Forem: Desi

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of August 12, 2019

Desi — Wed, 28 Aug 2019 13:20:12 +0000

Posts don't help unless you post them... whoops!

One of the reasons I've been so drawn to DEV.to over other platforms is the super encouraging and helpful community that gathers here. Initially I felt like it was going to be more a place where I sat back and watched, rather than write and contribute, but I've been so pleased to find not only helpful articles and tutorials that I understand, but also that input from new coders and devs is well-received.

I recently became a Tag Moderator for #beginners, so I get to see even more of the awesome content out there beyond what comes up in my dashboard!

It's been another great week of posts for #codenewbies, so let's dive right in!

10 Great Programming Projects to Improve Your Resume and Learn to Program

SeattleDataGuy ・ Aug 12 '19

#beginners #career #python #webdev

As in past weeks, I often get a lot of value out of project idea lists. This week we get some new ideas - I especially like the one on an event notification app!

Learn how to use CSS Grid with a FREE tool CSS Grid Generator

Dan Vega ・ Aug 12 '19

#webdev #beginners #css #tutorial

I live for Sarah Drasner's grid generator. It's super easy to use and has helped me learn a lot about the grid and how (and why) it works.

CSS Cheat Sheets!

Ali Spittel for Ladybug Podcast ・ Aug 12 '19

#css

Shoutout to the Ladybugs for these awesome and gorgeous CSS cheat sheets!

How to Write JavaScript When You Don’t Know Where to Begin

Carl Anderson ・ Aug 13 '19

#javascript #beginners #webdev

What a lifesaver this post is. With several of my projects I've gotten to points where I'm at a loss on what to learn next or where to look - thinking about how to slow down and think it through is great!

Learn to Code Anything in 6 Steps

Lee Warrick ・ Aug 19 '19

#beginners #productivity #webdev #motivation

Lee's post on learning to code is really about learning how to learn. His six steps are applicable for any new endeavor you're taking on!

Frontend Job Interview Questions #1 — HTML Questions

Alex Shulaev ・ Aug 17 '19

#career #interview #html #beginners

Preparing for coding interviews is often a source of stress for new developers or programmers - collecting any resources with practice questions and exercises is key!

What the heck is a unit? How do I test it? 🍏🍎

Adam Crockett 🌀 ・ Aug 17 '19

#beginners #testing #javascript

I love a "what the heck" post (as evidenced here) and think the responses in this thread on unit testing are really educational!

These lifehacks will change the way you write Markdown!

Yechiel Kalmenson ・ Aug 16 '19

#writing #markdown #beginners #blogging

While I disliked markdown for a long time, years of using it at work coupled with these past few months writing on DEV have sparked a love I didn't think possible. If markdown is marking you down (hah!) try some of these tips.

Letting My Mind Rest: How Coding Gets Me Through Those Rough Days

Lindsay Iveson ・ Aug 14 '19

#mentalhealth #beginners #codenewbie #javascript

Coding can often be meditative in a day, and a nice thing to plunge yourself into on hard days. Lindsay talks about how it helps them in these situations.

Beginner tips for developers with no design background.

Ellen Macpherson ・ Aug 13 '19

#beginners #design #css

Despite years of trying to improve my creativity and design skills, I still struggle. There's a huge stigma that programmers aren't creative either, so if you feel that's true of you, check out these tips from Ellen!

ELI5: What the heck is Kubernetes?

Desi — Wed, 14 Aug 2019 13:00:15 +0000

What is it? What are they? Help a girl out, I am so confused.

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of August 5, 2019

Desi — Tue, 13 Aug 2019 14:45:21 +0000

I recently became a Tag Moderator for #beginners, so I get to see even more of the awesome content out there beyond what comes up in my dashboard!

It's been another great week of posts for #codenewbies, so let's dive right in!

What happens when you type in www.xyz.com

Vaibhav Namburi ・ Aug 5 '19

#dev #beginners #backend

Since starting as a tech support, I've done plenty of domain name troubleshooting, but never really understood the ins-and-outs of how things really work internally. This is a nice ELI5 explainer!

