NodeJS on EC2 Instance

I needed a clean server to run a quick NodeJS server. We have been using Node for a while now and I haven't set up a server from scratch for a while. Either it's been working and we've just been using AMI images, or I used Elastic Beanstalk, which has done the Node setup already. There are some good blogs or tutorials on how to build node from scratch, but all the building is kind of tedious, especially if you picked a cheap server without all the processing power of the more expensive tiers.

So, to do this faster,

sudo yum update
sudo yum install openssl openssl-devel
sudo yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

That gets a few things ready on the system, and yum is quick. 

Next, I'm using Node Version Manager, or NVM for short. This is just a glorified bash script, though I use it on my dev machine. It's really great. (Especially if your last contract was still using Node 0.10 but pet projects want to use the latest stable version).  Also, it avoids all the source code building, which is the main point of this blog post : )

From the readme (all one line):

curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.31.0/install.sh | bash

And that's it! I exited my ssh session, and came back. Then quickly ran

nvm install 5.9.1

Which worked flawlessly, and I could run node and npm in my terminal. 

$ node -v
v5.9.1
$ npm -v
3.7.3

I personally found that quicker than the other blogs out there. Hopefully it saves you some time as well.

Later Edit: When running after this install, I had an issue where my installed user could find Node (like above) but other users could not. The option I went with was from this blog, running the command:

n=$(which node);n=${n%/bin/node}; chmod -R 755 $n/bin/*; sudo cp -r $n/{bin,lib,share} /usr/local

And to quote the blog:

The above command is a bit complicated, but all it's doing is copying whatever version of node you have active via nvm into the /usr/local/ directory (where user installed global files should live on a linux VPS) and setting the permissions so that all users can access them.

This command would need to be run each time I ran a version. I also had to make sure /usr/local was in the $PATH of the users that needed Node.  And alternative to these extra commands would be to just use the nvm-global version of nvm (a different repo), which I might try next time.  But for now, I'm set up so will get back to it!

Better Faster and Cheaper Expectations

A common theme is software development is the old adage of "Better Faster Cheaper." Which includes everyone involved in the project, whether they know it or not. We all, especially devs, want our software to be better (less bugs, more features, faster performance, painless DevOps). We all, especially managers, want our software to be done faster (because a business/demo schedule is in place). And we all, especially those with the checkbooks, want our software to be done cheaper (in terms of expense, and software is not cheap!). 

As the adage goes, "you can only pick two." The "best" place in the triangle is probably the center, but that's just equalized. Maybe less surprises and less risk, but everyone is out to optimize something and the focal point shifts for a number of reasons. In some cases, it has to! (or at least should.)

So, where is your project aiming?

Better and Faster, but not Cheaper

Great software delivered quickly. Everyone likes great software that does what it is supposed to do without problems. And there are good reasons to need it fast, like being first-to-market, or iterating features faster than your competition, or your investors are getting antsy. It can be done!

And, it comes at a price. For any part of the project that can be developed in parallel, you can throw people at the problem. Maybe some incentives will keep the team working harder. Buy the good machines and latest tools. Maybe you can hire a real rockstar team of experienced devs, or just buy the technology and services your system is missing.

Whatever the approach, the need for better and faster is outweighing the cost constraints . . . and that's the point! If all those reasons to need it fast are right, and the software is great, you have a winner on your hands and would gladly spend that cost all over again.

Better and Cheaper, but not Faster

Great software at an economical price. Everyone likes great software that does what it is supposed to do without problems. And there are good reasons to need to done cheaper, like lack of investment, changing company profit margins or shrinking development resources.

Without resources, time slows down. Be it lack of motivation or reduced effort, the software can still be good but do not expect it to be done quickly. I see this in a lot of Open Source projects which put out great software, but most of those devs are one or two people who have other jobs and interests. They build and maintain great software, for free (can't get cheaper than that!), but sometimes their Issues list is long or v2.0 has been living in beta-mode for a while.

Progress won't happen quickly . . . and that's the point! Resources are being assigned elsewhere (or never existed in the first place), and the project is still moving forward without burdening cost (time and talent).

Faster and Cheaper, but not Better

Everyone likes great software that does what it is supposed to do without problems. And they want it now! For free! This area of the triangle is what causes developers the most strain. They want to spend more time on that problem, follow good development practices, investigate all the alternatives, re-write that ugly piece of code from last month, etc. - but deadlines and budgets don't allow for it. During my time in the defense industry, I was reminded that I wasn't creating the absolute best software for my task . . . I was fulfilling the stated requirements with the contract constraints that were in place. Talk about strain!

