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<p>One of the best things about <internallink internallinkid="/blog/type-script-vs-java-script-which-one-to-choose-for-2021-web-applications">JavaScript</internallink> is that it comes with many different libraries that developers can use for solving practically any problem – including data visualization, a common element of many applications today.</p><p><strong>Data visualizations</strong> help to simplify how we work with and understand data, which is critical for many applications that rely on it. Luckily, developers building such solutions can take advantage of many data visualization libraries.</p><p>In this article, we will take a closer look at <strong>data visualization solutions available in JavaScript</strong> to show you why using them is a good idea. Here’s a list of 12 most common such tools to help improve your software development process.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#intro">Why should you use JavaScript data visualization libraries?</a></li><li><a href="#libraries">What's the best JavaScript data visualization library for your project?</a></li><li><a href="#wrap-up">Now you know everything about JavaScript data visualizations</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Why should you use JavaScript data visualization libraries?</h2><p>Picking the right style for displaying data so that it’s readable and understandable – this is a critical step in any application design today.</p><blockquote><p><strong>Data visualization</strong> is a combination of art and science. It’s an umbrella term for all the methods used to deliver the insights from data analysis. Take a look around and you’ll see that practically every application on the market requires or uses data in some way to enhance its functionality.</p></blockquote><p>Consumers like tracking their activities and data visualization streamlines the process of understanding the data better. Many applications allow users to share insights with others – and this is where data visualization tools come in handy as well. By using them, developers can make data more readable and increase the user’s ability to analyze data visually.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="libraries" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>What's the best JavaScript data visualization library for your project?</h2><h3>1. React-vis</h3><p>This library was developed by a team at Uber for creating React visualizations. Uber is still the largest organization that supports that library. The React-vis library is very simple to install and use. It also comes with great documentation backed by Uber. It features all the popular charts like line, bar, pie, treemaps, and more.</p><p>The good thing about this library is that you don’t need any prior knowledge of any other library. Instead, you can instantly use modular low-level building blocks such as the XY axis to create your visualizations. It’s a good fit for working with <a href="https://codersera.com/blog/javascript-data-visualization-libraries/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Bit</a>.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Easy to use and doesn’t require prior knowledge of data visualization packages.</li><li>Flexible, robust, and based on modular building blocks.</li><li>Comes with a set of default elements that can be customized.</li><li>Integrates really well with React.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>2. D3.js</h3><p>&nbsp;This data visualization JavaScript library is most commonly used to manipulate documents that are based on data. It uses web standards and works with JavaScript <internallink internallinkid="/blog/most-popular-front-end-frameworks-in-2021">frameworks</internallink> like React or Vue. Today, it’s one of the most popular data visualization packages on the market and many other libraries are actually based on it.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><p>D3 uses modern web standards like SVG, HTML, and CSS. With D3, you don’t need any standard visualization formats. You can use it to build graphs, HTML tables, geospatial maps, bar charts, and pie charts.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Robust and flexible.</li><li>Fast and easy to use.</li><li>Supports large data sets.</li><li>Uses declarative programming.</li><li>Provides the transition() function.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>3. VX</h3><p>VX is a collection of low-level visualization components that developers can reuse to create stunning data visualizations quickly. In order to update the DOM, VX uses the functionality of D3 for producing visualizations with the extra benefits coming from React.</p><p>The idea here is to build a component library that can be used to develop a reusable chart library and customize charts. VX is opinionated and works as a simple collection of reusable components. Under the hood, VX uses D3 for mathematical calculations. When building a chart library on top of VX, developers can create an API component that will fully hide D3.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Easy to access and use.</li><li>Ability to create complex graphs.</li><li>Excellent API.</li><li>Offers unique transitions and animations.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Chart.js</h3><p>This open-source JavaScript library allows developers to leverage the HTML canvas feature and create various types of charts. Since the library needs canvas, it’s necessary to use a polyfill to support older browsers.</p><p>The library offers six major chart types by default, facilitating their usability. It’s very easy to understand even for someone without much experience in this area. Developers get a selection of completely responsive charts like line, radar, scatter, pie, bar, bubble, doughnut, or polararea. Developers can also mix different line and bar charts to incorporate different data sets into a single chart.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>A great choice for huge data sets.</li><li>Open-source library available free of charge.</li><li>It offers lots of built-in charts.</li><li>Default charts can be easily customized.</li><li>It supports modern browsers.</li><li>It’s built on top of Canvas (works well with large datasets).</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>5. TradingVue.js</h3><p>This handy charting library is a great choice for developers who want to draw customized designs on top of candlestick charts. They especially come in handy for trading applications. Using the library, it’s easy to build custom indicators and map data to screen coordinates. All the things like scrolling, reactivity, and scaling happen behind the scenes.