Writing Your First Browser Extension Tutorial - Part 1

Yechiel Kalmenson ・ Aug 5 '19

#javascript #beginners #browsers #webdev

I missed Codeland this year because it fell during my annual company meetup, so I'm glad that many of the talks are coming out as videos or posts now!

Five things I knew about security, before I knew anything about security

Hayley Denbraver 👩‍💻🥑 ・ Aug 4 '19

#security #beginners #webdev #career

Security is a hot topic these days, and with good reason. It can feel overwhelming when trying to learn, but as Hayley points out in this article, there's already a lot you know on the topic without even realizing!

What to put in your portfolio as a beginner web dev

Brian Emilius ・ Aug 6 '19

#beginners #discuss

Another post on what to include on your portfolio site as you start out, including some projects to build for those times you have project block!

About Pair Programming

Milecia ・ Aug 8 '19

#webdev #beginners #agile #pairprogramming

Pair programming is invaluable for newbie coders - not only in learning a new codebase, but also seeing how other developers work, which could include some tips that work for you, too. It should be symbiotic, though - both of you are working on the same project, with the same end goal, and talking out the best way to get there (and being built-in typo checkers for each other) helps ensure the best product possible for users.

How I stayed organized whilst studying a Computer Science degree and working a job📝

yusufcodes ・ Aug 11 '19

#beginners #computerscience #career #productivity

Second-career developers often have a lot going on, balancing a jobs, families, and studying both in and out of classrooms, and traditional college students face many of the same challenges. Staying organized is paramount, and it's super helpful to see how other students plan their schedules!

Best resources for a beginner developer?

Florin Pop ・ Aug 11 '19

#discuss #dev

This post (and its comments) feature super helpful, useful, and relevant resources for beginners - it's always nice to have even more resources to turn to!

5 JavaScript Books I Regret Not Reading as a Code Newbie

RealToughCandy.io ・ Aug 11 '19

#javascript #education #books #codenewbie

This post is a double-win for me as a super avid reader! Javascript is my focus right now, and I've added a few of these books to my list.

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of July 29, 2019

Desi — Mon, 05 Aug 2019 13:00:12 +0000

I love to compile and share some of the best posts every week for those of us who still identify as #codenewbies!

Some JavaScript Leaders You May Want to Follow on DEV

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team ・ Jul 29 '19

#webdev #javascript #meta #bestofdev

If you're interested in Javascript, Ben shared some must-follow DEV users this week!

Understanding Flexbox with Cats: Part 1 Basics

Kate Efimova ・ Jul 29 '19

#flexbox #css #cats #tutorial

My fiancee (still getting used to saying that!) has been talking about wanting to revisit CSS and Javascript as part of his annual goals at work in the next year, and he loves cats. This post seemed like a great reintroduction to him, breaking down flexbox with cute kitties!

5 Tips and Tricks for Firefox DevTools - Responsive Design Mode

Alex Lakatos 🥑 ・ Jul 30 '19

#design #productivity #responsive #devtricks

In my day job, I test a lot of different devices and screen sizes - I never knew that you could create custom devices in Firefox devtools! That's just one of the useful tips in Alex's rundown on Firefox this week.

How to Write a Great Conference Talk Proposal from Conference Organizers

Brian Rinaldi ・ Aug 1 '19

#career

Interested in speaking at conferences in the future? Here are some things to keep in mind when submitting to that CFP!

My Advice to Beginner Devs

Brian Emilius ・ Aug 3 '19

#beginners #career

It's great when advanced or senior developers share some of their advice, and this article is no different. Brian shares some wisdom applicable to anyone, no matter where they are in their journey.

7 Productivity Tips to Avoid Burnout at Work

claire.whyter ・ Aug 1 '19

#productivity

Burnout is super real, and I was going through it bad for awhile. After finally being diagnosed with and getting treated for ADHD, I'm functioning much better now, and my burnout has improved. But it never should have reached the depths it did - Claire's post shares some strategies for self-care and productivity to help assuage some of the effects if you start to feel it, either in learning or at work.

What to read to fall in love with math 💚

Anna Buianova ・ Jul 30 '19

#books #math #mathematics #learning

In school, I hated math. It didn't make sense until one day when I was around 27 and then suddenly... it did. I've added a few of these books to my queue, along with Superhi's Math for Creatives course! Superhi is where I take a lot of courses, and they're really great. That referral code gets you a discount, if you're interested!

