Software Developer Roundtable: Share your tips, tools and strategies

[PatrickWho]

I've noticed there are a fair number of software developers here on the forum, so I thought it would be a good idea to create a place where we can discuss strategories, tools, workflows, etc. to help each other get better at what we do.

Perhaps start with an intro to yourself with your skillset / experience and an overview of your toolbox.

I'll start:

Experience:

Web development with JavaScript (Vue.js and Node.js would be my favs) and PHP (specifically Laravel and WordPress).
Pretty comfortable with MySQL and MongoDB.

Toolbox:

I most like to work with full stack JavaScript, though I love Laravel and specifically Laravel Spark (Spark) for building out quick prototypes.

I generally host stuff on Digital Ocean / AWS.

Tip:

Laravel Spark is a huge time saver and I found a great Node project that is pretty close (GitHub - sahat/hackathon-starter: A boilerplate for Node.js web applications).

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PersistentlyHungry]

Great initiative.
Joining in:

Intro:

I'm a Project Manager, Data Scientist and Full Stack Web Developer.
Used to be a web developer full time, but now I incorporate a lot of data science into what I do.
I mostly work with Genomics R&D, where Big Data are abundant, but I also enjoy developing other useful products.

Experience:

I've got 8 years of experience, working with a variety of technologies and problems.
Started my way as a Cybersecurity WHH, moved on to become a DBA, then a Full Stack Web Developer, then
became a Data Scientist and a Project Manager.

Toolbox:

* Data Science - Analysis, Visualization, Machine Learning, R, Python, C++, Matlab / Octave.
* Big Data Engineering - Hadoop, ElasticSearch
* Web Development - JS, Angular, Node.JS, SQL, NoSQL (Redis, MongoDB, etc.)
* Sysadmin - Cloud computing, Operating systems, DBA, Networking

Tip:

You can honestly learn anything you set you mind to.
Learn by building projects - taking courses without practical application is mental masturbation imho.

 

[PatrickWho]

Thanks for weighing in @PersistentlyHungry ! Very interesting experience.

 

[AustinS28]

This is cool. Full stack Dev here.

Experience

Less than a year, it'll be a year next month since I touched any code. My background is unrelated, went to school for bio before leaving the curriculum. Started a personal training business that I kept for over 3 years before pursuing this.

Toolbox

Ruby, Rails, SQL, Node.js, React.js, Redux, JavaScript.

I think my favorite language is JavaScript, but I'm most comfortable in Ruby although at this point I've been using so much JS that I'd probably need a refresher going back to Ruby.

Tip

Programming is tough. Get your reps in. It's completely normal to feel lost all the time. As soon as you figure something out you're trying to figure something else out. I'm still getting used to the constant feeling of not knowing what's going on. As you tackle bigger issues you'll realize how the problems you've previously face are now a drop in the bucket of your knowledge set.

Ask lots of questions. Stackoverflow is a great resource. This is one community where people love helping each other.

If you're a newbie I'd say Ruby and python are great languages to get your feet wet and set you up for a solid foundation once you begin to expand your scope.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

Thanks @AustinS28 - you said it has been a while since you've touched any code? Do you have any plans to get back into it?

 

[AustinS28]

Thanks @AustinS28 - you said it has been a while since you've touched any code? Do you have any plans to get back into it?

No I am coding everyday for 12+ hours. I actually have an open thread where I am coding a small web app in ten days and posting updates.

I haven't touched much ruby in some time.

I had a lunch at Facebook today which was absolutely awesome. I know a Dev there through my old personal training business who said he'd love to help me with interview prep. Next step is to work for a big while I build my knowledge base and then venture into the startup realm. In the meantime, I want to build out this fitness app that I have had in my mind for a long time, then monetize it.

 

[AdrianL]

Yep, great initiative!

Intro
Software engineer here but I'm up for any kind of challenge

Experience
Started playing with programming since I was 15 (C++, HTML, CSS), wanted to make games back then. Got a degree in Automatics and Computer Science and as for professional experience, worked as a software developer for 2 years and am have started freelancing about 2 years ago.

