Sometimes it’s the little things — One of the huge reasons behind VS Code’s success is how well it caters to developers. This is to be somewhat expected given that it’s largely a community-driven effort that allows for short feedback loops and a sure-footedly evolving ecosystem. Between the vast ocean of third-party extensions and the ever-expanding…

Do not underestimate the desk job — When I changed cities to start my master’s in 2018, I had just completed my undergraduate studies in computer science. Aside from the obvious, and welcome, change in scenery, one of the first things I noticed was how quickly my lifestyle changed. In my old university town with its 14…

5 reasons in 5 minutes — There was a time, early on in my software development journey, when I wasn’t even aware of the existence of source control management — much less Git. When the news eventually made its way to the rock I was living under, my unawareness gave way to repressed dread. Branches, merges…

The best places to tap into the vast developer community — It happens to the best of us. There you are, staring at your screen, your screen staring back. You’ve scoured the web until it feels like you’ve left no webpage unopened and visited every website twice. Your browser is bursting at the seams with tabs. …

The free tools and assets your frontend deserves — As both a developer and a user, I know firsthand that how an application looks can make or break the experience it provides. While a clean UI can create the illusion of a well-built product, even if it’s coming apart at the seams behind the scenes, a solid application with…

There’s more to these little guys than meets the eye — I consider myself a decent Python programmer. I’ve worked with the language extensively in the past and it’s the one I generally feel most comfortable using. But even well within the cozy confines of our comfort zones, every now and then, we all come across energizingly unfamiliar “huh” moments. Recently…

A command-line app to retrieve Netflix show information — I’m currently in the process of building an Android app that randomly picks a show to watch on Netflix. To do that, I needed access to up-to-date show information. While Netflix itself doesn’t provide an official public API, the next best thing is offered by unogsNG, which provides both a…

Write and manage your code without ever leaving the editor — There is perhaps some wisdom in the saying “Don’t sh** where you eat.” Fortunately, no one ever said, “Don’t Git where you code” — and a good thing too. Since its launch in 2015, Visual Studio Code has taken the world by storm (no, not you WebStorm). …

Interview prep starts long before the interview — Alice and Bob are each planning their beach holidays. This year, they’ve both taken it upon themselves to be in the best possible shape they can. Thinking ahead, Alice started hitting the gym and got her diet in check months in advance. …

The cheat sheet that goes beyond Git basics — For some time now, I’ve taken it upon myself to write down every Git command I’ve had to look up while working from the command line. Whenever I did so, I’d note the proper syntax, most common options, and where I got the information from. …

Tips to achieve more at your next hackathon — A while back, I took part in Itch.io’s Game Off 2020, an annual game jam where participants spend the month of November building a game based on a certain theme. …

Things are a bit different in extension land than what you’re probably used to — A while ago, I set out to build my first Chrome extension. Having recently gotten into the world of web development and getting my hands dirty by building a React project, I felt I had the tools necessary to take on this new challenge. While I wasn’t completely wrong to…

Style once, tinker indefinitely — While working on a Google Chrome extension, I found myself in need of a toggle switch. These are the little guys you’ll most commonly see on your phone or tablet to enable/disable things. Finding the Right Switch So I quickly set out in search of one that I could easily integrate into what I…

A step-by-step, hands-on introduction in Python — There is no shortage of ways out there that we can use to analyze and make sense of textual data. Such methods generally deal with an area of artificial intelligence called Natural Language Processing (NLP). NLP allows us to perform a multitude of tasks where our data consists of text…