Ryan Donovan

Ryan Donovan helps run editorial for the Stack Overflow blog. He's spend over 15 years as a technical writer embedded in software development teams across multiple industries. He lives in New York City and hopes to meet your dog some day.
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newsletter August 13, 2021

The Overflow #86: Dev Survey results!

Welcome to ISSUE #86 of the Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: the Dev Survey results, why we describe technology in terms of a stack, and test-driven development in React Native. From the blog The 2021 Developer Survey results are here! stackoverflow.blogOur…
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code-for-a-living July 28, 2021

700,000 lines of code, 20 years, and one developer: How Dwarf Fortress is built

Dwarf Fortress is one of those oddball passion projects that’s broken into Internet consciousness. It’s a free game where you play either an adventurer or a fortress full of dwarves in a randomly generated fantasy world. The simulation runs deep, with new games creating multiple civilizations with histories, mythologies, and artifacts. I reached out to him to see how he’s managed a single, growing codebase over 15+ years, the perils of pathing, and debugging dead cats. Our conversation below has been edited for clarity. 
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newsletter July 23, 2021

The Overflow #83: Steady paycheck or solo project?

Welcome to ISSUE #83 of the Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: how to get started programming with Python, why crackpots show up in peer-reviewed journals, and when flashy animations trigger motion sickness. From the blog Learning from the real world:…
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newsletter July 16, 2021

The Overflow #82: Best practices for comments

Welcome to ISSUE #82 of the Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: why you should mentor others, does GPL apply to neural network models, and hacking the React AST. From the blog Best practices for writing code comments stackoverflow.blogWhile there are many…
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newsletter July 2, 2021

The Overflow #80: Introducing Collectives

Welcome to ISSUE #80 of the Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: The best approach to low priority bugs, working towards a better metric for responsiveness, and introducing our latest product—CollectivesTM.  From the blog Announcing the launch of Collectives on Stack Overflow stackoverflow.blogWe’re thrilled…
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newsletter June 25, 2021

The Overflow #79: Zoom! Enhance! Super resolution!

Welcome to ISSUE #79 of the Overflow! This newsletter is by developers, for developers, written and curated by the Stack Overflow team and Cassidy Williams at Netlify. This week: machine learning makes 480p into 1080p, stairs and their effect on potential energy, and how open source affects build vs. buy decisions. From the blog Zoom, enhance. There! We…
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