i am rohn

thoughtfully linking code

Moving Blogging Platforms

I felt it was time to switch blogging platforms… again. This time I’ve switched to NodeJS based ghost. You can find the newest version of this blog at rohn.ghost.io.

There are many reasons that caused me to land on Ghost.

Themes are built with JavaScript

It’s no secret that JavaScript is my language of choice. I didn’t need to read further, but when I did I got even more jazzed. Ghost uses Handlebars for templating to separate presentation from logic.

Ghost is NodeJS based

Again, JavaScript. My machine is pimped out for JavaScript development, it’s a very natural fit for me to run an instance of my blog locally for testing and hacking.

Posts are written with Markdown

I’m really coming to like Markdown, but still lack enough proficiency to make me happy. Using it to write posts should improve that.

Previously…

I’ve tried many platforms, I’m sure Ghost won’t be my last. For this version of the blog I was using Octopress, and really was not displeased with much of it. There was one large issue for me however – I couldn’t blog from any system I happened to be using. Ghost solves that.

On the Importance of Junior Developers

Yesterday I was involved in a conversation with someone that really challenged me, asking me questions that kept me thinking long after we ended our time together. One of those questions was what do I think of Junior Developers.

My initial response, my off-the-cuff conditioned answer, was something along the lines of describing how they fill an important role in the software development ecosystem by being the group that performs the grunt work. Now keep in mind, this isn’t a question that I had previously spent any time thinking about and as usual let my mouth answer before my brain.

The Save Icon

There’s a pretty active post over on branch.com about redesigning the save symbol, following the argument that the floppy disk icon is far too obsolete to be relevant any more. This isn’t new, this conversation has bubbled up from time to time. I think though maybe the question needs to change: Do we need a save icon any more?

I was trying to think of the last time I clicked on a save icon, or hit ctrl-S to manually cause a save to happen. Usually anything I’m working on is auto-saved now, from email drafts to coding with Sublime Text 2. The manual save operation has become a dinosaur action.

Code Editing and Scope Opacity

I was fortunate to have been able to spend a day learning from Douglas Crockford at the FrontEnd Masters class. During his session he sidetracked a little and talked about his desire for JavaScript Scope Context Coloring in editors instead of the syntax coloring that we have now. I can certainly see benefits for it, but I also like syntax coloring and I’m not ready to give that up.

Daniel Lamb recently posted his demo of Crockford’s idea. Paul Irish gave Daniel some exposure in a Google Plus post and that started some conversations flowing.

Animation in a JavaScript Framework

We use Backbone with Marionette at work and while the combo does give us a lot, I’ve been increasily impressed with what I’m seeing in other frameworks.

A primary new feature in AngularJS is support for animation in templates. ”Animation,” you cry?! “We aren’t writing games!” Animation isn’t just for games, if used with care animation in a web app adds that last finishing touch that really says polished. The animations that have become so common in native mobile apps have raised the bar for web apps, even in the desktop browser.