parr0t

As someone who got very high grades in my CS degree I agree, transitioning to the real world with my first job was 12 months of pain.

This is essentially my chain of thought and what I have done. Even if it is a simple request that is confined to a single component when a developer looks at the codebase they can know that all API calls are called from Vuex modules and not modules _and_ components.

That then leads me to my next question though, if I am using Vuex to abstract the API calls is it bad practice to use Vuex actions for API calls that don't need to be saved into the store?

Interesting timing with coming across this article for me. I have started developing re-designing our site frontend to use Vue with Vuex and the point this author makes about where to put the API logic also made me scratch my head a bit. Sometimes I just need to make a simple API call that does not alter the application state and just needs to grab some information and render said information in 1 component. Technically, in the component, I can just call Axios and get the data then and there, but then I have other components such as the Login that does need to set some Vuex state and therefore that's abstracted away further in the actions/API class as all documentation seems to suggest that's what you should do. I suppose I am just finding it a bit of a challenge to keep things a) consistent and b) not overly abstracted for the task at hand.

Spent 9 months of the year developing a REST API for a project that is launching in the coming months whilst finishing my CS degree online (finish in May). Have learned a lot along the way, mainly more about the HTTP protocol in general but also unit testing and working with third-party contractors that are building SDK's to interface with my API. All in all been a very challenging year professionally but have learned a lot of lessons that will help in the years ahead.

Was a paying Spotify user for about two years and recently jumped ship to Google Play Music to give it a shot and I'm pretty happy about it thus far. Haven't been any songs that I had on my Spotify playlist that I couldn't find. There is a few things it is missing that's not ideal (no podcasts in Australia) but the bundling of YouTube Red with the subscription + the ability to upload my bandcamp-downloaded tracks that I can stream back that aren't on either Spotify or Google Play Music is fantastic.

Podcasts is just the main thing I am wanting at the moment, but I can still access them via the Spotify free account.

I'll never understand locking people up for having an addiction and treating them like criminals. I'm not too educated on how it's handled in America but in Australia you can go to your doctors and get signed up to a methadone program without worrying about any legal repercussions.

My fiancé works at a pharmacy in Melbourne, Australia and says some of the most lovely and friendly people who just want to get themselves together come in regularly to get their $5 dose and it's saddening to see how badly society judges them.

Same. My Dell XPS15 is fantastic.

This is going to be super helpful - thanks!!

I've only been programming professionally for a year but can't see myself wanting to get out of it anytime soon, maybe ask me in 10 years to see if that view changes. But at the moment am thoroughly enjoying learning as much as I can - coming from a job I didn't enjoy as a full time baker to having my weekends back, normal social hours and just having more spring in my step by doing something I have a genuine passion for is a great feeling.

Discover weekly is hit and miss for me. Some weeks I find plenty of great material, and others I find a lot of junk - that being said I can understand it would be hard to match music you'd like all the time.

Have thought for awhile that fontawesome is excellent and was sucked in by the great kickstarter video - you get my first kickstarter backing!

Fascinating. Thanks for the link.

That's really interesting, first I have heard about automated tools to validate code.

Are there public tools out there you can use prior to commits for this purpose or are they generally done in-house?

I'm a part time developer that is still at uni but learning the ways of how maintaining code is doing in a professional environment.

Just curious, how often are practices like these where the company you work for gives you a detailed overview of all the coding conventions you should follow? Is this absolutely expected to be followed strictly when you start any job as a developer? Is this something a lot of workplaces follow or mainly the big boys(Google, Facebook, Twitter, etc). If you miss maybe one or two coding conventions in a huge commit for instance, do you hear about it or does the reviewer just fix it and you can see what's changed?

Just curious as I'm still new to transitioning into the workplace when it comes to source control. I work with one other developer (my boss) who wrote for more or less the entire system himself and there is no such document - I just have to observe the patterns used and follow suit.

I did a unit at university learning C at the beginning of the year and you sound similar to my lecturer. We used VIM, no fancy IDE's and we had to compile our code in the command line using flags such as -ansi -Wall -pedantic and would be marked down even if we had warning for not following the coding conventions. Same goes for allocating any memory we did not free, etc and to illustrate how to use debugging tools such as gdb, valgrind.

Was a tough unit that definitely did not hold your hand (I had done a lot of Java before that which handled things like memory allocation for you along with a much more forgiving teacher) but I am grateful I did the unit and really enjoyed the harder-approach my lecturer took.

Ah someone from my area - I commute into south bank everyday from Ferntree Gully. I actually don't mind the train trip in. It's a bit further to a train station from Olinda though (assuming that was how you travelled in).

Definitely going to be trying this. It's almost exam time for me and I always make mind-maps to help visualize and drive concepts home.

Good job!

As someone who is also learning to code and has been for about 18 months, great job :)

Exactly what I was thinking :)

As someone who until Oct last year worked weekends and weekdays getting up at 2:30 am to bust my ass in a bakery for dismal pay and virtually no social life due to the hours - I work part time as a junior developer now and looking back at my old life I don't know how the hell I did it. It motivates me to do the best I can each day so I don't end up back there.

Been a fan of Crash Course for some time, a good bite-sized video to tune into when you have a little bit of spare time. World History & Astronomy were my tops, currently watching the Games series which they have not yet finished.

