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Article Roundup - Week of 5/22/2017

Article Roundup

Mavo
I don’t know that Mavo is going to take off, but it is interesting. It lets you create web applications with just HTML. No JavaScript required.

Speedracer
You have a test runner for automated testing, why not something else to check performance? It’s still fairly new, but this might be something to keep an eye on.

Idiomatic Redux: The Tao of Redux, Part 1 - Implementation and Intent
I haven’t read this entire article yet, but if you have been learning redux or thinking about it this would probably provide some valuable information. Just so you know, there is a part 2 as well.

ThoughtWorks Radar
ThoughtWorks is a software consulting company. Radar began as something internal to help the company keep track of trends. It has since grown and is now a report put out every 6 months or so. Here is a direct link to the latest, at time of writing, English PDF.

Google, IBM and Lyft announce new open-source project for microservices: Istio
Kubernetes is a container orchestration system that has been gaining a lot of popularity in regards to microservices. Istio is a layer 7 traffic monitoring and control network designed to work with Kubernetes. It connects, manages, and secures microservices. With Google, IBM, and Lyft backing this project it is definitely one to keep an eye on.

JSON Feed
You probably know about RSS Feeds or Atom Feeds. Both use XML, which has been falling out of favor. Now there is an alternative that uses JSON and aims to be easier for developers to work with. It’s not clear how many feed readers support the format at the moment, but some websites are already publishing JSON feeds.

Coding is not “fun”, it’s technically and ethically complex
This is an interesting opinion piece centering around how programming is being described to the general population, pushed on kids in school, and affecting the workforce. I’ll leave you to form your own opinions.

Web Developer Security Checklist
Security breaches are a fact of life now, but they can do significant damage to reputations and brands. Security needs to be kept in mind at every step of application development. This is a simple checklist that will at least help you follow some best practices.

30 Free Sketch Plugins to Grab Right Now
If you use Sketch, you might want to take a look at these and see if any of them will help your workflow.

The Many Faces of Functions in JavaScript
Yes, this is an article all about JavaScript functions and the different types of functions. There is nothing profound about it, but it does a wonderful job showing why Test262, the test suite that tests ECMAScript conformance, is so important.

Composing Software: An Introduction
This the introduction to a series on composition in software development, focusing around JavaScript. The introduction is excellent and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. Even if you don’t work with JavaScript much this will benefit your understanding of design patterns and hopefully help you write better code.

json-api-normalizer: An Easy Way To Integrate The JSON API And Redux
Even if you don’t care about Redux, this is a good article that discusses APIs from a frontend perspective. It also discusses GraphQL and organizing the data returned to an application in an efficient manner.

Production Progressive Web Apps With JavaScript Frameworks (Google I/O ‘17)
This is a recording of Addy Osmani’s Progressive Web Apps talk at Google I/O. He talks about how the big brands create PWAs that load instantly on mobile hardware.

Spend effort on your Git commits
Git works the way it does for reasons. You can put 2 of 10 files into a commit and break things out logically. Spending a small amount of effort on your commits can save a lot of headaches down the road. Also, it has this glorious line:

An important tool in Git is git blame. Apart from telling you which blockhead introduced an especially ill-conceived piece of code (you, a month ago), it also allows your editor to provide a lot more context to your code.