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Showing posts from April, 2020

How to Contribute to Open Source TypeScript Projects

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If you think of the ideas of open source applied to information in an encyclopedia, you get to Wikipedia – lots and lots of small contributions that bubble up to something that’s meaningful. – Matt Mullenweg One of my favorite aspects of open source is the fact that anyone can contribute! It’s like “productive volunteering” (if you’ll humor me). It’s a fantastic way to build something bigger than you, give back to the community, and level up your skills. In this article, we’re going to talk about practical ways for you to get involved in open source TypeScript projects. We’ll first cover assessing your level then jump into how you can find opportunities. Assessing Your Level Before you get started contributing to open source, you want to find your comfort level. Where are you at skill-wise? What level of complexity are you wanting to solve? How much time do you want to spend? These are important questions to consider before diving in. This

React Router v5: The Complete Guide

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React Router is the de facto standard routing library for React. When you need to navigate through a React application with multiple views, you’ll need a router to manage the URLs. React Router takes care of that, keeping your application UI and the URL in sync. This tutorial introduces you to React Router v5 and a whole lot of things you can do with it. Introduction React is a popular library for creating single-page applications (SPAs) that are rendered on the client side. An SPA might have multiple views (aka pages ), and unlike the conventional multi-page apps, navigating through these views shouldn’t result in the entire page being reloaded. Instead, we want the views to be rendered inline within the current page. The end user, who’s accustomed to multi-page apps, expects the following features to be present in an SPA: Each view in an application should have a URL that uniquely specifies that view. This is so that the user can bookma

Finding the Perfect Remote Job Opportunity

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So, you’re considering making the switch to remote work, either because you’d like to work from home or maybe you’d like to lead a digital nomad lifestyle. But you’re wondering: “What should I be looking for in a remote job?” Or, if you’re “remote” already: “Is remote work overhyped, or do I just have a bad employer?” If this sounds like you, keep reading as we take a deep dive into what remote workers should look for in a remote employer. Wait, what’s a digital nomad? A digital nomad is anybody who’s referred to as “location-independent” as a result of them being able to work remotely, and leverages this unique opportunity to travel continuously. Considering the current of things (hello, COVID-19 👋), it’s worth noting that being a digital nomad doesn’t mean you need to travel between countries. Many digital nomads travel within their own countries, sometimes even via their own camper vans. It’s a thing; look it up. It’s really interestin

15+ Figma Plugins to Help You Design Better

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Figma , the second most-used tool for designing user interfaces (and the first most-used tool when counting only Windows OS), has really taken the digital design industry by storm lately, with even Adobe XD shipping their own version of Figma’s multiplayer feature (naming it “coediting”). However, the hot topic at Figma right now is the release of plugins — extensions that Figma users can install on Figma to allow for extra functionality or to improve their design workflow. Let’s take a look at some of the best Figma plugins so far. 1. Arrow Auto (create user flows) Arrow Auto adds flowchart functionality to Figma, which is useful for creating user flow maps. Select any two objects on the canvas and Arrow Auto will enable you to draw a connector between them. You can also hide and show the flows on demand. Autoflow is a decent (and maybe nicer looking) alternative, but Arrow Auto has more features, including the ability to switch conn

How to Boost Your Developer Career with a Personal Brand

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Personal branding is one the most (in)famous trends of the last decade. In this article, I’ll talk about what a personal brand is and how building one can help boost your career. I’ll show you how to stake your claim in the online space as well as three paths you can follow to level up your brand. That’s plenty to talk about, so let’s get this started. The argument for a personal brand as a developer Our first stop is Wikipedia , where we can find the following definition: Personal branding is the practice of marketing people and their careers as brands. It is an ongoing process of developing and maintaining a reputation and impression of an individual, group, or organization. That’s the part most of people have in mind when they think about personal branding. They think about the current diva of the day. About famous media celebrities. About publicity stunts that are meant to push you into the limelight. About presenting a fake facade in

Web Developer Workflow Tools: A Beginner’s Guide

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Here’s a primer for the tools all web developers should get to know, from basic Bash commands to web browser add-ons that will debug your web apps and automate navigation tests, plus continuous integrations pipelines. Keep in mind this article is intended to cover the tools that the largest number of web developers will share a need to learn, not a comprehensive listing. So don’t get too mad if your favorite tool isn’t here! (For example, I intentionally left out WYSIWYG website builders 😉.) Command Line The command line is an interface that allows you to interact with the operating system through a console, and it can go a very long way to facilitate and even automate tedious and routine tasks. You shouldn’t be afraid of getting your hands dirty with the console. The time you’ll spend learning some basic scripting will most definitely pay off. Bash Tools (Linux, macOS) Bash is the most popular shell for the “ Unix-like ” operatin

Web Developer Workflow Tools: A Beginner’s Guide

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Here's a primer for the tools all web developers should get to know, from basic Bash commands to web browser add-ons that will debug your web apps and automate navigation tests, plus continuous integrations pipelines. Keep in mind this article is intended to cover the tools that the largest number of web developers will share a need to learn, not a comprehensive listing. So don't get too mad if your favorite tool isn't here! (For example, I intentionally left out WYSIWYG website builders 😉.) Command Line The command line is an interface that allows you to interact with the operating system through a console, and it can go a very long way to facilitate and even automate tedious and routine tasks. You shouldn't be afraid of getting your hands dirty with the console. The time you'll spend learning some basic scripting will most definitely pay off. Bash Tools (Linux, macOS) Bash is the most popular shell for the " Unix-like " operating systems s