What mailing lists do you subscribe to?

Desi — Fri, 02 Aug 2019 18:54:39 +0000

For years I used Unroll.me to manage my email newsletters and tuck them away so I don't see them, and with the advent of Gmail's Promotions tab, I got even less noise every week. Still, I really wanted to stop getting most of these altogether. And it seems like I'm not the only one on DEV.to making this effort lately:

Save the planet, clean your mailbox

🦁 Yvonnick FRIN ・ Jul 30 '19 ・ 1 min read

#tutorial #discuss

There are a handful of newsletters that I do actually read every week, and I wanted to share my "never unsubscribed" lists!

Juniors in Tech: Keziyah has built Juniors in Tech into such a valuable resource, whether it's the newsletter (FILLED with articles for beginners and mid-level employees both), or the website with its job board, it's clear that she wants to be a resource to help newbies learn and grow.

Diversify Tech: @venikunche 's newsletter is invaluable for many of the same reasons as Juniors in Tech, with a broader experience set. She's also a fantastic follow on DEV or Twitter - I've learned a lot from her.

Bizarro Devs: I love seeing creative projects or weird code. This week's newsletter introduced me to my new summer love, poolside.fm!

Developer Avocados: This curated reading list also includes CFPs and upcoming conference info. I continue to be very interested in advocacy the more I learn about it, and it's really great to have hand-picked articles to further knowledge on it!

Codepen Spark: More examples of fun, creative code projects!

The Byte: The newsletter for Lesbians Who Tech. They often include scholarship or travel grant information for minority groups among industry news.

As far as non-tech newsletters, I look forward to Girls Night In every week, but I've unsubscribed from all the other "lifestyle"-type newsletters. For writing, I've been getting Reedsy's Friday challenge prompts for a few years. I've only submitted pieces twice, but I really enjoy having a cache of writing prompts to reference if I feel inspired to write but have a block.

What are your must-read newsletters?

Book Review: Don't Make Me Think!

Desi — Thu, 01 Aug 2019 19:18:08 +0000

Steve Krug is basically the godfather of usability testing and user research. When I started taking over user research for my team, our UX Designer suggested reading his book Rocket Surgery Made Easy, to get familiar with the principles in testing. The book breaks it down so anyone can do it, provides scripts and schedules, and makes suggestions on how to introduce it to your team to build it into your flow. He wrote it as a follow up to this book, Don't Make Me Think!, which is a basic outline of designing with accessibility and usability in mind.

I feel like this book should be a must-read for anyone in development, engineering, or design, but what does my opinion really count for? 😉 Who knew that designing web forms was so complex? There's a lot of value in both books, so I'll share some of my notes from Don't Make Me Think here.

What is usability?

Book definition: A person of average (or even below average) ability and experience can figure out how to use the thing to accomplish something without it being more trouble than it's worth.

Desi definition: The thing should be used mindlessly for most users.

Even if a user finds a product difficult, they're likely to stick with it for the "devil you know" philosophy: will the competition be less frustrating? Or will it be worse?

Since users are creatures of habit and will continue to struggle through with a product they're familiar with, what's the value or benefit in making products usable?

Making a product easier for users to find what they're looking for benefits both the user, and you: they find what they want, you appear reliable and helpful, benefitting from repeated use and potential word of mouth marketing
A usable site or product allows them to understand everything you offer, rather than what they just latch onto or look for, potentially bringing them more value and you more sales
You can steer them where you want them to go, not just where they want to go
A usable product helps users feel smarter and more in control, which will bring them back and empower them. People want to feel smart and will repeatedly use products that help them feel that way

With that in mind, how do people learn how to use products, and how do they use them in practice?

We don't read pages, we scan them. (This was especially true of how I read this book - the way it's laid out is super scan-friendly, with only the most important content on each page, broken down into bullet points, bolded text, and other visual signals.)
We don't make optimal choices - we "satisfice". If something is "good enough," we'll settle for it.
We don't figure out how things work. We muddle through - even if there is a tutorial, people aren't likely to watch or read it. They're more likely to just forge forward, clicking buttons and hoping for the best. They'll want to rely on their intuition (because they believe they are smart) vs. instructions.

