Forem: Ana Vela

How to Develop a Debugging Mindset

Ana Vela — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 14:51:49 +0000

Good debugging strategies start well before issues come up. From simple typos to a long list of console errors, you have to deal with a range of bugs throughout your career as a developer. One way to approach debugging in a broader sense is to develop a debugging mindset. When you change the way you look at debugging, you'll develop a better toolbox to work with.

Fixed Mindset vs. Growth Mindset

The heart of the debugging mindset has to do with having a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. Devon H O'Dell, currently a software engineer at Google, has an informative talk that focuses on developing a debugging mindset.

In this talk, Devon says:

"People who have an idea that intelligence is an inherent trait, you can’t do much to change it, you’re sort of born with it have a fixed mindset. And people who think it’s a skill, it can be developed, it’s malleable, you can grow in your intelligence, are said to have a growth mindset."

This is based on Caroll Dweck's research which you can read more about through her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success or enjoy this video where she discusses this topic.

Having a growth mindset is a key component in being a programmer who can effectively solve coding errors. If you don't think you can improve and feel like you'll always stay at your current level of technical skill, this thinking may keep you from putting in the time and effort needed to build your skills. Those who recognize that they have a fixed mindset can certainly shift towards thinking that they can improve eventually.

'Practicing at the Edge of Our Ability'

Another key takeaway from Devon's talk is about how you gain better skills by challenging yourself a bit beyond what can already do. Working on more advanced concepts than you are used to is uncomfortable. There is a risk because you might fail, but here is where a growth mindset is critical to have. Feeling uncomfortable sometimes will be what helps you get to a better understanding of complex concepts. Maybe you won't be able to understand certain new concepts right away. You take more time to get back into it and with more repetition, you have that experience to help you get closer to understanding those concepts.

I highly recommend watching Devon's talk or reading his blog post which has other intriguing ideas and debugging tips for developers.

Pair Programming and Live Streams

Teaming up with another developer to work on a collaborative coding project can lead to a lot of learning opportunities. This type of scenario will allow you to watch how someone tackles problems and what techniques they use to debug. You may know several debugging strategies, but seeing them in action and having the chance to talk through those approaches can help you learn how to implement them well. If you are leading the coding session, then you can practice how you explain things which makes you evaluate how much you truly know about a concept. You can connect with other developers through meetups or social media and use tools like the Live Share extension on VS Code or Repl.it to create a virtual collaborative environment. This is also a great way to practice working on more advanced concepts with someone else.

If pair programming isn't a possibility, try watching coding live streams. YouTube Live and Twitch allow you to interact with developers during the live stream, so you can ask questions and make comments in real-time. This is a great opportunity to observe programming in a language you are interested in but have not tried yet, or simply observe someone's process in building a cool project. You can also start your own live stream which would help you improve your skills as well as open doors to many other professional opportunities.

Some Twitch streams I recommend:

KevinPowellCSS - CSS
Mayanwolfe - Web Development
DevlinRochaa - React and Open Source
RyanWelcherCodes - WordPress Development
MetalAndCoffee_ - Software and Game Development

Document, Document, Document

If you've ever created side projects, you've created a history of changes and updates over time to those projects. There may have been compatibility issues, code depreciation or other errors that you've handled during the lifespan of the project. If you decide to make any of those side projects open to collaborators, how would they be able to jump in and help move the project forward? Documentation.

Documentation saves time by having a place to share knowledge and creates a way to communicate better. Creating documentation is an essential practice because writing down a project's history could help with reducing errors. Open source projects are great examples of how valuable documentation is because these projects rely on many people collaborating to keep it thriving.

Documentation could be as simple as adding notes to the ReadMe file. A bug-tracking system serves as documentation as well because you are developing a log of issues and fixes over time. You'll have this detailed reference to work with when you are trying to make decisions for a project. Good documentation is also handy if you want to create content to share with others including potential employers.

