BP’s Daily Digest #16 — analyzing URLs, iMessages, lambda cold starts, and more
Welcome to the 16th edition of Coffee Bytes, a daily digest by Better Programming.
In this issue, we’ve got a comprehensive guide on YAML, a feature flags implementation in Next.js, one guide for writing modular code in iOS, a way to optimize smart contracts for gas efficiency, and plenty of practical advice.
Programming
Everything You Need to Know About YAML
Senthil E dives deep into the foundations of YAML. From syntax to data types to using configuration files with Docker Compose and AWS Cloudformaton, he’s compiled everything you need to know about the data-serialization language.
Software Engineering
Analyzing iMessage with SQLite
iMessage uses SQLite under the hood. And unlike the general consesus, iMessage isn’t inaccessible. The Arctype shares a thorough analysis of querying your iMessage data using SQLite.
Web Development
Implementing Feature Flags in a Next.js Application
We all rely on feature flags in our applications. Be it for toggling features based on config rules or for safely rolling out new features in production. David Herbert shares a feature Flag use case for Next.js apps — through a hands-on tutorial.
Python
Analyze and Visualize URLs with Network Graph
Is extracting data and insights from URLs getting tedious? Khuyen Tran combines yarl and PyGraphistry Python libraries to make analyzing URLs visually appealing
Android Dev
To Compose, or Not to Compose, That is the Question
Aiman Nabeel’s debut BP post revolves around that question. Is Jetpack Compose good enough to build animations? She answers it by writing the same code using the classic Android view system and Jetpack Compose.
iOS Dev
Moving SwiftUI Views and Models Into Separate Swift Packages
“Swift packages are a great way to separate our code into modules that we can use across multiple projects. This is a simple guide to using them for SwiftUI, but any Swift code can be distributed this way” — writes Rob Sturgeon.
Web3 Dev
How To Mint NFTs At A Fixed Gas Cost
Nathan Gang and the Nifty Gateway team’s guide covers how to write your own smart contract to mint your project at a fixed cost, no matter how big your collection is.
AWS
Analyzing Cold Starts on a NodeJS Lambda
Kyle Higginson takes a dive into the Lambda cold start issue to see how long a normal cold start is and what configurations lead to higher cold start times in this incisive piece.
Advice
Why I Stopped Reading “How I Became a Software Developer” Articles
“For every person who got their first tech job in six months, there are dozens more who took years. But you won’t see those stories because “How I Became a Developer in 24 Months” doesn’t have the same ring to it.” Sunny Beatteay’s thought-provoking piece has some good advice for aspiring developers.
