Your Code isn't Correct
Nov 29, 2021 by Lane Wagner
There is a common trap that we fall into as developers, and it is believing that because some code “worked” that the code was written “correctly”.
Death, Taxes, and Database Migrations
Aug 17, 2021 by Lane Wagner
In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and migrations.
What are UUIDs, and should you use them?
Jul 23, 2021 by Lane Wagner
A universally unique identifier (UUID) is a 128-bit format for creating IDs in code that has become popular in recent years, especially in relation to database keys.
Beautiful Language and Beautiful Code
Jun 30, 2021 by
“Dead Poet’s Society” is a classic film, and has become a recent favorite of mine. There’s a scene in particular that I enjoy, where Robin William’s character explains that it’s bad practice to use terms like “very tired” or “very sad”, instead we should use descriptive words like “exhausted” or “morose”!
Check for Standards Before Creating a New One
Jun 07, 2021 by Lane Wagner
I recently had a ticket opened on my team’s backlog board requesting the ability to bypass our API’s caching system.
Backend Developers are UX Designers Too
Apr 12, 2021 by Lane Wagner
Too often I neglect the idea of UX design in backend work. The goal of user experience design is to give users a product that’s easy to use.
Naming Variables the Right Way
Apr 01, 2021 by Lane Wagner
I’ve noticed that bugs introduced into an existing code base are often due to poor variable naming more than one might suspect.
Top 8 Benefits of Functional Programming
Feb 25, 2021 by Lane Wagner
Functional programming is a way to writing code where programs are created strictly through functions. Functional programming has gained quite a bit of traction in recent years among the development community, mostly because of the benefits it provides.
What Is Dry Code, and Is It Always A Good Thing?
Jan 25, 2021 by Lane Wagner
“Don’t repeat yourself”, or “DRY” for short, is a somewhat controversial principle of software development. It aims to make code cleaner, which is to say less buggy and easier to work with.
Writing Good Unit Tests; Don't Mock Database Connections
Nov 23, 2020 by Lane Wagner
Unit tests are incredibly important because they allow us to demonstrate the correctness of the code we’ve written.
Best Practices for Commenting Code
Oct 29, 2020 by Lane Wagner
I often hear that we need more and better comments in the code we write. In my experience, we frequently need better comments, we rarely need more, and we sometimes need less.
The Nuances of Constants in Go; Go Isn't JavaScript
Oct 22, 2020 by Lane Wagner
Constants can be confusing and easy to misuse in Go if you are coming from an untyped language.
Practical Patterns for Technical Writing
Sep 22, 2020 by Ben Barten
Writing technical documents like API or architectural documentation which exceeds a simple flow diagram can be a daunting task.
Guard Clauses - How to Clean up Conditionals
Sep 06, 2020 by Lane Wagner
One of the first concepts new developers learn is the if/else statement. If/else statements are the most common way to execute conditional logic.
Slow Is Smooth, Smooth Is Fast - 25% of Our Time Refactoring
Sep 01, 2020 by Lane Wagner
My team has been spending less of our “free” time working on bugs and features from the backlog, and more time refactoring our code and tests.
How to Get Consistent Line Breaks in VS Code (LF vs CRLF)
Jun 18, 2020 by Lane Wagner
Have you ever had the problem where you submit a pull request and the diff is much larger than it should be?
Singletons in ES6 - The Good, The Bad, The Ugly
Nov 04, 2019 by Lane Wagner
Singletons are fairly controversial as far as I can tell, especially in JavaScript programming. Let’s take a look at what they are, when to (maybe) use them, and when not to.
Systems and Processes that Aren't in Code are Terrifying
Oct 03, 2019 by Lane Wagner
My worst enemy is processes that a developer spun up years ago on a server everyone has forgotten about.