Traditional vs Single Page websites
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Traditional vs Single Page websites and which language to learn

This post is an answer I gave to a student on my Udemy course: Build your own Backend using Django REST Framework. A summary of the question was: What is the difference between single page and traditional websites, and which language should…
Biggest Developer Frustrations Reported By You
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Biggest Developer Frustrations Reported By You (Q&A)

As part of our weekly monthly newsletter, we send a survey out to all of our readers. A small percentage of our readership respond, but their answers are always telling. One of the questions we ask is: What is your biggest frustration? The…
Paperdoll man with glasses in front of a snippet of Hello World code

How I became a professional developer

So I thought in this post I'd do something a bit different and I'll go through my journey as a professional software engineer. I'm a full-stack software engineer, that means that I work in all different languages from the backend to the frontend,…
The word commit on a pink background
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Five reasons to write proper commit messages

We have all been there and probably done it ourselves. An app randomly breaks or crashes, so you type "git log" to see what has changed recently. And BOOM! The history reads like: 18:15: More updates. 18:02: Updates. 17:40: Updates. …
Guy standing in front of a whiteboard with a pen trying to problem solve
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How to handle a colossal project

Towards the end of 2016, I decided to start making videos to share on Facebook and YouTube. I blocked out some time in my calendar to make 3 videos a week. Since I do freelance work during the week, it meant that I would have to do them in…
Guy with bandaged wrist carrying a backpack giving a thumbs up
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5 tips to avoid programming-related injuries

I hope you had a great first month of the year and that you're already working towards your programming goals for 2017! I wanted to talk about something different today...Something happened to my wife and business partner, Brooke. It's been…
The words attitude versus experience on top of an image of grass and mud
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Attitude vs Experience: What’s more important for developers?

When I was looking for my first software development job, I kept hearing the same thing: "you don't have enough commercial experience for this role"… I kept persisting and eventually I got a job at a startup, where I worked for two years. When…
Stackoverflow logo on an orange polka-dot background
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How to ask questions on Stack Overflow (and get answers)

A lot of people ask me questions when something isn't working. While I'm more than happy to help where I can, the questions I tend to get don’t outline enough information for me to be able to answer them. But more importantly, I…
Cartoon of Big Ben against a pink background
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How to Get a Software Developer Job in London

Are you currently looking for a software developer job in London? The scene is booming at the moment, but I still encounter people who have trouble when looking for new roles. So I thought it worthwhile to pass on some of the things…
Smartphone lying on a wood surface
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How to Build an App Part 1: Setting up the Development Server with Vagrant, Ubuntu and Salt (Mac OS X Version)

Using Windows? Click here to view the Windows version of this walk-through. After my previous post, Android Development for Beginners: 6 Steps to Building Your First App, I received some requests asking me to explain in more detail…