Forem: Bertrand

Some new about HexAPI

Bertrand — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 09:54:07 +0000

❓ A little context

Some months ago, I started a side project called HexAPI Generator, a simple Python app that helps generate clean, hexagonal Java APIs.
At first, it was just a personal experiment: I wanted to make something that followed all the Clean Architecture principles I was learning in my Master’s program.

Nothing crazy.

Just a nerdy idea built out of curiosity (and too many late nights).

https://dev.to/bertrandr_dev/i-just-shipped-my-very-first-tool-alongside-my-coursework-and-internship-meet-hexapi-generator-5ga8

🎓 The unexpected twist

Fast forward to last week.
My former Software Architecture & Clean Code professor, the one who literally taught me these concepts, reached out to me.

He asked if he could use HexAPI Generator in his class to show his students how clean code and structure can come together in practice.

Yes… my own prof. Using my tool.

In front of the next Master’s cohort. 😳

⚖️ Mixed feelings

I was honestly shocked.
My first thought was:

“Wait… but it’s not even that polished. It’s full of small hacks and quick fixes!”

But he told me it was exactly the kind of pragmatic and well-structured code he wanted to show. That hit different.

It made me realize that sometimes, what we see as “unfinished” or “not good enough” might already be valuable to others.

🚀 What I’m taking from it

This small moment gave me a real boost of confidence.
I’ve been deep into Clean Architecture, DDD, and code craftsmanship lately, not just for the sake of it, but because I truly love when software feels right.

Hearing that my work could help others learn that too…
Yeah, that’s the kind of validation that keeps me going.

💭 The takeaway

We often underestimate our own work because we compare it to some “perfect” version in our head. But done > perfect, especially when done with care and intention.

So if you’re building something, even messy, even unfinished, keep at it.
You never know who might find it useful, inspiring… or even worth teaching.

Help, I'm Disorganized!

Bertrand — Thu, 09 Oct 2025 14:29:08 +0000

Spoiler alert: this post won't be one of those self-congratulatory success stories.

I finished my studies on September 5th, and since then... everything has been chaos. Exciting chaos yeah but chaos nonetheless.

🧨 The spark

Earlier this year, I built a web app for a friend’s Optics thesis project.

That small success gave me the confidence to say to myself:

“Ok, I liked this project that was different from usual, why not take advantage of my curiosity to offer my skills to others! 2026 will be the year I go freelance!”

If it works = great.
If it doesn’t = I’ll at least have learned a lot and had fun building things.

So far, so good... but then came the mistakes.

🫡 Where things went wrong

First mistake: I waited too long.

Sure, I was busy finishing my master’s degree and my software architecture apprenticeship, but I could (and must) have planned things better.

Once my studies ended, everything started happening at once:

I began developing my personal project (👀)
I got hired full-time as a software engineer
I started doing administrative steps to become a freelancer

But of course, freelancing means visibility, right?

So I thought:

“I need a portfolio! Let’s pause everything and build one. Fast!”

Portfolio done. Phew. Time to breathe.

Wait! Now my current personal project also needs a landing page!

Guess what? Another pause, another website to build.

⚡ The realization

Everything kept piling up. It’s not burnout cause I’m still motivated, passionate, and full of ideas.

But I finally realized one simple truth:

I’m not bad at working hard.

I’m bad at organizing myself.

So now I’m learning the "hard" way.

I’m building Notion dashboards, task trackers, reminders, and project databases for everything (even personal life stuff like buy a new mouse 🤓).

💭 The lesson

Online, I often see people who seem to have it all figured out: shiny portfolios, perfect side projects, clean workflows.

But the truth is, there are also plenty of us out here just trying to keep up, learning by doing, and figuring out systems as we go.

So it got me thinking:

👉 If I had been better organized from the start, how far could I already be?

What's your tips for deep work ?