Conclusion

Learning specific debugging techniques is important, but also think beyond those techniques. Getting better at debugging is an accumulation of all the things you do. The experiences with different codebases, the way you push yourself out of your comfort zone, the time you spend collaborating with other developers, and the technical skills you learn all contribute to your overall success as a developer.

Do you consider yourself having a growth mindset? Feel free to comment or ask any questions below!

How to Get Better with Git

Ana Vela — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 00:44:25 +0000

Git is a version control tool that any developer would benefit from learning. Using git allows you to save your code as you make changes, and you can see what changes have been made over time. When working with other developers, knowing git makes it easy to collaborate on projects. This includes open-source and side projects as well as when you are working on a dev team.

Over the years, I've had practice using Git. I feel pretty good with the basics such as setting up new projects on GitHub, creating branches, resolving conflicts, and contributing to open source or other team projects. I tend to stick to the git commands most familiar to me without trying new concepts, so I'm ready to step things up.

What's your git level?

Knowing your git level of knowledge is the first step to improve your skills. Samuel Faure wrote How to Learn Git Slowly where he outlines six levels of knowledge. Refer to Samuel's guide as it can serve as a roadmap for your git level-up strategy.

Here are some ideas and free git resources to help you boost your git know-how:

E-Books

E-books can serve as resources you come back to whenever you want to review a concept or look something up.

The Pro Git book, written by Scott Chacon and Ben Straub, is a good resource for a variety of git concepts.
Get step-by-step guidance with the Introduction to Git and Github e-book created by Bobby Iliev.

Git Cheat Sheets

Keep git cheat sheets handy as you work. You might also want to create one of your own.

This Simple Guide to Git gives you the most common commands you need to get started.
Check your knowledge by going through these 50 Git Commands You Should Know

Git Courses

Dedicate some time to complete a git course and keep applying your knowledge through the course material or with your side projects. Check out these courses which vary in length depending on how you want to structure your learning.

The Ultimate Git 5-Day Challenge from Udemy by Brian Gorman is great for those who are new to git and want to get a step-by-step overview of getting setup with git on Github or Bitbucket.
The Gymnasium has an Introduction to Git and GitHub course by Jeff Ausura that you can complete in about an hour or less.
If you have a block of hours to spare, check out Git: Become an Expert in Git & GitHub in 4 Hours from Udemy by Jad Khalili to get intensive git training in a short amount of time.
Version Control with Git through Coursera offered by Atlassian is a 4-week course that takes you through creating a repository, creating branches, merging, workflows, and more.
If you are new to the open source world, learn How to Contribute to an Open Source project on GitHub with Kent C. Dodds.
Observe various git commands in action with the Practical Git For Everyday Professional Use course taught by Trevor Miller.

Interactive Resources

One of the best ways to learn something is to practice it, so give these two resources a try.

With Git Immersion, you'll complete short challenges on your local computer as you learn basic git commands.
Learning Git Branching guides you through visuals as you use git commands and create branches.

Pair program with others

If you have a mentor or work with a team of developers, take some time to pair program. Not only will you improve your coding skills, you'll have a chance to see the other developer's techniques with git. To them, their methods might come naturally so they may not think what they are doing is anything special.

Watch developer live streams or tutorials

You typically watch a live coding session for the actual content, but there is also another layer of learning by noticing how the developer works with git and uses various commands and shortcuts.

Conclusion

When you understand git, you find this common ground among many kinds of developers who also use git. Taking the time to practice git and dive deeper into the various levels of knowledge will help you become a better developer and teammate. Being well-versed with git could help you stand out when applying for jobs and well as making you better prepared when being onboarded to a new company or team.

What's your git story? Are you new or a pro with git? Any helpful tips you can share?

Photo courtesy of Lagos Techie on Unsplash

How to Overcome 3 Common Roadblocks When Starting a Developer Blog

Ana Vela — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 05:54:39 +0000

When I decided to start a developer blog last year, it took me months before I actually published my first post. It really didn't need to be this way. Throughout my blogging journey, I've gained some knowledge about what it takes to get started. From listening to other developers sharing their struggles along with my own, I've observed 3 common barriers that keep developers from getting their first post published. I'd like to share these with you along with some tips to overcome these roadblocks so you can get started sooner and maintain a more consistent blog of your own.

