Web Developer Monthly 💻🚀

24th issue! If you missed them, you can read the previous issues of our Web Developer Monthly newsletter here.

If it’s your first time here… (otherwise, skip this part)

Being a web developer is a fantastic career option. You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems. One hard thing, however, is staying up to date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top-performing web developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly newsletter is focused on keeping you up to date with the industry, keeping your skills sharp, without wasting your valuable time. I will be sharing the most important articles, podcasts and videos of the month. Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

What you missed in June as a Web Developer…

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Insane Amount of JS Questions 😵

Are you really bored during the quarantine? Test out your boredom by trying to complete as many questions in this JavaScript questions series. Bonus points if you can do it all in one day.

Free Tools For Web Developers ✂️

Some tools and assets to help you build your next project since we are best friends by now (unless this is your first time reading my articles… in that case let’s take things slow):

1. Triangles are the new circles
2. Blob generator for all your blob needs
3. Annotate your screenshots to explain your ideas
4. Create shape dividers for your modern looking websites
5. Download and use classical art in your projects
6. Add colors to your black and white images
7. Free hands... wow that sounds creepy when I say it like that
8. Share your local sever with the outside world

React News 💎

Mostly everyone's favourite frontend library. What crazy things have they been up to?

• The Rise Of React. A nice high-level overview of how React came to dominate the frontend landscape.

• React Hooks can be tricky if you are just starting out. So here are some of the common mistakes beginners make and how to avoid them when building components with hooks.

• In one of the previous Web Developer Monthly newsletters, I shared the mental model article for React. Here is Part 2.

• Pretty much all you need to know about React Testing Library (alternative to Enzyme).

• A fun Gatsby Theme for generating and maintaining code notes for your personal blog.

History Of Search Engines 👾

Nope...It isn't not just Yahoo, Bing and Google. This in-depth article talks about the deep history of search engines and I guarantee there will be at least one thing in there that you didn't know (I learned plenty when reading this). Enjoy!

JetBrains Developer Survey 🗳

My second favourite developer survey just released their results to show you what the developer market is doing. Python and JavaScript are still the champs. Check it out for more insights.

Denofy 🗺️

It's no secret that I am a big fan of Deno and its future potential. Here is a great library that takes Node modules and converts them to Deno so you can have all that community goodness in your Deno projects.

PS. Here is my favourite Deno article of the month from one of the main contributors.

MDN 💔 Angular

Mozilla Developer Network which is the defacto place for all JavaScript documentation for the web has new sections on Frameworks and Libraries. They have tutorials now on React, Vue and Ember... but nothing for Angular...hmm wonder why?

But, whatever. Angular doesn't need them. They just announced Angular 10!

Not Another Performance Article 🛸

Ugh... ANOTHER performance article. But before you just brush this one off, it's actually a pretty good article showing you the process of analyzing performance and improving it beyond just doing super specific niche things for a measly 1% performance gain. Actually recommend you read this.

Grid God/Godess 🏗

Next time you want to present data inside of a grid/sheet style display on your website, there is no need to use anything else but this easy to use library. I wish I knew about this earlier: Grid.js

Port Scanning Shenanigans 🔬

Although this is a security article, it actually teaches you a useful skill of how to analyze obfuscated JavaScript on any website. Trust me, you will learn something new and interesting by reading this article.

PS. Here is a fun review of how to encrypt your internet traffic to stay safe out there.

Relational VS Mongo 🌿

The age old debate around Relational vs non Relational databases. HSBC just moved a bunch of their relational databases to MongoDB and Hackernews had a field day bashing them about it. A fun/educational read through the comments.

If you want to geek out on latest Database advances, check out this article for some of the exciting things happening in the space.

JavaScript Project Ideas 🏟

We recently released a new course in our online coding academy: 20 JavaScript projects to add to your portfolio and sharpen your JS knowledge.

You should check it out. But if you don't want to, here is a fun weekend project idea for you to build on your own.

Also, I love this library: Elevator.js ...and this one: Textures.js

Bootstrap 5 is here 🌪

Bootstrap is still around and hanging on strong. Although it may not be "new and sexy" it is a library that is designed very well that makes you productive. They just came out with version 5! I will be updating my Web Development course once it is out of alpha stages this year with this newer version.

