Zachary Lester

Project update! My application tracking extension is now doing fuzzier matching and injecting new information into LinkedIn (and other sites) to keep me from doubling up on applications. Next up: local storage and bulk import/export operations...

12

2 Comments

Observation: 9/10 SWE's quit at “reading the docs”. Cut through the BS with this easy trick: Take action and build. Writing code is 100x easier than the docs make it sound. “Reading the docs” gave me crazy imposter syndrome: -Git -WPF -Kafka -OAuth -Angular -GraphQL -RabbitMQ -Kubernetes In ALL cases, I conquered my fears by building. Except for WPF. I gave up on that. And Kafka, that's for another day. Forcing yourself to build/code/deploy melts analysis paralysis. Then you'll say "oh that was pretty easy". Trust me, we aren't building rockets. Practice AND Study build true mastery.

22

1 Comment

A new Jepsen report from Kyle Kingsbury looking at the Kafka-compatible Buf: https://lnkd.in/gijxaHzr It includes broader findings about the Kafka protocol and implementation too: "We also characterize four issues related to Kafka more generally, including the lack of authoritative documentation for transaction semantics, a deadlock in the official Java client, and write loss, aborted read, and torn transactions caused by the lack of message ordering constraints in the Kafka transaction protocol. These issues affect Kafka, Bufstream, and (presumably) other Kafka-compatible systems, and remain unresolved."

40

1 Comment

🚀 Quick Gradle Performance Boost! 🚀 Want faster builds? Just add these to your gradle.properties file: 1. org.gradle.configureondemand=true Configures only what’s needed for the build. 2. org.gradle.caching=true Reuses previous build outputs, saving time. 3. org.gradle.parallel=true Builds projects in parallel, speeding things up. Simple changes, big difference! 🙌 #Gradle #DevTips #BuildOptimization #FasterBuilds #SoftwareDevelopment

1

Want a preview of what I'm going to be talking about in my keynote for RubyConf? You can catch a glimpse of it here!

10

We're on product hunt today launching Ragie Connect. Ragie Connect streamlines connecting user data from sources like gdrive, notion, and salesforce to RAG to improve the quality of generative ai features. The most common use case is for multi tenant SaaS. Integrating can be as simple as sending your users to us with a secure link. We'll authenticate them on the platform they're connecting, start syncing their data, and then redirect them back to your app. You can listen for webhooks as we process their data so you can know when it's ready. Can you take a moment and upvote us on product hunt? https://lnkd.in/ePJjpa7B

18

1 Comment

Excited about Excalibur.js ECS? Matt Jennings has written an excellent new post about System-less Components. Lots of goodies: like how to build one-way platforms, and platforms that can carry players with components! https://lnkd.in/eG6h-NAG #excaliburjs #gamedev #typescript #javascript

6

1 Comment

Why TypeScript Matters: Preventing the Dreaded 'Cannot read property of undefined' Hello, developers, If you've worked extensively with JavaScript, you've likely faced the infamous "Cannot read property of undefined" error at some point. This error is not just common; it's almost a rite of passage for JavaScript developers. It usually occurs because JavaScript allows accessing properties on `undefined`, leading to runtime crashes that are frustrating and time-consuming to debug. Real-World Scenario: Imagine a user interface dynamically fetching user data and displaying it. However, due to asynchronous data loading or improper error handling, sometimes the data isn't retrieved successfully, leading to: --------- function displayUserProfile(user) {  console.log(`User Name: ${user.name}`); // Potential crash if user is undefined } --------- In JavaScript, this code doesn't raise any flags until you run it, and, under certain conditions, it fails with "Cannot read property 'name' of undefined." TypeScript to the Rescue Let's see how TypeScript handles this scenario better by enforcing type checks: --------- interface User {  name: string;  age: number; } function displayUserProfile(user: User) {  console.log(`User Name: ${user.name}`); } displayUserProfile(undefined); // TypeScript Error: Argument of type 'undefined' is not assignable to parameter of type 'User'. --------- With TypeScript, you catch these errors during development, before your code goes into production. The compiler forces you to handle these cases explicitly, either by checking for `undefined` before calling the function or by ensuring that the function can never receive an undefined value in the first place. How TypeScript Improves JavaScript Reliability 1.Compile-time: Type Checking: TypeScript’s static type system checks for errors like these during compilation, not at runtime. 2. Clear Contracts with Interfaces: By defining interfaces, TypeScript provides clear contracts on what data functions expect. This practice encourages better architecture and error-handling strategies. 3. Safer Code Execution: Ensures that your functions always receive the data they expect, promoting safer, more reliable code execution. Some Resources To start with: - The best Documentation you will see is https://lnkd.in/d5Ft6Nnm - TS for JS developers https://lnkd.in/dtwqJ4h7 - Frontend Masters Typescript (Awesome Course) https://lnkd.in/dwCmJS_z !! And please if you have others leave them in the comments !! 👨‍💻👩‍💻 Has "Cannot read property of undefined" ever caused you headaches in your projects? How do you handle these issues in JavaScript, and have you considered TypeScript?