What usability rules can we put in place for ease of use?

Keep the noise down (only include the most relevant information, and if necessary, link out for anyone interested to learn more)
Break pages into clearly defined areas - this helps support scanning. Use short paragraphs, lists, bold and larger headings, omit needless words especially fluff - a lot of marketing copy can be "fluffy" and easily (and ruthlessly) edited. Think about Coco Chanel's philosophy: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”
When providing guidance, it should be brief, timely, and well-placed. Break things into trees rather than presenting all choices at once, and when building, make an outline of all possible choices or thoughts the user might run into in the flow. (Does that sound familiar? 😉)
Don't drain the reservoir of goodwill. There are a few things that users will forgive - clicking the wrong link, a broken image, confusing text - but if the reservoir is empty, they'll give up and leave. Do some user testing to see where that line is for your product and users

source

There are four questions users need to be answered right away:

"What is this? What do they have here? What can I do here? Why should I be here and not somewhere else?"

You can gather data from your own website and use that to determine the right questions (i.e., "do people like radio buttons" vs. "do radio buttons in this instance and this context provide a good experience for most users"). The idea behind usability is to make using the product mindless for most users.

The original book was published in 2000, and in 2014, an updated version with suggestions on mobile design was released. Don't Make Me Think is great not only because the easy way he breaks principles down, but also because it's full of real-life, relatable examples. One of the most illuminating sections is where Steve talks about why he doesn't use a particular website on his phone and his workarounds for it (getting an alert from that website, Googling the news item, and finding a different news service to read from.) In this update, he talks about the philosophy of "mobile first" design (and why that's not always the fix for mobile usability issues) and responsive design.

Four Things to Do Right Now for Accessibility Improvement

Fix the usability problems that confuse everyone
Read an article the way your users read it (with screen readers, on mobile, in an RSS reader, etc.)
Read a book
Go for the low-hanging fruit. Several easy fixes: adding alt tags to images, using the approriate h tags to indicate importance, or reading one of Lindsey's articles on this topic!

source

Near the end of the book, he invokes Dr. Seuss. The Lorax is a character who "speaks for the trees," and Steve suggests that we become the Lorax for our users. Often, management and business analysts are disconnected from the user and look at the "bottom line," using that information to plan road maps. In order to speak for your users, learn how to interpret user needs and wants into business jargon to influence or persuade stakeholders and decision makers to show why it will be beneficial to them. This could be through demonstrating ROI, or running a usability test so you have data. (Analysts LOVE data.) You could also trunk test them - it might be a good way to demonstrate usability principles!

My takeaways

Ask support. Your support team is your first line of defense and interaction with users. They know pain points, expectations, and common usability and accessibility issues
Navigation is important - if it's missing or if users think it's missing, your website is unusable
Determine what tradeoffs are worth it. Is it worth sticking to your branding of making links look like regular text with no discernable difference and possibly having users not find what they're looking for? Or is that a concession you can make?
Know your user. Do usability testing if possible, but if not, again... talk to your support team
Follow best practices and standards - don't reinvent the submit button. If users are familiar with an interface, design in a way they're familiar with
Delight your users. What is delight? Can you define it? Can a product be delightful in every way?
Make products accessible in ways users actually use the product. If your longform article on using braille in taxis can't be found by screen readers, it might not matter how many visits you get
Be the Lorax. Beyond being an advocate for users with management, advocate with your team, as well. If something is being developed in a way that users will struggle with, bring it up, and try to talk through a different way of building it

Aside from all the really helpful and useful information, it's an easy read - sensibly designed, quick, compact. Steve writes with an informal, casual tone, and breaks down principles and concepts in "obvious" ways. This book (and Rocket Surgery Made Easy) are invaluable resources and the principles in them can help at all stages of the product process, and are worth a read! (_And if they say they don't have time, just send them this post 😉)

I Got My Dream Job. Now What?

Desi — Tue, 30 Jul 2019 19:48:07 +0000

Cover image from CreateHER Stock Photos. The following is an excerpt from the book Your First Year in Code, written by the DEV Community! Read the full chapter (and many others with even more sage tips and advice) here.