Bertrand — Sun, 05 Oct 2025 14:37:42 +0000

Yesterday I spent 5 focused hours and shipped a V0 of a marketing site for my project about to be announced.
No magic — just a tight entry ritual, a simple work structure, and a lot of no’s.

What I shipped is not the matter here, but I would love to hear what is your best deep-work tips.

⸻

1) The entry ritual

After kissing my little Akita (my favorite dog in the world), and pour my coffee, I started my session.

Goal: tell my brain it’s time to tunnel in.

Ambience: desk lamp + essential-oil diffuser (olfactory anchor)
Audio: a single playlist/video (synthwave mostly hehe), low volume (no headphones; I keep an ear out for my dog)
Phone: who cares, no one will call me so.

⸻

2) The structure

Nobody stays at 100% for 5 hours. I slice it up:

Block 1 — 1h45: hardest part (architecture, UI skeleton, routing)
Break — 15–20 min: water + tiny walk and of course hugs with my dog.
Block 2 — 1h30: “logical” features (contact form, blog list/detail, etc.)
Break — 20–30 min: light snack / stretching, and of course hugs with my dog.
Block 3 — 1h45: finish (responsive, polish, light animations, commits)

Golden rule: timer visible, hard stop when it rings, even if “I could finish”.

⸻

3) Anti-drift: micro rules

One lane only: no “what if I just try…”. The lane is chosen before starting.
Zero social (obvious, but writing it down helps).
Max 1–2 tabs (IDE + browser).
Brain dump: intrusive ideas go into Notion immediately, not my head.

⸻

4) What worked best

Sensory ritual (light + scent): it's dumb but super effective to enter flow.

5) What didn’t

Context-switch temptations: “just checking changing the song…” -> result 10 minutes searching for a good mood song.

⸻

Your turn — share your best deep-work tips

I’d love to learn from you:

A bulletproof entry ritual that never fails?
A timer structure you like better than mine?
Music/sounds that snap you into flow instantly?
An anti-drift technique that works (especially remote)?
Your non-negotiable rules during a session?

Drop your tips in the comments, I'd love to learn from you.

I'm curious, what do you do during “passive” moments?

Bertrand — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 08:27:22 +0000

Hi community!

As you may or may not know, I work 9-5 in a job that requires my full concentration. However, there are often “dead” moments: waiting for a build, a test, a CI pipeline, or a compilation to finish, or just standing by between reviews.

I have my own side project that's always on my mind, but I can't/don't want to clone the repo or code from my work computer. So I miss out on opportunities to make progress.

Simple question:
when you have these passive moments at work (or during breaks), what do you do to make progress on your projects without touching the code?

I'd love to hear your real-life feedback: routines, micro-tasks, tools, hacks, or mentally productive routines.

Share your habits, and if you have any tips for not just wasting time during these passive periods, I'll take anything. 🙏

Bertrand

Welcome in my post studies adventure !

Bertrand — Sun, 14 Sep 2025 14:34:05 +0000

Hello developers!

To introduce myself, my name is Bertrand, I am 29 years old, and after returning to school five years ago, I have just completed my studies in software architecture!

I've just finished my studies and am starting a permanent contract. Nothing unusual so far, but I'm staying focused on continuous learning and side projects: some are already underway, others are coming soon.

Why this post? Why this account?

Because I'm starting my post-study adventure with a public build around a project I've been working on for a month. I'll reveal the pitch soon.

The goal is, of course, to share with the community of developers and creators more generally, to share my daily life, and of course, yours!

I'll be posting updates here, on X, Reddit, and Dev.to.

Your feedback, advice, and ideas are obviously welcome, especially when it comes to balancing professional life and personal projects!

You can find me here :
New X account : @bertrand_dev
New Reddit account : @Bertrand_dev

I just shipped my very first tool alongside my coursework and internship – meet HexAPI Generator

Bertrand — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 05:49:45 +0000

What is it?

