Category: Articles (Page 165 of 258)

Personal opinions and how-to’s that I’ve written both here and as contributions to other blogs.

Your Code Is Not Wrong (Or Right)

March 10, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Every now and then, I’ll be having conversations with fellow developers about various things we’re working on, working through, and looking to focus on in the coming days, months, or weeks.

And sometimes, when doing this, it seems like there’s a pattern where some developers are facing some of the same set of challenges as other developers (or they’re facing challenges that other developers have once experienced or maybe even yet to experience).

Case in point: Last week, I had several conversations in which I was talking with some others about the feeling of never feeling fully satisfied with code that you’re writing, or with that feeling that comes with wondering if you’re architecting a project correctly.

I think we’ve all been there at some point. Personally speaking, I don’t know if the feeling ever goes away. I think we get better at what we do, and I think we become more aware of what we don’t know, but I don’t know if we’re ever completely happy with what we ship.

With that said, I think there is something to learn as it relates to writing good code, and reaching milestones in our projects.

Practical Advice For Blogging, Part 1

March 6, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

For those who blog, you’ve no doubt been asked at some point in time:

How do you find the time to blog?

Or:

How do you consistently come up with things to write about?

And for those who are just starting out, I think these are great questions especially if you love to write.

After all, most (admittedly, some are in it for different reasons) of us do this because we like it – we enjoy sharing what we’ve learned, we hope to help others along their way, and we hope to learn from others via comments.

How I See Me Blogging

But if you’re looking to start a blog, looking to blog more regularly, or just trying to find some sources of inspiration for how to continue, then here are some things that I’ve found useful when wanting to consistently share things with you each day.

Granted, this may be geared more towards developers than anything else – I’ve tried to keep it pretty agnostic – but perhaps this advice for blogging will help someone else along the way.

Two Take Aways From Jason Schuller’s Pickle Project

March 5, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Earlier this week, WP Tavern wrote up an excellent piece on Jason Schuller’s newest project, Pickle.

I’ve ended reading over the article (and the comments) a number of times because I think there are some really, really great though as it relates to using WordPress as an application platform.

Jason Schuller’s Pickle Theme Re-Imagines WordPress as an Invisible CMS

This is something that I’ve talked about a number of times and it’s something that I really want to see happen more and more in the future; however, this is one of the first times that I’ve really seen someone take WordPress, use it as a foundation for solution that’s built towards a specific market, and then articulated it in such a way that does a great job of expressing what exactly it means for WordPress to be an application platform.

The More Things Change, The More They Stay The Same

March 2, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

Generally speaking, people often set out to try to set their plans, goals, and resolutions at the beginning of the year. I did though it’s not really something I typically do, and here we are at the beginning of March and I’ve really only done a portion of what I thought I was going to be doing.

I mean, I haven’t even touched Swift yet (and I don’t know if I will end up doing so).

Then again, Pressware has been growing and has resulted in the need for me to make some changes both to what I’m doing with some of my open source plugins and with what I’m planning to do with the business itself.

It’s both an exciting time, but it’s also a really weird time because it’s causing me to evaluate some changes that I’m making in a number of things that I’ve been working on for several years at this point.

When this happens, I can’t help but feel a little bit of tension – maybe even some fear – of letting certain things go. On top of that, I think that it can also breed a sense of relief as it may bring about a little bit of breathing room.

But does it really? I mean, when we wind down work on one thing, are we just making space to spin up something new?

For me personally, what I’m finding out – and it’s sort of a cliche – is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Though I may be winding down certain things, other things are starting up.

Aesop Story Engine and WordPress (Why Do We Reject Our Own Innovation?)

February 27, 2015 / Tom / 0 Comments

For some time now, I’ve been a big fan of using WordPress for web application development, but I think that developers actually embracing the CMS (let alone seeing the CMS) as a foundation for something like that is still a couple of years off.

Sure, we’re going to see some people using it for things like that. I mean, we’re already seeing some out-of-the-box applications like AppPresser, but projects like that are the exceptio, not the rule. In my own experience, I’ve found that clients are very interested in using WordPress, but using it for more application-like capabilities.

This doesn’t mean that gigs for themes, plugins, and what not are slowing down, but that people are wanting web applications for themselves or their companies, but want to be able to administer it using the WordPress dashboard or using a some custom front-end work.

But that’s beside the point.

What I’m getting at is that as developers, designers, and other people end up seeing WordPress as potential foundation for web application development, the more innovative things we’re going to see entering the space.