When I started my first job in tech, it was as a support team member at a website builder geared toward musicians. My background made me ideal: years of retail and entertainment-industry customer service, HTML and CSS experience with an interest in web design, a music business degree, and the vocabulary to communicate with low-level tech users. I was pumped - a dream job that felt created just for me. I’d never considered that there was a company out there that married my disparate passions, let alone that I could land a job there.

In that position, I was doing a lot of intense troubleshooting for both members and co-workers while getting exposed to and comfortable with how the tech industry works and how companies are structured. It was a company with a QA department of one, and though I fell in love with troubleshooting and breaking things, we already had a great employee in that position. I didn't see myself being available to transition over. A small, awesome company means low turnover, so I didn't really give much thought to if there would be additional positions on the QA team to transition to eventually. But when our new CEO did some restructuring, she promoted the old QA guy to Project Manager, and behold - I had the opportunity to train for my (new) dream job!

Over the course of a career, your dream job can change and shift - and that’s a good thing. While you work, you’re learning more about the industry you’re in and being exposed to more facets of it, discovering positions you never knew existed. In tech and dev, things are always changing. There's always something new to learn or a new startup being founded. That’s another reason you might have to continually revisit and redefine your “dream job”: new positions and new fields are often being created, so your eventual dream job might not even exist today, though your dream company might.

Advancing in your career also opens more opportunities - and once you start to stagnate, even the perfect job can stop feeling perfect. That's a good thing, but it can feel confusing to know how to keep growing and keep going. After all, wasn’t this your ideal position? When this happens in technology, we have a unique opportunity to shape and design our dream jobs.

Even if you're not in a place to consider a transition right now, it's beneficial to look around and see what types of positions are open from time to time. Being aware of what else is out there and interests you is important to keep in mind. Being able to clearly recognize the next great fit when you see it can help stave off self-doubt, while staying prepared to apply when opportunities arise can combat impostor syndrome.

What else is out there?

A great way to start considering what your new “dream job” might be is to start reviewing open positions even before you’re ready to leave your company or position. Not only does this give you an idea of what new skills or education you can focus on, it can also put new jobs, industries or technologies on your radar. Industries like developer relations and the Internet of Things might not have even been on the map when you started your tech career. As these categories get more popular and more positions are being created, keeping abreast of what requirements companies are looking for lets you tailor your experience to a new, growing industry.

Exercise

To start evaluating your next move, even if it feels far off, try to take a look every week or two at open positions at your dream company. If you see one that particularly interests you, save it to your computer. Highlight or circle aspects of the job that interest you, and you can update your resume or portfolio using the same wording.

This also helps you to know what parts of the job you wouldn’t be interested in - your “dream job” likely has parts that feel very dry to you, and that’s important to keep in mind as you continue searching as well.

Keeping up to date and being educated on other current openings and industry growth will make you confident to know when your new dream job pops up, and ready to land it!

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of July 23, 2019

Desi — Mon, 29 Jul 2019 18:38:47 +0000

I thought it would be nice to compile some of the best posts every week for those of us who still identify as #codenewbies!

First up - the DEV Community wrote a book! Your First Year in Code, edited by Isaac Lyman, is available now (and I have a chapter in it, yay!) It's full of helpful tips for navigating your code career, and though it's geared toward newbies, there's plenty for anyone to learn from.

The DEV Community Published a Book: Your First Year in Code

Ben Halpern for The DEV Team ・ Jul 22 '19

#meta #firstyearincode #books #beginners

Article No Longer Available

When I first learned to code lo those many years ago on Geocities, font size was (usually) defined as px. I go away for a few years, come back, and everything is measuring in em. I never really stopped to think about what it means or why it's referred to that way, but Kayla breaks it down for us!

Getting DOM Elements using JavaScript

Atta ・ Jul 25 '19

#webdev #javascript #beginners #codenewbie

This year I decided to learn... hand-writing

Davide de Paolis ・ Jul 26 '19

#career #selfimprovement #goals #personaldevelopment

Repeat after me: life is not only about work. It's important to have other hobbies or goals outside the office. This year I've really been focusing on improving my bullet journal doodles (and I think I'm coming along nicely, if I do say so myself) so it's great to see another DEV-er putting pen to paper as well!