In my company, we follow a hexagonal architecture in Java on a project… which means every time you tweak an entity, you’re forced to manually update an Entity, a Mapper, a Controller, ports, adapters… rinse and repeat. That repetitive grind got old fast. So I built HexAPI Generator, a visual way to define your entities and automatically spit out every class you need via Jinja2 templates.

Why I made it

To save hours of boilerplate work at the office.
To solidify my full-stack chops and prove I can solve real-world pain points.
To beef up my portfolio with a tool I actually use every day.

What’s inside (v0.1)

Tkinter/ttkbootstrap GUI – define multiple entities, fields, types, comments, test values… all in one popup.
JSON project config – company, project name, package, table metadata alongside your entity schemas.
Jinja2 templates – generate Entity, Mapper, Controller, DataSource Port & Adapter, all following clean-code and DDD principles.
Light/Dark mode support – because staring at code for hours demands a proper theme.

Try it yourself

This project is open source under Apache. Fork it, remix it, integrate it into your stack – just don’t forget to ⭐ the repo for a dopamine hit 🙏.

🔗 View the code on GitHub : https://github.com/Bertrand2808/Hexapi

Update : my gamedev journey

Bertrand — Sat, 04 May 2024 16:04:12 +0000

Hello everyone,

Remember that post I made a while back about how much I missed game development? Well, I've got an update for you!😌

Since then, I've taken the plunge and after finally finishing my Unity course, I've started a new game project using Unity. So far, it's been an exhilarating journey. Not only am I immersing myself in the challenges of conceptualization, but I'm also exploring the world of pixel art, which is a refreshing creative outlet, allowing me to have that feeling of really chilling out with some nice music and just designing my tileset. Of course, I'm aware that nothing is perfect!

Despite the heavy workload of my master's degree in software development engineering and architecture, as well as my work-study placement, I decided to devote some time to this passion project. It's not easy to reconcile school projects and game development, especially with school deadlines looming until July, but I'm determined to see this game through.

I'm finding it hard to juggle all this, and I have to admit I'm worried that all this work at school is going to put a barrier in the way of my project, or even make it run out of steam. I wanted to share this update with you all, hoping to get back to you in a few months with some positive news ahah

I hope you're all doing well and finding joy in everything you do. Stay safe! 😌

I wish you all the best of luck,
Bertrand

Previous post : https://dev.to/bertrand2808/miss-you-game-dev-1g9j

Miss you game dev

Bertrand — Wed, 13 Mar 2024 15:59:06 +0000

When I started to take an interest in development, I was immediately interested in game dev. After all, I've been playing games since I was a kid! So I started to teach myself how to make little rpg-type games, in Python at first, which was so much fun!

It's probably thanks to this that I decided to change careers and that I'm now doing a master's degree in game development.

However, with my master's degree in software development engineering and architecture, and my work-study placement in a company where I'm doing full stack (more back than front), I've lost sight of game dev, and the more I think about it, the more I think about how much fun I was having, and how much I wanted to keep coding.

Today, I'd like to force myself to free up some time to get back to it, but I have the feeling that I won't have the time or the energy, and that it'll stay in the closet forever.

That makes me kinda sad, so I wanted to share this with someone somewhere ahah

Hope you're fine and you're enjoying whatever you do !
Keep safe

Bertrand

Make my first project !

Bertrand — Thu, 10 Mar 2022 10:54:21 +0000

Hey there !

I don't know why but I want to tell you all that I just finished my first real project in development !

I'm a very noob dev who wants to learn, learn and learn everyday. I was lost at the begining so I decided to follow a Python RogueLike Tutorial here on dev.to
I have code everyday a bit. In three weeks, I've finished this tutorial and modify the code as I wanted. Add somes items, monsters etc.

I think I don't assimilated 100% of the tutorial but I earned some knowledge and skills and I'm proud of me.

I don't know what to do next and wish some advices from all of you. What should I do ? Keep following new tutorials ? Read some lessons ?

Anyway, I wish you all a very good day/night wherever you are on this planet