VPNs are great for protecting your security when you’re on a network that you can’t trust completely, such as coffee shop or conference WiFi. However they don’t represent a complete solution by themselves. On macOS, Little Snitch can help you fill the gaps. Read more on Supplementing Your VPN with Little Snitch…
Author: Chris Farber
Correctly Managing Concurrency in JavaScript
More times than I can count, I’ve found myself needing better concurrency primitives in JavaScript (or TypeScript) applications. Almost anything you might need is possible using the Promise API, but promises are complex, and there are many subtleties that easily manifest bugs. Read more on Correctly Managing Concurrency in JavaScript…
An Emacs Keyboard Shortcut for Changing the Font Size
Regardless of which editor I’m using, it’s common for me to change the font size depending on whether I’m using my MacBook Pro’s Retina display or the non-retina 27” Thunderbolt Display at my desk. It’s a small thing, but, when I started using Emacs, one of my biggest annoyances was the amount of friction involved in changing its font size. Here’s how I fixed that. Read more on An Emacs Keyboard Shortcut for Changing the Font Size…
Six Editor Features You Shouldn’t Live Without
When it comes to my choice of editor, I find that I’m a nomad. I’m always switching around based on the needs of my current project and the editor I’m using. If I squint hard enough, VSCode starts to look like Emacs. Over time, I’ve found a few editor features I can’t live without. Read more on Six Editor Features You Shouldn’t Live Without…
12 Emacs Keybindings Worth Learning
After spending a bit of time learning Emacs, I’ve found it has a widespread compatibility with a lot of the basic movement and editing commands. Spending a bit of time learning these commands can make you more effective in a variety of places, even if you don’t use Emacs as your preferred editor. Read more on 12 Emacs Keybindings Worth Learning…
Save Side Effects for Last
Over time, I’ve noticed a design heuristic that has helped me immensely over innumerable projects. It’s actually quite simple: You can think of it as saving your side effects for last. Read more on Save Side Effects for Last…
Easily Reloading your Clojure Project in Spacemacs
I’ve long been a fan of Stuart Sierra’s reloaded workflow. When I’m working on a ClojureScript project that doesn’t use Figwheel or another tool to assist with live code reloading, this is the pattern I reach for to help manage iterative and interactive development. Read more on Easily Reloading your Clojure Project in Spacemacs…
Exporting Application Data for Business Users? Use XLSX, Not CSV
Having written my fair share of application data exports and imports, using CSV for tabular data has usually appeared to be an obvious choice. But lately, I’ve changed my mind on this. I’d argue you should write XLSX instead. Read more on Exporting Application Data for Business Users? Use XLSX, Not CSV…
What is Point-Free Notation & When Does it Make Code More Readable?
Like most fancy-sounding development terms, “point-free notation” actually isn’t that complicated. The “point” refers to the name of an argument for a function. Let’s say you have the following function: Read more on What is Point-Free Notation & When Does it Make Code More Readable?…
Understanding UIAppearance Container Hierarchies
I recently had my first run-in with the UIAppearance infrastructure that has been built into iOS for, admittedly, a long time. Given my experience with CSS, I brought along some assumptions of how appearance(whenContainedInInstancesOf:) would probably work. Naturally, these assumptions were very wrong. Read more on Understanding UIAppearance Container Hierarchies…