Roadblock #1 - Where Will You Publish Your Blog?

Like many developers, you might want to build your blog site from scratch before starting to post. This is a great side project, but it can take a long time before a project like this is completed.

Possible Solutions: Treat building your own blog site and publishing your writing as two separate actions. Leverage platforms such as Hashnode, Dev.to, Medium, and WordPress where there are no barriers to begin and that have thriving communities. (Hashnode and Dev.to also have a variety of badges you can earn as fun incentives to keep posting.) You can always repost on your newly designed blog site when that is ready.

You can also go with a static site generator and give yourself a deadline for getting this set up. Stick with the original theme and give yourself up to a week to get the site ready to go so you are not tinkering too long.

With some hosting setup and becoming familiar with markdown, here are a few good ones that are quick to get up and running:

Jeykll - get your Jekyll site up on GitHub pages

Eleventy - you can host your Eleventy site on Netlify

Gatsby - get your Gatsby site hosted through Gatsby Cloud or Netlify.

Roadblock #2 - What Will You Write About?

You've got a plan for where you will post, but now you need to figure out what you will write about. You might have a lot of ideas and not know where to start or feel like you need to do a lot of research before writing a post.

Possible Solutions: You can start blogging the moment you decide to study web development and write about why you are pursuing this field. At the beginning, write about topics you are familiar with. Spend time brainstorming ideas often so you always have a pool of ideas to choose from.

To begin, narrow down your list to around 10 articles you want to write about and create a quick outline for each of them. This helps figure out the possible scope of the articles and how you would structure them.

Think about different angles related to the tech stack you already use. Is there an area you want to be known for? Is there a new language or framework you want dive deeper into? Keep a list of ideas and continue to add to this list often.

Here are some broad areas you can focus on:

Write about what you are learning
Document a challenge you are doing
Outline a solution to a problem you solved
Review a course or program you completed
Share your experience of a bootcamp you attended

Roadblock #3 - What Will Your Writing Process Be Like?

Now that you know where you will publish and what topics you'll write about, you'll want to figure out a routine to get these posts written.

Possible Solutions: Figure out how often you want to publish and how much time you will dedicate to creating the posts. One strategy is to create a schedule where you have specified how much time you will write and what goals you'd like to reach.

Luca Rossi shared a great example of how he has established a writing routine for his weekly newsletter, Refactoring.

Sam Julien gave an excellent talk about shipping better articles. Check out the slides for his advice including how to set up a content system.

You can decide how often you want to post and set deadlines so that you are consistently working on your blog. Whether it is posting once a week or once a month, getting organized with a schedule and simple routine will help you publish more.

Final Thoughts

When starting a developer blog, make decisions quickly and just start. Don't think about it having to be perfect from the beginning. This is an ongoing process where you'll be doing a lot of trial and error, so you can always make adjustments as you go.

A few more tips to enhance your blogging experience:

Share your posts on social media
Find accountability partners to help you stay on track
Read other developer blogs to learn about different styles and topic ideas
Subscribe to the Blogging for Devs 7-day email course and newsletter

If you are currently blogging, what are some tips that have helped you start and maintain a developer blog? If you are planning to start a blog, are you facing any challenges at this point? Leave a comment here or reach out through Twitter or Instagram.

Photo by Bram Naus on Unsplash

How Checklists Can Help You as a Developer

Ana Vela — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 19:21:56 +0000

While listening to an audiobook called The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande, I thought about how checklists might be just the tool developers need to level up. In this book, Gawande shares many stories that illustrate how impactful checklists can be. Through the examples from medical professionals, pilots, and others, checklists literally saved lives and proved to be effective in working through emergencies as well as making processes more efficient in the workplace.

What are the Benefits of Checklists?

Through many examples, Gawande found several benefits to using a checklist.

