Category: Careers

To be a good programmer, we should follow some easy to adopt habits to keep our programming career long-lasting.

In this article, we’ll look at some learning habits we can adopt and how to adopt them.

Learn at Least One New Language Every Year

Learning one new programming language a year would help us see things from different perspectives.

We’ll see the similarities and differences between languages.

Also, we’ll learn about different paradigms that different language takes to help us write programs.

For instance, Java has a stricter object-oriented approach, whereas JavaScript takes on more of a mixed approach with a mix of functional and object-oriented programming.

Therefore, with such large differences that different programming languages have, we’ll definitely open our eyes by learning a new programming language each year.

We can learn them thanks to the wealth for free learning materials available online.

Read a Technical Book Every 2 Months

Reading technical books every 2 months will help us learn more technologies than if we just do the same thing every day.

There’re so many books out there about many topics that we can pick up a book easily and learn about everything we want.

Better yet, we can take notes and practice what they’re teaching. This applies to any technical book whether they’re about hard or soft skills.

We can always practice by using the knowledge learned from books at work or outside.

Even better, we can share our knowledge by blogging about them and making practice projects.

Read Nontechnical Books

Nontechnical books enrich our knowledge and wisdom just like technical books do.

We’re people, so we should know more about humanity so we can work with people better and see the world from a different perspective.

Participate in Online and Local Developer Groups

With the Internet being ubiquitous, we can open our eyes by joining online groups to learn more from other people.

Also, we can still join local developers like we always do to exchange our knowledge.

This way, we’ll always learn from each other and help people in ways that couldn’t just by staying at work.

It’s also a great way to find opportunities that we don’t expect to find before.

Experiment With Different Environments

We should learn how to use different operating systems and expose ourselves to different environments.

Even if we don’t use it much now doesn’t mean that we won’t have to know about them later.

Every place uses different environments, so we’ll bump into them eventually.

Therefore, if we’re using Windows a lot now, then we should consider using Mac or Linux.

We should never assume that everything will remain the same anytime or anywhere.

This applies to anything, like runtime environments like Node.js, PHP, or Ruby, or text editors like Visual Studio Code or Sublime, etc.

We can try different things to see what we like and learn a bit about each.

Staying Current on Technologies

We got to stay current on technologies since we don’t know when we’ll need to use them.

This is just a given since technologies change all the time.

We can read lots of stuff online with the proliferation of the Internet. Also, there’re tons of tutorials on free video sites like YouTube, and we can also pay for courses on sites like Udemy or Pluralsight.

The possibilities are endless, so we got lots of things to learn and practice.

Practicing is also important for internalizing knowledge. Otherwise, we probably just forget about them in no time.

Learn About the Ins and Outs of a Technology

Learning about the ins and outs of technology will pay off in dividends in the future.

We never know what we’ll like or when we’ll use them until we learn about them.

It’s the way that we find unexpected discoveries and help people in the process.

There’re many ways to learn about technologies. There’re forums like Reddit, and there’re many blogs published in the world that we can learn from.

Also, we have traditional books whether they’re available electronically or physically.

They’re both great resources for us to learn from. However, ebooks are searchable so that’s a big benefit over a physical book.

Conclusion

We should keep learning things as developers. There’re many ways to learn, including forums, blogs, books, videos, and many more ways that aren’t mentioned here.

To get a different perspective on technologies, we should learn a new programming language every year to get a different perspective on different programming paradigms.

It’s easy for developers to make mistakes, but we can prevent them if we know them beforehand.

In this article, we’ll look at mistakes that newbie programmers make that we can all avoid.

Not Using Debugging Tools

Debugging tools are there for a reason. It’s there for us to look at how each step of our program is run and what variables are holding as their value.

We can just do something simple like a console.log in JavaScript to look at the value of variables in the place that we’re debugging.

Not Backing Up Our Code

Backing up our code is important. We should learn Git so that we can hold our code in both local and remote repositories.

Git is a great version control system, so be sure to commit our code regularly so we can track our changes and revert back code to good code easily.

Assume That We Know Everything

There’s no way that we can know everything or even a small part of a domain.

