Angular Developer: JavaScript to TypeScript

Chris Shatrov Angular, Articles, JavaScript, React, TypeScript 1 Comment

New JavaScript frameworks and libraries are created every day. This generates a dilemma: which solution should we use when starting a project?

My web development experience over the last few years has mainly included the AngularJS and Backbone.js frameworks. Angular, jQuery and traditional JavaScript have been in my comfort zone. When I ended up being face-to-face with TypeScript, it felt new, scary, and pretty confusing. I want to make that transition easier for you!

The goal of this post is to provide you an understanding of TypeScript, particularly when you come from an Angular web development background. To do so, we will first give an introduction to TypeScript. We will then discuss the differences between the different versions of Angular & Angular vs. React, with an eye for what you need to know to understand the JavaScript tooling landscape TypeScript plays in. And, lastly, we’ll go through a tangible TypeScript example for a look into syntax & structure.

Managing Docker Containers with OpenShift and Kubernetes

Casey Justus Articles, AWS, Cloud, Development Technologies & Tools, DevOps, Docker, Microservices, openshiftseries Leave a Comment

For the last few years, Docker containers have been all the rage in the DevOps world. After all, what’s not to like? They allow you to strip out 99% of stuff in your VM and just deploy your code.

Containers can save resources, speed deployment, scale well and offer more fault tolerance. But how do you manage them?

In my experience, the Docker Machine and Docker Swarm stack hasn’t lived up my to expectations. It has a limited API, no support for monitoring and logging, and much more manual scaling. AWS’s EC2 containers scale well, but you’ll be locked into Amazon.

In my opinion, the best current stack for Docker containers includes Kubernetes and OpenShift. In this blog I will give a brief introduction to Kubernetes + OpenShift with an eye for what they do well…

Explosive Tutorial With Unity3D and VRTK

Robert Rice .NET, Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, Tutorial Leave a Comment

Opinions on the emerging Virtual Reality market vary. One one end, there are those who say it’s just a gimmick and will pass shortly. On the other end, there are those who herald it as the birth pangs of a paradigm shift in how we interact with technology.

I sit somewhere in the middle. I own an HTC Vive and it is pretty dang awesome. The experience is not perfect, of course, but with interest growing and prices coming down, it’s just going to get better.

One expression of VR’s growing popularity is that Unity3D supports VR programming. And, with the free VRTK (Virtual Reality Tool Kit) framework, it’s becoming much easier to get started programming for VR. VRTK implements many basic components, such as various movement implementations, object interaction, and projectiles.

Working on a fun little side project, I noticed one implementation it did not have: a virtual reality bomb. So, I set upon to create one myself. This post details the process I went through for creating a timed, throwable, explosive object for virtual reality using Unity3D & VRTK.

The Joy of Forms with React and Formik

Mat Warger Articles, Development Technologies & Tools, JavaScript, React, Tutorial 9 Comments

React is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. That’s it. It’s a way to use JavaScript to define UI elements based on user-defined properties and internal state.

It has a clean, functional style. You can create simple components that compose very well into larger components, which you can then use to compose pages and entire applications. This simple composability is one of the main reasons I enjoy working with it.

But, it is not an application framework. It doesn’t pretend to be. This can be useful when all you want is some quick UI. But, as the application grows, you will need to depend on outside libraries for things like state-management, routing, and forms.

In this article, learn how to handle form input with React, from basic form input using simple state through advanced form components using Formik….