With checklists as roadmaps, they helped teams catch problems sooner. They could avoid some errors since they had a plan in place if things went wrong.
Teams had to communicate with each other while following checklists, so they had to find systems that worked for everyone.
Creating a clear system helped maintain consistency and higher standards.
Referencing checklists every day helped create documentation and data for further analysis.

Tips to Create Your Own Checklists

After enjoying this book, I thought about a simple approach to creating checklists to use as a developer.

Break down the process or project into three parts. These can be stages or phases that signify a beginning, middle, and end to the project or process. Then you or the team can focus on one part of the checklist at a time before moving forward.
Checklists don't have to contain every single task needed. You can structure them in a way that helps you track all the most important tasks that must be done. The point is to start using checklists and adjust them over time.
Find opportunities to level up through your checklists. Once you have some checklists in place, you can continue to iterate on them and find ways to improve your process and/or skills.

Start by asking these questions:

Is there a better way to do this?
What questions do I have about a particular process?
What do I need to research if certain things are not clear?
What is something I want to dive deeper into?

Some Checklist Examples for Inspiration

Dev Checklists - a collaborative space for sharing checklists

Code Review Checklist - a checklist for those who perform and receive code reviews

SEO Checklist - a detailed checklist for SEO

The Front-End Checklist - a checklist of HTML elements to test before setting your site live

Web Dev Checklist from Toptal - a general web developer checklist that is also a Chrome and Firefox extension

Web Developer Security Checklist - a checklist to identify security issues

Developer Onboarding Checklist for Startups - an onboarding checklist for both employers and new employees

The Essential Launch Checklist for Web Apps and Mobile Apps - a general checklist for testing apps before the final launch

A11Y Project Checklist - a checklist for the levels of accessibility compliance in The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines(WCAG)

30 Web Development Checklists Every Team Should Keep Handy - a variety of checklists for you to peruse

Your Turn

If you enjoy building side projects, now is a good time to create a checklist for your process. You can also create a checklist for debugging strategies, testing, or adding features. Maybe there is a work process you are struggling with that could use a checklist to help make it flow better.

Do you already utilize a checklist? Reevaluate it and see if there is room for improvement. Have some things changed and need to be revised?

If you have any favorite checklists, questions, or comments, please feel free to share it below!

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

The Question to Ask Yourself When Imposter Syndrome Strikes

Ana Vela — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 14:40:16 +0000

Imposter Syndrome is what happens when you feel inadequate as a developer. Despite all the skills and experience you have, this feeling still creeps up from time to time. From junior to senior developers, everyone will face this at one point or another.

After reading this article by Mark Manson, I found one way to recalibrate when it comes to the way I'm feeling about my work. The Most Important Question of Your Life can apply to just about anything, so I modified the question for developers. And the question is:

Are you willing to sustain the pain that comes with learning, improving, and working in web development?

And how do developers suffer? Well, here are a few examples:

Debugging issues with no clear solution
Learning difficult concepts that don't sink in easily
Having to learn more new technology to stay relevant
Deleting code you worked hard to write because it is not needed anymore

If your answer to the question above is yes, then here are some tips to ease the pain of pursuing web development:

Reverse Engineer the Role You Want to Have

Look up and carefully read job descriptions for your dream role. Find interviews of developers holding that role to learn more about what they do. Some great podcasts where you can find interviews are The Code Newbie Podcast and The Learn Code With Me Podcast.

Reach out to companies who hire for that role and ask them how they evaluate potential applicants so you can plan to build those skills. Create goals and review them every day to make sure you are on the right path.

Connect with Others

If you are going to suffer anyway, why not suffer together? Join meetups, discord servers, and/or get more active on social media. I highly recommend learning more about communities such as #devinitelyhealthy and #100daysofcode that have great support for developers of all levels.

If you prefer one-on-one interaction, either look into getting a mentor or become a mentor yourself. Gergely Orosz wrote a comprehensive article about developers mentoring other developers that gives you a good sense of what mentorship is like. Sam Julien has useful recommendations if you prefer to self-mentor.

