies between developers and companies. What a frontend developer does in Company A might be the responsibility of a UX researcher or backend developer in Company B. It might even be spelt differently! (I prefer “frontend” rather than “front-end” or “front end”) Take a look at the Front-end Developer Handbook (2018 edition) for an idea of the areas that frontend development covers. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-02-simple-vs-clever-code-style// Tue, 02 Oct 2018 18:02:44 +0200 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-02-simple-vs-clever-code-style// “Code is written once, but is read over and over again” Code is written once, but is read over and over again. Said some developer somewhere. In my humble opinion, good code is easy to read and understand. There’s lots of factors that contribute to code being readable and easy to maintain, but today I’m going to focus on the choice of idioms and patterns used. An example So your code does The Thing successfully. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-01-blogtober-2018// Mon, 01 Oct 2018 23:18:49 +0200 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-10-01-blogtober-2018// Blogtober 2018 posts 1st October: Kick-off post (this one!) 2nd October: Simple vs clever code style 3rd October: Using email newsletters to stay up-to-date with web development 4th October: Displaying Column Card Counts in Trello 5th October: Current Development Learning Goals 6th October: Coming soon! 7th October: Blogging on your birthday 8th October: Coming soon! 9th October: Coming soon! 10th October: CSS Polka Dot Background 11th October: Emoji Silhouettes 12th October: What a green GitHub graph doesn’t show 13th October: Women’s Wednesday Interview 14th October: Why I Like Blogging as a Developer 15th October: Making the Alt Key Work in iTerm2 16th October: Jumping around the command line 17th October: Coming soon! https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-05-28-finding-your-coding-niche// Mon, 28 May 2018 21:50:13 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2018-05-28-finding-your-coding-niche// I wrote a post for The Girl Code about my experience in the tech industry. The topic was very broad but I found I had something to say about changing roles as a developer, and that it can take a while sometimes to find your area of interest. Read the full post on The Girl Code’s Medium account here. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2016-04-10-a-101-day-github-streak// Sun, 10 Apr 2016 20:51:46 +0000 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2016-04-10-a-101-day-github-streak// 📆 I was going to call this post “101 days of coding”, but that would be misleading. I’ve been getting paid to write code as a web developer for over 2 years now, but over the past 3+ months I’ve been writing code in my spare time - after work, after chores, after slobbing in front of the TV - and then committing and pushing it to GitHub. The really weird and pointless thing about this is that I’ve done it every day since the 1st of January this year and now I have a pretty good streak, just look at my GitHub scorecard: https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-11-10-coding-after-codecademy// Tue, 10 Nov 2015 00:00:16 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-11-10-coding-after-codecademy// Last month, I gave a lightning talk called “Coding After Codecademy” which was inspired by people asking me how to improve their newly acquired web development skills, now they’ve completed some Codecademy/Udacity/Code School courses. They’ve got basic HTML, CSS and JavaScript syntax, so what are some good things to start building or learning next? I know how daunting it can be to be faced with a blank editor at that stage, so in my talk I gave some common-sense advice that I would have appreciated when I was in that position myself. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-09-14-leedshack// Mon, 14 Sep 2015 22:14:07 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-09-14-leedshack// Or, what to expect at a hack I went to my first hack a couple of weeks ago and wanted to (belatedly) share with you my experience and maybe even convince you to go to one yourself! LeedsHack was held in Leeds City Museum on Saturday 22nd and Sunday 23rd August. The aim of the game was to create a demoable project or hack in just 24 hours, with coding starting at 12pm on Saturday and finishing at noon on Sunday. https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-09-01-pomodoros-pair-programming// Tue, 01 Sep 2015 23:00:16 +0100 https://www.clairecodes.com/blog/2015-09-01-pomodoros-pair-programming// TL;DR Next time you pair program, try using the Pomodoro Technique to improve your productivity and mix things up a bit. Breaks up difficult or tedious stories Keeps morale high and dev's brains fresh Time box learning or research which is sometimes easier to do solo Not always possible - everything in moderation I currently work in a team where we pair program most of the time, and I’ve found that applying the principles of the Pomodoro Technique to when pairing - focus for a bit then a short break - has helped me work more effectively.