maxx1128/webdev-study-notes

Notebook on programming, web development, nonfiction, and some fiction (ARCHIVED)

Archived Repo

This version of my Exocortex has been archived. You can see the up-to-date version here on my personal site.

The Exocortex

An Exocortex is a theoretical augmentation to a person's brain. It's basically extra functions and memory you could add to a brain to make people smarter.

They don't really exist yet, so this notebook is my exocortex in the meantime. I keep it full of notes for reference and sharing. Most are related to web development but could honestly be about anything - nonfiction, fiction, general life skills and topics, and whatever else I want remember without relying on my unreliable brain.

webdev-study-notes's Issues

Tweets on UXPA2019 article

Links to several tweets are at the bottom. Either find out where I was going to reference them or remove them.

Ruby Namespaces

Classes and Modules can get namespaced, good for organizing large-scale applications

• How does this work
• How the references change with self. methods
• Differences between class and module namespaces

Redis in Ruby on Rails

Redis is used all the time. Need some clearer, simpler notes about what it does and the pros and cons of it.

Add new API Resources

• https://wrapapi.com/
• https://rapidapi.com/collection/list-of-free-apis

Finish the Design Patterns notes

Each one should have the following subheaders:

• General description
• Specifics: the different pieces in using the pattern and their function
• Metaphor: an example that makes the pattern easier to understand
• Uses: when to actually use it

Updates from JS Tricks article

Some cool bits of info here to pull from this - http://pop.frontendweekly.co/qBby5d

• For spread operator, conditional values and combining with Set to get unique values
• Array.from can be added to the Array Methods note
• Something for Set and what it does in general?

Programmer Jargon note

• Tree shaking
• Bike shedding and dogfooding could be included here too, because what the hell
• Bundlers and Task Runners
• Dependency Graph?
• Code Splitting
• CDN

Initial reference - https://alistapart.com/article/responsible-javascript-part-2/

Programming Idioms

Add to a resource list, also look through it for more info

https://www.programming-idioms.org/

Gov.uk Design principles

Lots of web design and/or accessibility tips can be found here. At the very least see where the ten principles can be added?

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/government-design-principles

Look through Codeland book

Lots of good resources and info in it, skim through it for others to check out or reference knowledge to include.

Personal Safety and Security Note

Look back at 13 Things book chapters from burglars and related content for additional tips

• Deadbolt
• Paper shredder
• Bring in mail
• No distractions and looking around when in dangerous areas
• Password manager and 2-factor authentication (no text messages)

Update code formatting

Many code blocks use generic code formatting when it should be set based on the language being used.

Notes on Twitter strategy?

Ali's strategy as well as other general tips?

• Avoid too many hashtags, if any at all

Ali's Strategy

• 4-5 a day, mostly in the morning

  • 2-3 on useful advice or information. Can be pulled from past material or tweets
  • 1 self- promotion
  • 1 lifting up other users or groups. Follow fridays!
  • Interaction tweets included as needed

• Not focusing on like/retweet interactions, focus more on replies and other users

• Tweetdeck or other tool to focus on lists and searches, not Twitter's weirdly curated homepage

• Schedule tweets in batches

• Don't be afraid of media like images or emojis

CSS Inspiration Resource

Start with Jen Simmon's labs and Zen Garden, and look around for other inspiring CSS links

• https://labs.jensimmons.com/
• http://www.csszengarden.com/

Add extra accessibility stress cases

https://www.cjcid.com/articles/unexpected-a11y-tips/

A11y context and semantics (DOM Tree) Notes

Pull from this article, into one or more notes for the accessibility category

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/06/web-accessibility-context/

Add image color picker

https://image-color.com/

Aliases for classes/methods/vars

https://medium.com/rubycademy/alias-in-ruby-bf89be245f69

Check out RegexOne

More ideas to add to Regex note

https://regexone.com/

Ruby File Class

File is a common part of Ruby and comes up so often. I need some notes on it.

Start here - https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.5.0/File.html

Backfilling data tables

• What it is
• When to do it
• Common/useful approaches to it

https://medium.com/@aweirdcraft/backfilling-data-in-rails-5-0-few-thoughts-on-writing-safe-migrations-1f4c8c4454c9

`block_given?` method

https://apidock.com/ruby/Kernel/block_given%3F

Scheduled Jobs in Ruby and Rails

Has frequently come up at work and is very much outside my comfort zone of understanding. Look into how it's managed at the work repo as well as the concepts and best practices around it. As well as the basic functions of how it works.

