Dead Code

In this episode of Dead Code, Jared interviews Kevin Newton, Staff Software Engineer at Shopify, about his work on Ruby's new parser, Prism. Kevin explains how Prism was created to address the limitations of Ruby's original parser by providing a portable, error-tolerant solution that unifies the ecosystem, replacing multiple outdated parsers used across different tools. They discuss the challenges of parsing Ruby's complex syntax, including quirky features like heredocs and regular expressions, and how Prism was designed for better control and performance. Kevin emphasizes the community-driven effort behind the project, making it more accessible to contributors, and shares how Prism will advance Ruby tooling in future releases.

Links:

Kevin Newton's blog

Kevin Newton's GitHub

Kevin Newton on Twitter (X)

Crafting Interpreters

The Dragon Book

Prism Parser

Ruby LSP

Shopify

Rails World Conference

ESLint

Dead Code Podcast Links:

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Jared’s Links:

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Episode Transcript

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In this episode of the Dead Code Podcast, Jared Norman talks with Stefanni Brasil, a Senior Software Developer at thoughtbot and co-founder of hexdevs, about career growth, open source, and mentorship in tech. Stefanni shares her non-traditional path into software development and her passion for helping mid-level developers advance through her program "Get to Senior," which addresses both technical and non-technical skills. They discuss the challenges of career progression, the importance of understanding company promotion dynamics, and the need for developers to focus on leadership and communication skills. Stefanni also highlights the ethical concerns surrounding open-source contributions, advocating for companies to financially support the projects they benefit from. The conversation ends with a reflection on the role of AI, productivity, and the value of sharing knowledge publicly to strengthen the tech community.

Links:

Stefanni Brasil's Blog

hexdevs

Faker Library (GitHub Repository)

Rails World Conference

Ruby on Rails Community

GitHub Copilot

Tidelift

ChaelCodes (Rachel's Social Media)

The Survey Mentioned

Dead Code Podcast Links:

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Jared’s Links:

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Episode Transcript

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Hilary Stohs-Krause and Jared discuss the importance of applying accessibility principles to coding environments, emphasizing how it benefits both developers and end-users. Hilary, a senior software engineer, shares insights from her talk at Madison Ruby, highlighting how small changes, like using descriptive variable names, avoiding acronyms, and incorporating linters, make code more readable and maintainable. These practices not only support programmers with disabilities, such as ADHD or vision impairments, but also improve the overall coding experience for all developers. Hilary argues that creating accessible code benefits everyone by reducing cognitive load, improving communication, and fostering more inclusive workplaces, even though such practices are often deprioritized in fast-paced, capitalist environments.

Links:

Stack Overflow Survey of Developers

Madison Ruby Conference

Red Canary

Ruby on Rails

RuboCop

HAML-Lint

ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act

Dyslexia in Programmers

ADHD in Programmers

Plain Language Writing Guidelines

Go Programming Language

FactoryBot

Dead Code Podcast Links:

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Jared’s Links:

Mastodon

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Episode Transcript

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In this episode of "Dead Code," Jared and Harmony, a self-taught programmer with extensive experience in Ruby, explore the benefits of experimenting with unconventional programming languages. They discuss Fennel, a Lisp that compiles to Lua, highlighting its simplicity and versatility for applications like game modding. Jared shares his experience with ReScript, a language in the ML family that compiles to JavaScript, emphasizing its strong type system and seamless integration with React. They also delve into Uiua, a stack-based array language with a unique symbol-rich syntax, which Harmony finds ideal for tackling complex mathematical programming challenges. The episode emphasizes how these esoteric languages can broaden a programmer's perspective and problem-solving approach.

