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carlmungzon Ask HN: What is your blog and why should I read it?

I read the source code of popular libraries and frameworks and write about what I find. It's very React and JavaScript focused because those are the tools I use daily in my current job.

My latest piece is a guest post I wrote on how the microtask queue works in JavaScript: https://careersjs.com/magazine/javascript-job-queue-microtas...

carlmungzon Mini projects built with VanillaJS. No frameworks or libraries

I love seeing vanilla JS projects getting some love. I started one last year (https://github.com/CarlMungazi/aprender-js) and I feel it has made me a better programmer.

If anyone wants to learn more vanilla JS stuff, you should check out https://gomakethings.com by Chris Ferdinandi.

carlmungzon Ask HN: How do you effectively read a new codebase?

Whilst not directly related to this, I have spoken (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/07/javascript-knowledg...) and written (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2019/07/javascript-knowledg...) about reading source code.

If possible (either via docs or guidance from other developers), I find a major API and then follow it to its end point. You will usually come across other major pieces of the codebase this way and you can make a note of them if you wish to do further digging.

carlmungzon Ask HN: What are you thankful for?

For being alive. I thank God for the gift of life because it is not something to be taken for granted.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2019)

Limejump | Senior Frontend Developer | London, UK, Full-Time | ON-SITE

My team is looking for a Senior Front End Developer to help us build next-generation tools and experiences for our customers in the energy industry. Our biggest project at the moment is the migration of an old Angular app to React, so you will be involved in a complete rewrite of the frontend architecture.

Full job description here: https://limejump.com/careers/#op-334216-senior-front-end-dev

Drop me an email if you have any questions: carl dot mungazi at limejump.com. I work on the frontend team.

We are also hiring for other roles: https://limejump.com/careers

carlmungzon Ask HN: Show your own blog/vlog

Still need to turn this into a proper blog but you can find me at https://dev.to/carlmungazi writing about my journey rebuilding different parts of the frontend stack (think framework, testing library, build tool etc).

carlmungzon Ask HN: What startups are working on hard, technically challenging problems?

I work at https://limejump.com and we have a platform which manages energy assets such as wind farms, batteries and diesel engines and helps their owners make money by trading on the energy market.

It's technically challenging because doing so requires a team of data scientists forecasting the performance of the assets using weather data etc, an IoT team working on devices which send real time data from the assets, a software engineering team building the software behind all of this and an electrical engineering team that works on the assets.

The description above is a gross simplification and I've only been here a few months so I'm still getting to grips with things but it's definitely full of technical challenges.

carlmungzon How I Side Project

Nice - will check it out if I ever get the time.

carlmungzon How I Side Project

I am currently in the process of doing something similar: https://github.com/CarlMungazi/aprender-js

Once I'm done, I'm probably going to have a proper crack and either building my own tool or collating smaller libraries (and by small I mean they do one thing only and do it very well) into a toolkit I can build stuff very quickly with.

I think the knowledge gained by building your own tool (CSS library, UI framework, state management library etc) seeps into any work you do with other tools or programming in general. It also depends on your aim. You will be more productive using whatever approach you spend time learning deeply.

carlmungzon How I Side Project

I've been toying with the idea of creating my own lightweight JS and CSS framework so I can achieve similar levels of productivity. I know it varies between people but I find using third-party frameworks slows me down more often than not when I want to quickly build something.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2019)

Hey Cenk, just dropped you an email regarding a role at https://limejump.com. I work on the frontend team and we are looking for a product manager. Looking forward to speaking with you.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Who wants to be hired? (July 2019)

Hey Tom, just e-mailed you regarding an opportunity at https://limejump.com. I'm part of the frontend team here. Looking forward to speaking with you.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (July 2019)

Limejump | Senior Frontend Developer | London, UK, Full-Time | ON-SITE

My team is looking for a Senior Front End Developer to help us build next-generation tools and experiences for our customers and colleagues in the energy industry. Our biggest project at the moment is the migration of an old Angular app to React, so you will be involved in a complete rewrite of the frontend architecture.

Full job description here: https://limejump.com/careers/#op-334216-senior-front-end-dev...

Drop me an email if you have any questions: carl dot mungazi at limejump.com. I work on the frontend team.

We are also hiring for other roles: https://limejump.com/careers

carlmungzon Show HN: FastDom – Lightweight replacement of React and MobX

This might provide an answer for your question: https://medium.com/reloading/javascript-start-up-performance...

carlmungzon Ask HN: How to write a book?