How to Work with a Not so Perfect Codebase - Based on My Experience of Working in One!

Haseeb ・ Jul 25 '19

#discuss #programming #beginners #career

Diving in to a giant, existing codebase is often one of the biggest sources of panic for beginners starting their first dev job. Keep calm and learn from others' experience.

Getting Cozy With C++

Ben Lovy ・ Jul 28 '19

#beginners #cpp #devjournal

I'm not going to pretend that I know the first thing about C++, but I do know that it's empowering to see other community members who are more senior in their code and programming knowledge take on something new!

Article No Longer Available

Python is the next language I want to take on, so I'm bookmarking lots of articles about it lately. I love the breakdown of the topics learned in the Twitch stream - plus it's replayable on Youtube and Twitch!

The Ultimate Code Review Blog Post Series

Michaela Greiler ・ Jul 25 '19

#codenewbie #coding #beginners #programming

Three cheers for code reviews! Michaela uses her experience and tips picked up while working for Microsoft to create a comprehensive blog post series about it, including an ebook with best practices and a study guide.

Debugging - you’re doing it wrong. 10 techniques to find a bug in your code

Nik Poltoratsky ・ Jul 23 '19

#productivity #challenge #explainlikeimfive

I love finding bugs, and I'll always be a bug hunter at heart. This post is great not only for newbie developers who are thinking through where their issues might be coming from, but also other employees across your company - not everyone is going to sit down and rubber duck out a problem, but they might think to open the console and take a screenshot, which is super handy for hard to recreate bugs!

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of July 15, 2019

Desi — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 19:33:15 +0000

I thought it would be nice to compile some of the best posts every week for those of us who still identify as #codenewbies!

Article No Longer Available

What are design systems and why is everyone talking about them suddenly? A few months ago Pete Buttgeig's presidential campaign got a lot of press for their "groundbreaking" design system, ignoring the fact that Hillary Clinton's team led by Mina Markham had put together a comprehensive library in 2016. This week, Emma starts a series in what they are, why they're so handy, and how to create one!

.map(), .filter(), and .reduce()

Andy Pickle ・ Jul 16 '19

#javascript #beginners

Andy has been on the job hunt recently, and a friend offered to mock interview him. He's nice enough to share some of his thoughts on the process while walking through some Javascript concepts!

10 questions you should ask during technical interviews

Yaser Adel Mehraban ・ Jul 17 '19

#interview #recruitment #questions #tips

Don't forget that when interviewing, you're not the only one trying to show off your skills. Be sure to ask questions to make sure the company is a good fit for you - this list of ten questions are a great resource (and don't forget to leave your other "need to know"s in the comments!)

How to build a calendar with CSS Grid

Zell Liew 🤗 ・ Jul 17 '19

#css

I've been playing around with grid quite a lot lately, so I appreciate seeing #showdev posts and tutorials with other unique ways to create projects and layouts.

Article No Longer Available

Frameworks can be a great help on most projects - but are they really necessary? There's some great discussion and a lot to learn in the comments on Michael's post!

All you need to know about python virtual environments

Gajesh ・ Jul 17 '19

#python #webdev #beginners #productivity

Gajesh's in-depth tutorial for beginners on how to set up Python virtual environments is excellent. Well-written and easy to understand!

Article No Longer Available

I just really liked this post and its comments section - there's a pile of useful websites and tools here!

Article No Longer Available

Freelance jobs are great for newbies because they give you a chance to build your profile while making some money. Adam shares some great things to keep in mind, like a frequently updated portfolio site and selecting a niche target audience.

Do you want to be a Top Developer? You Must Build Things! - 7 Apps to Build

Carlos Caballero ・ Jul 18 '19

#carrer #beginners #motivation #programming

Looking for some projects to expand that portfolio? I frequently bookmark idea lists like this so next time I have "builder's block," there's some easy inspiration at hand.

we are anxio.us: a collection of mental health and wellness apps

Desi — Fri, 19 Jul 2019 14:37:31 +0000

Hello, DEV!

