Coffee & Code Newsletter: #3
Welcome to Coffee and Code with me, Dan Vega. This newsletter is a little insight into what I was up to this week, things I found interesting and anything on my radar for the upcoming week. If you don't already have a cup of coffee grab one now and let's get to it.
Previous Week
A couple of months ago I applied to become an author for freeCodeCamp and this weekend I received the following email that I am so excited to share with you.
I have been a huge admirer of what freeCodeCamp does for our community and I can't wait to start contributing. A huge thanks to Quincy Larson for approving my application. Now the real question is what should my first article be about? If you have any thoughts please tweet at me.
Blog
Learn how to use CSS Grid with a FREE tool CSS Grid Generator
As someone who has been developing web applications for almost 20 years now, I have seen it all. I started in FrontPage, moved to Dreamweaver, nested tables inside of tables and learned how to float and clear fix everything.
While you won't see any awards for my designs on my bookshelf I am able to create some very nice simple and clean layouts. That said I have never really enjoyed it because it has always been a huge pain in the a$$. I have always felt like I was just hacking away until my layout looked almost like what I had in mind.
This is why when tools like CSS Grid & Flexbox came along I was beyond excited about the possibilities of creating clean layouts. I think if you combine these 2 technologies along with just how far JavaScript has come it is what has really got me excited about front end development these days.
While I have a pretty good understanding of CSS Grid at this point I know it can be a little bit confusing to get started. That is why I am really excited to share with you a new tool that I came across that I really think can help you out if you're trying to understand CSS Grid.
YouTube
Nothing new this week in video format so I am pulling this one from my archives. One of my favorite tools around is called SDKMan. In this tutorial, I introduce you to SDKMan and how to use it.
Learning
Listen, I realize that I have a problem and I'm ok with it. 🤷♂️ I love learning new things and when I found out about a new(ish) JavaScript framework for the server I just had to check it out. This week I finally had a chance to play around with NestJS. While I didn't build anything that exciting I was able to produce a CRUD application that talked to a MongoDB database.
This might sound a little strange given the fact that they are not the same tech stacks but It felt a lot like using Spring Boot. I was able to get something done quickly and I feel like NestJS enables me to be a more productive developer. If you're interested in learning more about NestJS or have your opinions about it please reach out to me.
Around the Web
These are things I found cool around the web this week.
Articles
Videos
Podcasts
- devmode.fm: Webpack inside and out with Sean Larkin
- Contributing to open source with Debbie O'Brien
- Real Talk JavaScript: Long time Java & GO to First time with JavaScript
Projects
Follow This Person
This is someone I really enjoy following on Twitter and I think you should check them out.
Until Next Week
Thanks for sitting down and sharing a cup of coffee with me my friend. I hope you enjoyed this first installment of Coffee & Code and I will see you next Sunday morning. If you have any links you would like me to include please contact me and I might add them to a future newsletter. I hope you have a great week and as always friends...
Happy Coding
Dan Vega