I recently updated tests in my open source library get-open-prs. My goal was to get as close as I possibly could to 100% test coverage. However, there were a few obstacles I had to overcome to do so. get-open-prs is a CLI and has a lot of side effects like printing to the console or waiting for user input.
Read morePython lists, dicts, and functions for JavaScript engineers
I’ve been getting really into Python. There’s been times in the past where I’ve dabbled or built things in Python but something about this recent “build a microservice” project at work has inspired me to learn more and increase my expertise. That project has since left my team’s hands due to sudden company restructuring but I feel happy to pursue the world of Python in my own time for now. Here’s even more things I’ve learned.
Read moreHow I handled configuration in my Node CLI package
Many folks in the United States are now working from home and social distancing. I am one of them. After cleaning, noodling on the guitar, reading, and pacing around for some time I decided to revisit an open source project I haven’t touched in a year or two: get-open-prs.
Read more7 Python basics for JavaScript engineers
I’ll be honest. My main expertise and experience is in JavaScript with Node and frontend frameworks like React. I took a Python Introduction to Computer Science course through EdX a few years back and have only really needed to use it sporadically since then. That all changed two weeks ago when a new project started at work. My team was tasked with rapidly getting ramped up on Python and writing a new back-end service in the language.
Read moreHow to get involved in mentoring as a software engineer
I’ve been thinking a lot about how to give back and how to find my place in the programming world. As a continuation of that thinking, I decided to do a deep-dive into something I imagine a lot of experienced programmers want to do: mentor.
List of software engineer volunteer opportunities
Updated 5/24/22
Are you a software engineer or web developer looking for volunteer opportunities that leverage your knowledge or skills? You’re in luck! This is the post for you.
My favorite uses for Array.prototype.reduce
I love `Array.prototype.reduce()`. I love the power and flexibility it brings me. Unfortunately, this Array prototype method confuses many developers, and as a result, isn’t used as often as it probably should be.
Before diving into the many uses for this Array prototype method, let’s take a look at the function signature.
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How to programmatically open a new terminal tab or window
I stumbled across this while trying to calculate some configuration options and open multiple terminal windows at once to run multiple Node services.
There are two ways to programmatically open a new terminal window or tab on a mac, depending on whether or not you use iTerm or the default Terminal program. I’ll share both, with a brief explanation on how it works.
How to test a service running on a different laptop
Here’s the scenario: A coworker is working on a service and you just want to send a quick request to test it. You want to do this without deploying the service somewhere, asking them to send the request for you (or you both want to send requests at the same time), or needing to go through the whole process of asking this coworker to push the latest to their branch, pulling it down, and setting it up on your machine.
How to tell what is running on a specific port on localhost
Have you ever tried to run a server on a specific port only to find out that it was already in use? I ran into this issue just the other day. The problem was I kept using CTRL-C to stop the server and it wasn’t gracefully shutting down. I’ll share the short-term fix and then the long-term one.