Toolbox
Currently mainly using: Golang, JavaScript (started with AngularJS and switched to VueJS later on), PostgreSQL.
Other tools I've worked with: .NET Framework (C#, WCF, WPF, WF, MsSQL, etc), Java (mainly Android development but occasionally other things), C++, Python, SOLR/ElasticSearch, REST, MQTT, CEF, SQLite, and probably a few more that don't come to mind right now.

Tip
Start by learning to learn. And then learn to use Google, it will be one of your best friends.

No, but seriously, if one takes the time to develop a problem-solving mindset, he can learn probably anything he sets his mind to.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

@AustinS28 That's excellent! I'll have to look at that thread.

I was with a local startup here in Ottawa. They've been laying people off consistently for months. Startup can be fun, but it's hard work and the party can end so quickly if you're at a startup that is living on venture capital. If I had to do it all over again, I would be more interested in a startup that is profitable.

Thanks @AdrianL - what sort of freelance work do you do? Do you find there's much freelance work for larger applications? Looks like we have Vue in common. I'm loving it

 

[Owner2Millions]

I had a feeling this thread was coming lol. I'm glad to see it being here.

Intro: Went to college for a bachelors in Comp science. Towards the end I started to realize mostly everything I was learning I was on YouTube or google for better explanations than my teachers. Funny right....anyway I have always had a passion for technology since I was a kid. I use to try and code dbz websites in HTML when I was younger. It's pretty satisfying knowing you can create something literally from nothing!

Experience: Web development with JavaScript using node.js and react. Python as my backend language for web dev only because we started with it in university and I kept going with it and as I researched it more I realized how powerful it is! Extensive libraries. CPython, JPyton, and a ton of frameworks it has. I really enjoy Python. Of course I'm pretty comfortable with MySQL,SQLite, SQLserver(projects with a Microsoft stack)
Then there's the usual C/C++, Java, Assembler

I usually host with Linode but when for example a large scale project comes up I'll look into AWS

Will be diving in hard with Android and iOS development as soon as I get a MacBook so Objective C will be another tool added.

As of right now I'm going all in and in the process of starting a SAAS company and a blog very closely related to A. I. as my SAAS company will be data driven and using A. I. To solve problems.

Tip: for anyone wanting to understand code it would be best to learn about computer architecture and compilers. But even before then I would recommend someone really get the concepts of Algorithms and Data Structures. Specifically the ones that come up frequently such as Trees, Stacks, Queues, Arrays, Big O notation, Breadth first search, Depth first search, A*, Bellman Ford. If anyone is new to coding, like everyone says always learn something new everyday by reading and coding. Nothing beats learning by doing which is exp.....Also, I think to truly become dangerous a SWE should learn sales and marketing unless they plan on being code monkeys going from job to job. That's how it's currently set up from SWEs no matter if your working a w2 or free lancing.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PatrickWho]

Great stuff, @Elbert Dockery . Lots with CS backgrounds here. That's great.

And I definitely agree with the sales and marketing skills for SWEs. I first realized this after finding SimpleProgrammer.com (which is how I learned about TMF , actually).

I've been super interested in Python for a while, so now I know who to ping when I have questions.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[AdrianL]

@AustinS28 Thanks @AdrianL - what sort of freelance work do you do? Do you find there's much freelance work for larger applications? Looks like we have Vue in common. I'm loving it

Hehe, yeah, Vue is great, couldn't be happier I got rid of Angular. Was also looking into Elm, Haskell and a few other functional programming languages at some point but decided to postpone that at that time and keep it for learning purposes only.

Currently working on a bigger project for a client which spawns across clusters of machines and handles a ton of data. Can't go into too many details but it's a pretty big project. From personal experience, there seems to be all kinds of work available for freelancers, you just have to know to sell yourself and to show trustworthiness. Clients with big projects prefer not to take unwarranted risks on random freelancers so if you develop a good enough portfolio, understand business, and/or even have references and communicate with the client properly, I doubt you'll run out of work during this lifetime.

Of course you will reach a time limit at some point beyond which you won't be able to expand without starting your own business and getting more people involved (the point where I'm at now and looking for viable options).