Build Projects

Whether you are solidifying your current skills or trying to learn new concepts, building projects is a way to show what your learning. These projects can be talking points for interview questions or ways to share what you are learning with others. Create small projects and constantly keep building. You don’t need to add so many technologies to one project. It could be focused on concepts you want to reinforce or maybe you want to try something new.

If you need project ideas, take a look at Florin Pop's App Ideas Collection on GitHub. Project ideas are organized by level with lots of detailed information to get you started. You could also try some coding challenges that come with designs and specs for you to build a project from sites like Frontend Mentor or Dev Challenges.

Teach What You Know

Sharing your knowledge forces you to get clear about basic concepts in a way that is easy for others to understand. For example, you could create tutorials or share how you went about learning a new technology. You can write blogs, start a YouTube channel, or even write an e-book. You can also help other developers troubleshoot issues.

Maintain a Career Doc

With all this activity, you'll want to keep track of what you are doing and learning. Udara Weerasinghe wrote a detailed post about this called Level Up Your Resume: Why You Should Start a Career Doc. You'll see how much progress you've made by regularly logging what you're learning and these details will be ready for you when you are job hunting.

Conclusion

Imposter Syndrome does not have to stop you from pursuing what you want. Make it the fuel that gets you out of your comfort zone, into your dream role, or leveling up in your current position.

What are some ways you deal with imposter syndrome? Feel free to add a comment here or reach out to me on Twitter or Instagram .

Photo by jeshoots.com on Unsplash

Presenting The "Today I Learned" Tracker!

Ana Vela — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 15:17:02 +0000

As 2020 comes to a close, I decided to participate in Hashnode's #christmashackathon. I chose to create a "Today I Learned" Tracker on GitHub, and I made this an open source project. This tracker is template of Markdown files where you can add what you are learning each day and keep track of any resources you are using.

Some background information

This year I made the leap into working with open source projects by helping maintain a beginner project and participating in Hacktoberfest. These activities have given me the experience to feel comfortable starting a project of my own. I created this GitHub repository as a simple, editable template that others can contribute to easily as well.

Who is this tracker for?

This open source project is a starting point for anyone who wants to document their web development learning by logging their progress through a GitHub repo. This repo is meant to be copied and altered based on the needs of the user. The content is geared toward beginners who are learning web development, but it can easily be edited. This is also a good way to practice using Markdown.

This repo can be saved privately or publicly, but having it public allows for other developers and potential employers to see your progress.

How to start using this template

There are a few options:

Click the Use this template button to instantly create a copy of this repo to your GitHub account
Fork the project
Download the files using the Code button

Once you have your copy, use the markdown files in the LearningLogs folder to start documenting your learning. You can also create more folders or add new markdown files to organize your resources. This is also a great way to contribute to your GitHub account on a daily basis.

How to contribute

I will be adding more issues for first-timers, so check the list of issues often. If you have some suggestions for what can be useful to this project, open up an issue on GitHub and add your suggestion there. I will review it and discuss the proposed changes with you.

If you are not familiar with how to contribute to open source projects, take a look at the steps outlined in detail through this guide.

The basic steps are:

Fork the project
Clone that forked project so you can access the files in your local dev environment on your computer or laptop
Create a new branch and make the changes
Commit and push those changes to your forked repo
Since you added changes to a forked copy of the project, you'll be able to make a pull request for review to get the branch merged into the main project

Questions or Suggestions?

Be sure to take a look at the Today I Learned Tracker on GitHub and give it a star. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know. Reach out to me on Twitter, Instagram, or leave a comment below.

5 Ways to Improve Communication on a Remote Team

Ana Vela — Fri, 18 Dec 2020 17:45:52 +0000

After working on a remote team for over 2 years, I've gained some insights about what it takes to communicate without being in an actual office together. My role at this startup ranged from web development to operations management where I was involved in a variety of projects. I've also collaborated remotely with other developers working on some code and even general support as we are improving our skills.

In just about any project, focusing on creating shared documentation is at the heart of making this work well. After reflecting on these remote work experiences, I've noticed a few key components that have helped make communication smoother. These 5 tips are useful if you are working with a partner, a group of students working on a project, or a business setting.