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Scrolling and zooming.</li><li>Basic API for creating new overlays.</li><li>It offers a completely reactive and responsive design.</li><li>It provides customized drawing tools.</li><li>An excellent choice for trading apps because it’s extremely fast - it works even as fast as 3 mil candles.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>6. ReCharts</h3><p>ReCharts is a library that uses D3 under the hood to demonstrate the declarative components. It’s pretty light and renders SVG elements excellently, allowing devs to build interactive charts easily. Developers can easily modify the charts to create customized designs.</p><p>If you’re looking to create a static chart, the library comes in handy as well because it offers a great output and built-in general chart resources such as legend tooltips and labels. And if you need to create a chart with huge data sets, it will handle your use case.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Enables developers to build charts with the coupled and reusable react components.</li><li>Lightweight and reliable.</li><li>Composable charting library.</li><li>Offers a powerful and responsive feature with an intuitive API.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>7. Victory</h3><p>Victory is a set of components for modular charting that are especially helpful for React and React Native. The library does a good job of making a chart by offering developers fundamentals they can use in developing visualizations.</p><p>The library features concepts like labels, customizing access, and using different data sets for particular graphs. Customizing styles and behavior is very simple as well. It comes in handy especially for cross-platform applications and allows developers to build attractive graphs with low code.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Features easy-to-use components that handle complex targeting.</li><li>Comes with reusable data visualization elements used for their own styles and behaviors.</li><li>Works with React Native (mobile applications).</li><li>It’s robust and flexible.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>8. Echarts</h3><p>This JavaScript library works for the browser Baidu’s eCharts project. It uses proper JavaScript and is centered around the zrender canvas library. As a result, developers can use it for rendering charts in the manner of Canvas, VML, and SVG.</p><p>Echarts is also handy for powerful server-side rendering with node-canvas on the node. The library provides a selection of basic chart types - from bar series and box lot to candlestick, heatmaps and more.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>The library is optimized for mobile interactions.</li><li>It makes the zoom function easier to handle.</li><li>You can use it to display visualizations of a lot of the big data sets.</li><li>It supports multidimensional data.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>9. Frappe Charts</h3><p>This is a basic library for building charts without any dependencies. It’s a GitHub-like visual package that supports bar, line, and other chart styles. Developers can also use it to build heatmaps.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Open-source.</li><li>SVG-based.</li><li>It’s responsive and easy to use.</li><li>It has a small bundle size.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>10. Nivo</h3><p>This unique framework is built on top of React and D3. In total, it offers 14 different components you can use to display your data. When it was launched in 2017, it gained success after being featured on Product Hunt as the product of the day.</p><p>Nivo offers developers many different customization choices and three different ways to render: HTML, Canvas, and SVG. It’s a great choice for creating visualizations that are both customizable and attractive.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>High level of customization.</li><li>Great and exhaustive documentation.</li><li>It includes motion and transitions that are driven by react-motion.</li><li>Great for responsive design.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>11. Google Charts</h3><p>This is a well-known solution for charts used by JavaScript developers. As a JavaScript library, it offers chart forms like bar, geo, area, and others. While the library is free to use, it’s not open source. Also, it’s not responsive – however, developers can use code so that it resizes the charts. Depending on the chart type, you can choose from different customization options.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Offers a rich gallery of charts.</li><li>Provides great customization.</li><li>Comes with HTML and SVG properties.</li><li>Brings developers dashboards, controls, and free chart tools.</li><li>Developers can modify charts even after chart generation.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>12. Zoom Charts</h3><p>Another popular data visualization library is Zoom Charts. Apart from its reactivity, it brings developers multitouch gestures and great experience across any kind of device. The library is full of beautiful visualizations that require minimal code from developers.</p><p>Your team can easily implement them on any device. The library is based on canvas and one of the key benefits is that it runs even 20 times quicker with its default settings than other SVG-based counterparts.</p><p>Key features:</p><ul><li>Developers can create visually rich and interactive charts for applications.</li><li>It’s easy to learn and onboard.</li><li>It requires a minimal amount of code writing.</li><li>It allows developers to discover new insights and data.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="wrap-up" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Now you know everything about JavaScript data visualizations</h2><p>Developers can choose from many different libraries that allow visualizing data easily. Since JavaScript is only becoming more popular on the data visualization scene, the market is surely going to expand and offer devs even more tools they can use for creating beautiful charts for web applications.</p><p>We hope that this article gave you a good idea of what’s out there and which potential libraries you could use for your next project.</p><p><strong>Have you used any of these libraries already? Are you planning to? Give us a shout-out in the comments and share your thoughts about JavaScript data visualization libraries that make our lives easier and help us to create some beautiful charts at the same time.</strong></p>

