#code

Computers are complex, but need not be mysteries. Any question we care to ask can, in principle and usually even in practice, be answered. Unknown systems can be approached with curiosity and determination, not fear.

PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs. When you turn it on, the machine greets you with a shell for typing in Lua commands and provides simple built-in tools for creating your own cartridges.

Code developers are invited to the state's first-ever Code Michigan event this October for an opportunity to build mobile applications and win cash prizes. The free "civic coding" event will also feature presentations from heavy-hitters in the technology industry.

If you’re writing tests for code that’s rapidly changing, you’re going to spend more of your time writing tests instead of shipping features. For code that’s brand new, I typically only test-first a small amount of code and wait a while before hitting that green bar on a code coverage report.

If you’re writing tests for code that’s rapidly changing, you’re going to spend more of your time writing tests instead of shipping features. For code that’s brand new, I typically only test-first a small amount of code and wait a while before hitting that green bar on a code coverage report.

Creating QR codes is a quick and easy process using a few model signals and the PyQRNative port. The hardest part of this implementation was finding a way to use the Django ContentFile object to save the generated QR code using our selected storage backend. This was important because you would not have to worry about changes to your system architecture effecting your QR generation code. An example would be moving from local filesystem storage to S3 using Django Storages (django-storages).

Creating QR codes is a quick and easy process using a few model signals and the PyQRNative port. The hardest part of this implementation was finding a way to use the Django ContentFile object to save the generated QR code using our selected storage backend. This was important because you would not have to worry about changes to your system architecture effecting your QR generation code. An example would be moving from local filesystem storage to S3 using Django Storages (django-storages).

The transformative power of "source always included" in JavaScript is a major reason why I coined – and continue to believe in – Atwood's Law. Even if "view source" isn't built in (but it totally should be), you should demand access to the underlying source code for your stack. No matter what the documentation says, the source code is the ultimate truth, the best and most definitive and up-to-date documentation you're likely to find. This will be true forever, so the sooner you come to terms with this, the better off you'll be as a software developer.

I think it is a sign that as developers we are either terribly bored or we are out of ideas when we start to go down to bickering about violating accepted ways of development. We should concentrate on building amazing tools and experiences for users out there rather than smugly trying to undo conventions we’ve been following for years now. The web standards movement was not about enforcing arbitrary code syntax on poor developers who now have to type a few keys more. It is about making code predictable, extensible and easy to explain to newcomers. Confusing these matters doesn’t help the cause of making a new generation of developers embrace the web as a platform. Don’t be that guy.

I think it is a sign that as developers we are either terribly bored or we are out of ideas when we start to go down to bickering about violating accepted ways of development. We should concentrate on building amazing tools and experiences for users out there rather than smugly trying to undo conventions we’ve been following for years now. The web standards movement was not about enforcing arbitrary code syntax on poor developers who now have to type a few keys more. It is about making code predictable, extensible and easy to explain to newcomers. Confusing these matters doesn’t help the cause of making a new generation of developers embrace the web as a platform. Don’t be that guy.

GitHub gives us almost everything we need to do code reviews. Commit, file and line level comments, comment notifications, plus everything else that makes the GitHub experience great. The only thing missing is an easy way to initiate a review. If I want my code to be reviewed, I’ve got to go to GitHub, get the URL (and any other info), then compose an email to everyone I want to review it.

GitHub gives us almost everything we need to do code reviews. Commit, file and line level comments, comment notifications, plus everything else that makes the GitHub experience great. The only thing missing is an easy way to initiate a review. If I want my code to be reviewed, I’ve got to go to GitHub, get the URL (and any other info), then compose an email to everyone I want to review it.

The hardest part was converting HSB into RGB - the equations that I worked on from wikipedia are an absolute nightmare to translate into code (at least for me at this stage). I was about to give up when I saw this link, full of ready-made colour conversion functions: http://www.easyrgb.com/math.php?MATH=M21#text21.

"pasted code is dead code - real living code changes, and short of going back and repasting, the code on the web quickly becomes out of date. So this is a little snippet I whipped up to dynamically (by the wonders of cross-site ajax) load code from a github branch. This means, when you update the git branch and repush, the code will update."

"Remember the Dig Dug or Centipede or Robotron? They used to be favorites wheimagen Atari’s 7800 series was still around. Now since the era of those consoles is over and a different world of interactive reality gaming has taken over, Atari Museum, a site run by Atari enthusiast, has got hold of has unofficially source code of over 15 games for the coders and enthusiasts to admire the state-of-the-art (because this is what it was back then) of game development."

"In fact, I claim that if you don't take those rules to heart in your own source code then you are either unprofessional, lazy, not a team-player, or all of the above. If you as a software developer take pride in your professionalism and quality of your work then you have to consider that it is not only the achieved functionality for which you are being paid: The code you produce in almost all cases becomes property of your employer, and thus, the code itself also a product (and actually the most important product) you deliver. And how useful that code if for the team who has to work with it is what really determines its value."

"DHTML PNG Snowstorm! OO-style Jascript-based Snow effect "

"how often do you have to alter code where it’d have been nice if someone had taken these steps?"

"Keeping all efficiency stories out of the mix, a nice color palette makes me actually want to work. If my code “looks” good, I’m much more prone to feel like I’m doing well on a project."

"Matt craps on a bunch of ridiculous ideas about programming and code that Hollywood can't seem to stay away from."

"I continually run into the same things over and over again that drive me insane. Off the top of my head, here’s a few…"

"The script is meant to help a developer to post code snippets online with ease and without having to worry about applying format."

"UFO is a DOM script that detects and embeds Flash objects."

I love these sorts of shell invocations. Looking forward to more of them using mdfind and mdls