While customers and managers are always monitoring for faster and cheaper, they also want better! This is where a dev shop can fall into problems, by promising better without any means of faster (except "work weekends forever") or eating the cheaper themselves. Having someone "on the dev team's side" that can explain this situation is vital to the health of your team and project.

Faster and cheaper are important and often inflexible . . . and that's the point. When those are the biggest priorities, all parties should be made aware just what part of better is going into Phase 2. There are some times where faster and cheaper make a lot of sense as well, like internal prototyping or feature proof-of-concepts. Better can be handled later, when someone else is paying for it!

Expect All Three

Of course, anyone involved with a software project will say, "I want it all!!!" And they're right, they do want it all. They should have it all too! But the grumpy software veteran will say "nope, you can only pick two" and the uninformed customer will be surprised when the target starts drifting towards one corner of the triangle, only to want to focus on a different corner the next week. The unmonitored devs will push to better every time, especially if they're allowed to just refactor it all again, only to wonder why their schedule is shot and they're rushing at the end. Can all three really be done?

There is no mystical triangle to guide our software, but all decisions will have some outcome. If everyone is expecting the same thing, and the team performs, everyone is happy and not thinking if it could have been better, or faster or cheaper. If, however, expectations were not equal, then someone is left wanting more and pointing fingers at the imagined target on the triangle. "It should have been faster." "What about feature X?"

Yes, we can have all three . . . in a way. If expectations are set correctly and maintained throughout the project, everyone is getting what they expect to get and don't think about the triangle . . . and that's the point! With a defined and limited set of requirements that are perceived as "better", the team can work quickly and cheaply. With a defined budget, that "looks economical" and isn't skimmed, for the right team, good software can be created quickly. With achievable milestones that are "fast enough", good software can be created cheaply.

The triangle is useful to explain compromises while setting expectations. It is not a compass to magically redirect software efforts, nor a map that explains "how we got here is your fault." Set clear goals, keep communication lines opens and enjoy great software that is so much better, faster and cheaper that no one even thinks about it : )

Card Game Project - Deployment

With some working components, and before jumping into the game logic, I want to try out building a native version for at least Android.

Cordova

Building with Cordova worked pretty well. I spent more time installing packages than I did building the app. The best part was the app works and looks great on the device. Special thanks to this blog for documenting their steps as well.

npm install -g cordova
cordova -v

Installing with npm is a breeze. I am using Cordova 6.0.0.

cordova create polycardwarapp com.chimmelb.polycardwar PolyCardWar

This initialized my application in the polycardwarapp directory.

cd polycardwarapp/
cordova platform add android

Build my dist/ directory and copy it to the /www directory of the app.

cd ..
cp -R dist/ polycardwarapp/www/
cd polycardwarapp/
cordova build android

This is where I got stuck. I add the Android SDK tools installed but either never used them, or needed to update them. 

android update sdk -u -a

That command made me agree to many EULAs, and started updating some build tools. I waiting while updating 24, 23, 22, 21 and quit soon after that. Then the build worked flawlessly.

cordova emulate android

Emulator was OK, and installed the apk created at platforms/android/build/outputs/apk/android-debug.apk on my phone. Started up quickly and was responsive. 

PhoneGap

The instructions for PhoneGap building were pretty straightforward, and was more app-based than command line. I followed their instructions for the sample app, copied my dist/ directory into the www/ folder, and the next build worked! 

I was suprised to read this: 

Apache Cordova is the engine that powers Adobe PhoneGap™, similar to how WebKit powers Chrome or Safari. 

...so perhaps that's why these were two positive experiences.

Mobile Chrome App

My first try was the documentation to build a chrome app, included in Polymer. This worked enough to build an app, but the routing in the app didn't work for me and kept getting toasts about not finding certain app paths.

Next Steps

I'm sure Cordova and PhoneGap have many more options, like the icon for the app, portrait-only view models and other cool things. I sometimes get an app routing error when first starting the game, and there could be other errors hiding about that will only be visible in an app format, rather than on the web browser (PhoneGap's tooling would probably be more useful in that case too). The Crosswalk project is also an option (or plugin) that could be useful.

But deployment is possible, and that's what I intended to find out. The game needs a lot more logic, but the layout and user input ("clicking") all worked on a mobile device in an app format. A more formal solution would be needed before hitting an app store, but the biggest risk of "Is this even possible?" has been cleared, so we can continue back to the app!