A few months ago I posted my Three Good Things app, and I was so happy that people seemed to find useful. Later that month, I deployed m1 of a worry tree app that I use constantly to get myself out of thought loops.

I'm finding that I really like making these kind of tools, and thought it was probably time to put up a simple site to compile all of them together.

So in my proudest moment, I purchased weareanxio.us (get it? Anxious? anxio.us? I'm so glad my partner thinks I'm funny.) and yesterday, I deployed to Netlify.

I'm excited and proud - it's the first time I've successfully deployed from Github 😂 and while the design iterated a bit from my initial sketches, it's really cool to see my vision live out there in the world.

In addition to Three Good Things and the worry tree, there's also m1 of a "calm down" bottle and some previews of other things I'm working on. At the bottom, there's also a list of resources for mental health and wellness.

Thanks DEV.to for being so encouraging and helpful along the way, and I hope that you find something helpful or useful here!

Do you report bugs you run into on other websites?

Desi — Thu, 18 Jul 2019 14:55:31 +0000

Maybe it's just me and my Bug Queen reputation, but if I see something on a website that's not working properly - whether it's a design issue on someone's portfolio or a functionality bug for a service, it's hard for me to ignore.

I've started to wonder if it's just my anal nature, or if others do this too.

Generally if I see an issue on someone's personal website, I'll try to DM them on Twitter. But if their DMs are closed, I tend to stop there. There are a lot of websites that make it hard to report as well - while I was sourcing images for this post, I ran into an Unsplash issue! 😂 They have a handy form that displays when they have a known outage, but also a help article detailing how to report an issue or bug.

Basecamp has great Twitter support, and they're super responsive via DM.

And of course, open source projects like DEV.to! make it pretty easy to create an issue in Github.

For websites that don't make it so easy, do you even bother? Do visual or functionality bugs not bother you? How do you reach out? What kind of info do you provide?

Best DEV.to Posts for Beginners: Week of July 8, 2019

Desi — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 00:42:51 +0000

I thought it would be nice to compile some of the best posts every week for those of us who still identify as #codenewbies!

Article No Longer Available

Emma's comprehensive post is applicable for anyone - newbie, senior, non-programmer, whomever. They're really useful, digestable, and relevant to anyone in their journey. They also build off each other - get good at googling, but don't just copy and paste your code. Take time to understand what each operator does!

Strikethrough using HTML5

Samantha Ming ・ Jul 8 '19

#html #webdev #programming #beginners

Learning new or better ways to structure HTML is one of my favorite topics. Even something as simple as <s> has a more semantic and useful way of being written!

Interview your Interviewer

kcarrel ・ Jul 7 '19

#interview #beginners

An important thing that can often be overlooked when job hunting is that the HR interviewer is a good resource for you, too. Ask any questions you have about the company, but also remember that the interviewer is a reflection of the company and their behaviour might be an indication of the company or team's culture!

How to pitch your skills as a developer in a way that aligns with a company's needs

Corey Cleary ・ Jul 8 '19

#career #hiring

Relatedly, these tips on how to pitch yourself to a company is a great way to build your portfolio, work on a worthwhile project, and show a company how you can fill their needs!

Improve Pull Requests with 5 Habits

chantastic ・ Jul 9 '19

#git #webdev #beginners #productivity

How to Write a Good Blog Post

Ryland G ・ Jul 8 '19

#beginners #webdev #productivity #tutorial

Starting to write blog posts whether its on your own portfolio website, here on DEV.to, or for your company's publication can feel intimidating if you don't "feel" like a writer. Here are some tips and practices for what makes a "good" post!

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Many of our fellow posters shared some of their best suggestions for technical writing in this thread, too.

Beginner Python Resources Recommended by the Tech Community

Kara Luton ・ Jul 11 '19

#beginners #python

Python is often suggested as a good introductory programming language - this week, Kara crowdsourced some great beginner resources for us.

Programming Live Streams

Florin Pop ・ Jul 12 '19

#discuss #live #streams #programming

I really like to watch programming live streams while I'm working on something else - it keeps my brain lightly engaged, and then when I encounter the same topics later, having even the briefest familiarity helps to make the concepts stick!