16

3 Comments

If you haven't seen the new oxc-transformer release, you should check it out: https://lnkd.in/e_2KYHWq This morning I released a new version of hohoro (a minimal JS/TS build tool for libraries supporting incremental builds) with a new experimental export and binary that uses oxc under the hood! This means you no longer need to install or configure swc and also tsc for library builds! Check out hohoro here: https://hohoro.vercel.app/ and give it a try in your next project! The coolest part of this - is that all you need for: - Building your library (.ts/.tsx/.jsx/etc ➡️ ESNext JS) - Generating types (.d.ts files) - Incremental builds (only building changed files) Is to: - Install `[email protected]` - Add the script: "build": "hohoro-experimental" And that's it!

5

1 Comment

I once asked a lead engineer on Angular: Which is better: Angular or React? His response: "Both require good engineering to be effective." So, my developer friends, consider this a reminder that "frameworks" like Diátaxis are fine, but they still require good engineering--such as UX, information architecture, style, maintenance processes, and so on--to create great documentation experiences for your customers. Alas, the framework alone isn't enough.

35

7 Comments

Second post in my Ruby concurrency series is up! "Your Ruby programs are always multi-threaded: Part 2". It digs into: fiber vs thread-locals, safely coordinating threads, a Github thread security issue, and how you can identify unsafe code and gems 🧵 https://lnkd.in/eVF84vvU

4

This is spot on with the experiences I have had with IaC over my career. In my view this is part of why the movement towards Internal Developer Platforms as a product that is uniquely managed is gaining so much popularity. Read “The 12 Anti-factors of Infrastructure as Code“ by Brian Grant on Medium: https://lnkd.in/g7z-eSVZ

8

Simy log in to the Amazon Bedrock Studio web experience using company credentials (SSO) and start experimenting with Bedrock FMs and tools to build applications. With Bedrock Studio, developers get a secure environment outside of the AWS Management Console to leverage Bedrock tools such as Agents, Knowledge Bases, and Guardrails.

8

a solid DDD like folder structure from web dev simplified https://lnkd.in/ggrMqT7a

5

Some unconnected thoughts on this “ghost developers” panic: Despite tech being a major economic driver for a couple of decades, MBA programs, and therefore the state of management thinking, are rooted in manufacturing. The mindless drive for efficiency in all kinds of businesses makes the most sense if you’re talking about factories and logistics. Not so much for knowledge work. Software is the only huge field where “R&D”, “production” and “services” are collapsed into one big undifferentiated mass. The output of product development is code shipped to production, and it needs to be continually maintained and updated. The closest thing software has to a manufacturing model is offshoring engineering to eg India or Eastern Europe, while keeping design and product/eng leadership in the US, but that creates ongoing problems because you can’t just hand off specs to India for manufacturing and move onto the next launch. Offshore teams need ongoing support because the customers need ongoing product support. Because engineers produce the actual shipping product, while they’re closer in spirit to fellow managers/leaders or an R&D team, the manufacturing mindset can only really make sense of engineering as the factory floor, and MBAs’ whole thing is looking for ways to extract extra pennies by optimizing manufacturing and distribution. They can’t actually do that with software, but they aren’t technical enough to know that, and it doesn’t stop them trying. So, “ghost developers” — which, of course, is just engineers writing good docs, being in meetings, talking to customers, supporting each other with code reviews or pairing — seems like gross inefficiency because it looks like a factory producing fewer LOCs than companies are paying for. Remember how, when Elon took over Twitter, we’d hear about him asking coders to _print out_ their latest contributions to the codebase, and if the pile was too short they got fired? Elon is a manufacturing guy, not a software guy. Even the “Stanford researchers” part is MBA culture gone wild — they have _no idea_ what’s involved in making software, and can’t even talk to their teams effectively, but they think their dumb mindset is “science” and now they have “research” telling them they could fire half their teams and be more productive. 🫠

1

One common question I get is, "What do you do as a Developer Advocate?" or "What does the Developer Experience team do?" (Even within Sendbird, haha 😂) The answer varies because the role of a Developer Advocate differs across companies. But I can clearly share what we do at Sendbird! And one great way to show this is by highlighting what we've accomplished!! Here's a recap of what we've done over the last three months. Huge thanks to the team! 🙌 (Jane Lee Katherine Na Yeon Kim Mansoo Kim Sunghyuk Kim Mickey C.) ======= 🚀 Dogfooding Session: We conducted an internal session for Sendbird Business Messaging, simulating a customer use case to improve our onboarding experience. 🎥 YouTube Videos: Released 5 videos covering AI Chatbot features to help users get started quickly. 📝 Feedback Channel: Actively collected and addressed feedback to enhance our documentation. 🤖 Interactive Demos: Built targeted demos for AI Chatbot in E-commerce, Healthcare, and Online Banking. 📚 Documentation Revamp: Improved our "Getting Started" guides, resulting in increased user engagement. For the full story, check out my Medium post: https://lnkd.in/gt-HGnER Looking forward to what we'll achieve next! 🙌 And one thing more, we're hiring a Technical Writer(https://lnkd.in/gFM4R9Wh), Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in this role! Also, if you're interested in becoming a Developer Advocate, don't hesitate to reach out!

53

2 Comments

So far summarization has been the killer AI app for me. Others like code generation have been less impressive in my experience. But it’s really really good at distilling down text to a useful summary. A few places I’ve seen that include a slack bot that summarizes a slack thread, forums that summarize long topics, incident.io incident summarization, and asking ChatGPT to summarize or pull information from a document I upload to it.

27

3 Comments