We all got to keep learning and learn what’s outside of what we’re doing regularly.

This way, we’ll know more, be wiser, and can use some of that stuff at work.

We can learn by reading other people’s stuff, tutorials, and may other sources from the Internet.

Assuming Expressions in “if” Need to Contain a Comparison

We definitely don’t need to have a comparison expression in our if statements.

All we need in most languages is an expression that returns a boolean value.

For instance, in JavaScript, instead of writing:

if (condition === true) {  
  //...  
}

We can just write:

if (condition) {  
  //...  
}

We don’t need to compare boolean variables in if statements.

Writing Big Functions

Big functions aren’t good. They’re hard to read since they have many things under one umbrella.

Therefore, we should split them up into smaller functions with meaningful names.

Small functions are easy to read and debug.

Also, we should make sure to name them descriptively and make them pure functions whenever possible.

Pure functions are good since they always return the same output for the same sets of inputs.

Also, they don’t commit side effects. Side effects are actions that take place outside of a function.

Half Baked Knowledge

Usually, newbies don’t know everything completely, which is normal. Unless we go learn the rest of the domain ourselves, we aren’t going to be learning everything completely.

We can’t depend on people to tell us to learn, so we’ve to go learn them ourselves.

It’ll make us more useful inside and outside of work.

Forget About Pen and Paper

We got to write stuff down sometimes so we can break down hard and complex problems.

Problem requirements and limitations got to be understood and we might have to break them down on paper.

Data structures problems are also better solved on paper.

We may also write down all the cases of a problem to make sure that we didn’t miss any edge cases.

And pseudocode always helps us with outlining the code that we’re going to write.

So we should use a pen and paper to solve our issues.

Failing to Get the Basics

The basics are always important. Therefore, we should take into account all the basics and learn them properly.

We definitely should review them so that we don’t forget about them.

Things like algorithm performance and complex are always relevant, for example. We don’t want our code to be too slow.

Also, we shouldn’t catch everything to cover up the errors in our code. Instead, we should write our code properly so that our code is more robust.

This way, users won’t be frustrated with weird behavior, slow performance, or other issues.

Trusting the User with Inputs

Trusting the user too much is definitely a mistake. This is users usually don’t input everything right.

So we should check to see if their inputs are valid. Also, any place that malicious code can get into our system should be checked and whatever we do we should do things like input sanitization from preventing any malicious code from running.

Conclusion

We shouldn’t assume that we know everything. Trusting users to input everything correctly is also a bad assumption.

Also, we should expand our current knowledge and review the basics once in a while so that we won’t forget about them.

Learning to become a back end developer is something that takes a while to do.

In this article, we’ll look at the path to becoming a back end developer. We’ll focus on what we have to learn.

Git

Git has become the most popular version control system is because of its ability to have local and remote repositories. It can also let people make a copy of a remote repository by forking.

Pull requests are also a great way to let people review code before merging them.

If we learn how to pull and push code, make pull requests, and merge code, then we have a good start.

To learn more about Git, we can go to The Git Complete Guide to learn more.

SSH and Command-Line Basics

SSH stands for secure shell. It means we’ve to log into a server and know how to do operations by running commands.

They’re just some commands like file operation commands, changing .bashrc , etc. that we have to know.

Common operations include manipulating files, creating links, navigation the file systems, adding options to the command line, and editing text files.

HTTP(S)

Back end apps often have to talk to other APIs, so we’ve to make HTTP requests from them.

We should know how to make HTTP requests, set request headers, and parse responses and work with them.

Also, they take requests from clients so we’ve to learn how to parse query strings, check HTTP verbs, and parse request bodies to get the data from clients’ requests and get what we want.

Data Structures and Algorithms

Front end development is all about solving problems. Data structures and algorithms let us solve problems with computer programs.

Programs consist of code that manipulating data structures with algorithms. So we have to learn both to create our own programs.

We’ve to learn about the speed of various algorithms so that we can create programs that are fast enough for people to use.

Common algorithms include sorting, searching, greedy algorithms, and optimization.

Geeks for Geeks is a great resource for learning algorithms.

