Here are some reads I found this week: A Pattern For Cancelling Fetch API Requests - how to cancel fetch Create a user controlled dark or light mode - design accessible dark and light modes for your website Computer Architecture - Fall 2019 Course - free YouTube lectures from ETH Zürich Commit Message Driven Development - you might have heard of README Driven-Development, but what is Commit Message Driven Development?

Today I finished my first TypeScript experiment with React. Here are some thoughts after using ReasonReact first, and now TypeScript second. Setup Is Not Better Than ReasonReact I used Create React App to bootstrap the app. npx create-react-app <project-name> –typescript But then I had to setup ESLint and Prettier with TypeScript. ReasonML & BuckleScript: npm install -g bs-platform bsb -init <project-name> -theme react-hooks After that you’re done.

A few days ago I started preparing for my first tech talk. One of the common questions about ReasonML and ReasonReact is: Why not TypeScript? If you’re looking for a statically typed alternative for JavaScript, TypeScript seems like the obvious choice. I did a TypeScript workshop with FrontEnd Masters (online) a while ago, but I have to admit that I didn’t use TypeScript in practice. The last few days I started creating a simple TypeScript React app.

Reason and JavaScript are not the same languages, although the syntax looks similar. That’s intentional, but sometimes hides fundamental differences of those languages. Comparing values is a common task in programming. Let’s look at the equality operators. Checking For Equality in JavaScript Here’s what MDN has to say: Equality (==) The equality operator converts the operands if they are not of the same type, then applies strict comparison.

I’m not sure how it happened. But a while ago, I agreed to hold a tech talk. 😱 Today, I was able to prepare for the talk. I woefully underestimated the amount of work! I now have a new appreciation for all the speakers. Tools I decided to use Remark.js to create slides from a Markdown file. With the CLI tool backslide you can easily automate the process. I found it painless to create decent-looking slides with minimal effort.

A starting point for learning OCaml - a functional, type-safe, expressive, and battle-proven language Why OCaml? OCaml is an open-source functional, statically typed, and mature language. If you want to learn such a paradigm, OCaml is far more beginner-friendly than Haskell. OCaml has a blazingly fast compiler and excellent type inference. It offers exhaustive pattern-matching, which makes your programs concise and a joy to work with. I’ve come to OCaml from ReasonML, a JavaScript-like syntax, and tool-chain for OCaml.

Today I discovered a free MOOC for Functional Programming in OCaml. The course is offered by a French platform, FUN-MOOC. You can attend Introduction to Functional Programming in OCaml for free (after you sign up for an account). The course is in English and runs for a few weeks until end of December 2019. I am interested in learning more about OCaml after programming a few simple applications in ReasonML. Reason is an alternative syntax for OCaml, and I’ve come to appreciate its type-safety and programming paradigms.