Dev.to Review #10: Top 7 Of The Week, Discussed

Before you get to the notes, I wanted to mention that we are now on iTunes! This means you should be able to catch us in whatever Podcast app you use. We're still figuring this part out, so the newest episode may take a little bit to show up, but you can fill that time by giving any conversation you missed a listen. If you want the direct RSS link, you can grab it here.

Malik and I are back (and better than ever) this week after some time seeing family, as we gather 'round to chat about this week's Top 7 Articles on dev.to.

In our first post, "Useful resources for programmers", Sahil shares a list of great learning repos on Github that... well, we've used the word exhaustive before but this one really lives up to it. Malik and I discuss the value of general and specific content, some of the links we checked out, and why people keep writing.

We move on to "How To Make Python Concurrent WIth 3 Lines Of Code", by rhymes which covers cutting the time needed to make 1000 requests by 7 using only STDlib tools, and the intricacies around concurrent execution. Malik and I discuss concurrency, the value of standard libraries, and languages' cultures around reimplementing standard functionality.

In "The node_modules problem", Leonardo compares the way NPM manages dependencies against his other experiences with Maven, Gradle, and Nuget, and how culture (theme alert) plays into deep node_modules directories. Malik and I link this back to our discussion on STDlibs and our own experiences with bringing in needless dependencies.

Andrew Davis brings us "Showing Kindness while Programming", in which he discusses the basic building block of good culture: individual habits. Malik and I take Andrew's concepts and run with them, and talk about putting empathy into action, celebrating victories, and with whom responsibility lies when communicating.

In "Writing Good Unit-Tests: A Step By Step Tutorial", Elena gives a play by play of steps taken to make sure your tests are robust, from black box, to white box, to questioning first principles, using an example tool that calculates distances across the world. Malik and I talk about the tradeoffs of each approach, how much testing is enough, and how much we trust the System Under Test.

Next, we discuss "5 Fatal Docker Gotcha's 😱 - for new users". Eugene Cheah talks about common Docker pitfalls that he and his company have personally encountered in the past year, and provides options for mitigation ranging from easy to "only if you have to". In the spirit of Eugene's post, we share our own Docker #fails.

Finally, we discuss "A Year Ago I Never Would Have Been Able To Do This, But I Just Built My First Web App. Here It Is!". Jeremy Schuurmans talks about his year-long journey into writing software, and how it led him to produce his first solo project in 7 days. Malik and I discuss Jeremy's approach, his reflections on the influence of his background, and our own experiences with writing solo projects.

We skip "Host's Choice" for the week, but we highly recommend you check out Grigor's post on HTTP/3.

Any thoughts on this week's conversation?

What's been your experience balancing dependency management versus time savings?

If you've rolled a solo project, what were your big takeaways? When does the project "end"?

Let us know in the comments!

We're still experimenting with post formats, audio, etc., so if you have any thoughts, feel free to let us know here, or on Twitter at @dangolant and @milkstarz.