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Weeknotes: 27 November to 1 December 2023

gray abstract rose petals
Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Adding double-quoted strings helps process escape sequences. For example when printing an addition with the print method:

    print "addition\n"
  • The .to syntax defines positive expectations in tests

  • The .to_not/.not_to is for negative expectations in tests

  • Wildly Explicit Tests can be handy in RSpec

#18
December 1, 2023
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Weeknotes: 20 November to 24 November 2023

waterfalls painting
Photo by British Library on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Creating a new programme in Python from scratch with a new method leading to the output I’m looking for is fascinating

  • Documentation providing detailed guidance about how to use a tool is a brilliant source of information and supports various levels of autonomy

  • A prosumer is someone that purchases very high quality technical products or equipment. It’s also an individual who helps a company design and produce its products

  • Trying out a new tool with a very different interface with a focus on relevant and more accurate information is pleasant

#17
November 24, 2023
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Weeknotes: 13 November to 17 November 2023

a painting of a wooded area with trees
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Tools integrating with the framework LangChain include Anthropic, Google, OpenAI, AWS, Microsoft etc.

  • In LangChain, agents use a language model to choose a sequence of actions to take

  • Running the command python -m pip install -r requirements.txt in an integrated terminal installs dependencies based on a file named requirements.txt

  • Garbage collection in Ruby is a memory management system

#16
November 17, 2023
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Weeknotes: 6 November to 10 November 2023

a landscape with hills and trees
Photo by Catherine Kay Greenup on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#15
November 10, 2023
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Weeknotes: 30 October to 3 November 2023

a painting of a landscape with a body of water in the background
Photo by Birmingham Museums Trust on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#14
November 3, 2023
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Weeknotes: 23 October to 27 October 2023

a painting of a lake surrounded by mountains
Photo by Catherine Kay Greenup on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#13
October 27, 2023
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Weeknotes: 16 October to 20 October 2023

green grass field near snow covered mountain during daytime
Photo by Catherine Kay Greenup on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#12
October 20, 2023
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Weeknotes: 9 October to 13 October 2023

brown mountain under white clouds and blue sky during daytime
Photo by innayat anhar on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • An each loop in Ruby is a way to “repeat until done”

  • Not having a CLI command to set secrets before deploying a Rails app to a new host makes for a more complex deployment process

  • Using this Rails command is a necessary step in the process: EDITOR=vim rails credentials:edit --environment production

  • In Rails 7.1, it is possible to generate a Dockerfile by typing this Rails command in the terminal at the root of the project folder: bin/rails generate dockerfile

  • Adding CSS to a Sinatra app involves a DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) approach

What I have read

#11
October 13, 2023
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Weeknotes: 2 October to 6 October 2023

blue yellow and red abstract painting
Photo by Mayur Deshpande on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • In Rails 7, you need to run bin/dev to load your CSS from TailwindCSS, you cannot simply use bin/rails server

  • The prose tag is a class applying a few default styles to a page

  • Reading then parsing a CSV file requires two different class methods in Ruby

  • Setting secrets for production is essential otherwise it’s not possible to deploy especially when using a Dockerfile and a new hosting provider

#10
October 6, 2023
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Weeknotes: 25 September to 29 September 2023

blue, yellow, and brown wall decor
Photo by Photo Boards on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Polyglot programming is about writing code in several languages. According to TechTarget, it is “to capture additional functionality and efficiency not available in a single language”

  • Testing case statements with RSpec meant working through error messages before getting tests to pass

  • Building a small server using Node.js before launching it with the command node index.js took less time than expected

#9
September 29, 2023
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Weeknotes: 18 September to 22 September 2023

blue yellow and red abstract painting
Photo by Steve Johnson on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Git annotate is a command annotating the lines of a file with commit information

  • Choosing to start a Rails project with a PostgreSQL database instead of a Sqlite one allows for scalability in the future

  • Learning and experiencing community at a welcoming technical event (albeit remotely) makes a difference

  • Enabling force_ssl to serve a Rails app over HTTPS and use secure cookies by simply uncommenting a line in the production.rb file can take little time

  • Deploying a new version of a Rails app with the help of clear technical documentation is a joy

  • Receiving specific feedback is helpful. Thankful for the folks providing it thoughtfully

#8
September 22, 2023
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Weeknotes: 11 September to 15 September 2023

red blue and white abstract painting
Photo by Robert Keane on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#7
September 15, 2023
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Weeknotes: 4 September to 8 September 2023

white red and green textile
Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Reading traceback messages to resolve invalid syntax in Python requires diligent investigating

  • Creating a unit test in Python and executing it with a test runner like unittest differs from creating one in Ruby with RSpec

  • Feeling a sense of belonging is dependent on the quality of experiences within any given context

  • Connecting across differences starts small

  • Cross-cultural learning is continuous

#6
September 8, 2023
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Weeknotes: 28 August to 1 September 2023

selective focus photography of pin
Photo by delfi de la Rua on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Starting points for learning are often helpful

  • Mapping learning is necessary

  • Conversations can help map learning or exploration

  • Immersion and experiential learning require adaptability

#5
September 1, 2023
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Weeknotes: 21 August to 25 August 2023

blue skies filled of stars
Photo by Billy Huynh on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Python code follows conventions outlined in PEP 8 (Python Enhancement Proposal 8)

  • Using a YAML validator brings up informative error messages

  • Creating a template document in markdown to add it to a process is never a bore to me

  • Tools can support or hinder you if you do not have enough context. You need just enough context to be able to use them

#4
August 25, 2023
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Weeknotes: 14 August to 18 August 2023

person using black laptop computer
Photo by Nubelson Fernandes on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

  • Writing integration tests in Rails is a fantastic way to try out different use cases for applications

  • Solving a technical challenge in fewer lines of code makes a difference

  • Running a test suite and working through error messages before tests pass is fascinating

  • There isn’t an equivalent to the Ruby switch statement in Python. From version 3.10.0, the Match Statement in Python is all I could find

#3
August 18, 2023
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Weeknotes: 7 August to 11 August 2023

brown fountain pen on notebook
Photo by David Travis on Unsplash

What I have found gripping

#2
August 11, 2023
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Coding lab

This is where you will find some of my coding experiments.


Creating an earlier version of an RSS feed reader in Python

#1
August 9, 2023
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