@Simonced
Web dev
Nothing here yet.
Nothing here yet.
No blogs yet.
Great article. I spotted a little typo near the beginning: keeping thins for future thins -> things ? I also use different tools, org-capture, keep, oneNote... But I feel that with that method, I need to remember where is the note I want. Still looking for the perfect solution, dNote seems promising.
For me, automating tasks, or making the computer do something for me, makes me a programmer. It's a broad term, because, to automate or setup something, it's something we all do, even people not working in IT. You program your microwave for 3min and 30sec to warm your meal. Programming is quite broad, but it's my personal take on that.
Nice read, I understand how you feel. I started myself 15 years ago, but I have the chance to not have to use so many APIs or libraries. The main projects we have are done in-house and we usually have the option to write the libs ourselves, because it's better for maintainability. I remember that lib I made, to support vertical writing in Chrome for Japanese. The same CSS couldn't be used because Microsoft is the only one supporting vertical text correctly. (what a surprise! really!) I handled different browsers and versions (iPad, Safari, Chrome) and made so you could even display tables (by recreating them while rotating all the cells). All in JS and with a bit of CSS. It was hard, but it was fun, it's in prod for many years now, and we add features to it from time to time. That is the part of my job that I like the most.
You are right, logging is the minimum we can do to trace an error or simply check an application runs well. For example, we log critical transactions' results regarding payments, even the successful ones. We also have home-made logs systems and admin panels so the customer can check on their own what transaction was successful or not. Those logs contain unique numbers in the form "123-1234" to be easily memorized and looked up. Our customers will call us with this number and we can double check and investigate more quickly. For such transactions, we log everything, even the data we send (POST data in general). This could help identify a malfunction on our side or on the third-party side. We, of course, log the received data "as is" with no treatments, plus a parsed version. Because it's easier to read, or it could help identifying if our parser failed on something... Lastly, data retention. It depends on how much activity you have. The last system we made, each log file was monthly rotated, because we don't expect much trafic, but daily logs could be necessary with heavy trafic. We archive those logs externally after one or 2 months. Keep about one year of logs. That's our basics. On top of that, we rely on MySQL logs and Apache logs as well.
I discovered programing as a kid with my Atari 520 STe. GFA GBasic was my holly grail at the time, and I had my best programming experience back then. So that's how all that started. Then I took a special orientation at school and found a job quickly. I am 38 now, and I am still learning every day. I don't even get paid well despite my experience, but the fun factor is real ;)