Project-Specific Command Line Shortcuts with direnv

Most projects that last more than a few weeks accumulate some form or another of automation. Some carefully craft jobs in a package.json file and run them with yarn automation. Some stuff their Makefiles full of .PHONY targets and run them with make my-automation-better. Still others fill up a directory with Bash scripts and run […]

What to Try When You’ve Tried Everything Else

Developing custom software is tough. There are numerous unknowns and tradeoffs at every stage of a project—each with unique short-, medium-, and long-term consequences in several dimensions. As a consultant, my job is to help people navigate those complex tradeoffs, and to build an app that will help my clients do what they do better, […]

My Git Branching Strategy – Graph Gardening

If you've ever worked on a team with more than a couple of people, you've probably been involved in a discussion about branching strategies. Git-flow, GitHub-flow, Microsoft-flow, and many others all try to minimize disruption and conflict when making changes to a large codebase. Recently, I've been playing with a new strategy that may help […]

Simulate Network Outages in Your App with Little Snitch

Modern development tools are super-convenient. XCode’s more recent builds let you debug an iOS app over WiFi, so you don’t have to succumb to the indignity of plugging in a Lightning cable (so 2017). React Native’s tooling goes a step farther, giving you the ability to run the native part of the app on a […]

How Many Sprints Does it Take to Change a Lightbulb?

I haven’t touched a light switch in weeks. Over the past few months, I’ve been rolling out a smart light network throughout my house. To successfully complete the project, I followed a simple Agile process that we use all the time at Atomic to help clients navigate large software projects with lots of stakeholders. If […]

Three Habits to Break on Large React Native Projects

Working on a large(ish) React Native project presents some unique challenges for web and mobile developers. Isolating components from one another is a great way to make refactoring easy, but it leads to some pretty gnarly directory hierarchies. If you read much React Native code, you’re bound to pick up a few habits that cause […]

Three Command Line Utilities to Reduce Everyday Frustrations

Every once in a while, I pick up a new tool that makes my work days nicer. Here are three that I’ve started using regularly on a recent project. Maybe they’ll make your work days nicer, too.

Three Pitfalls of React Native Development (and How to Leap Over Them)

React Native is one of the best things to happen in the cross-platform mobile app development scene since the WebView. I can’t get enough of it. My current project (an iOS and Android application built with React Native and a heavily customized UI) would have taken at least twice as long to build as a […]

Five Build Commands to Make Project Onboarding Faster & Easier

New team members shouldn’t have to spend their time probing the subtle differences between their MacBook and yours while reading a lovingly worded project_treatise.md. They should be able to jump in and run the project in 10 minutes, flat. So next time you start a new project, try writing your Makefile before you write the […]

Four Reasons Your Mobile App Needs a Web Back End

Building a modern mobile application can be an intimidating prospect. From establishing trademarks to choosing the right technology approach to planning your marketing campaign, there’s a lot to keep in mind. One thing that’s easy to overlook is the web back end, but it’s essential to powering many of the experiences that customers expect from […]

Atomic Spin

Atomic Object’s blog on everything we find fascinating.

By: Joe Chrysler

Author: Joe Chrysler