Tracking

This was another day, though there were some other project hurdles to handle today. And like I eluded earlier, installing android packages was a bigger time-sink than anything else. The actual build tools worked great! 

Card Game Project - Components

There are two components that are custom to this game, the <game-card> and the <card-stack>, which is a collection of <game-card>s.

Cards

The simpler of the two will be the game card. Like your standard playing card, it need a front and a back. The back will have a logo (the Polymer logo), the same on all cards. The front will have text that reflects some rank (in this game, it's basically 1-6 plus 3 special card types).

The first trick is to not show both sides of the card at the same time. I took out the other styling attributes for the css, and just wanted to show the affect of a relatively positioned outer <div> (so it's still affected by flexbox correctly), and two absolutely positioned inner <div>, with classes front and back. The outer div defines the css transition, and that the back of a flipped card can be seen (backface-visibility: hidden;). The front of the card is flipped over with  transform: rotateY( 180deg), and the front and back are both rotated 180 degrees in the same direction to get the affect.

That flipped class is applied with Polymer's special attribute data binding, class$="front {{isFlipped(show)}}", which binds the calculation of the class to a function in game-card's script called "isFlipped", that is evaluated every time the value of the attribute "show" changes (internally to game-card, or applied to the element from elsewhere). When the class appears or disappears, the css animation is applied.

For now, an "on-click" event is present to flip the cards as needed.

Stacks

Cards in this game are played from stacks (or piles). Two things I wanted to do for stacks was

1. Proportion the cards dimensions
2. Fan the cards so I could see them all from top to bottom.

My first step was to make cards that had a respectable shape! Normal playing cards are 64mm x 89mm so we want to keep that proportion. Plus, in the card stacks I want to "fan out" a stack of up to 5 card and still fit in the width of the <card-stack> element (which is always resized with flexbox). A little calculation is needed, and the solution I've used was this (polymer properties removed):


With Polymer, getting the size of elements (or their parents) is tricky if not done at the right time where all the values are 0. Here I used the IronResizeableBehavior to catch an iron-resize event, and if the height is > 0 (meaning it actually rendered), performed some calculations to preserve the aspect ratio. 

Fanning the cards needs to happen from inside the <card-stack>, but outside of <game-card>, so the aspects and behaviors of the cards are independent of the styles applied. Using Polymer's <dom-repeat> template, we can list the cards in an array, and with CSS just stack them on top of each other. This style was very calculated, so this was done with a function bound to three attributes of the <card-stack> (so will be recalculated each time).

Tracking

This step is wrapped up, so I created a branch. https://github.com/chimmelb/polycardwar/tree/step-components

The resizing of cards (and where to bind values in the layout) took about 3 hours, the card flip was about 2, and the fanning elements was about 1. Measuring time is funny, because it really was about a day between meetings, lunch, the other projects that needs attention, etc . . . cramming 6 hours of good work into 9 hours of my day : )

Card Game Project - Setup and Layout

Setup

For a simple polymer project, their Polymer Starter Kit (PSK) is great. For two reasons:

1. A Material Design multi-view, single page app
2. Tooling

This card game doesn't need more than a play area and some menu options for "New Game" and maybe another page or modal for "Rules." Maybe something else, but the key here is simple. You're either playing a game, or setting up to play again. Plus, Material Design looks nice.

The other great thing is tooling. Opinion on the tools to use aside, having one line options to build, test, run and deploy your web site is a good thing. The PSK uses gulp, vulcanize, and  browsersync and a few other goodies that are just good development practices. I noticed this newer version 1.2.3 didn't have jshint, so I added that back in as well to keep my code consistent.  Use whatever tools you want and when your tools work, good stuff happens : )

I also cleaned out a few items I wouldn't be needing. Some build scripts and some of the included example pages, then I added a simple flow for the game "landing" --> "new" --> "game".  "Landing" page allows a new game to be created (maybe continue a saved game in the future), "new" is the setup phase before a game, and "game" is where the game is played. Also edited the title. (This setup step concludes in this commit, if you're curious).

Initial Data Bindings

The basic layout for the game is two columns of 5 cards (actually card stacks), one column for each player. We might need a footer for some game information or setup actions, and there is already is a header bar at the top.

I added a few custom elements to help with the layout. They are not styled and have no logic yet, but instead of building a layout with just <div>s I am one step closer to the read thing. And I want to start building with real data. This maybe not be final data model, but it is enough to get started. 

Each game will have it's current state, player1 and player2, and each player has their stack of cards. I created a <game-board> element and bind the game state to it.