That's really cool, I like it.

I'm currently at uni studying CS and recently finished my 'Programming in C' unit. The teacher from the get-go said it would be challenging compared to other languages that we had used to date (mainly Java) and that quite a few students struggle with it. Once I got my head around pointers and debugging through GBD/Valgrind the unit came immensely enjoyable and rewarding.

We didn't use any fancy IDE's and were told to stick to VIM, we also had to compile with the flags -ansi -Wall -pedantic which alerted you to not only errors but warnings when we compiled our code if it didn't meet the C90 (I think) standards. It was a lot of work crammed into 13 weeks but it had one assignment which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Tic Tac Toe (Ramming home using pointers, 2D arrays, bubble sort for the Scoreboard).

Debugging a bug-riddled program (My favourite).

Word Sorter (Using dynamic memory structures, memory management by having no leaks, etc).

The debugging one was very different from most other assignments I had done at uni to date and the teacher said he recently introduced this assignment because the university had received feedback that students debugging skills weren't the greatest. They could write what they were asked to just fine, but when it came to debugging preexisting issues quite a few struggled. We got given a program with around 15 bugs and you got marks depending on what was causing the bug and a valid solution to fix it. This forced us to use tools such as GBD and Valgrind to step through the program and see where the issue was and to be much more methodical.

I really enjoyed C and when I find a bit of time outside of work and study I'd like to explore it more.

So annoyed my alarm didn't wake me this morning to watch this live, glad it didn't explode this time and made an awesome landing. Huge congratulations to SpaceX!

I study through a uni in Melbourne but purely online (minus exams) so this is an interesting side of on-campus study that I had not thought of much. I have found collaborative learning via the student forums is a great way to help people out, and there are lots who do seek help which is great (myself included). I'm just over halfway through my CS degree and now wandering how different my progress & grades would be if I studied on-campus.

I've been a long time reader of this great news site which gives me a joy to read everyday but today is the only time I have felt compelled to comment on a post.

A few years back I had been bottling up a lot of issues and negative thoughts that had just manifested in my head over time and got worse and worse. I couldn't think straight, everything was an effort I literally felt like I was going to feel this way forever. I never considered self-harm and said to myself that I couldn't live with feeling this way day in and day out. I had somewhat of a breakdown (I was around 25 years of age living out of home with my partner) and had to take a week off work. I made the call and ended up getting an appointment with a psychologist later that week.

I was convinced I was screwed even after half a dozen appointments - mainly because I was too scared and embarrassed to say what was really bugging me out of fear of judgement by my psychologist (I know, it's their job). I felt like absolute garbage day in and day out and felt sorry for myself and feeling like I deserved better, I let it keep building up and building up and despite going to these appointments I kept shying away from explaining what thoughts and memories were upsetting me. One day I walked into an appointment and I was usually composed and pretty chirpy, this time I just sat down and bawled my eyes out and realized enough was enough. I explained all the negative thoughts that had been bugging me and that was the start of turning things around. I extensively credit my psychologist for helping me get my issues together and helping me finally get on the path to learning how to deal with these issues and overcome them.

I thought I was really depressed, when I really had severe anxiety and not much in terms of what constituted for 'depression' - I know the two can go hand in hand and one can be labelled as the other and so on. I kept at it and over the course of about 30 appointments over several years I was taught strategies on how to deal with negative thoughts, anxiety and so forth. I was in a job I didn't like one bit, living out of home with little money and whilst I was beginning to get on top of my anxiety issues which were dragging me down so heavily I knew I had to move on professionally.

I reduced my work load to part time, started studying Computer Science at University (my old job was non IT) which I have absolutely loved from the very beginning and am about two thirds through my degree. I was lucky enough to get some part time work as a developer with someone I know who needed a bit of help which I still do today. Since starting this new job I have felt like compared to the position I was into a year prior literally nothing could of gone better for me. I look back at myself two years ago in a job I really did not enjoy with constant severe anxiety looming over me everyday to the point where I didn't even have the courage to catch up with some of my closest friends. It dictated my life but I said enough was enough and I wasn't going to let it control me anymore.

It's taken me a lot of practice and persistence to be able to control the flood of negative thoughts that come to me daily and I still on the odd day struggle pretty bad. Like I mentioned above I haven't even finished my degree yet but am working as a part time programmer which I could not be more happy about as it is giving me great experience however I'm incredibly tough on myself to be as valuable to my employer as possible. Programming is something that from what I have discovered, experience plays a major part in how well you can do it - I currently have very little experience but put expectations on myself that I should be able to work as fast and have code as excellent and at a the same level of quality as my co-worker who has more years experience than me. It's an area where my anxiety tries to find a way in to get to me to drag me down and something that I have to consistently need to keep on-top of but at the end of the day I'm glad that I am finally doing something I am truly passionate about.

The main reason I have written this is because I want to encourage people who are feeling down for an extended period of time to seek help. You may not see it at the time, and I didn't believe me - but you can feel better. It scares me to think of where I would be had I not of walked into my psychologists office a few years back. It's the hardest thing I had ever done but it was the best thing I have ever done.

I maybe rambled on a bit too much but just wanted to share.

Thanks.