 

[Owner2Millions]

@PatrickWho I'm by no means a expert lol. I do have some experience but not as extensive as some others here. I'm also still pretty young lol I know it doesn't have much to do with anything but I'm still learning everyday. If I had to give myself a ranking I would say intermediate in all of the above. But yeah if you have any questions you can PM me.

Btw....I visit John's website very frequently and I love the interview him and MJ had. Great content.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[PatrickWho]

Yes! John's stuff is really good.

And in this game, you never stop learning. Am I right?

When you're learning, you don't always need an expert but just someone that's a little farther down the path from you.

Have you ever worked in a team environment with Python, or is it mostly solo work you do?

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[lowtek]

Great stuff, @Elbert Dockery . Lots with CS backgrounds here. That's great.

And I definitely agree with the sales and marketing skills for SWEs. I first realized this after finding SimpleProgrammer.com (which is how I learned about TMF , actually).

I've been super interested in Python for a while, so now I know who to ping when I have questions.

Check out SentDex's channel on YouTube. He has a massive wealth of python projects that run the gamut from machine learning to simple games to robotics. Really can't recommend his content enough.

 

[PatrickWho]

Excellent! I'll be sure to subscribe. Thanks @lowtek

 

[Owner2Millions]

@PatrickWho I nevered worked on one in a job setting just on school projects. So professionally just solo and your right because I personally don't think anyone can say they mastered something involving technology because it's always something new unless your the creator of the technology.
@lowtek thanks. Yeah I actually follow that channel. It's a few programmers that have decent content on YouTube. I would have to look through my subs to find them as I don't know them off the top of my head.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PedroG]

I've been a Software Engineer for about 15 years. My language of choice is Java which I've been working with for probably the last 8 or 9 years. Before that, I worked with C# and C++. I have a bachelor's in Computer Science (2004), and I'm currently trying to force myself to complete my master's degree only because I'm already half way and I don't want to quit again, and my employer reimburses me for the courses. In reality, I don't need the degree for anything.

For my projects I use MySQL, Tomcat, Java, Spring, JQuery, JQuery Mobile, Swift (for my iPhone app). I use a VPS (Linode) running Ubuntu. My home system is running Linux Mint.

TIP

The one important tip I would give any engineer that wants to become an entrepreneur is that if you already have enough knowledge to create a product from scratch (UI, back-end, etc.), stop learning new technologies for the sake of learning cool shit, and start learning marketing instead.

Stop focusing on creating cool code and cool products and start focusing on finding a target market you can help. Business amateurs focus on the product. Experts focus on the selling of that product.

 

[PersistentlyHungry]

I've been a Software Engineer for about 15 years. My language of choice is Java which I've been working with for probably the last 8 or 9 years. Before that, I worked with C# and C++. I have a bachelor's in Computer Science (2004), and I'm currently trying to force myself to complete my master's degree only because I'm already half way and I don't want to quit again, and my employer reimburses me for the courses. In reality, I don't need the degree for anything.

For my projects I use MySQL, Tomcat, Java, Spring, JQuery, JQuery Mobile, Swift (for my iPhone app). I use a VPS (Linode) running Ubuntu. My home system is running Linux Mint.

TIP

The one important tip I would give any engineer that wants to become an entrepreneur is that if you already have enough knowledge to create a product from scratch (UI, back-end, etc.), stop learning new technologies for the sake of learning cool shit, and start learning marketing instead.

Stop focusing on creating cool code and cool products and start focusing on finding a target market you can help. Business amateurs focus on the product. Experts focus on the selling of that product.

I can relate a lot to your tip.
Exactly what I'm doing now - switching from learning cool shit, to learning marketing and sales.
I feel like much of what was hindering my ability to execute in the past, was that I came from a place of "product first" rather than "value first".

 

[PatrickWho]

@PeterCastle - that's a great tip. It's so much fun trying new stuff, I could easily fool myself into thinking I'm doing something productive when in fact I'm just playing.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PedroG]

I can relate a lot to your tip.
Exactly what I'm doing now - switching from learning cool shit, to learning marketing and sales.
I feel like much of what was hindering my ability to execute in the past, was that I came from a place of "product first" rather than "value first".

