Creativity, curiosity, and code
Yes, despite being an AI doom-speaker, I tried using a app-builder to make a simple, social-media-like, private, journalling web app. This post explains what I did and why, and outlines the development process I took, including the point at which I decided the AI wasn't up to it and started making it manually.
Like "slop" text, images and videos, the ability to create apps and websites is fascinating. But I don't believe it's ultimately good for the creators or for the users.
Start with good decomposition. Then use encapsulation to create good abstractions. That's how I code. That's how I was taught to code 30 years ago. And it's still how I code today.
I started trying to explain what I was doing and why, and as I did so I realised all the many, many things you have to understand for this process to make sense.
Come on a journey with me as I - a an experienced developer - dive into old WordPress theme code, find myself in an enormous tangle, and question my life choices.
If you're using a script that uses cookie authentication with the WordPress REST API then you may also need a nonce. Here's how to make this work!
Previous Tip: Don’t inline everything! This is a little naming convention that I find really helpful. If a variable is Boolean type, or if a function returns a Boolean type, then consider if you can name it with an “is” or “has” prefix (or somewhere in the name). Because in many cases, not doing this […]
I want to talk (again) about friction. Things that slow us down. How some friction is good, and some is bad.
I made a server-less Scrabble clone that saves data in URLs. This post explains why and how, including a primer on binary data representations, and a little JavaScript library to help do this using BigInts!
There is a balance to be found between "inlining" multiple expressions, and using temporary variables. You may also learn about short-circuit evaluation here!