Create a Detailed Plan with Specific Tasks

When working on a project together, there needs to be a clear roadmap as an overview of the project. Some questions to ask at the beginning are:

What are the goals of this project?
What is the scope and top priority features?
What problems does this project solve?

Once these elements have been established, then you can create specific tasks and who should be assigned to each one.

Track Tasks and Deadlines Efficiently

Once specific tasks have been identified and assigned to team members, organize them in a way where they can be tracked. Using tools such as Asana, Trello, or Notion are good ways to accomplish this. Each task should be clearly outlined with details and who is assigned to each task. Keep deadlines realistic and revise them when needed. Make this information available to all team members to help avoid misunderstandings and in case a task needs to be assigned to someone else in the future.

Schedule Regular Check-Ins Meetings

Once these tasks have been established, set up regular meetings to check-in regarding progress made. These meetings should have an agenda and timeframe. Figure out a good meeting routine by establishing a set of questions such as:

What's working?
Any roadblocks?
Do you need help with anything?
What are the next actionable tasks?

Take Meeting Notes and Make Them Accessible to Team Members

Have a record of each meeting to keep track of any decisions made and what is expected for the next meeting. Any team member can refer back to the notes at any time to get clarification.

Keep Flexible, Open Communication

Think about ways to incorporate casual interactions between team members. Are there a few minutes before the start of a meeting to chat about fun topics or mention something new and exciting? You could also have a virtual happy hour once a month to have time to get to know each other better and build rapport.

Final Thoughts

Improving communication can take time. There are many tools that can help you stay organized to work at a steady pace to complete a project. In most of my remote work, I used Google Docs, Google Sheets, Trello, and Asana. I have recently discovered Notion which has become my favorite tool this year. Notion is powerful because you can manage tasks, notes, calendars, and so much more all in one workspace. I created a simple Notion template as an example of a shared document that can serve as a source of truth for a particular project. You can duplicate this template and customize it for your specific needs. Let me know if you have any questions about the template or how to use Notion for your next project plan.

Have any of these tips worked well for you before while working remotely with others? Are you also a fan of Notion? Add a comment to let me know.

Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash

Sharpening Our Tools

Ana Vela — Sun, 29 Nov 2020 04:45:51 +0000

As we study and put our programming knowledge to practice, we acquire a variety of tools we use regularly. These tools help us to become more efficient developers. Although we might be busy with several projects or learning new tech, we also need to maintain and sharpen the tools we use.

We might have a favorite code editor or a particular method of committing code on GitHub. We might also have some go-to debugging techniques or particular array methods that we are most comfortable using. Let’s take these tools to the next level to help us grow as developers.

Here’s a simple plan to get started:

Identify the tools we want to sharpen. Make a list of tools or add some questions about those tools for further exploration.
Find some resources to learn more about these tools. These can be YouTube videos, blog posts, courses, or the documentation.
Determine a block of time to focus on this. Decide if this is a daily activity for 15 minutes a day or a weekly practice for 2 hours on the weekends, for example.

Some examples of how to put this plan into action

Open up a repository on GitHub and take a look at all the possible features and settings. Make changes and look up any features that seem unclear.
Watch a video and test out different ways to utilize Chrome or Firefox Developer Tools.
Learn new code editor keyboard shortcuts.

This is a chance to explore and tinker with the tools we use. Carrying on this habit helps us use tools to an advanced level.

Is this something you already do? Or are you trying to implement something like this on a regular basis? Please share any experiences, ideas, questions, or comments!

Photo by Safar Safarov on Unsplash

Motivation to Blog

Ana Vela — Fri, 27 Nov 2020 22:32:44 +0000

Maybe you started like me - you were excited to start a blog, got it set up, and began publishing a few posts. Once the initial excitement wore off, you wondered where you'd get ideas for posts and if anyone would actually read your blog.

