Code for a Living Archives

code-for-a-living August 12, 2020

How we built it: our new Articles feature for Stack Overflow for Teams

Roberta Arcoverde, tech lead for Stack Overflow Teams, provides a deep dive into the decisions that shaped the architecture of Articles, an entirely new content type.

Roberta Arcoverde Principal Software Developer

code-for-a-living August 6, 2020

The key components for building a React community

The React community grew organically thanks to its instant popularity. Here's how the folks shepherding that community ensure that everyone who wants to contribute is welcome to.

Ryan Donovan and Ben Popper

code-for-a-living August 3, 2020

Getting started with contributing to open source

It can be intimidating to start contributing to an open source project. But with a little research and planning, you can be a valuable part of your favorite open source software.

Zara Cooper

code-for-a-living July 30, 2020

Java at 25: Features that made an impact and a look to the future

I asked Georges Saab, Vice President of Software Development at Oracle’s Java Platform Group what changes to Java made the most impact and what upcoming features he believes will have a real affect on its future. Here’s some of the features that Saab feels made the language proliferate and a few that will keep it enduring.

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living July 28, 2020

Podcast 256: You down with GPT-3? Yeah you know me!

Just tell the nice AI what you want to see, and watch the code magically appear...

Ben Popper Director of Content

code-for-a-living July 24, 2020

The perils of impersonation tooling

On Wednesday, July 15th, a bitcoin scam hit Twitter. Celebrities such as Elon Musk, Barack Obama, and Bill Gates appeared to tweet out a message that promised to return double the amount of bitcoin sent to a specific wallet. It wasn’t a spontaneous and simultaneous act of generosity, it was a scam. At this point,…

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living July 20, 2020

Linters aren’t in your way. They’re on your side

Traditionally, linters make sure your code is clean and easy for teammates to read. They check for errors, bugs, style, and more. While they are more prevalent in dynamic/interpreted languages, they are not limited to them. Getting code as tidy as possible is the goal, but linters can also take some time getting used to, be a distraction, and might even be impossible to introduce to old, large code bases. We look at why they might still be worth your time.

Medi Madelen Gwosdz Content Strategist - Former

code-for-a-living July 13, 2020

Tales from documentation: Write for your clueless users

When you're documenting anything technical, it's easy to forget what it's like being ignorant of how the software works, especially if you built the thing.

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living July 8, 2020

Improving performance with SIMD intrinsics in three use cases

Many developers write software that’s performance sensitive. After all, that’s one of the major reasons why we still pick C or C++ language these days. When done right, supplementing C or C++ code with vector intrinsics is exceptionally good for performance.

Konstantin

code-for-a-living July 3, 2020

How Stack Overflow hires engineers

At Stack Overflow, one of our main missions is to close the gap between companies and developers during the hiring process. Though you may know us primarily as a Q&A site for developers, we are also a talent platform, and are in a unique position to connect developers with companies and jobs that they are…

Jon Chan Engineering Manager, Public Platform

code-for-a-living July 1, 2020

Nobody has to lose in work/life balance

No one in the history of the world has ever done a better job because they were scared, stressed, or worried about their future; especially in jobs centered around creativity and problem solving like development. If I am able to give them a better sense of control in their life, if they will be able to work better and happier.

Ben Matthews Director, Engineering