Build your own React Router v4
I still remember the feelings when I first started learning about routing in client side applications. At the time I was just a wee lad still getting my feet wet with this who...
MoreReact Interview Questions
What happens when you call setState? The first thing React will do when setState is called is merge the object you passed into setState into the current state of the component....
MoreReact "Aha" Moments
One of my main goals whenever I’m teaching or writing technical content is to maximize “aha” moments. An “aha” moment is a moment of sudden insight or clarity; when the subjec...
MoreReact Elements vs React Components
A few months ago I had, what I thought, was a simple question that I posted to Twitter. What surprised me wasn’t the joint confusion around this question, but instead ...
MoreHow to Install the Facebook SDK into a React Native Android or iOS App
So I made this snarky tweet at 4 a.m. This is my peace offering. "I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways to incorrectly install the Facebook SDK into a React Nati...
More400: My Declarative Approach to Accomplishing Goals
As the amount of items we need to finish for a given day grows, one or both of these natural tendencies seem to occur. We become complacent with what we’ve already achieved. We be...
More"create-react-app" and the future of creating React applications
Over the past few years, I’ve been heavily involved with teaching people how to build applications with React.js. First there was React Week, held way back in March of 2015. Then c...
MoreImperative vs Declarative Programming
At this point you’ve undoubtedly heard about imperative programming vs declarative programming. You might have even searched for what those terms actually mean. Sadly, you probably...
MoreIncentivizing Open Source Authors
As developers, Open Source Software (OSS) is foundational to what we do every day. We all have different reasons for contributing, but the reasons we don’t are typically universal....
MoreIntroducing React.js Program
It’s 3:30AM. I don’t think I’ve been to bed before this time in over a month. I’m ok with this, however. I’ve always loved teaching and for the most part I think people enjoy my te...
MoreAn Introduction to Life Cycle Events in React
We’ve talked about how the Render method in a React component needs to be a pure function. That means it needs to be stateless, it needs to not make any Ajax requests, etc. It sho...
MoreReact Tutorial 1.5: Utilizing Webpack and Babel to build a React.js App
Let me preface this section by saying that Webpack is hard. Partially because it’s an extremely powerful tool and partially because the documentation is terrible. If you have exper...
MoreBuilding User Interfaces with Pure Functions and Function Composition in React
If you’re reading this you’re probably familiar with the idea of functions. When to use and when to not use a function probably comes pretty natural to you. In this post we’re goin...
MoreMy biggest benefit of open source wasn’t what it was supposed to be
Earlier this year I built my first real Open Source Software (OSS) project. I saw a problem that hadn’t been solved and I decided to fix it. It took some long nights, but eventuall...
MoreFunctional Components vs. Stateless Functional Components vs. Stateless Components
Earlier today I read Dan Abramov’s “React Components, Elements, and Instances” article. As always I loved the article but even more than that, this time, I loved Dan’s focus on usi...
MoreReact Tutorial Pt 3: Architecting React.js Apps with Flux.
When you first start learning React, you’ll inevitably ask yourself “Should I learn Flux?”. You’ll then most likely look to Google for the source of that answer and after a bit of...
MoreTest your React Native app on your iPhone or iPad
If you’re like me, one of the first things you tried to do when you first started playing around with React Native is to run your app on your iPhone or iPad. Sadly, you most likely...
MoreReact Tutorial Pt 2: Building React Applications with Gulp and Browserify.
In part 1 we talked about all things React. At this point you should feel comfortable with the following parts of React - JSX Virtual DOM React.createClass render (method) React.r...
MoreReact Tutorial Pt 1: A Comprehensive Guide to Building Apps with React.js
By now you’ve probably heard about facebook’s React. You’ve probably even heard really good things. There has never been a better time to take the leap and start learning React. T...
MoreThe Success of Firebase: An Outsider’s Perspective
Regardless of what your opinion is of the Firebase/Google acquisition, what Andrew, James, and the rest of the Firebase team have been able to accomplish these last few years have ...
MoreBook Review: JavaScript Patterns (4.5/5)
As someone already very familiar with the JavaScript landscape, it’s difficult to find a book that’s at the right level. This book does exactly that. In the first chapter of the bo...
MoreJavaScript: The George Clooney of Programming Languages
Arriving upon the conclusion to learn to program seems to be an obvious one. The not so obvious conclusion, however, is what exactly you should program and what language you should...
MoreAngularJS: Factory vs Service vs Provider
When you first get started with Angular, you’ll naturally find yourself flooding your controllers and scopes with unnecessary logic. It’s important to realize early on that your co...
MoreCategorizing Sockets and Broadcasting to Rooms with Socket.IO
The idea and execution of creating ‘Rooms’ with Socket.IO and only emitting an event to users in that specific room is documented as overly complex, but it doesn’t have to be. This...
MoreWhy Every Athlete Should Become a Software Engineer
Until I was about 19 years old, basketball was my entire life. When I say entire, I mean it was just about all I thought about and all I ever wanted to do. In my yearbook for senio...
MoreCoder Combat: A Real-Time One on One Programming Competition
Brief Non-Technical Description Coder Combat is a real time one on one programming competition over the web. It attempts to simulate the emotions felt in a technical interview whil...
MoreSteps to Implementing an Algorithm
In order to understand how to implement an Algorithm, we first need to conceptually understand what an Algorithm is. An Algorithm is a series of steps that you expect will arrive a...
MoreObject Creation in Javascript: Functional Instantiation vs Prototypal Instantiation vs Pseudo Classical Instantiation
Object creation in Javascript can be a pretty hairy subject with so many different types of techniques to create an Object. In this post I hope to cover four different types of tec...
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