Programming By Stealth

Latest Episodes:

PBS 130 of X – Good Technical Documentation Nov 27, 2021

Show notes

As we embark on our journey to create a JavaScript module for the strong, memorable password generating service XKPASSWD, Bart explains the importance of creating good documentation. That sounds super annoying and tedious, and it is, so Bart explains why a good documentation generator will be our friend. He outlines the two distinctly different users of our documentation: those of us who will be helping to create the code itself as part of the community project, but also for the people who will be users of our JavaScript module. Those users will be interested in how to take the module and embed it into a web page to generate passwords, or to create an Alfred scheme and more. These two different users will have different requirements, and yet our documentation generator can fill both needs without unnecessary extra work. This isn't the sexiest topic, but Bart does convince me that the tools will help us to have the rigor to do it and not let our human instincts take over and allow our documentation to get out of date.

You can find Bart's fabulous shownotes at pbs.bartificer.net

PBS 129 of X - ESLint with Guest Instructor Helma Van der Linden Nov 14, 2021

Show notes

Bart Busschots had a vision that certain things we would learn in Phase 2 of Programming By Stealth would be taught by guest lecturers. I thought he was bananas that this would work, but Helma Van der Linden, also known as Helma from the Netherlands stepped up to teach us about coding linters, and specifically ESLint.

In this installment she explains what linters are, and why they're useful. Even though she's not technically fond of them, she believes in linters because of what they can do for a coding team. Once she sells that idea, she walks us through how to install ESLint inside the development environment VSCode. From there she explains style guides, and shows us how to install and use the very popular airbnb style guide. She gives us tips on usage and even how to override the linter's demands.

I think it was incredibly courageous to fill Bart's shoes, and she did a fantastic job both in the podcast and in the detailed written show notes over at bartificer.net

PBS 128 of X – JavaScript Module Basics Nov 02, 2021

Show notes

This installment of Programming By Stealth could probably have been two segments but all of us are itching to get moving quickly so we decided to power through. In the first part of the installment, Bart introduces us to JavaScript modules by giving us a bit of a history lesson on how they've evolved. If you're brand new to modules, this will be interesting but not essential. If you have history with them though, you'll definitely need to pay close attention to understand what's changed.

Then Bart gets into the details of how modules work. He explains how JavaScript modules export variables, functions, and classes and how there are named exports and default exports and how the syntax differs. What fun would learning about exports be if he didn't tell us how to import variables, functions and classes into our code for when we use these modules? We also learn about module specifiers to make it all go.

Finally, Bart takes us through three worked examples where he creates some JavaScript modules that exercise everything we just learned.

It's a long episode but as always, Bart's excellent show notes at pbs.bartificer.net

PBS 127 of X – Introducing NPM (and Node) Oct 16, 2021

Show notes

As we launch full steam into Phase 2 of Programming By Stealth, Bart Busschots introduces us to the Node Package Manager and Node itself. Unlike our mini-series within a series for Git and Chezmoi, Bart isn't going to do an exhaustive walk through NPM and Node. Instead he's going to teach use what we need as we go along. In order for that to make any sense at all, in this installment, he explain to us at a high level Node and NPM are, and what problems they solve.

This lesson isn't all theory though, we actually get to use Node and NPM to build a tiny, self-contained JavaScript app. I had great fun in this installment and Bart's always fabulous tutorial shownotes are particularly well-written this time. You can find them over at pbs.bartificer.net/...

PBS 126 of X - Introducing Phase 2 Oct 03, 2021

Show notes

At episode 700! of Chit Chat Across the Pond we take Programming By Stealth into what Bart is calling Phase 2. We've learned a great deal about the client side of programming and we're now going to move to the server side of the web. As Bart described Phase 2, I realized that it's as though we've finished out undergraduate work in computer science, and we're entering graduate school.

That observation is not based on the concepts being harder, but rather because we are going to work as a collective to help our professor on a project that's near and dear to his heart. Bart created the fabulous web-based password creation tool at xkpasswd.net many years ago, in fact so long ago that it's on a very creaky set of tools that have been deprecated and the entire service will die if it doesn't move onto modern tools.

This will be a great excuse for us to learn to work on the new tools as Bart is forced to learn them and at the same time we will be enlisted to help him with the development of the new and improved xkpasswd.

I was really excited as I listened to Bart lay out the future of the next 100 or so episodes and everything we're going to learn. Whether you've been working alongside the rest of the listeners since Programming By Stealth 1, or whether you're a seasoned programmer who'd like to learn the new tools like Bootstrap 5 and PHP 8, I think you'll have great fun with the next phase of Programming By Stealth.

You can find Bart's strategic plan for Phase 2 laid out at bartificer.net

PBS 125 of X – Chezmoi on Multiple Computers Sep 18, 2021

Show notes

In this final episode of Programming By Stealth before we launch into the back end of web development with PHP, Bart finishes his miniseries on Chezmoi to manage dot files. In this installment he teaches us how to effectively manage our dot files on multiple computers using templating to ensure that the correct settings end up on every computer.

You can find Bart's fabulous tutorial shownotes at pbs.bartificer.net/...

PBS 34 of X – More JS Testing with QUnit Apr 30, 2017

Show notes

In this installment of Bart’s Programming By Stealth series, we review our test code using QUnit, and then learn how to use QUnit to test our code within a real browser page. We do that using the API we built together, the Bartificer Link Toolkit that identifies external links on a web page, makes them open in new tabs, adds the tag rel=noopener, and adds a cute icon to identify them as external links. As always Bart’s terrific written tutorials and downloadable examples are available at pbs.bartificer.net/...

PBS 33 of x – JS Testing with QUnit Apr 14, 2017

Show notes

In this installment of Programming By Stealth, Bart FINALLY lets us start learning Test Driven development, or TDD. He shows us how to use a free and open source tool called QUnit, made by the fine developers of jQuery, to analyze our test code. It’s something I’ve been itching to learn more about, ever since listener Jill tipped us off to the concept. It’s a really fun episode where everything kind of comes together. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. As always, Bart’s excellent written tutorial for the episode can be found at pbs.bartificer.net/...

PB 32 of X – JS Error Handling Revision | HTML Selects Mar 15, 2017

Show notes

This week Bart and I put the finishing touches on our Date and Time prototypes, then we use those very JavaScript prototypes with HTML forms, we learn bout JavaScript error handling (including throwing and catching errors) and the we start manipulating HTML Selects with jQuery. If that sounds as fun to you as it was to me, check out Bart’s full detailed show notes at pbs.bartificer.net/...

PBS 31 of x – JS Static Functions | Checkboxes & Radio Buttons Mar 01, 2017

Show notes

Bart and I may have broken a record on Chit Chat Across the Pond this week. We went through so much material in Programming By Stealth that this show runs 100 minutes! The funny thing is that I wasn’t ever bored, it was all really interesting. We started by going over last time’s JavaScript challenge where I made some mistakes but node.js saved me so I didn’t realize I’d entirely missed the point. I’m still getting the hang of that object thing. The we learned one final new concept related to JavaScript prototypes: static functions. The we finished that we went over to the html side and learned how to make forms, checkboxes and radio buttons. Not nearly as mentally challenging as JavaScript to be sure, especially since you can see the changes right on screen when you mess with them. Speaking of messing with them, Bart teaches us how to use jQuery to find out what our buttons and checkboxes say and to change them. He does this all with particular attention to using ARIA to ensure our html is accessible.

As always you can find his excellent tutorial to follow along at pbs.bartificer.net/...

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected