Issue #2: Your Tech Dos in 2024

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Since January is one big, massive, everlasting Monday, why not make it a resourceful one?

So, if you haven't looked at your dos and dont's for this year... You know what? Let's just focus on the Dos. That makes more sense.

Your Dos might be implementing a new design system, using a new toolkit, adopting a new mindset, becoming a reporting wizard, finding a new path, expanding the accessibility of your app or even adding a new programming language!

Whatever it is, you can be certain there are plenty of resources out there to support your decisions and help you along the way.

So here are the best posts we ran into that might answer some of your search queries:

A range of celebrations across .NET

Testing, testing! ??

DevOps is an integral part of software development. Even more so, it has a transformative impact. It's also a mindset that if adopted in time, can massively speed up delivery, improve quality and tighten the collab between des, testers and operations. Go, team!

But let's take a step back. What are actually the tools and strategies that make DevOps, well... DevOps? What's the role of testing within the DevOps lifecycle? And what are the best practices that it employs?

Take a guided read into the process of Integrating Software Testing in DevOps for Improved Software Development in Dennis Martinez 's article.

A celebration of all things XAML and .NET MAUI! ??

Leomaris Reyes is expertly leading the XAML and .NET MAUI party in her "January XAML Fest"!

She's dedicating this month to a series of deep dives into the world of #UI design. And guess what? She'll be replicating the XAML code of some of the most famous apps like Uber, Instagram and more.

If you're keen on gaining an insight into the flexy nature and excellent functionality of XAML and .NET MAUI, start with her rebuild of the Uber Card UI ??article.

So this one is a double entrance into both .NET and Design segments!

10 Tips for Creating Fabulous Reports ??

If you recently had a big dramatic moment in which someone said to you "Hey - yer a reporting wizard" and you replied with "I'm a what?", don't panic. Embrace it. Because you can easily become one, both for any reporting tool out there and for the Telerik Report Designer!

Let's face it - delivering a stellar report is satisfactory on both ends. A happy client is priceless. A happy you? Even more so!

Grab Peter Vogel 's 10 Tips for Creating the Report You (or Someone Else) Need Quickly and become the reporting wizard you were destined to be!

Mastering Object-Oriented Programming Concepts ??

How are your ASP .NET Core ABC's? There are many basics you can pick along the way, but object orientation is of high relevancy if you are a web developer.

Quick history lesson:

Object-oriented programming or OOP is a paradigm that emerged in the 1960s, but became popular much later, mainly in the ’90s and became the basis for the creation of several programming languages like C#, Java, C++, Python, Lua, PHP and others. What it basically does is it reaches a special way of writing computer programs, where real-world ideas are abstracted into software through blocks called “objects.”

Or as the author of ASP .NET Core Basics: Mastering Object-Oriented Programming Concepts, Assis Zang likes to say - think of them as LEGOs.

So to know more about the four pillars of object-oriented programming and how to implement each in your ASP .NET Core application, hit the article linked above to get a full scope of the paradigm.

JavaScipt and Adjacent

Do you feel the Tailwind? ??

As in - do you need?#Tailwind? Maybe not necessarily. But then again...It can be of great help with styling, creating dark modes and handling media queries!

If that doesn't sound convincing, Jonathan Gamble explored all the amazing benefits in his Jumping into Tailwind article (which also has a neat plug of Fireship 's "Tailwind in 100 Seconds" video).

The Angular Renaissance ??????

Unless you've been hiding in the deepest, darkest jungle (if a major Angular update drops, but there's no one to witness it, has it really happened? Yes, yes it has.) in the past month, you have no doubt heard about, seen and already used #Angular v17.

But in case you need a refresher or a breakdown of all the features and highlights, here's where you can get that - pull up a chair and watch ?? Alyssa Nicoll gush over the Renaissance while laying down all the best bits about it in her Welcome to the Angular Renaissance! video

Achieving i18n ??

Easy localization to different languages, regions and cultural contexts - that's what internationalization (i18n in numeronym lingo) is all about!

When you're designing and developing an application it should allow for all of that to be achievable. It goes without saying (but it needs to be said in written form anyway) that all apps should be accessible, functional and culturally appropriate for users all around the world.

For example, instead of hardcoding a text string in your #JavaScript code like this:

const greeting = "Hello, World!";

You can instead store it in a separate resource file like en.json:

{ "greeting": "Hello, World!" }

There are plenty more examples where that came from, so get the tl;dr on the Importance of Internationalization in Web Development by Hassan Djirdeh .

Design 101

A developer's guide to implementing a design system ??

Here's the story: your team has decided to implement a design system. That's awesome news! There are a ton of benefits, the design team knows about them, you're eager to get started, everything is great. But how is this design system getting implemented exactly? It's not code, so how does it become an inherent part of the codebase and what does it look like for a you, a developer and your workflow?

Kathryn Grayson Nanz 's A Developer’s Guide to Implementing a Design System is a breakdown we're sure you'll find useful especially if you are a dev facing design system implementation.

Icons without Labels - Can it be? ??

Would you use standalone icons without any supporting text in your mobile app?

We're inside of apps and websites day in and day out, but have we mastered the icon-only lingo, have we evolved to completely omit labels?

Well, there may be some scenarios where this would be quite ok. Explore them along with some best practices in Suzanne Scacca 's Is It Ever OK to Use Icons Without Labels in Mobile App Design? article.

Shameless plug ??

Are you a #Figma fan? We know we are!

So we made this handy dandy tutorial showing how to import design tokens from Figma to ThemeBuilder, a visual tool in which you can style your Telerik and Kendo UI web components, in an easy-breezy way.

The treasures along the way

C# takes the big win! ??

The TIOBE Index for January 2024 was published to the world and the headline blew people's minds - C# has been named the programming language of 2023!

C# has been in the top 10 list for about 20 years now, but in 2023 it finally caught up and even surpassed both JavaScript and PHP with an uptick of +1.43%.

So it's safe to say C# is going nowhere anytime soon and it might be in the cards for you to add it to your programming language stack.

Check out the TIOBE Index and where each programming language ranked.

GitHub Copilot Rules the Stage ??

Jeffrey T. Fritz tweeted how he asked #GitHub Copilot to center a div (the age-old ask!), but instead here's what happened: it rewrote an error message and added directions to fix that error. It's all recorded in this clip from Fritz's Twitch channel.

But the truly impressive part is that it learned how to use his user interface which is written in HTML and Blazor and gave directions on how to use it. That's a wow moment for sure!

Is Blazor Actually...Sus? ??

Dee Dee Walsh , Developer marketing and business development at Growth Acceleration Partners , skier, and also donut eater ??, breaks down for you why Blazor is unlike any other Microsoft project.

If you've been ever on the fence or still are give Dee Dee's article a go and learn more about what big technological jump Blazor brought, what are some lessons learned from the past, what's the advantage of open-source, and what the future holds.

Thank you for reading the second issue of the newsletter! See you next week! Until then - stay happy, healthy, and productive!

- The TechRel Team ??