And now my <game-board> element can access its own game property, and changes propagate. That's what makes the binding 2-way: using "{{}}" squiggle-braces when binding in the html and `notify: true` when declaring the property. You can read more in the Polymer docs.

Generally then, the game board has two areas, each with 5 <card-stack> elements, and each card stack element has a list of <game-card> elements (displayed as needed depending on the game or stack state).

Layout

Flexbox is a handy styling tool built into browsers via CSS. You could learn more about Flexbox by watching some videos, and more about Polymer's implementation of it via <iron-flex-layout> in their great docs. Our last project just used classes to define the flexbox properties, so I'm going to try the mixin approach this time (and maybe I can do something fancy with orientation layouts later on more easily).

This is the initial layout of the app. The game-area is a horizontal layout that holds player-area left, duel-area, and player-area right, and each player-area is a vertical and justified flexbox, holding 5 card-stacks. Most all of these mixins were defined in the <style> section of game-board.html, with a little style defined in card-stack.

A similar layout will be used in the "new game" page, a larger and wrapping right-hand area and removing the duel-area from the middle.

Tracking

This step is wrapped up, so I created a branch. https://github.com/chimmelb/polycardwar/tree/step-layout

The layout and setup steps each took about 2 hours and the data binding around 1, and I've been keeping the blog open as I go, so a little time there as well. But I'm not comparing time slices to any perceived speed I should be working at, just writing it down for now.

Card Game Project

A project idea that's been in my head for a while has been a HTML5 web game published as an app. Nothing fancy with <canvas> or animation libraries, but something like a turned-based game that was fun enough with simple controls. I backed a Kickstarter for a small, 2-player card game recently that my son and I like to play, so that will be the end-goal of this project.

Along the way I want to look at turning a HTML page into a true mobile app, via PhoneGap, Cordova or Crosswalk. I also want to track my time and progress; not because I miss my tenth-of-an-hour tracking days in the defense industry, but just to have some data points for future estimates and observe any pitfalls of my own practices.

Technologies

There are a few popular frameworks for building web app these days, along with a myriad of cool javascript libraries, and I can only choose one. I was really interested in trying the Ionic Framework, but it looks like version 2 is getting ready for prime time, which also uses Angular 2. I didn't want to ramp up learning v1 because it might not pass my longevity test, and I didn't want to learn v2 because changes are still happening in both Ionic 2 and Angular 2. Since this is a side-bar project, I want to learn a little, but not new everything, since my goal is to actually finish : ) We just used Polymer in a recent project and I'd like another try at those web components, which I hear will be useful in Angular 2 anyway. (If my app were any more complex, with any of the services "native" to Ionic or the like, I'd want to use that framework instead.)

And at this point, there isn't much more needed than Polymer to get the app out the door.

Road Map

My basic plan for app construction is:

1. Setup and Layout - get app and dev tooling working, Flexbox the main areas of the views
2. Components - at least two major components needed for cards
3. Control - Click events on components or game areas to confirm actions
4. Logic - data structures and game rules (and AI?)
5. Animations - Cards and actions look better when things move
6. Deploy - turn into native app

I might test out the Deploy step earlier to get a feel for how that all works a little sooner. Waiting to try critical steps until the very end, even though you only need them at the very end, is a mistake. 

Waiting to try critical steps until the very end, even though you only need them at the very end, is a mistake.    ~chimmelb

I quoted myself on that, because it applies to small and large projects alike : )

Tracking

I'll get this up on github, and branch each stage as I complete it. I'll blog after each stage and record the amount of time it took. Again, this isn't a race and I'm not under the clock of some schedule, but hopefully will find the results interesting. 

Also, I need to figure out a good way to display source code in blogger, because code samples break up mundane writing ; )

The Series

Will update this section as other posts are written.

Setup and Layout

Components

Choosing The Right Technology

"He who asks a question is a fool for five minutes; he who does not ask a question remains a fool forever." - Chinese proverb

The development space is changing quickly these days. Open Source software and easier collaboration is producing a large amount of new software libraries and frameworks at a very rapid pace. Which is awesome!

However, you can't keep up. Fundamentally, maybe you can follow the concepts or general principles of the software in question. But getting hands-on time on everything out there? Impossible. Too much to learn, too little time. Maybe you could slice a small piece off the Java/C#/NodeJS/AngularJS{{insert your favorite here}} pie and get really good at it, but you'd be getting further behind everywhere else.

