Multiple Emulators with VS Code

Multiple Emulators with VS Code

John Hoestje Articles, Programming, Tutorial 2 Comments

Recently, I was joking with some team members, trying my best to get someone to develop a VS Code plugin for me that would allow VS Code to simultaneously connect to multiple Android emulators.

I was working on some font sizing issues in Flutter and needed to test the changes on multiple device viewport sizes. Needless to say, it was taking too much time to ramp various Android emulators up and down.

Later that day, I decided to start playing with the debugger and emulator options, with no expectations of finding anything substantial. Sometimes throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks provides the best surprises!

3D Geospatial Rendering with Cesium

CesiumJS 3D Geospatial Rendering

Lou Mauget Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, JavaScript, Programming, Tutorial Leave a Comment

This blog is a brief overview of CesiumJS, a cool JavaScript client library for visualizing a geospatial Earth map, including artifacts (both real and generated). They eat their own dog food, so their homepage has a declaratively-rendered spinning globe by Cesium.

CesiumJS has a higher-level Entity API as well as a lower-level Primitive API. The API doc can be found here. I’ll point out a couple of interactive source examples that use the entity API; most Cesium apps use it. Cesium also provides open specification 3D Tiles to load, render, and cache on-demand terrain features, artifacts, and building renditions for surface viewing.

There is no IDE or download needed to interact with the material mentioned in this overview. You can interact with the material mentioned with your browser.

To Rewrite or Not to Rewrite?

To Rewrite Or Not To Rewrite

Kevin Roper Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Opinion, Programming Leave a Comment

A recent project got me thinking about the old trope that, upon getting involved in an existing project, the first thing any developer wants to do is rewrite it.

Obviously, that’s not always true, and in fact, I’ve rarely been tempted. But the following situation made the thought cross my mind, and it also led me to realize the reasons I didn’t bite.

Let’s talk about it, but first, I’ll talk more generally about rewriting codes, the potential benefits, and the reasons it’s typically best not to.

Programming Language

Why You Should Write Your Own Programming Language: The Life of a Donut

Keyhole Software Development Technologies & Tools, Keyhole, Programming Leave a Comment

What’s the best side project you’ve ever completed? For Keyhole Consultant Jake Everhart, so far, it’s writing his own interpretive programming language. He calls it Donut. Here’s more about why he made it, how he made it, and why it’s been so fun.

Writing High Quality Code

Writing Quality Code: Practicing “Make It Work, Make It Right, Make It Fast”

Rik Scarborough Articles, Programming, Soft Skills 1 Comment

Kent Beck, a software engineer famous enough to have his own Wikipedia page, is quoted as saying, “Make it work, make it right, make it fast.” A quick web search will show you several pages discussing this quote, some in great detail.

So, I’ll write another, and hopefully, I’ll provide two things to build on the existing literature. First, I’d like to put this concept in front of some programmers that might not have heard it, or if they have, haven’t taken it to heart.

Second, I’ll provide my own philosophy on the subject. Maybe it will different enough that you’ll get something new from it. I do have a slightly different take on it. Although I don’t want anyone to change the quote, maybe we can instead think of it as, “Solve the problem, make it maintainable, and make it perform.”