As software developers, it’s probably an understatement to say we spend a LOT of time at our keyboards. All three of us hosts of the show have had a number of keyboards over our careers either to address the pains that come with typing all day, or wanting that feel that only the sweetest of mechanical switches provide. Even with all the keyboards we’ve used/seen over our collective time behind a computer, there may not have been a keyboard more anticipated by at least two of us, Michael and Allen, as the Moonlander by ZSA. It was SO anticipated that both of us included it in our 2020 Developer Shopping list!
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About Allen Underwood
Know When to Roll Your Own or Add a Tool to Your Toolbox
By no means have I seen everything there is to see in the world of development, but I have been around long enough to see the change from needing a single database which housed all your data, to this world where there’s SO MUCH data that you couldn’t possibly store it all in a single database, on a single server, or in many cases, not a dozen servers.
As the volume of data has increased, we’ve seen new patterns emerge such as microservices, database sharding and more. Many times those tasked with adapting to these changes try to take our existing toolsets such as languages, or database technologies and we try to force them to handle those changes along the way. Ever heard that saying, “When you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. Check it out – there’s an entire Wikipedia article dedicated to it here.
I suggest that it is incumbent on you, as a developer, as a manager, or a director, or a leader…someone in the capacity making technological decisions to make yourself aware of tools that already exist to solve the technical challenges you or your organization encounter.
[Read more…]Why Attend Developer Conferences and What were the Hot Topics at NDC London 2020?
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Jamie from https://dotnetcore.show/ and Allen, ya know, from Coding Blocks, sat down together at NDC London to talk about the hot topics from the conference as well as how to get the most out of any conference you attend.
If you’re reading this episodes show notes via your podcast player, you can find this episode’s full show notes at https://www.codingblocks.net/episode126 where you can join in on the conversation.
Azure Functions and CosmosDB from MS Ignite
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This is a special episode recorded at Microsoft Ignite 2018 where John Callaway from The 6 Figure Developer Podcast joins Allen Underwood to talk about Azure Functions and CosmosDB. Find out what they are and why you might want to try them out for yourself.
Using your podcast player to read these show notes? You can view this episode’s full show notes and participate in the discussion over at https://www.codingblocks.net/episode92 [Read more…]
Docker and Kubernetes Community Talk
Design Anti-Patterns: YoYo, The God Object and More
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It’s time for more Ant-EYE or Ant-EEE design patterns as we venture into object cesspool that awaits. Come find out what these patterns are and how to avoid them. Bonus: Michael drops the term Heinz Doofenshmirtz – Joe and Allen didn’t know this pattern, but maybe you will.
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Public Properties vs Public Variables – Clean Code the Right Way
In Episode 55, Michael and I got into a conversation about public properties and public variables “looking” the same in C#. For those unfamiliar with the topic or maybe not clear on the difference, I put together a video showing exactly what they are, how they’re different, and why you would choose one over the other. If you have any comments, please do leave the below!
Clean Code – Integrating with Third Party Libraries the Right Way
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In this episode we talk about how to insulate your application at it’s boundaries? What in the world does that even mean?! We’re not talking about those boundaries where others aren’t allowed to touch your keyboard (although that’s a real thing). No, we’re talking about making sure you make your code easier to maintain over time by coding to interfaces or wrappers for third party libraries or external APIs. Come join us on another deep dive into Clean Code, and our (polluted) thoughts on the topic. [Read more…]
Clean Code – Formatting Matters
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Ever judged a book by its cover? Of course you have. Ever passed judgement on some code simply because it didn’t look pretty? There’s more to writing code than having it functional and in this episode we dive into the reasons code formatting actually matters. Who wins the newspaper format debate?! Leave us a comment and let us know! [Read more…]
Web Application Debugging Session in Google Chrome
In this video, Allen tracks down a bug in a web application that AndrewK provided from our Slack community – https://www.codingblocks.net/slack
He walks through the debugging process and drops a few little tips along the way that can provide a methodical / effective approach to finding and fixing bugs.
