Software Engineering in WordPress, PHP, and Backend Development
Periodically, I’m asked the question:
Should I learn JavaScript or jQuery first?
Last month, I wrote about my two favorite JavaScript books, and though I considered answering that question in the post, it seemed a bit off topic – at least that day.
So why not take the opportunity to cover it in a post of its own?
About a year and a half ago, I released the first version of Single Post Message for WordPress which is a simple plugin specifically for adding a notification at the top of the bottom of a given post.
For whatever it’s worth, it’s one of the plugins I’ve enjoyed creating the most not only because it scratched my own itch, but also because it’s an extremely lean, focused plugin that aims to solve exactly one problem.
The other day, Pippin William tweeted the following:
Good plugin idea for someone: add metabox to edit screen that allows notes to be entered and displayed just above comment form for that post
— Pippin Williamson (@pippinsplugins) September 28, 2013
To which Japh Thomson replied:
@pippinsplugins Sounds like a feature request for @tommcfarlin’s “Single Post Message” plugin: http://t.co/boCu7LdmSO
— Japh (@Japh) September 29, 2013
And to which Andrew Norcross built and responded with:
https://twitter.com/norcross/status/384463729578225664
You can read the entire conversation, but there are three things that I really dig about this particular exchange and the plugin that came out of it. But before discussing those, I think its worth checking out the WP Comment Notes plugin itself.
Comments on this post are now closed. Congrats to Toby and Dave - and thanks to everyone who entered the contest!
Last week, Flywheel Hosting finally exited beta and went live. For those of us who work directly with WordPress either as a designer and/or a developer, this a new a contender to the growing marketplace in WordPress-centric hosting.
I love seeing this stuff – competition fosters innovation, right?
For the next week, I’ll be running a contest here on the blog sponsored by the guys at Flywheel for some free Flywheel hosting.
When it comes to taking notes, I’m a bit obsessive about it. In fact, I used to carry a notebook with me everywhere – literally – in case any kind of idea, thought, or something I forgot to do (or needed to do) struck me wherever I was.
For me, it wasn’t enough to jot down a note in whatever piece of paper I had available – I needed I make sure I had a “catch all” notebook of sorts. This is a habit that I developed in college (in fact, I actually still have some of those notebooks in a drawer!) and has persisted ever since.
Despite the fact that I don’t think I’ll ever really stop using notebooks, I have been trying to go as digital as possible. Case in point: Not long ago, I shared how I take notes using Bamboo Paper.
But for quick little notes, personal reminders, and ideas, that’s a bit overkill right?
One of the things I talk a lot about both with small groups of friends and during speaking events is the idea of going deep rather than wide.
In the context of software, I’m typically referring to the idea of going extremely deep within the languages and tools that you’re using on a daily basis so that you may become the best developer that you can possibly be in that area.
But there’s a tension that I think most programmers feel and it’s that there are so many neat things out there to learn. Couple that with the fact that others can sometimes make us feel inferior if we don’t know what they know, the tension grows even stronger.
I’m not sure if I’m making much sense.
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