Yeah, right now I have a product that I'm trying to grow and I told myself to stop coding until I reach my next sales milestone. There's features I want to add by I'm forcing myself to focus 100% on trying different marketing strategies and to not add anything else until I have 100 users.

This was after I spent 2 months refactoring a bunch of code mostly to make myself feel better . Well, actually there was some benefit to the user I think because I made it easier to use. But that's the last time I do that.

I still haven't found that one marketing strategy that's gonna help me really grow this thing, but so far I have to say Apple Search Adds have been great! Very cheap compared to Adwords and other things I've tried.

So I guess that leads me to another tip which maybe goes against my first one. If you have a SaaS product that lends itself well for an app, and you're frustrated with how expensive Adwords is for the stuff you are targeting, you may want to create that iPhone app even if it's just as a way to prove to yourself that you do have something people would pay for.

That's what happened to me. I had this SaaS that I basically gave up on because I got frustrated with how expensive it was to market on Google. Eventually I decided to take a few months to learn Swift and create the iPhone app just to test the App Store as a new channel. And I think, not 100% sure yet, but I think that has helped me confirm that I have something that can work. All I need is more traffic, which is why I'm focusing all my time on that right now.

 

[PersistentlyHungry]

Yeah, right now I have a product that I'm trying to grow and I told myself to stop coding until I reach my next sales milestone. There's features I want to add by I'm forcing myself to focus 100% on trying different marketing strategies and to not add anything else until I have 100 users.

This was after I spent 2 months refactoring a bunch of code mostly to make myself feel better . Well, actually there was some benefit to the user I think because I made it easier to use. But that's the last time I do that.

I still haven't found that one marketing strategy that's gonna help me really grow this thing, but so far I have to say Apple Search Adds have been great! Very cheap compared to Adwords and other things I've tried.

So I guess that leads me to another tip which maybe goes against my first one. If you have a SaaS product that lends itself well for an app, and you're frustrated with how expensive Adwords is for the stuff you are targeting, you may want to create that iPhone app even if it's just as a way to prove to yourself that you do have something people would pay for.

That's what happened to me. I had this SaaS that I basically gave up on because I got frustrated with how expensive it was to market on Google. Eventually I decided to take a few months to learn Swift and create the iPhone app just to test the App Store as a new channel. And I think, not 100% sure yet, but I think that has helped me confirm that I have something that can work. All I need is more traffic, which is why I'm focusing all my time on that right now.

How is the SaaS solution incorporated into an iPhone app? Seems odd to me

 

[PedroG]

How is the SaaS solution incorporated into an iPhone app? Seems odd to me

The app is a thin client. Everything it does, it does by accessing a web service. The site and the app share the same backend code.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[PatrickWho]

Cool. At my last company we did the same with our app.

Anyone here familiar with Progressive Web Apps (PWA)? I have yet to dive deep on them, but I usually code using a PWA starter for Vue.js, and I am building my next app using Nuxt.js which is a PWA / SSR -ready Vue.js starter.

Also, some goodies:

Quill - Your powerful, rich text editor - Rich Text Editor you can use in your projects.
Objection.js - alternative to Sequelize if you're into Node.js + MySQL.

 

[AdrianL]

Anyone here familiar with Progressive Web Apps (PWA)? I have yet to dive deep on them, but I usually code using a PWA starter for Vue.js, and I am building my next app using Nuxt.js which is a PWA / SSR -ready Vue.js starter.

I've actually been looking into this for some time as well, though I'm currently using Poi.js to reduce the time needed to configure WebPack and other parts of the projects I'm working on.

 

[PatrickWho]

Hmm that's something I've never seen before.

I work with Vue.js so I like the Vue CLI tool to start projects. It saves me from noodling with Webpack.

I had to do a lot of Webpack stuff before and I'd rather not sink so much time into tooling. I'd rather be building things.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[Jelledb]

Intro:

Currently 19 y/o from the Netherlands, being employed as a Full Stack Developer. I have an ambition to become entrepreneur (don't we all? )

Experience:
I have 2.5 years of experience, working as a part time developer beside my CS study. Started as a Java/AngularJS developer, and I recently switched to a C#/AngularJS job. I just started a 5 month internship at this company and I will learn about .NET Core / Angular 2 / NoSQL.

