Author: Tom (Page 216 of 428)

Quick Tip: Disable Scroll Zoom in Google Maps

May 12, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

One of the APIs that I find myself working with more and more for a variety of projects is the Google Maps API. Specifically, the Google Maps JavaScript API.

The Google Maps JavaScript API

Though we can do some really cool stuff with it, it’s not my favorite API to work with. Perhaps I’m missing something, but I don’t find it particularly intuitive and it takes me longer to read through the documentation to figure out how to do something that seems as if it should be simple in comparison to some other languages’ documentation.

Should We Share Old Code?

May 11, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

There have been times where I’ve considered pulling code down from the WordPress plugin repository or from GitHub because the way in which I write my code now differs from how I wrote my code when I was working on those projects.

And surely you know what I’m talking about: It’s not that the plugins don’t work and it’s not that they necessarily cause problems for anyone, but the open source nature of what they don’t necessarily represent what we’re capable of doing now or how we’re capable of doing it now.

Does that make sense?

In Development, Always Be Learning

May 8, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this week, I wrote a post about how we use the term “WordPress Admin,” how I suspect that we’re using it incorrectly, and I discussed the significance and importance of consistency of terminology when working with customers and clients.

The post generated far more discussion than I would have expected, which is a good thing, but one particular comment struck a chord with me:

Tom,

I sent a Jr. level WP developer through your TutsPlus course on plugin development. You use the word “Admin” more times than I could count! You even use it for file names, etc.

What’s up with that, brother? I respect you so I had to chime in with that lil’ observation.

I love comments like this because not only does it hold us accountable to our own actions, but it also gives us an opportunity to show that throughout the course of whatever it is that we’re doing now may not what we’re doing tomorrow.

Using SiteGround For WordPress Hosting

May 7, 2015 / Tom

As if this is actually news to anyone, one of the number one choices that have to be made when hosting a website is where to actually host the site. And there’s no shortage of hosts from which to choose.

For beginners, it’s easy to look for cheap hosting, for more advanced users, it’s easy to look at managed hosting, dedicated hosting, VPS hosting, and for some businesses, it’s even best to look for reseller hosting.

Regardless where you fall, hosting is one of the most critical components that comes with running your own website – especially as it starts to grow beyond a basic blog and/or a basic site.

Over the years, I’ve experienced a number of different hosts – some great, some not so great – and I’ve usually blogged about a number of them. But as this site has continued to grow and as Pressware has continued to grow as well as head into a different direction, I opted to change hosts sometime ago.

Tips For Being A Productive Developer

May 6, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

I think one of the more popular discussions that comes up among developers (and designers) from time-time is how to be productive as possible. Personally, I’d go as to far as to say that it gets harder and harder each year (let alone each, say, quarter).

By that, I mean we try to use tools such as IRC, Skype, and Slack to mitigate the amount of email that we have, but they also require that we divide our time between focusing on our tasks at hand and then mulitasking between however many other applications are open (such as Twitter, Facebook, email, and whatever else).

I’m not knocking this at all! It just doesn’t work very well for me. Anyway, just as others like to share their tips for how to be productive, I thought I’d share the ways in which I try to achieve developer productivity (because that in and of itself is a challenge enough) rather than, say, general productivity.

So here are a few things that I do – and I’m curious to hear yours, as well.