Character Encodings

We to learn about character encodings so that we can display data properly on the screen.

The most common is Unicode so we definitely have to learn what’s in the character set. Another common encoding is ASCII.

Remote Git Hosts

We’ve to learn how to use remote Git hosts like Github, Bitbucket, or GitLab so that we can push our code to remote repositories.

Also, we’ve to know how to merge code and fork repositories. We may also have to manage permissions and create and remote repositories.

Database

We’ve to learn how to manipulate databases and how to save data to them.

Relational databases are the most popular since most data can easily be models with relationships.

Therefore, SQL is the most popular language to manipulate relational database as it’s designed to manipulate relational database data.

NoSQL databases also have some limited uses with data analysis and caching, so we have also had to work with them if we ever want to analyze data or use Redis for caching.

Node.js

Node.js is a runtime environment for running JavaScript apps on the server. There’re a few popular back end frameworks like Express that are made for it.

We can use them to develop their own back end apps and then use ORMs like Sequelize to manipulate databases.

For a complete back end solution, there’s also Nest.js which combines everything into one framework.

Python

Python is also popular for web development. Django and Flask are popular frameworks for Python back end development.

Django is a full-featured framework with basic routing, authentication, and ORM capabilities.

Flask is a basic framework with basic routing features and we’ve to add the remaining parts ourselves.

Java

Java and Spring are popular for enterprise apps. Spring is a framework that does everything.

It lets us create a cutting edge, high-performance back end with a comprehensive framework.

PHP and MySQL

PHP and MySQL are still popular. The PHP language has improved immensely and popular frameworks like Laravel make PHP development clean and simple.

MySQL is still the most popular database that’s used with PHP apps since they’re often paired together with servers like WAMP and XAMPP.

Conclusion

Back end development has its own path. There’re lots to learn to become a proficient back end developer.

This is going to be the roadmap for the next few years so there’s no better time to become a back end developer than now as technologies have matured.

Developers are hard workers. We work day and night with lots of stress and deadline to get a paycheck.

In this article, we’ll look at how to stay physically and mentally fit as a developer with these tips.

Physical Exercise

Physical exercise is important. We got to do it regularly. Pick something that we like to do and do it.

For instance, we can take daily walks for 15 minutes to take a break. Exercise is a great way to freshen our minds and take a break from programming and work altogether.

Low Sugar and Carb Diet

Carbs and sugars aren’t all that good for us if we have too much of it. It causes insulin to be secreted in our body to respond to the amount of sugar in our blood increasing too quickly.

The insulin spike causes us to be tired after eating a meal full of carbs and sugar.

Therefore, we may get more energy if we eat fewer carbs and sugary foods.

Get Enough Sleep

Sleep is very important. It lets us recharge and our brains commit things to memory when we sleep.

Therefore, if we don’t sleep enough, then we’ll be tired and forgetful and we’ll burn out from the lack of sleep.

Probably 7 to 8 hours of sleep is enough for most people so we should aim for that.

Working ourselves until we’re exhausted just isn’t a good way to treat ourselves, so we should sleep as much we need to be energetic.

Take a Break From Programming

Programming taxes our brains, so we shouldn’t do it for too much time in a day.

We need to take a break from programming by finding something else to do.

A hobby is a great way to let us take a break from programming. Also, we can spend time reading things to keep us up to date on the latest trends in technology.

Also, chatting with other people is also a great way to take a break with making friends. We can learn from their diverse background and wisdom. And other people can learn something from us.

Take Care of Our Backs

We got to take care of our backs with a good chair. Sitting for a long time can be painful without it.

There’re lots of ergonomic chairs with curvatures that fit our backs better and cushion it so that we can feel better when sitting.

Necks

Our necks probably hurt when we stare at our screens for too long since we have to move our head back and forth to look at different parts of our screen.

We may also move our heads towards the screen so that we can look at small text.

Therefore, we should make sure that our necks get a rest by doing some exercises to relax our necks.

Wrists

Since we type a lot, we’ve to move our wrist a lot. Therefore, it’s important to relax them by exercising them so that we can avoid Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.

With Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, we have pain and numbness on our wrist, we mean that we can’t type anymore.

If we don’t want that we’ve to take breaks and relax our wrists.

Ride a Bike

Riding a bike is always a good exercise. So we may want to ride a bike to work or ride it when we have a break.

It’s always good to ride a bike to exercise our joints.

Walking Desk

If we sit too long, then we may want to work standing up instead. This is where a walking or standing desk is good.

If we have those, then we can stand up to work sometimes instead of sitting all the time.

Go to the Gym

The gym has exercise equipment that most of us don’t have. So we can go there to do some exercises like lifting weights and run on the treadmill.

Then we’ll be relaxed and energetic in no time.

Conclusion

To stay fit physically and mentally, we got to do some exercises and have a good diet.

This means lower the sugar and carbs, work in different physical positions, exercising and taking breaks often.

Google is a great search engine for search for solutions as developers.

In this article, we’ll look at how to search for things better in Google as developers.

Use the Tabs

We can use different tabs for different purposes. For instance, we can search for fake images in the Image tab and use the Web tab for searching for solutions to our problems.

Use Quotes

We can put everything in quotes to make sure that the whole phrase is included in all the search results.

Use a Hyphen to Exclude Words

We can use a hyphen to exclude words so that we can remove words that we don’t want in our search.

For instance, we can search for Angular -1.5 so that we’re searching results for Angular 1.5.

Use a Colon to Search Specific Sites

We can use the colon and the website domain after it to search for what we’re looking for. So we can type something like Angular site:stackoverflow.com to search questions about Angular in Stack Overflow.

Find a Page That Links to Another Page

The link keyword lets us find something that links to another page.

For instance, we can type React link:stackoverflow.com to find all the pages with the word ‘React’ that links to Stack Overflow.

Use the Wildcard

The asterisk * character is a wildcard character. We can put them anywhere to use it.

For instance, we can write Angular * React to search for any phrase with words between ‘Angular’ and ‘React’.

Find Sites That are Similar to Other Sites

We can use the related keyword to search for sites that are related to other sites.

So we can write related:stackoverflow.com to search for sites that are related to Stack Overflow that answer questions.

Google Search Can Do Math

We can do arithmetic operations by typing in expressions that can be computed.

So arithmetic expressions like 1 + 2 can be typed in and we get 3.

Search for Multiple Words at Once

The OR operator lets us search for multiple phrases in the search box. For instance, we can use it as follows:

Angular OR React

Then we search for both Angular and React .

Search a Range of Numbers

The .. operator can let us search for a number range. For instance, we can use 1..5 to search for results with numbers ranged one to five in it.

Also, we can search for a single number by writing World Cup ..2006 to search for World Cup results

Nearby Locations

We can search for things that are near us without specifying our location explicitly.

So we can search for developer confereneces nearby to get all the developer conferences nearby.

Search for Results That Contains All the Text

We can search for results with all the text in our results with the allintext operator.

So something like allintext:developer confereneces will search for results with all the words that come after in the result.

Search for Results The Have All Words in the Title

Words in the title can all be searched together. We can use the allintitle operator to do the search.

So allintitle:developer confereneces will search for items that have both ‘developer’ and ‘conferences’ in the title.

Shortcuts

There’re plenty of shortcuts in Google.

We can search ‘weather zip code’ to search for weather with a given zip code.

The define operator gives us dictionary definitions of words.

‘time location’ gives us the time so it’s good for things like remote meetings where we don’t know what other people’s times are.

Autocorrect Spelling

Google will autocorrect spelling errors so we don’t have to worry about spelling errors when typing.

We can just type as fast as we can and Google will take care of the rets.

Find a Specific Kind of File

This is good for searching for a specific kind of file. For instance, we can search for fake PDF files by using the filetype operator as follows:

dummy filetype:pdf

Then we can search for dummy PDF files we can use for testing.

Conclusion

We can use these Google tricks to make our lives much easier when searching for things.

Developers have to search for things online all the time, so these tricks will help out a lot.

There’re operators to search for anything and there’re many more that aren’t covered here.