Toolbox:
* Front-end: AngularJS
* Back-end: Java (Spring Boot) & C# (ASP.NET)
* Database: MySQL / MS SQL
* Git / CI / CD
* My favourite IDEs come from Jetbrains (I hate visual studio)

Tip:
Never, ever stop learning. Especially in the CS field.

 

[PersistentlyHungry]

Intro:

Currently 19 y/o from the Netherlands, being employed as a Full Stack Developer. I have an ambition to become entrepreneur (don't we all? )

Experience:
I have 2.5 years of experience, working as a part time developer beside my CS study. Started as a Java/AngularJS developer, and I recently switched to a C#/AngularJS job. I just started a 5 month internship at this company and I will learn about .NET Core / Angular 2 / NoSQL.

Toolbox:
* Front-end: AngularJS
* Back-end: Java (Spring Boot) & C# (ASP.NET)
* Database: MySQL / MS SQL
* Git / CI / CD
* My favourite IDEs come from Jetbrains (I hate visual studio)

Tip:
Never, ever stop learning. Especially in the CS field.

Good on you for starting early! Keep building momentum, but know this - You will never master all technologies as you have the time limitation.
My suggestion is to open your eyes and seek market needs right now, and to start developing a product alongside improving your skillset.
It sounds like you have a solid foundation to build something real, if you have ambition - you are already qualified to do so.

 

[PatrickWho]

@Jelledb sounds like you have a lot of great experience already!

My impression has been that many CS students don't necessarily get experience from school, so taking it upon yourself to build stuff is important.

It would be great if you start a progress thread on what you're learning in school. Some of us without a CS degree would find it really interesting, and it would probably help you solidify your learning.

 

Dislike ads? Remove them and support the forum: Subscribe to Fastlane Insiders.

[TheSilverSpoon]

Experience:

Been coding for 12 years or so now. Professionally for the last 2. Worked on some pretty cool stuff from fintech sentiment analysis, to computer vision for automated CAPTCHA solving, to poker bots.

Settled down in the Amazon SaaS space for the time being.

Toolbox:

On the backend - lots and lots of Laravel. Ran into a number of tools where Laravel just wasn't scaling well, so have been rolling out a handful of new microservices using node.js. Incredibly performant and really quite nice to use once you grok it. And a boatload of Redis. Redis is just awesome. Mysql has served me well over the years, never really felt a strong urge to venture outside of it.

On the frontend - mostly vue.js these days.

On the dev side of the house - I run all of our ops on DO.

Tip:

• Use the right tool for the job. Looking back now, there are a number of services core to our business that are written in Laravel, but it simply isn't the right tool for the job. node.js would have been a much, much better fit.
• Get an automated deployment pipeline setup ASAP. This will save you so much time.
• Become familiar with a testing platform. While opinions are all over the place on just how much test coverage is good, knowing how to use your testing tools so you have the ability to write out tests for some of the more complex sections of your code will be invaluable. On the JS side of things, I have been absolutely loving Jest.

 

[daru]

Experience:
Close to 8 years of software development. Been coding in a couple of startups, in the mining industry and currently in E-health.

Toolbox:
Started with web development and got into Python/Django like in 2006. Then some PHP. Later Java and C++ (and QT). Bit of Javascript every now and then all the while. Currently C/C++ for embedded systems and web dev to build the user interface for our service in E-health.

Got started with Slackware Linux back in the Windows ME era and been a Linux user ever since. Currently on Debian 8 for desktop. Got quite a lot of experience with Linux server admin for web dev (much easier these days =).

I do pretty much all coding in Vim + command line. Ditched qwerty for dvorak a couple of years ago and I now look like a real amateur every time I have to do something on someone else's computer. Can be funny with "ain't you supposed to typing fast since you are a programmer" kind of face expression haha.

Tip:

• Use the tools that are recommended for frameworks etc.
  
• Read the Pragmatic Programmer
• Get it working. Then get it better. Often after get it working it turns out it wasn't what client really wanted.