With these thoughts, I started to ask myself why I wanted to start a blog in the first place. Here are some thoughts about why I blog:

Personal Commitment

I enjoy writing, so I thought writing about tech topics would be a great way to merge these two interests. I am working on how to create better routines to make blogging a part of my schedule. With a plan, I can maintain this blog at a consistent pace.

Being Part of a Community

With so many great topics to write about, I'd like to share my ideas with other developers. Blogging gives me opportunities to share ideas, spark a discussion with others, and extend an idea or concept to continue a conversation.

Challenge Myself

While I am learning programming concepts, I can share my knowledge through blog posts. Writing these posts requires me to review what I know and clarify my thinking. This is a way to get a little uncomfortable, but it is a challenge worth trying.

Final Thoughts

Thinking about my why helps me make a stronger commitment to blogging. It also helps me overcome writer's block whenever I am not sure what to write about next. I'd love to hear your thoughts. Why do you blog? Leave a comment to let me know!

Photo by Lauren Mancke on Unsplash

3 Components for Successful Blogging

Ana Vela — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 15:00:24 +0000

I’ve been wanting to start a developer blog for a while now, and I finally started blogging in September. With a few posts completed already, I’ve reflected on what successful blogging means to me. Here’s what I came up with:

Clarifying Ideas

When I brainstorm ideas to write about, I also have to consider what I already know about the topic. This makes me have to research the concepts a bit more to make sure I have it right. This means breaking things down, giving examples, and trying new ways to get a point across. I also have to consider my audience and what they may be seeking from the post.

Once I outline what I want to write about, I start the first draft. This tends to be a lot of notes, fragment sentences, and even questions I still have. Good writing involves a lot of editing. I might write several drafts before I feel my writing is clear enough to where I'm ready to publish, and this is where a lot of learning takes place.

Documenting My Journey and Growth

Writing posts helps me keep track of what I am learning and what sparks my interest. I can look back at my blog posts and consider exploring a topic again with a new angle or dive deeper into a particular concept. With more posts, I can analyze what I've been writing about to map out an area of specialization. Publishing posts also allows me to get feedback from readers. I might get comments that introduce me to new ideas and angles I didn't consider yet. I can easily keep these ideas written in a notebook or on my laptop, but there is something exciting about sharing ideas with others.

Publishing Consistently

From what I have learned about blogging, I understand that publishing consistently will help me become a better writer and communicator. To stay consistent, I joined a blogging accountability group. The goal is to write at least one post every two weeks. Having others who share this same goal is a great motivator because there is nothing like having a deadline to keep me on track.

Final Thoughts

Every day, I feel like I need to write something. It can be working on a post, jotting down ideas, or writing in a journal. Daily writing of any kind feels like a healthy habit. Do you feel this way? What does successful blogging mean to you?

Photo courtesy of Andrew Neel on Unsplash

What I Learned from Hacktoberfest 2020

Ana Vela — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 20:21:14 +0000

Every October for Hacktoberfest, thousands of developers come together to contribute to many worthwhile open source projects on GitHub. This month-long event has grown through the years and encourages new developers to begin contributing to open source. But with its growth, the event got a bit shaken up which caused some necessary changes.

As I was preparing to participate in this event for the first time, I found out a harsh truth about Hacktoberfest. Although most participants want to add quality contributions, there are some who are willing to add irrelevant, insignificant code or changes just to get a free t-shirt!

The spam pull requests were coming in immediately for some projects, and maintainers were fed up with the nonsense. The problem was fixed by Digital Ocean making this an opt-in event where maintainers had to add the Hacktoberfest label to each project if they wanted to participate and spam pull requests could be labeled as invalid to not count towards the 4 pull request requirement. This seemed to help reduce the spam, but there is a bigger issue with breaking into open source.

For newbies, it can be an overwhelming process to learn what to do and find decent projects to contribute to. Hacktoberfest is a wonderful way to break into open source, so don't get discouraged by all the drama. I'd like to share what I learned after I completed the Hacktoberfest challenge so that you can successfully begin making open source contributions as well.