Links:

Fennel Language

Lua Programming Language

ReScript Language

OCaml

Standard ML Documentation

Uiua Language

APL Language

Conway’s Game of Life Interactive Simulator

Advent of Code

Project Euler

React.js

Fennel VS Code Extension

ReScript VS Code Extension

Uiua VS Code Support

Emacs Fennel Mode

Emacs ReScript Support

Dead Code Podcast Links:

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Jared’s Links:

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Episode Transcript

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In this episode of "Dead Code," host Jared Norman interviews Jim Remsik, a Ruby developer and founder of the consultancy Flagrant. Jim shares his journey from .NET to Ruby on Rails, reflecting on the early days of the Ruby community and the impact of its vibrant, collaborative environment on his career. He discusses the importance of mentorship and nurturing junior developers, stressing the need for more opportunities within the Ruby community to help them grow into senior roles. Jim also talks about his passion for organizing events like Madison + Ruby, which recently returned after a hiatus, highlighting how conferences and meetups play a vital role in building connections and strengthening the community. The conversation underscores the value of stepping up to contribute to programming communities, whether through organizing, speaking, or participating in events.

Links:

Jim Remsik on LinkedIn

Flagrant Consultancy

Madison + Ruby Conference

Ruby on Rails

RubyConf

Solidus

Turing School

Honeybadger

AppSignal

Dead Code Podcast Links:

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Jared’s Links:

Mastodon

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Episode Transcript

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In this episode of the Dead Code podcast, Jared welcomes RailsConf speakers Joël Quenneville and Stephanie Minn, both from thoughtbot and co-hosts of The Bike Shed podcast. Stephanie discusses her talk on the stages of change model, initially about codebase changes but ultimately focusing on adopting testing practices, highlighting the evolution of her topic and the importance of addressing test pain. Joël introduces Hotwire and Turbo through building an interactive Dungeons & Dragons character sheet in Rails, emphasizing decoupling code and progressively enhancing applications without JavaScript. The conversation delves into managing coupling and cohesion in software development, the benefits of visualizing code structure, and using tests as tools for gathering information and improving code quality, with practical insights and reflections on enhancing the development process.

Links:

The Bike Shed Podcast

thoughtbot

RailsConf

RubyConf 

Hotwire

Turbo

Dead Code on Mastodon

Dead Code on X

Jared on Mastodon

Jared on X

Transcript

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In this episode of the Dead Code Podcast, Jared interviews his brother Alistair Norman and colleague Senem Soy about their experiences with conference talks. Alistair recently spoke at RailsConf in Detroit on mentorship and pair programming, choosing the topic for its broad relevance and personal interest. He prepared for the talk by biking 750 kilometers from Toronto to Detroit, which, while mentally relaxing, left him less time to finalize his presentation. Senem, gearing up for her first talk at Madison Ruby, discusses how her passion for paragliding influences her problem-solving in programming, focusing on mental training and stress management. Both highlight the importance of choosing engaging topics and thorough preparation to reduce stress and enhance the delivery of their talks.

Links:

RailsConf

Madison Ruby

Alistair on Strava

Senem on Strava

Dead Code on Mastodon

Dead Code on X

Jared on Mastodon

Jared on X

Transcript

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In this episode of the Dead Code podcast, host Jared Norman interviews Robby Russell, the CEO of Planet Argon and creator of Oh My Zsh, who shares insights from his extensive experience in software development, particularly Ruby on Rails. Robby discusses the challenges of software maintenance and technical debt, emphasizing the importance of understanding and managing different types of debt within teams. He advocates for building simpler, more maintainable systems, taking ownership of the codebase, and integrating maintenance work into regular workflows through effective communication and documentation.

Links:

Robby’s TikTok

Robby’s LinkedIn

Robby’s X

Oh My Zsh

Planet Argon

Maintainable Software Podcast

Michael Feathers' book "Working Effectively with Legacy Code"

Ward Cunningham and the concept of Technical Debt

RailsConf

Ruby on Rails

Refinery CMS

Solidus

Spree

Martin Fowler's book "Refactoring"

John Osterhout's book "A Philosophy of Software Design"

Rails World 2024

Dead Code on Mastodon

Dead Code on X

Jared on Mastodon

Jared on X

Episode Transcript

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What does Quora.com think of TDD?

Guests: Noah Silvera (she/her), Benjamin Wil (he/him)

Jared Norman: Mastodon, Twitter, Threads

Dead Code: Mastodon, Twitter, Threads

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What's going on with the TDD heads these days?

Byron Alley: Website, Twitter, Mastodon

Jared Norman: Mastodon, Twitter, Threads

Dead Code: Mastodon, Twitter, Threads

References: The Tweet

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