Seven ways to be a happier JavaScript developer - NDC Oslo
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JavaScript is a bigger world than a language these days. Time to take stock and find happiness in that world.
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Seven ways to be a happier JavaScript developer - NDC Oslo
- 3. Seven ways to be a happier JavaScript developer Chris Heilmann (@codepo8) April 2018
- 4. ways to be a happier JavaScript developer ▪ Understanding that JavaScript is not a language ▪ Concentrating on the now ▪ Limiting our development environment ▪ Making it harder to write bad code ▪ Getting to know our tooling ▪ Giving back to others ▪ Muffling the noise
- 5. Understanding that JavaScript is not a language…
- 6. JavaScript is a lot of things… ▪ Far from perfect ▪ Everywhere ▪ Free to use ▪ Environment independent ▪ Freely documented ▪ Instantly gratifying
- 7. JavaScript’s versatility means diverse needs. ▪ Web scripts ▪ WebView based solutions (Electron) ▪ Browser extensions ▪ Web based apps (PWA) ▪ Server-side solutions (Node) ▪ Convertible to binary formats (WebAssembly) ▪ Powering Robots (Nodebots) ▪ Packages (NPM)
- 8. JavaScript is much more now than we ever expected… ▪ A standardised language (TC39) ▪ An ecosystem ▪ A community ▪ An opportunity to do a lot with one language ▪ A chance to cause damage (performance, security)
- 9. Relax - in a world of options nobody can be an expert in all of them.
- 11. Worries of the past shouldn’t prevent us from creating…
- 12. Focusing exclusively on the next cool thing is as stifling and depressing
- 14. caniuse.com
- 16. The web development trinity BrowserTerminalEditor ▪ Where we code ▪ Where we tweak themes ▪ Where we mix spaces and tabs – like animals ▪ Where we do version control ▪ Where we run build tasks ▪ Where we deploy ▪ Where we tweak themes ▪ Where we assume everyone runs OSX ▪ Where we debug ▪ Where we check and tweak visual output ▪ Where we audit ▪ Where we annoy the end user with odd log messages.
- 17. That is a lot of duplication and multiplication with choice
- 18. Tooling is starting to overtake that historically grown trinity.
- 19. Good editors consolidate features to avoid context switching.
- 20. VS Code (@code) code.visualstudio.com ▪ Open Source, Cross-platform ▪ Hundreds of extensions ▪ Highly theme-able ▪ Built-in source control support ▪ Built-in terminal ▪ Integrates into build processes ▪ Written and extensible in TypeScript ▪ Straightens and lightens teeth with repeat use ▪ Possibly is good against hair loss ▪ Gluten free, macrobiotic
- 21. VS Code (@code) code.visualstudio.com ▪ Open Source, Cross-platform ▪ Hundreds of extensions ▪ Highly theme-able ▪ Built-in source control support ▪ Built-in terminal ▪ Integrates into build processes ▪ Written and extensible in TypeScript ▪ Straightens and lightens teeth with repeat use ▪ Possibly is good against hair loss ▪ Gluten free, macrobiotic twitter.com/crandycodes/status/983488436756627456
- 24. Instead of using your own machine, why not try online before? glitch.com jsbin.com codepen.io
- 25. Making it harder to write bad code.
- 27. Linting > Debugging code.visualstudio.com ▪ Find mistakes while you make them ▪ Based on the experience and consensus of many others ▪ Learn from explanations of linting results ▪ Install and configure, or use in-built linting.
- 28. Moving from knowing .* to learning by making mistakes
- 29. Auditing ▪ Audit your work before you go live ▪ Learn from explanations of why these are mistakes ▪ Keep iterating until it becomes second nature.
- 30. Linting and validation tools can be part of your release process. sonarwhal.com
- 31. Getting to know our tooling
- 32. It is true that our tools have become much more complex.
- 33. Knowing them gives you superpowers and insights how to build great solutions
- 34. Step one is to stop using console.log() and use breakpoints instead. code.visualstudio.com/Docs/editor/debugging smashingmagazine.com/2018/02/javascript-firefox-debugger/
- 36. Take part in the JavaScript community... ▪ Help document ▪ Help clean up and send pull requests ▪ Publish your own work as open source ▪ Enjoy meetups and events ▪ Help by example, not by telling people what they should do
- 38. Not everybody cares about the nuts and bolts and has endless time to invest… twitter.com/headjs_ru/status/955333399564161024
- 39. It is easy to get tempted to sell people your experience as “best practice”
- 40. Find the largest item in the array…
- 43. Using native methods instead of “if”…
- 46. Which one is the best?
- 47. It depends™ ▪ Who is writing the code? ▪ Where does it run? ▪ How clean is the data we deal with? ▪ What horrible old environment needs support? ▪ Who will maintain it? ▪ How likely is it ever to change? ▪ How will it be used?
- 48. Validate and triage ▪ Let’s not feel bad if not everything in the JS world excites us ▪ Not everything hot and cool is ready to replace what we are comfortable with. ▪ If it doesn’t make our lives easier, it is OK to not use it – hype moves fast and forgets fast. ▪ Let’s be excited, but also ready to give it a “meh”
- 49. Projection isn’t good… ▪ What makes us effective can be very subjective ▪ It makes sense to talk about our success. ▪ It makes less sense trying to force others to do the same ▪ New approaches lead to new happy paths, let’s not discourage people from finding theirs.
- 50. Let’s not kid ourselves about the bleeding edge… ▪ The amazing new idea of today very often becomes the problem of tomorrow ▪ Production code moves less fast than we think ▪ Our end users aren’t guinea pigs or canaries ▪ It is the bleeding edge, make sure you have enough blood to give
- 51. Let’s make this a great community… ▪ Let’s be the people we’d like to have met when we started ▪ Let’s be kind ▪ Let’s be supportive ▪ Let’s allow people to learn by making mistakes and letting off steam ▪ Let’s not get lost in pointless drama
- 52. Thanks! Chris Heilmann @codepo8 Terminal photo by Terminal 5 Insider Editor photo by John Oxley Library Browser photo by Joseph Brent