Following up on the first article which introduces dotfiles, this one dives into the common challenges to managing dotfiles effectively. We look at approaches to organizing them, techniques to keep them in sync, bootstrapping fresh systems, committing them to version control, etc.

This article looks at the very basic elements of customizing your dotfiles and stepping up your workflows. We look at defining custom aliases and functions, and the rationale behind checking your dotfiles into version control. The article concludes with a few references to good dotfile repositories and a taste of things to come.

Tag along for a quick tour of some of the weirder things about JavaScript syntax that, once you pick them up, will (hopefully) become indispensible parts of your JS codebases. We’ll look at the spread operator, IIFEs, and implicit returns in arrow functions.

NPM scripts allow you to build powerful, composable workflows without depending on external automation tools or build systems. Read on to find out how to leverage them in your projects!

A code-free introduction to what backend (i.e. server side) development is all about, what backend devs do, how to get started, some prerequisite knowledge and a few guideposts to help you get your hands dirty!

The JavaScript ecosystem of tools and technologies for building applications is neither small nor limited to the web. This article touches upon some of the options you have for technologies used to build web apps, cross platform applications, desktop apps, and more, while also talking about certain tools that aren’t a strict requirement for a full stack developer, but one that most devs probably can’t get very far without. Hop on!

My Programming Journey I technically started “programming” when I was 11 or 12, and my first language was technically QBASIC. I say “technically” because the programs I wrote were often toy programs (I fondly remember being particularly proud of a program that printed the colours of the rainbow in order - and it didn’t even use a for loop. Just 7 print statements), and since I didn’t have access to a computer then, I wrote them in my notebook.