PurelyFunctional.tv Newsletter 262: Launching, Jargon, Fearless
Issue 262 - January 29, 2018 · Archives · Subscribe
Hi Clojurators,
Why do we do the work we do?
I've been talking to customers every day, asking them about their goals, what they're working on, and how best they learn. Each customer is a different challenge. I find myself being transformed by these conversations.
I work alone, in my office, building the PurelyFunctional.tv platform and content. It's easy to get lonely. But worse, it's easy to abstract my customers into something they're not.
I've said it before: my 2018 is all about people. More conversations. More relationships. More empathy. More understanding.
These past two weeks, I've given people pointers to awesome Clojure learning material and great advice for learning Clojure. I've connected people looking for jobs to significant people in the Clojure community. I've committed to doing code reviews to give people deadlines to encourage them to complete projects. In short, I've been giving more than I've given before. And it feels great.
Here's to a great 2018!
Please enjoy the issue.
Rock on!
PS Want to get this in your email? Subscribe!
🚀 Launching: Understanding Re-frame
I'm putting a bow on Understanding Re-frame and launching it this Wednesday. The course is a tour of the whole Re-frame stack. It will be 50% during the sale---and location-based discounts add on top.
Choosing Features
Kevin Lynagh gave a great talk at Deconstruct 2017. It's all about design. He goes through an example of designing the interface for specifying spacing in his company's design application. Specifically, by listening to their users, they decided to take a step back and ask about the deepe r underlying ideas behind the margin/padding concepts that CSS gives you. They come up with a a much simpler and more expressive concept. I think this is so important in software. It's so easy to "add features", but when do we step back, revisit the conceptual model, and make a cleaner choice?
Testing Stateful and Concurrent Systems using test.check
I gave a talk at Clojure/West 2017 about using test.check. I just recently made a nice page for it with a transcript. If you prefer reading, check it out.
Fearless JVM Lambdas YouTube
John Chapin's great talk about using Clojure on AWS Lambda. I was reminded of this talk when helping out a member last week on one of the coaching calls I'm doing this month.
Functional Programming Jargon
Hemanth HM has put together this glossary of Functional Programming terms.
Clojure SYNC Last-minute Tickets
Friday is the last day for getting the Late Bird price for what will prove to be the not-to-miss conference of 2018. Check out the speakers and [get your tickets(https://clojuresync.com/tickets/).
Remember, Clojure/West is not happening in 2018. If you're planning on going to a conference in the early part of the year, this is the one to go to!
How Far Have We Come?
Alan Cooper (author of The Inmates are Running the Asylum) spoke about Agile software development back in 2008. I have not heard such a great description of my experience of Agile and its dysfunctions.
Getting Clojure Book
Russ Olsen's book is out in Beta. It's not done, but you can buy what is there now. I haven't started the book yet, but I love his thinking and I'm looking forward to getting started.
A spec for URLs in Clojure
Conan Cook creates a better generator for URL specs to better cover the entire space of URLs.