• Queues
• Sidekiq

`fetch` method

Pulling from a hash

Also, look into dig and note the differences

• https://apidock.com/ruby/Hash/fetch
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/55429632/could-someone-explain-me-what-is-the-difference-between-hashdig-vs-hashfetch

Add Accessibility Testing Note

Things to check manually to fully flesh out accessibility tests

https://www.matuzo.at/blog/beyond-automatic-accessibility-testing-6-things-i-check-on-every-website-i-build/

Update Pragmatic Programmer Notes

Skim through book again and pull out highlights, not just the byline of each chapter.

Iterations with `next` and `break`

What these do in iterations like with each and conditionals that can be used with them.

https://medium.com/@ryanflach/next-and-break-in-ruby-4bf9daf5322d

Add Command Line redo tip

Tweet from a recent #DevDiscuss showed a great tip to bring the last command back with a changed part.

Skim through deep-dive JS articles

Great pieces for finding new concepts or specific points to take note of. Should either open related issues for larger topics or build on existing notes.

Add comments with an updated list of links as they're looked through for the notes.

• https://github.com/lydiahallie/javascript-questions/blob/master/README.md
• https://www.robinwieruch.de/javascript-fundamentals-react-requirements/
• https://css-tricks.com/new-es2018-features-every-javascript-developer-should-know/
• https://github.com/leonardomso/33-js-concepts
• https://github.com/nas5w/javascript-tips-and-tidbits/blob/master/README.md

!Bang operators (not array)

Adding ! or !! to the start of a value

• What they do

• Does it mutate the original value?

• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3994033/ruby-operator-a-k-a-the-double-bang

Add Programmable Web

To Programming Resources, is a large API directory

https://www.programmableweb.com/

Add Giant list of Free Dev Resources

https://free-for.dev/#/

Add generated faces to front-end resources

Images section

• https://generated.photos/

Rescue methods

Rescue and Begin, and potentially just Rescue, in methods

https://www.rubyguides.com/2019/06/ruby-rescue-exceptions/

Add useful git reset command

This git reset command to set the local branch to match remote branches has been very useful, I should add it later. Look up some extra context for this about what the parameters mean.

git reset --hard @{u}

Add Codeland Git Cheatsheet

Included in the given handbook, grab photos of it to include in the Git note. Be sure to credit them in Resources!

"How to Win Friends and Influence People" notes

The first two chapters are noted as of this typing.

• Add current notes as an active PR
• Add note to "Soft Skills" section

Break "92 Ways" into own directory

Each h2 should denote the section moved into its own note.

Add Technical Writing article to Writing Notes

Have a specific area for technical writing? See if enough would fall into this to justify adding it.

https://css-tricks.com/advice-for-technical-writing/

Burn Your Portfolio Notes

Taking them on Remarkable, transfer them over here when done.

Add Accessible Ember Octane Resource

https://melsumner.gitbook.io/ember-component-patterns/form-components/select-element

Webpage Performance Notes

This article is a good starting point to pull points from - https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/07/web-on-50mb-budget/

Ruby `tr` method

• How it works
• How it differs from gsub
• If no gsub info, add that too

Links

• https://medwardstechblog.wordpress.com/2017/04/06/the-difference-between-tr-and-gsub/
• https://ruby-doc.org/core-2.6.4/String.html#method-i-tr

Ruby lazy evaluator

Having an ampersand on an object before calling a method will look up the method first. If it doesn't exist, it won't call the non-existent method

• Does it return nil or something else?
• Specific to Ruby on Rails?

Learn X in Y Minutes

Add this to the broad programming resources note

• https://learnxinyminutes.com/

Add note on screen reader usage

• How pages are navigated with them (and how to take this into account)
• Common "gotchas"
• Links to the demos

Current reference - https://axesslab.com/what-is-a-screen-reader/

Web Forms

Add to Web Design section, start with below article as starting inspiration

• https://adamsilver.io/articles/where-to-put-buttons-in-forms/

Also, look at form labels and other fields touched on. Focus on the look and organization, not the code!

Look through and clean up branches

Branches should either have their knowledge merged to Master or have a PR set up for them.

Enumerable module

What it does, and popular methods within it.

Should probably have its own note.

https://www.codementor.io/ruby-on-rails/tutorial/rubys-swiss-army-knife-the-enumerable-module

Accessibility lessons from user testing article

https://www.gatsbyjs.org/blog/2019-07-11-user-testing-accessible-client-routing/