​​12 JavaScript Data Visualization Tools to Know in 2021 | Codete Blog

​​12 JavaScript Data Visualization Tools to Know in 2021

IT Content Writer with 12 years of professional writing experience. Prefers facts and figures to any kind of fiction.

Dominika Reszke

<p>While it may be clear why Java language is often labeled as secure, simple, dynamic, portable, and reliable as well as class-based and object-oriented, the answer to the question of why Java is platform independent may not be that obvious.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>„Java platform independent”</strong> is a phrase that is often searched within search engines as it may not be clear what this term actually means. But „platform independence” simply implies independence from all types of platforms. The code can also run on all operating systems.</p><p>In this article, we’ll zoom in on Java’s platform independence.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#intro">Java and platform independence</a></p><p>2. <a href="#reasons">Things that make Java platform independent</a></p><p>3. <a href="#use">Why using Java in your projects might help</a></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>1. Java and platform independence</h2><p>Java is an open-source, high-level (easy to understand for programmers, and thus not a low, machine-level language easy to understand primarily for computers), reliable, secure, multithreaded, and versatile programming language. It can also be referred to simply as a Java program or, more elaborately, as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(software_platform)" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">set of computer software and specifications</a>.</p><p>Apart from many other characteristic features it is known for, like being object-oriented or class-based, the Java programming language is platform independent or a cross-platform one. But what exactly sets it apart from platform dependent programming languages?</p><blockquote><p>Well, first of all, being a programming language with a low number of implementation dependencies, with compiled Java code able to run „<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Java_(programming_language)#cite_note-design_goals-18" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">on all platforms that support Java without the need for recompilation</a>”, was at the very core of Java’s design back in the 1990s. Its founding, in 1994, is credited to a Canadian <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Gosling" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">James Gosling</a> – also known as Dr.Java or simply dubbed the father of Java – of Sun Microsystems at that time.</p></blockquote><p>Interestingly, the platform independent Java runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) which is… platform dependent, as there are different versions needed for particular operating systems. In general, the term „platform dependent” usually refers to applications <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/platform-dependent" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">that run under only one operating system in one series of computers</a>” but may also mean „machine dependent” or „hardware dependent”.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="reasons" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>2. Things that make Java platform-independent</h2><p>Now, what makes the Java platform independent? Let’s go through a couple of reasons.</p><blockquote><p>In general, platform independence may be called a <a href="https://wiki.c2.com/?PlatformIndependence" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">technology that allows programmers to reuse things</a> that had been initially implemented on one machine on others – without the need to apply any major changes prior to or related to that.&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>In other words, the Java Byte Code written on one occasion and on one machine may be run on another one, which offers a proper environment for it, at any time.</p><p>But the machine usually needs a machine-level language that it can comprehend. For this reason, a compiler or converter that translates high-level language Java is into one understood by machines is necessary. As a result of this operation, source files ending with the .java extension are easily transformed into .class files (executed by JVM). Any platform that runs JVM (that gets installed automatically along with Java) can be used for Java source code execution.</p><p>This way, the source code (written in plain text files) is turned into an executable one – which can be <a href="https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/java-platform-independent/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">performed with the help of Java Byte Code</a>. Thus, the latter – a highly optimized set of instructions – may be regarded as the core of Java’s platform independence.</p><p>But why Java is a platform independent language is one thing, and why it may be worth using it in your projects is another.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="use" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3. Why using Java in your projects might help</h2><p>Java is a platform independent language, but also an object-oriented, class-based, and generic one. Moreover, it is known as general-purpose language so its use cases are quite diverse. It is broadly applied across many domains and used for a variety of development tasks. The list of Java’s use cases is impressive and embraces things such as creating Android apps, games, and websites, including those of high-profile corporations, like <a href="https://data-flair.training/blogs/java-use-cases/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Google or LinkedIn</a>, as well as <a href="https://medium.com/javarevisited/8-best-popular-projects-on-java-e1a663ab3cc1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Netflix, Spotify, Amazon and Uber</a>.</p><p>Java’s versatility makes it perfect for projects that make our day-to-day lives easier or enhanced, in a way. These include designing smart cities, electricity billing systems, ATM interfaces, currency converters, airline reservation systems, and various management systems, to name but a few.</p><blockquote><p>Putting Java in the limelight and discovering its lesser-known features is important as Java is, still, a very popular programming language. In the <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2021" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">2021 Developer Survey</a>, it was revealed that over a third of developers (33.35%) utilized it, and it was named the fifth in the Programming, scripting, and markup languages category. And as far as the TIOBE Index is concerned, Java has been dubbed the third most popular programming language lately (as of October 2021). It was only beaten by Python and C.</p></blockquote><p>Along with Java itself, comes the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), used for running Java or Java byte code programs, with the number of users estimated in millions. Java operating system (JavaOS), Java compiler, Java Runtime Environment, and Java programs, in general, are also frequently used and talked about.</p><p><strong>Is Java’s platform independence an important feature for you? Which features are more important in your daily duties? What kind of projects do you use Java in your day-to-day work?</strong></p>

