! Rant
FYI for those who are interested, this course starts again today: https://coursera.org/learn/...

Like a lot of school kids in the UK, I learned BASIC on a BBC Model B and later BASIC/COMAL on my Archimedes A3000.

It taught almost nothing relevant to real programming. A terrible and inefficient way to learn! But there were no better resources then. No Internet access.

!Rant
Was just reminded of this by another rant: http://www.codewars.com
Fun for practicing code challenges. Also noticed you can give yourself a 'clan', so if anyone wants to sign up put 'devRant' as your clan and we can get a bunch of devRanters together 👍☺

Tonight I rest well...

Tests!

Before you write a piece of code, write tests which will check that the code does what you expect. This helps you in two ways:

1. It forces you to think about and understand the purpose and aim of the code you're about to write before you start hacking away at it.

2. You know when you're finished, because the tests will pass.

Always comment your code.

Write comments that explain the reason for this piece of code existing, and why it's written the way it is.

Don't write comments that explain what your code does (unless it's a comment which is going to be parsed as documentation for an API). If your code needs comments to explain what it's doing, you need to write clearer code.

! Rant

https://nodeschool.io//...

Very nice interactive workshops for brushing up on web dev skills ☺

https://samy.pl/popular/

... and Sami is my hero.

Saw somebody post an XP install DVD, remembered I had this kicking around...

One hell of a devRant, and a very good read which explains why much of what many of us were taught about programming is wrong:
http://smashcompany.com/technology/...

! rant
How do I get my hands on devRant stickers?
My laptop requires them.

Best thing about devRant is that if I rant here, I don't need to look like a jaded sociopath on Facebook any more. 😉

Fuck Apple even more than before. Keep all your proprietary garbage, I don't need any of it.

Feature suggestion: detect links to other rants and open them in app?