Monday, February 22, 2016

Mentoring; JSP template tags


JSP templates

This was a really useful Stack Overflow answer on how to do templates in JSP.
http://stackoverflow.com/a/13103364/116810

Mentoring

My mentors have taught me some good tips on mentoring and knowledge sharing with coworkers.  The first one I will share today is this:
  • Tell them how to do it, but let them be at the keyboard doing it.
People remember more when they do it.  If you show them, they won't retain as much, and they won't be able to ask questions.

That said, I have learned a lot by watching other developers code.
  • Occasionally, sit with other developers while they write code.
I've learned things about problem solving techniques, skills with the IDE, and tools and APIs they use that I didn't know about.  I won't list those specific lessons here, but I will say that watching other developers code and do their work is invaluable.

A third thing I have learned about mentoring and skills growth:
  • Set goals to improve on your strengths, not just your weaknesses.
A while back I decided to work on my written communication skills with my manager.  I thought that writing was a strength, but as I started cc'ing my mentor on all my communications, I received feedback that helped me improve.  And I realized there are a lot of different skills that go into good written communication.  There were a few I could improve on.

I am inspired by the developer tea podcast, which shares small nuggets of insight and doesn't aim to be a long podcast.  Sometimes it's just 5 minutes.  Short podcasts are great.  So are short blog posts.  It makes me feel less worried about how in depth and helpful my blog posts are.

Friday, February 12, 2016

Vue.js?

I've heard from some coworkers about vue.js.  I like what I have heard in this podcast episode.  However, my main concern is corporate backing.  If Evan You becomes unable to keep development going, I get the feeling the project will struggle.  I'm sure someone will step up.  Also, I feel slightly concerned that in the interview the creator didn't have a clear vision of where to go next.

I hope vue.js gets some corporate backing.  I hope it works out.  I don't know if I would develop an enterprise app using it just yet.