Unboxed Roundup: Our links for w/c 21st November 2016
Murray Steele
Nov. 25, 2016
Rspec Christmas Tree - Elena T
https://github.com/elabs/christmas_tree_formatter
Since we're approaching Christmas at a ridiculously fast pace and seeing Christmas decorations is finally a reasonable thing, I thought I'd share this gem which formats your rspec output in the shape of a christmas tree. There's a pull request for adding blinking snow, which I'm hoping will be merged!
IronFunctions - Charlie Egan
https://github.com/iron-io/functions
Disclaimer; I haven't used this yet. The project is means of setting up DIY functions as a service. It looks like it's pretty easy to setup and that it ought to be possible to run super cheaply on hyper.sh (that's my referral link - gets us both some free credits). It runs functions in containers so how you write your functions is pretty flexible.
Fun things in Elixir - Elena T
https://dev.to/ryanflach/fun-things-in-elixir
This is a nice intro into some of the quirks of Elixir. As a beginner myself,
I found these were a nice exploration of some things that make Elixir different.
I especially liked that you can do method chaining using the |> operator.
Function definition with clauses was also interesting.
Writing tests - Murray S
http://www.marclittlemore.com/how-to-write-high-quality-unit-tests/
I find it hard to articulate exactly what a good unit test looks like. It's something I know when I see, but I find it hard to explain to someone else what I would or wouldn't test, and what level of abstraction I'd test at to get the most confidence about making future changes. This is obviously my own failing, as this article by Marc Littlemore clearly describes what to think about when writing good unit tests and provides useful steps to follow.
12 Fractured Apps (2015) - Charlie
https://medium.com/@kelseyhightower/12-fractured-apps-1080c73d481c
A short & accesible write up about writing resilient applications. While it uses containerized apps as an example, the ideas about handling interactions with the environment are more generally applicable. If you're interested in containers, Kelsey Hightower has a lot of interesting project and tutorials on his GitHub Profile.
Track of the Week - Tom Gladhill
20 years young this week, it's the ever fresh DJ Shadow's Organ Donor.