Why Java Is Platform Independent – Quick Guide | Codete Blog

Here's Why Java Is a Platform-Independent Language

<p>User experience and user engagement all rely on the perfect user interface, and here’s where <strong>Material vs Bootstrap</strong> opposition comes to play. And it's a major one, as both front-end frameworks are known as powerful tools used for web development in general, and creating responsive websites in particular.</p><p>They both have huge corporations standing behind them – Twitter in the case of Bootstrap (with the latter initially called Twitter Blueprint), and Google as far as Material Design is concerned. But they’ve both come a long way from what they were in the beginning, and currently are much more than just internal tools.&nbsp;</p><p>But what exactly can front-end developers gain by utilizing them? And what are the most significant constraints of doing so? Can we call any part of the Bootstrap vs Material UI opposition better?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#lowdown">Bootstrap &amp; Material UI – the lowdown</a></p><p>2. <a href="#comparison">Bootstrap vs Material – which one is better?</a></p><p>3. <a href="#summary">Material Design vs Bootstrap boiled down</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="lowdown" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Bootstrap &amp; Material UI – the lowdown</h2><p>Before we get down to a Bootstrap vs Material comparison, we need to make sure what exactly both parts of this opposition are.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p>Bootstrap is a front-end JS framework and can also be referred to as an HTML, CSS, or JavaScript library. It is known for being open-source and free, and its design templates can be used for things such as navigation, buttons, and typography, to name a few.</p></blockquote><p><a href="https://getbootstrap.com/" target="_blank">Bootstrap prides itself</a> for being „the world’s most popular front-end open-source toolkit, featuring Sass variables and mixins, responsive grid system, extensive pre-built components, and powerful JavaScript plugins”.</p><p>Also, GitHub users appreciate Bootstrap greatly, giving it as many as 153.000 stars – and thus a tenth place on the list of most starred projects (<a href="https://github.com/search?o=desc&amp;q=stars%3A%3E1&amp;s=stars&amp;type=Repositories" target="_blank">as of October 2021</a>). It enables creating cutting-edge web apps, and, apart from Twitter itself, is used by giants such as Dropbox, Bloomberg, and Airbnb.</p><blockquote><p>Material is one of the leading React UI libraries. It offers a big number of useful UI components – both foundational and advanced – that are additionally called self-supporting, simple, and declarative.</p></blockquote><p>It's advertised <a href="https://mui.com/" target="_blank">at its own website</a> as a „robust, customizable, and accessible library of foundational and advanced components, enabling you to build your own design system and develop React applications faster”.&nbsp;</p><p>Google’s Material Design, as its full name suggests, focuses on design building with the use of advanced, sophisticated theming features. It enables setting up design systems, design kits, and fully built templates as well as more flexible custom themes’ creation by front-end developers themselves. However, great design, Material’s hallmark, is to be paired with the innovative technical approach in the case of this popular library.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="comparison" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Bootstrap vs Material – which one is better?</h2><p>Keeping in mind that Bootstrap and Material are not identical toolkits, we may point out both similarities and differences between them. The latter concern, among others, possible applications and use cases so it’s essential to be aware of them before you decide to choose any of these. Moreover, Bootstrap is regarded as more versatile, being a CSS, HTML, and JavaScript framework while Material Design is a React-only library.