What Is DevOps? 🥁

We keep hearing this term, but would you be able to explain it in just a few sentences? The short answer is that DevOps is more of an ideology than an actual role. However, this article will break down its rise and what it all means much better than I can.

How To Make Money on Github 🏦

An interesting business model if you want to make money on Github and open source projects. Open source profitability is tough, but this person seems to have found a way to do this successfully using the Github Sponsors model. Expect more of these stories to come out.

Quick Web Accessibility 🔮

A nice short overview of how Web accessibility works and some of the things you should be doing for best practices.

Let's Talk TypeScript 🗝

There is no question that TypeScript is a big part of the Web Development world now. In this article, we get to learn some of its history and where it is going. TypeScript really took off when Angular announced they would be using it for their project back in the day, and it hasn't stopped since. Enjoy some insights from this interview.

Github Is Taking Over 🗿

Github's latest Actions (ha! get it?) have really shown the powerhouse that it is. Now, they announced Github Linter. A Github super linter that will lint all your code with no need for you to build your own linting pipeline. Things are becoming better and better with Github and I don't see why we shouldn't be using all their tools in one place.

Container History 🧱

This was a really interesting article from Coinbase. They discuss the history of containers, where we came from, and the current landscape (i.e. Kubernetes). Even if you aren't working with these technologies directly, it's a great overview of the container landscape and some of the reasons you may need/not need Kubernetes.

Refactor vs Rewrite 👹 👺

Software is never perfect. With time, all code needs to be re-factored or re-written. But which options should you chose? This article does a great job talking about the tradeoffs and when the rare occasions are when you want to do a full rewrite.

News Around the World 🗺

• EU is launching Gaia-X to take on AWS and Alibaba cloud services. I don't see this going well for them, but will be an interesting one to watch.
• Using LIDAR technology (used in autonomous vehicles), scientists discovered a massive 3,000 year old ceremonial complex in the Mayan region.
• Someone created a privacy best practice cheatsheet for times when you attend a protest.
• The coming chip wars. A little bit of a biased article, but a great overview of the landscape of chip making.
• Big news out of India banning dozens of Chinese apps.

Big Tech News 🏢

• If you want to make a quick $100,000 from Apple, you do it like this person. A big piece of news out of Apple this month was the fact that they will be moving away from Intel chips by 2021. If you want insight into what this all means, this is the best article I have found. They also had their big iOS 14 update come out with one privacy feature getting TikTok in trouble. Finally, FaceID and TouchID is coming to the Safari Browser using the new Web Auth API.

• Facebook is experimenting with new apps: Venue for live events, CatchUp to catch up with people you like. In less exciting news for them, a bunch of advertisers are boycotting Facebook ads.

• Amazon is making a big play into autonomous cars by buying Zoox. The reason? They are now the 4th largest delivery service and growing fast. Watch out Uber, Lyft and Tesla. Amazon is also jumping on the no code bandwagon.

• In the biggest WTF? announcement this month, CloudFlare announces CloudFlare tv. No idea what their play is here, but cooool.

• A bunch of big tech companies starting with IBM, then Amazon, then Microsoft are stopping facial recognition business momentarily until governments/authorities get their act together.

• Zoom is blowing up in a positive way and negative way at the same time with all of this remote work happening.

• Uber lost out on this battle: Just Eat Takeaway to Acquire Grubhub for $7.3 Billion (that's a lot of money).

• Microsoft announced that Rust is the future of system level programming and not C/C++. Pretty big endorsement. Speaking of Microsoft (which owns Github), Github might be removing the word "master" as the branch names for repositories.

• People are still angry at Google Chrome for its latest planned updates to the URL bar. Meanwhile, Mozilla is looking to build its own VPN.

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

This website will self destruct... help to keep it alive.

Your CSS skills are embarrassing.

Why 536 was the worst year to be alive.

Best Resource of the Month ✅

Frontend or Fullstack? The role of a web developer has shifted a lot throughout the years and things have become more and more complex in the frontend world. This article goes over the fullstack frontend world, the current trends, and also the possibilities for the future. Worth a read.

Along those lines, I see a big shift happening over the next couple of years to the web of the 90s.

Trick of the Month 🌗

• Mad Magazine's fold effect in CSS. Wow, this is pretty.

• Live radio from around the world. Or listen to it while driving around the world.

• Check the weather like a hacker

See you next month everyone!

By the way, my full-time job is to teach people to code in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all of my courses by visiting the courses page.