Practice is the best form of hope.

Tag: react.js

  • Developing a cribbage game on my own terms

    I’ve been working on developing a cribbage game. If you are a fan of cribbage, please try it out and let me know what you think.

    You can play cribbage live right here, or you can follow the instructions on the wp-cribbage github repository to play it on your own website.

    What did I learn?

    In my day job, I’m working at Automattic, helping to build the Jetpack plugin and Calypso ( a WordPress.com dashboard ). Both of these are built with React.js, and by the time I started working on them, they were fully realized projects. So I never got to explore the build process or setting up unit tests.

    In building my cribbage game, I learned how to use npm to compile a React project. I learned that both github and npm have helpful alerts to let you know when your project’s dependencies have security vulnerabilities.

    I learned how to properly use Test Driven Development in making the artificial intelligence that powers your cribbage opponent. ( It’s pretty good. It defeats me often, without cheating! )

    What’s next?

    I’ve always wanted to learn socket.io, so I plan to make a v2 of my cribbage game where two people can play each other. I’d also like to improve the UI for mobile devices, and update the graphics to something a bit more shiny.

    Let me know in the comments if you tried it out. Thanks for reading!

  • New development patterns

    I spent about 2 years developing plugins in the WordPress wilderness. In that time I became proficient in plugin architecture, in how to structure and organize your plugin so that it is optimized for scaling and maintenance. As I enter my sixth month working for Automattic, my fascination with coding architecture and patterns becomes deeper.

     One thing is clear: to thrive as a software engineer, it is of course essential to be fluent in many coding languages, but one must also be a connoisseur of application architecture. On a daily basis we work behind the scenes to create non-tangible architecture. And to me, it is most satisfying to see visualizations and hear descriptions of our work that gives our digital citadels a semblance of tactility.

    This week, at the behest of some co-workers, I watched a few great presentations on react.js, a newly-released javascript framework from the folks at Facebook. I want to re-share those videos here as a reminder of how much has changed since I was strictly a plugin developer. Change is good. It is never good to get too comfortable as a developer. We are always looking for better ways to write code-poetry and build Fallingwater web apps.