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Sometimes, I write.

I find joy in building things. Then, I find joy in writing about what I've learned in the process. I suspect I learn new things just for the sake of having catchy stories to write later on. This blog is where I gather my technical entries, from newest to oldest.

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Pick a standard and move on

Why would you spend your cognitive capacity on useless choices?

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Domain complexity vs applicative complexity

For years, code would fall into two categories: easy (good!) and hard (bad!). Recently, I've realized that not every piece of _hard_ code is created equal. Complex code often encompasses two kinds of complexity: domain complexity and applicative complexity. And I often failed to identify which is which.

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Growing old as a programmer

I’ll be turning 40 this year, and I’ve started to wonder about my professional life in the next two decades. Not a lot of 60-year-old developers, hey?

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Refactoring in practice: moving toward convention

A few months ago, I had to write a Rails micro-service that synchronizes data between two versions of an application. I'll show you the successive steps I used to refactor this piece of code, from shameless-green to convention.

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Technical tests in 2023: were they any good?

As I'm reaching the end of this recruiting cycle, I wanted to reflect on the recruiting processes I've completed. Some were good, some not so much.

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Algorithms are fun... I guess?

Something happened to me last week I didn't expect: I enjoyed working my way through algorithms. You may find me overly dramatic, but remember, I'm from the art world. Algorithm is a fancy term to describe the act of painting rectangles of colour in a specific pattern.

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Looking for a job: handling fatigue and loneliness

Today, I would like to try something different. No polished new entries, just me sharing my day-to-day looking for a new job.

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How to write better specifications for your features

For years, I've worked without thinking much about feature specifications. Many teams endure empty Trello cards, neglected Jira tickets, and misaligned communication. So today, I want to share how to write better specifications for your features.

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How to test your Rails models with RSpec

Today, I want to share how to test your Rails models with RSpec. Testing your models is a no-brainer strategy when building your applications. It gives you the confidence to make changes without regressions. We'll cover the fundamental testing strategies with RSpec's built-in features. And for fun, we'll check some extra tools to amp up your models' coverage.

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The never-ending days of DEI's importance

A few weeks back, the creator of Ruby on Rails wrote a pamphlet rejoicing on - what appears to him as - the waning days of DEI's dominance. This rebuttal talks about how diversity, equity, and inclusion were, are, and will always be essential to workers.

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From stained-glass master to software engineer: it starts with a mess

Changing careers is a long, often-overlooked process. But I want to share both the (linear) story and the (messy) history of how I became a software engineer. And as a lot of good stories, mine always starts with a lie.

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Build a minimal feature flags manager in under an hour

Feature flags (or feature toggles) are a neat way to hide in-progress features from your users. For those who need a simple on-and-off system, here's a minimal feature flag manager that'll take less than an hour to build, using plain Ruby objects, the Rails configuration, and some neat variables organization.

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Exploring dependency injection in Ruby

Classes depend on each other all the time. But the way you tie those classes together will determine how hard it is to change your code. Dependency injection can help you reduce that coupling and reduce your cost of change.

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Introduction to Git Bisect: travel through time and bugs

No matter how thorough your test coverage is, you can't test everything. So when you introduce a bug in your application, git bisect will help you zero in on your regression's origin.

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Upgrading Ruby on Rails: a beginner's guide

You're about to upgrade your application to the newest version of Ruby on Rails. And you've never done it before? Fear not! Here's my battle-tested companion to migrating Rails.

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Building large features: my process for branches, requests and reviews

Working on large features can be tricky. I've spent the last few months refining a process that makes it easy to keep in touch with the main branch, to make reviews more manageable, and with little GIT overhead.

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Introduction to RSpec: the syntax

In this second part of my introduction to RSpec, I want to focus on the syntax. Here's a glossary of the keywords you'll use the most when testing with RSpec: describe, subject, let vs let!, it, context, etc...

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An introduction to RSpec: how to install RSpec, naming convention and basic files structure

When you start programming, it's not easy to know what to test, how to test, and why should you test? So let's start with an introduction to RSpec: how to install RSpec, RSpec naming convention and and RSpec files structure.

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Always serving someone

It's easy to tell yourself it's not your job to provide a great service to your users. But taking time to write beautiful code will bring joy and value to you and your teammates.

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Debugging with pry-byebug: moving in the stack frame

Time to level up your debugging game with frames, adding breakpoints on the fly, and some handy shortcuts.

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Get started with ActiveRecord scoped associations

Active Record Associations are a great feature of Rails. But I never thought of using scopes with has_one or has_many associations until recently! So let me show you a neat little trick that'll make your code much much more expressive (and keep your N+1 queries in check).

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How to wrap your head around a new codebase

For the last eighteen months, I've spent my time trying to understand bits of code I'd never seen before. Eighteen months later, I still don't know every corner of the codebase, but what I do know, is how to get efficiently familiar with new parts of a codebase.

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How not to live stream your code

This week, I did my first live stream on Twitch and it didn't turn out so well (to say the least). Here's a recap of my rookie mistakes, what I liked about it anyway, and what I'm planning on doing.