Take the database space for example. How many types of databases could you name? (relational, key-value, document, graph, etc.) How many products or engines could you name for each type you could name? 1-3? Have a look at db-engines.com. Could you name half of the categories on the left? Would you have expected over 200 listings of DB systems? If you needed a database in your next system, which one do you pick? Certainly nothing below ranking 100, right? . . . ranking 50? . . . ranking 10?

And there are many parts to a software system. And each project is different.

To jump to the point, I'll just ask the question I want to answer...

Can you pick the wrong technology? 

No.

Not really, anyway.

You might pick a solution that is overkill for your task. Or maybe one that doesn't do everything you need so you have to bolt on extra bits.

Most software languages are capable, especially with the right library. And most software can be used for a variety of purposes, even if not intended. You see, developers are creative and industrious. They will find solutions no matter how poorly the technologies line up. When it needs to get done, it is surprising what comes together. (Or how the definition of "done" changes ; ) Coming from the defense industry, there is some old and crusty software that has been working for a really long time and continues to perform.

It is better to have an approximate answer to the right question than an exact answer to the wrong one.
- J. Tukey

So while most software languages, frameworks or systems could be used to solve your problem, there could be a "more right choice". The right combination of software can make your life easier, but as of yet there is not a "one size fits all" solution to every project, every time.

Consider the following questions as you start your next project and are choosing the technology. Hopefully these, and the many side questions they produce, can guide you to a "more right" decision and avoid some pitfalls.

How fun will it be?

I ask this first because it's probably the #1 reason you're considering changing software. Read a good scrolling marketing landing page? Did some other company manage to use this software in a cool way? Is it trending on some google search or stackoverflow question list? 

Honestly, these are not bad reasons to try something new. Like I mentioned before, it will probably work out for you (at least initially). But be careful. This question could get you into a lot of trouble and suddenly isn't so fun, yet too late to switch.

Can it do what you need?

Now here's a good question. It involves knowing what your new project is doing, and is especially meaningful if there are boundaries to your requirements. The project that has a fixed list of features has latitude in terms of technology choices than the project that "will start small, but we'll grow it into our business for the next 3-5 years."

Have a web page that will be about 4 pages and 10 components with 5 API calls to the server? Pick any framework you want! Every web framework can do that. How about 10 pages with 15-20 components, that fully drives an API? Better think about what it is you're trying to do before jumping in. 

What can't it do?

The opposing side to the previous question. Identify where the limits exist, and there will be limits. Are those limits crucial to your project? Will it be a problem in the future? (Is that future 2 to 3 major releases away?). Just knowing what problems may come up will help you be ready and help you think more about what you're doing (design). You don't need to solve them all now, but don't go in blind. 

Can you afford to learn?

I worded this question to emphasize that learning is important. Different concepts and approaches will be useful for sure, and also builds the options for following projects (or resumes). 

But learning takes time. What kind of schedule are you under? What is the learning curve? A new framework will have a large curve while a new library or component will be smaller. How much new stuff are you using? New language, new framework, new database and new deploy tools all at once? Careful there . . .

There is a cost to learning and some projects will be able to afford it, while others will not. Is it worth the cost this time? Tried and true technologies that your team is comfortable with will go a long way and add speed and consistency to your development, though be aware of the changing landscape in case your stack gets left in the dust and you're playing catch-up.

How strong is the ecosystem?

Remember how Open Source software and collaboration are changing the landscape of software these days. Use that to your advantage. It's not like a new software technology is thrown at you and you have to go read an O'Reilly book or standards document to even get started.

Is the software documented, and does it contain examples? One command install? Are there blogs? How many questions are there on stackoverflow? How many issues and pull requests on its github pages? These are just a few questions to help determine if the existing ecosystem is mature, because it basically comes down to time. Will it take hours or days to fix that bug or get something setup? Chances are you're not re-inventing anything and the question has already been asked, or the problem already looked at. Think of where you can go for advice.

The other side of the software ecosystem is longevity. Will your technology choice be around as long as you need it? Will updates happen that fix your problems? Will too many updates happen that cause you problems because it's release 0.3.45 beta? It is easy to start a library these days, but will it be maintained?

Of course, if you only use mature and stable software, you might be missing out on getting a technological advantage of trying something new, or miss the chance to be part of something from the ground up. Is that important to you?

Wrap Up

A lot of rhetorical questions flow through my head when choosing software. I do not want to dwell too long on the choice, but cannot afford to blindly choose or forego advice when picking something new. There may not be a perfectly right technology out there, but for your team and your project, it is possible to pick one that is more right than others.

