Happy New Year Unboxedians and commiserations on the ashes

Git commit messages again - Murray

You’ve probably thought about writing better commit messages, but have you ever thought about writing the commit messages before you write the code? I'm not really sold on the idea as I’m quite a messy developer; I tend to write a bunch of code then use git add -p to tidy that up into a series of atomic commits and repeat the process with some git rebase for good measure. I also think the “if we write tests before the code, why not commit messages too” argument is a bit of a stretch.

That said, there’s lots of good stuff about writing better messages in this article, and I can’t quite dismiss it outright. I think because it reminds me of the kinds of constraint-based coding exercises you run through at a code-retreat. The constraints can force you to think more about something you normally do without thinking, and that can reveal new approaches. Maybe I’ll just try it and see what happens.

Logging with Node.js - Andy M

For a long time now I have been stuck in the world of using a simply console.log in my Node applications. Often though its simply not enough for a production application where log files and levels are required. This article covers how to use Winston as a more featured logger in your node applications.

http://devgigs.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/mastering-nodejs-logging.html

Interesting Video we watched regarding Test boundaries - Tyrone

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTkzNHF6rMs

Code Reviews vs. Pairing - Murray

An excellent article about code-reviews and pairing by Paul Hinze that makes a reasoned case for the drawbacks and benefits to both approaches. I happen to prefer a code-review culture to a pairing one, but it’s good to be reminded of the things I’m giving up on with that preference. The article also suggests that Paul will be writing more on these themes and I’m looking forward to hearing what else he has to say.