This Twitter thread has some good pointers: https://twitter.com/JamieJBartlett/status/966603813791649792

carlmungzon Ask HN: Can you suggest educative react projects for newbies to make?

Study the React source code and implement your own mini-version. It's a great way to deepen framework specific knowledge (if that's what you are after) and also learning more about the language used to create the framework.

Start with these articles:

https://medium.com/react-in-depth/inside-fiber-in-depth-over...

https://medium.com/dailyjs/the-how-and-why-on-reacts-usage-o...

https://github.com/acdlite/react-fiber-architecture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCuYPiUIONs

https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/7942#issue-18237349...

carlmungzon Ask HN: Web developers who didn't go to college, how did you get your first job?

1. Spent 14-months learning to code by building side projects and using websites such as teamtreehouse.com

2. Attended meet-ups regularly

3. Listened to developer podcasts

carlmungzon Ask HN: How do you hire a front-end developer?

Check out https://github.com/h5bp/Front-end-Developer-Interview-Questi.... You can find the answers here: https://github.com/yangshun/front-end-interview-handbook/blo...

carlmungzon Often neglected skills new and junior web developers should learn?

Speaking as a junior dev who recently became a mid-level dev (although I still have some junior tendencies to iron out), learning how to solve problems is something that held me back.

When I was given tasks I would worry about the code itself and the stuff I didn't know instead of trying to clearly understand the problem and come up with different solutions.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Elm vs. React vs. Vue.js in 2018?

I'm yet to try JSX with Mithril but I've used it with React. I prefer hyperscript when it comes to Mithril. The bracket closing has grown on me.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Elm vs. React vs. Vue.js in 2018?

Used Mithril (think React but smaller API and much simpler) in my first developer gig and I love it. It's my go to for quick prototyping and development.

In my last gig I used Vue and even though I would much prefer writing my views in hyperscript, using a popular framework has its advantages in terms of tutorials, libraries, established practices etc.

carlmungzon Ask HN: What is the skillset required to be employable as jr dev?

Background: Recently started my second job (mid-level) after leaving my previous job (junior, first programming job). Switched to programming from journalism

How: Wanted to create a news aggregator, so I teamed up with a friend (backend guy) and learnt how to do frontend. 14-months later I got hired after creating some side-projects and learning enough to convince my first employer to take a chance on me.

What worked for me: Learning JavaScript, the language, instead of trying to learn shiny, new frameworks. Learning how to read source code (a more recent habit but it helped me get my second job). Showing a genuine passion for coding through getting involved in open-source communities and learning outside of work

carlmungzon How I Fixed a 10-Year-Old Guitar Hero Bug Without the Source Code [video]

Loved this!

carlmungzon Facebook, You Needy Sonofabitch

Deleted Facebook in 2011 and I've never looked back. I've got a faceless account with no personal data whatsoever I use for social log-ins but that's it. It's popular to bash social networks but I think it's probably more effective to thoroughly educate users on the tactics used by social networks to keep users hooked.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Who is hiring? (September 2017)

Hey, not interested in applying for a job but would love to talk with someone on the engineering team about how the product works. I'm starting a blog about source code (already got a few gists up at https://gist.github.com/CarlMungazi), so this is an area I'm interested in.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Why is writing maintainable code hard?

I would also say the ease at which existing code can be changed (even if the end result is worse) doesn't help. It's much harder for a zealous engineer to overhaul the design of a bridge than it is for a new programmer to refactor a legacy codebase.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Starting blogging when you're not an expert?

Do it.

I recently started writing gists (https://gist.github.com/CarlMungazi) about the stuff I'm learning whilst reading through the source code of a framework I use at work.

I'm not expecting to understand everything and I will probably get some things wrong (reading source code is difficult) but in the short time I've been doing this I've already learnt a lot.

carlmungzon Ask HN: Resources for learning advanced JavaScript and React

I'm improving my JS skills by learning how to read and understand the source code of mithril.js.org (I'm doing write ups at: https://gist.github.com/CarlMungazi).

It's what we use internally at work so it made sense for me to actually understand how it uses JS to tackle all the problems a framework is supposed to solve. I've only been doing it a short while but I've learnt a ton already.

I casually glanced at the source for Ember and React over the weekend and I could understand much better what was going on because I had a reference point based upon the source as opposed to just knowing the APIs.