Parse to AWS - the Migration

We used Parse.com for a simple integration with Facebook login, and to manage users on a project. Parse was well documented and easy to work with. The integration took about a day, which was surely faster than managing our user accounts or writing our own Facebook authentication. The next week, Parse makes its announcement, which of course gave us some things to think about.

While our Parse usage was small and we had a few weeks before the data went lights-out, what would it take to transfer the service? The intent of this exercise is to determine what is needed and the steps necessary to transfer from real-Parse to an in-house version. The article by AWS made it seem easy, so I'll write here the things I found while reading there.

Server Setup

Planting Beans

AWS made it simple to create a new parse-server-example, with a one-click button to start a new application on their ElasticBeanstalk service. From start to finish it was about 4 clicks, but still really simple.

Note: You need AWS Policy access for this link to work. I added "ElasticBeanstalkFullAccess" to my IAM role group. Otherwise the link doesn't go anywhere useful, which you'll know because you can't select any options on the Beanstalk home screen.

Get Some Mongo

For Parse to work, you need a Mongo database (version 2.6.x or 3.0.x). You could roll your own on AWS, but having someone else do it for you is faster. We went the MongoLabs route for their free-tier. Signup and setup were as easy as expected.

Application Integration

And that about wraps up the AWS How-To. Now that we have a server, everything works right?

Well, not quite. Our app has three components that connect to Parse.com. A NodeJS server (that makes HTTP requests), a javascript web client and a Xamarin client (namely for iOS). Some things need to be addressed: urls and keys.

URLs

Most client SDKs point to "parse.com" or maybe "api.parse.com". How do we point these compiled client libraries to our new server?

Turns out, answers were at the bottom of the parse-server-example readme. There are values in the SDK libraries that allow the URL to be changed, and basically the key is not used on the self hosted parse server.

For our javascript SDK, which was running on SSL, putting in a non-secure URL didn't work, giving a good error like:

Mixed Content: The page at 'https://localhost:5010/game.html#/landing' was loaded over HTTPS, but requested an insecure XMLHttpRequest endpoint 'http://parseserver-xxxxx-env.us-east-1.elasticbeanstalk.com/parse/login'. This request has been blocked; the content must be served over HTTPS.

To turn on SSL on the beanstalk server, you need a certificate. AWS Certificate Manager can help sort those, and the Load Balancer configuration in the Beanstalk console can turn on port 443 listening using one of your valid certificates. 

Keys

The client applications are given keys by parse, typically for their own specific SDK. The "javascript key" allows javascript access on our web client, the "REST key" allows HTTP access using our server client, and same for Xamarin. How are those included in the Elastic Beanstalk instance, when the only environment variable is for the "Master Key"?

Also, the Facebook app ids need to live on the server somehow.

In the parse-server readme, there is the option to use environment variables which could be configured via the Beanstalk console. Whether the AWS server example respects them when the instances refresh remains to be seen.

Wrap Up

I'm stopping this investigation at the certificate chain since we don't have a wildcard cert, and SSL is needed in our app (so mixing non-SSL isn't an option for me). It would be possible to keep going, and I think the entire parse server would function as a drop in replacement with minimal code changes, but I'll have to revisit this at another time to completely integrate to our existing app.

Writing About Writing Software

As a software engineer my main focus day to day at work is the technical. What software we are planning, writing or testing, and how it fits into our projects and systems as a whole. That part of problem solving is still enjoyable, even if its down in the weeds.

And while that is nerdy and technical, every project always comes down to the communication of the team. Developers to other devs. Devs to management. Devs to customers. Management to customers. If that communication is weak somewhere, the project is negatively affected. If that communication is weak everywhere, the project is in real trouble (even if no one knows it) and your job might start becoming affected as well.

So why have a blog about software engineering? Communication.

There are three main reasons I'm starting this blog.

1. To get better at explaining myself. To fellow teammates, to managers, to customers, to the non-technical. Anything I write down will not be wasted time, merely practice for the next time I need to communicate an idea.

2. To join in. I have been helped by reading a person or team's technical blog, and maybe something I write about would help someone else. These days the world of software is more open and communication options are broad, which makes the software community just a little closer to home and I want to join in!

3. To keep track. Avoiding the same mistake, recreating that snippet or gathering the cliff notes on a topic - some things are worth revisiting. Am I getting better? Changing? Growing? No way to know without keeping track, and the internet is the place for things to not disappear.

Let's see how this goes . . .