Finding Open Source Projects

GitHub has a way you can find repositories by going to the Github explore page. You can find repos by topic or collections based on your interest. You can also subscribe to get a list of repos on a regular basis.

GitHub's open source guide can also help you find projects to work on. You'll find a list of links to help you focus on finding a good project as well as a checklist when trying to decide which ones might be a good fit for you.

Working with Others

Although helpful, the problem with these links is that there are tons of repositories to sift through and it can be time-consuming to look through so many different options. While learning about open source when I was participating in Hacktoberfest, I realized that you don't have to go through this alone.

Are any of the developers you know trying to also get into open source? It would be of value to ask around through social media, Slack groups, and even Discord servers to see if others are interested. It doesn't hurt to reach out to those who are posting about open source because they have already had some time in this area and can offer advice. That conversation might be the connection you need to get started.

Other supportive communities

Open Sauced is a community geared towards helping developers become new contributors to open source. Join the Discord server for more information.

This Slack group, a11yOpenSource, is geared towards focusing on web accessibility in open source. As it is not always a top priority, being an advocate for web accessibility could be a good angle to focus on with any open source project.

Learning the Process of Contributing to Open Source

There are some standard steps you'll need to follow once you find a project to contribute to.

Kent C. Dodds created this course on Egghead.io that walks you through the process of forking a project to creating your first pull request.

You can also read this article that gives you step by step instructions for the process.

If you are in this for the long haul, check out this repo with tons of information about open source. You can certainly contribute to this project by adding more resources as well.

Final Thoughts

Although this Hacktoberfest had a rocky start, I feel more confident about approaching open source projects after this experience. There are lots of supportive maintainers and developers who want to make this event a positive one for all want to join in.

And once you've prepared, you can start contributing to open source projects now and complete Hacktoberfest next year without the spammy PRs, of course!

Have you ever participated in Hacktoberfest? If so, what was your experience like? Do you have any questions about Hacktoberfest or open source in general? Leave a comment to get the conversation going.

Web Accessibility Basics

Ana Vela — Tue, 10 Nov 2020 03:38:22 +0000

Web accessibility begins with understanding clean, standard code. It is about keeping an inclusive mindset and using the best practices to build a website. Learning how to remove barriers to make your website easy to use is critical. This is a brief introduction to web accessibility with some practical tips to implement for better user experience.

What is Web Accessibility?

Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can:

perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web

contribute to the Web

Web accessibility encompasses all disabilities that affect access to the Web, including:

auditory, cognitive, neurological, physical, speech, visual

W3.org

This also includes temporary disabilities such as an injured hand, for example. A website should also be accessible on mobile devices with varied screen sizes.

Understand Basic Website Structure

When developing websites, implement proper basic structure by using appropriate HTML elements.
Each of your web pages should include a logical hierarchy of heading tags and sections.

Need a refresher? Check out this guide to basic HTML basics

If your site has a predictable structure with proper HTML elements, headers, and labels, someone using a screen reader will have an easier time navigating through your site.

You can check your HTML structure by running your pages through an HTML checker which will provide you with line by line details if there are any errors or suggestions to improve the structure. You might also want to check a variety of sites to see what types of errors show up.

Web Accessibility Tools

Axe is a free accessibility checker available for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge as a browser extension. Once installed, you can run an analysis to get a list of any accessibility issues.

Another accessibility checker you can use is called tota11y which you can add as a bookmarklet or directly to your site.

If color contrast is an issue, you can use a Color Contrast Checker to get the exact elements and color pairs that are causing a problem.

Use a responsive design checker to see if there are any issues on various screen sizes.

(Please note that these tools are not perfect, so it is a good idea to have multiple ways to check accessibility.)

Final Thoughts

Accessibility is a broad topic, so I leave you with a collection of great resources for you to learn more.

If you are interested in making accessibility changes to open source projects, check out this article by Bell Omuboye and/or join the Slack channel for this group. See you there!

What is your experience with web accessibility? Do you have some resources to share? Drop a comment below to get the conversation going!

Photo courtesy of Unsplash