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Asynchronous HTTP requests in Rails

Let's look at how we can update parts of our app's pages with asynchronous HTTP requests. This is a step-by-step how-to with some good ol' Javascript fetch() method, and Rails native server-side partial rendering.

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A hands-on tutorial to debugging your code with pry-byebug

Like most new developers, I started as a puts developer. Then, I discovered pry-byebug and debugging things got a lot easier. This is a beginner-level, hands-on, introduction to debbuging your code with pry-byebug. Behold the power of binding.pry!

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Going remote: a live documentation on transitioning out of the office

Last week, I started the process of transitioning from an on-site position to a full remote one. I'll publicly document what happens as it happens here. Interested in remote working? Join in!

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Don't sell yourself short

You've just graduated from university. Maybe you're in your first two years as a developer. You are, what the market calls, a junior developer. And you're a burden to companies. That's what you're being told. Well, this is bullshit.

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Working with tempfiles in Ruby

A while back, I needed to create XML files, send them to a distant server and delete them once the transfer completed. This is when I discovered Tempfiles and rejoiced in using Ruby.

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2019 - a year in review

Well, here we are. December has come and gone. Now is the time to look back on what happened last year: a lot of writing and becoming a Real Developer™.

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An Introduction to Ruby classes and objects

When you start learning Ruby, you often hear that everything is - or evaluates as - an object. Here's an introduction for developers who want to get the gist of objects and classes in Ruby.

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Keep your finger on the pulse with RSS

Social media turned our lively corners of the web into glum ones. Let's breath life back into them with fresh signals.

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The violence within

Our mainstream work culture cultivates systemic violence: bullying, constant competition, sexism, etc. You name it. What if talking about could empower and protect us?

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Testing railway-oriented business transactions with Rspec

Railway-oriented business transactions are a great way to unclutter your Rails controllers. But how should we test them? Let's get down to it.

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How to use railway-oriented business transactions to unclutter your Rails controllers

When your Rails app needs to handle multiple steps, your controllers' methods can become a mess. Let's see how to Marie-Kondo them with dry-transaction

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Debugging PGError: ERROR: column of relation already exists

How do you fix a corrupted database's schema? Here's a hands-on tutorial on restoring your local database.

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Meet your new friend: self

tl;dr: When you're new to coding, it's not always easy to know where the fuck you are in your code. Well, call the most unexpected friend to the rescue: self!

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Own your story

When you put yourself out there, you get attention. Some of it is enjoyable. Some of it, not so much. It's not easy to keep your story straight.

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WTF is time complexity? 🤔

People who learn web development through coding bootcamp aren't (usually) familiar with time complexity. They might have read the words, but that's it. I know I tried to look up the Wikipedia page only to fall asleep at the end of the first paragraph. When I finally woke up, I thought "Nevermind, I'll never have to deal with it anyway". And boy, was I wrong.

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#TIL: a daily recap of my first two months as a Ruby on Rails developer

From early April to early June, I attended Le Wagon Paris' fullstack coding bootcamp. Each day, I shared what I'd learned on Twitter. Wanna know what it feels like to dive into coding for 2 months for the first time?

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Life After Bootcamp: Always Be Shipping

Last week was the 9th and final week of my Ruby on Rails Bootcamp at Le Wagon Paris. My buddies and I showed to the public what could be shipped in two weeks. A lot of great projects stood out that night. But now, it’s Monday morning. The excitement has worn off over the weekend, the many naps and the odd drinks. What shall I do?

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Add Omniauth GitHub to Your Rails App on Top of Devise

As I’ve moved into the last three weeks of Le Wagon coding bootcamp, the need to authorize people to sign-up with GitHub quickly arise. Here's a step-by-step tutorial on how to do it when you already use Devise to handle authentification.

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How to set-up a lead generation strategy for small businesses: do’s 👍 and don’ts 👎

You’re building a product that can be used on the Internet? Good for you! But then, the thought of finding customers start to creep in. Should you talk about it now? Later? Should build a marketing war machine? Should you play it safe? After a few years of generating demand for companies, here is the gist of what I believe to be the best bet.

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How to make Open Data sexy: 10 lessons learned while building opendatainception.io

In June 2015, Nicolas Terpolilli and I were ranting about the difficulty to locate Open Data portals. Poor SEO seemed to result in poor rankings. Existing listings were either outdated or partisan. We started joking around with the idea of building a truly comprehensive resource. A resource that would gather every single Open Data portal we could lay our hands on.

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What is an API?

Wrapping your head around APIs can be challenging for non-technical users. What’s an API? What can be share through an API? Data? Services? How does one design an API?How do you code an API?

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Recruiting Your Next Marketing Talents? Give ’em a Technical Test

Over the past years, I’ve been invited to several interviews for marketing positions. Yet, I’ve not been asked a single time to do a marketing technical test. And you know what, this sucks!

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C'est quoi une API ?

This is the French version on an article explaining to newbies what are APIs.

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