Author: Gage Vander Clay

Creating Custom CloudWatch Alarms for AWS Lambdas

AWS allows you to setup CloudWatch alarms on many performance-related metrics. Doing this for metrics like CPU load or storage use is trivial. However, setting up custom alarms based on events or errors in a log isn’t as straightforward. By the end of this post, you should know how to set up alarms based on errors and events within a Lambda on AWS. Read more on Creating Custom CloudWatch Alarms for AWS Lambdas…

VS Code vs Spacemacs for TypeScript Development

I have been using Spacemacs as my go-to editor for around two years, and I use it on every project I can. After being assigned to a TypeScript project, I discovered Spacemacs support for TypeScript was lacking compared to Visual Studio Code. I grudgingly accepted that VS Code provided a better development experience and adopted it as my editor for this project. While I grew comfortable with VS Code, I never felt at home using it. Read more on VS Code vs Spacemacs for TypeScript Development…

Styling Custom Components in React Native Using TypeScript

I recently ran into an issue with providing style properties to custom React Native components written in TypeScript. When defining the type of the style property, we were using the ViewStyle and TextStyle types provided by React Native.

Read more on Styling Custom Components in React Native Using TypeScript…

Three Common Misconceptions Junior Developers Have About Refactoring

One tool that junior developers often undervalue is refactoring. Since young developers probably haven’t worked on many projects where maintainability is important, it’s easy for them to overlook the importance of writing clean code. In this post, I’ll clear up some of the common misconceptions about refactoring. Read more on Three Common Misconceptions Junior Developers Have About Refactoring…

Four Questions I Ask Myself When Deciding What to Learn Next

Being a software consultant requires a constant growth mindset. This means having a thirst for knowledge, in both technical and interpersonal skills. With a plethora of topics and resources available, making a choice can be a daunting task. These are a few questions I ask myself when deciding on my next topic to research.
Read more on Four Questions I Ask Myself When Deciding What to Learn Next…

Integrating a Visual Git Interface into Your Workflow

Like many other developers at Atomic, my Git workflow relies heavily on the command line. I recently started using Visual Studio Code since my editor of choice, Spacemacs, did not have great React and TypeScript support.

Since I started using VS Code’s Git interface, I have seen an improvement in my productivity. Here are some benefits to using a GUI in your Git workflow. Read more on Integrating a Visual Git Interface into Your Workflow…

The Benefits of Becoming an Early Riser

For the past few years, I have rarely woken up early unless I was required to do so. This doesn’t mean that I’ve been consistently late to early arrangements, just that I’ve given myself little time to prepare for the day. During my time in college, I would wake up an hour before my earliest class started, giving me just enough time to shower, eat, catch the next bus, and arrive in time for my professor to start lecturing. Read more on The Benefits of Becoming an Early Riser…

Three Awesome Spacemacs Features

For almost a year now, I have been using Spacemacs, an Emacs distribution designed to make Vim users and newcomers to Emacs comfortable in Emacs, as my daily text editor. I was initially hooked by the nearly flawless Vim emulation, which is the best I have used in any text editor. After I had gotten my feet wet, I fell in love with the pre-defined mnemonic shortcuts and amazing packages that are included in the distribution.
Read more on Three Awesome Spacemacs Features…