Code for a Living Archives

code-for-a-living January 29, 2020

The live coding language that lets you be an actual rock star

Code on a screen is not likely to land you the legions of screaming fans that a sick guitar solo will. Unless you’re Sam Aaron, that is. He’s the creator of Sonic Pi, a live coding language for making music. It’s an open source project that he built which creates music from code in real time

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living January 23, 2020

Micro-interactions with react-spring: Part 2

In the last article, we examined the basics of micro-interactions: what they are, why they’re important, and how to build one. In this tutorial, we’ll build something I have struggled with for many years: the animated navigation.

Emma Bostian

code-for-a-living January 20, 2020

What is Rust and why is it so popular?

Rust has been Stack Overflow's most loved language for four years in a row, indicating that many of those who have had the opportunity to use Rust have fallen in love with it. However, the roughly 97% of survey respondents who haven't used Rust may wonder, "What's the deal with Rust?"

Jake Goulding

code-for-a-living January 16, 2020

How to create micro-interactions with react-spring: Part 1

In this series, we’ll examine how to take your application from ordinary to exceptional by implementing micro-interactions with react-spring so you won’t be stuck thinking “I really wish I knew how to add animations” any more.

Emma Bostian

code-for-a-living January 13, 2020

Avoiding burnout as an ambitious developer

Burnout is difficult to describe to people who haven’t felt it. But it was also a valuable lesson. Here's a few tips on how to take care of your ambitious self and avoid burning out.

Cassidy Williams Principal Developer Experience Engineer at Netlify, Co-curator of The Overflow

code-for-a-living January 11, 2020

Hello World: Want to be a developer? Learn how to learn

Over the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to teach coding to veterans who have varying degrees of education and experience. As such, newbies from all walks of life trying to get their eureka moment would always ask me, “How do I learn how to code?” The first hurdle to learning how to code…

Jerome Hardaway Web Developer

code-for-a-living January 8, 2020

Tapping into the coding power of migrants and refugees in Mexico

Mexico and Latin America’s tech sector is growing rapidly, and the current market is demanding more experienced talent. HolaCode, founded two years ago, is focused on educating new coders in this region, and then supporting them through the early stages of their career.

Marcela Torres

code-for-a-living January 2, 2020

This veteran started a code bootcamp for people who went to bootcamp

In 2014, Hardaway started Vets Who Code, a nonprofit organization dedicated to teaching US military veterans how to code within the JavaScript ecosystem: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Git, CLI, node.js, webpack, React, Gatsby, and GraphQL. To date, 250 veterans have graduated from the program. This cohort has gone on to find jobs in the industry across 37 states in the US. It’s 100% free to the veterans admitted into the program, 100% remote run, and 100% supported by donations.

Ryan Donovan

code-for-a-living December 26, 2019

Ben Popper is the Worst Coder in The World of Seven Billion Humans

This is part 3 of an ongoing series detailing my journey from total noob to hobbyist coder. I share my thoughts as I learn the basics of programming. You can find the rest of the series here. To help get me into the programming mindset, or maybe to cleverly sabotage my work ethic, a colleague recently…

Ben Popper Director of Content

code-for-a-living December 19, 2019

What senior developers can learn from beginners

Over the last couple years, I’ve had the luxury of working with and mentoring quite a few beginners. While I’ve obviously witnessed my fair share of programming no-no’s, things are not as black and white as they may seem. There’s a handful of patterns and behaviors I’ve seen consistently throughout beginners. And while some of…

Ryland Goldstein Head of Product at Temporal

code-for-a-living December 18, 2019

WebSockets for fun and profit

Seamless communication is a must on the modern web. As internet speeds increase, we expect our data in real time. To address this need, WebSocket, a popular communication protocol finalized in 2011, enables websites to send and receive data without delay. With WebSockets, you can build multiplayer games, chat apps, and collaboration software that work…

Max Pekarsky Software Engineer