WordPress 4.0 the next major version of WordPress has hit beta version 2 and it is the most underwhelming major release of WordPress in the history of WordPress. Previously, every major iteration of the popular CMS has come with a plethora of changes (whether it be UI or core based), in 4.0 there is pretty much nothing new. There are bug fixes and a couple of little changes, but nothing like you would expect for major milestone.
In the last four or so years, front-end web development has become a lot more complicated. In 2010 to install a new Javascript library the instructions went along the lines of, “add this script tag to the head of your site to use” – now the instructions always mostly begin with, “Install Node.js then run npm install” It is easy to get caught up in the new way of doing things, we often forget that not everyone is sure what to use or what they should be using to improve their front-end workflow.
If you are like many front-end web developers out there, you are most likely using some kind of front-end package management solution like Bower. Recently whilst working on a project that required Bootstrap 3 (the SASS port) installed via Bower, I realised I needed to make some changes to buttons and fonts being used, the caveat of course being not editing the files within the bower_components folder itself, otherwise you can’t update them.
I absolutely love Gulp.js, I’ve all but used it as a replacement for Grunt as it feels a lot cleaner and requires significantly less configuration to get things happening. Recently whilst installing Bootstrap and Font Awesome using Bower, I needed to copy the font files from the Bower package into the actual directory (because the bower_components won’t be on the live site and thus referencing the module files makes no sense).
I generally steer clear of writing reviews specifically for plugins, especially WordPress plugins. However, I felt compelled to write a review for Advanced Custom Fields v5 Pro because I have been using this plugin before there was even a pro version and you had to purchase addons separately (I had all of the addons). I couldn’t imagine my WordPress development workflow not using this plugin. Elliot (the developer behind ACF) was kind enough to offer all existing customers who bought addons a free copy of Advanced Custom Fields v5 Pro, a developer licence which would have otherwise set me back $100 (way too cheap in my opinion).
Most tech companies looking for developers are incorrectly screening candidates for their available positions. If you think asking developers to solve theoretical problems on a whiteboard or calculate how many soccer balls you could fit into a football field, you are definitely doing it wrong. A realistic hiring process To hire great developers you need a realistic hiring process in place. Ask yourself before you interview a developer, what the developer will be doing, what his or her day-to-day tasks will be and their responsibilities.
A few months ago I started training Wing Chun kung-fu after a 3 year hiatus from it and I have to say: it’s good to be training again. I have been training with Sifu Mark Lamkin who was taught by Grandmaster Victor Kan, who in turn was taught by Yip Man himself (the instructor who taught Bruce Lee and a few other well-known practitioners of Wing Chun). While Wing Chun might not be for everyone, I highly enjoy it and Sifu Mark is an excellent teacher. He won’t let you progress onto anything new until you’ve proven you’ve learned what you were taught prior, which means you actually get an understanding of the martial art and learn it properly. Nothing is rushed, you move along at your own pace until you’ve got a particular move down-pat and then you move on. Heads up though, the training stance will make your legs hurt for the first few lessons, but you will be surprised how quickly you get used to it.
In most parts of the world, some more developed than others, cyclists are afforded the kind of protections and freedoms you would expect they are. Much like motorists have to abide by certain laws, so do cyclists. This isn’t a hate on cyclists post, but I am calling out those of you who do frequently ride and are guilty of one of the following. Choosing to either ride on the road or footpath at your convenience Riding through red lights Not stopping at stop signs Riding on the road, reaching a red light and then riding across a pedestrian crossing Riding 4 or more abreast (4 or more riders riding side-by-side), blocking entire lanes and causing a traffic hazard Resting your hands on the front of a motorists vehicle so you don’t have to put your feet down Failing to adequately indicate when turning a corner, when stopping or merging Not having proper lighting, making it harder for motorists and pedestrians to see you when it gets dark The sad reality is there are probably only a handful of cyclists out there not doing these things. Motorists are no better. in-fact I would agree with you if you said motorists are worse than cyclists. The explanation for this is of course, there are more motorists on the road than cyclists, so that means the statistics can’t really be compared.
When it comes to CSS and front-end frameworks in general, I used to avoid them. I used to favour my own custom solutions because I understood them better and I could include what I needed and not include what I don’t. It wasn’t until recently when I started a new job where they favoured and had built an application using Bootstrap, did I learn to stop hating it. In-fact, after understanding what Bootstrap is and isn’t, I’ve grown to actually enjoy using it. I see the value in Bootstrap and other frameworks like Foundation.
I have recently switched over from command line GIT to Atlassian Sourcetree because I like to see what is going on, makes things like branching and selective commits a whole lot nicer as well. One issue I encountered was files set to be ignored in my .gitignore file were still showing up in the working copy when modified even though when looking via the command line, you see they’re being ignored.