</p><p>Bootstrap framework is valued for its <a href="https://codersera.com/blog/bootstrap-vs-material-ui-which-is-best-for-next-web-app/" target="_blank">impressive development speed</a> – due to its ready-to-use code blocks – and, for this reason, it is recommended for those front-end developers who need to deliver a web app or a website quickly. Material Design is, in general, worse on that end but using templates may increase the speed of development.</p><p>As for similarities, we may emphasize that both Bootstrap and Material UI offer good browser compatibility. Both frameworks have a 12-column grid system, enabling complete responsiveness. And both are regarded as reliable, appreciated, and frequently chosen by software developers.</p><p>However, as Material’s primal purpose was mobile devices, apps created with this design language look more modern, and its creators enjoy greater freedom when developing. It puts greater attention to things such as animation, pop-up, and sliders – elements that we won’t find within layouts created with Bootstrap, as the latter tends to be more elegant, stylish, and minimalistic – aligned with its information presenting purposes.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="summary" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Material Design vs Bootstrap boiled down</h2><p>What to choose, then, Material or Bootstrap? Well, it depends primarily on the project you are working on. Material Design framework offers an extensive library of powerful UI components that help developers build various types of user interfaces that are beautifully designed, ready-to-use and easily customized.</p><p>Material is a visual or design language with a grid system for layout creation in the very center. Thanks to it, advanced and more sophisticated effects such as vivid colors, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Material_Design" target="_blank">lighting and shadows, padding, and responsive animations</a> are possible to achieve. In fact, it can be used to <a href="https://mui.com/" target="_blank">support building all types of user interfaces</a>.</p><p>Bootstrap, in turn, is a tool meant to simplify the process of developing <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bootstrap_(front-end_framework)" target="_blank">informative web pages</a> and building easy, fast, responsive mobile-first sites, as well as mobile and desktop applications.</p><p>And for those who still can’t decide what’s better in the Material UI vs Bootstrap opposition, or want to make use of what’s best in both of them, there’s a nice combo called <a href="https://mdbootstrap.com/" target="_blank">MDBootstrap</a> or Material Design for Bootstrap v5 &amp; v4.</p><p><strong>And what toolkit do you prefer – Material Design or Bootstrap? What are your experiences with them? Can you spot other important use cases or features that are especially valuable in front-end developers’ work?</strong></p>

Material vs Bootstrap – Which One Is Better? | Codete Blog

Material vs Bootstrap. Which Frontend Framework Should You Use?

<p>Robotics brings together scientific and engineering disciplines to develop artificial embodied capabilities with the degree of autonomy.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p>Any system that includes sensors, power supplies, control systems, manipulators, and software that performs the task of generating some action is a robot.&nbsp;</p></blockquote><p>Robotics is a rapidly evolving field that requires input from all kinds of disciplines - including software engineering for robot programming. So, what kind of programming languages are the best fit for those who would like to grow their careers in the robotics industry?</p><p>Read this article to see which technologies are the top choices of professionals working in the field today and which potential languages you should learn to launch a successful career in robotics.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#intro"><u>Is a programming language for robotics different from other programming languages?</u></a></li><li><a href="#top8"><u>Top 8 programming languages for robotics</u></a></li><li><a href="#career"><u>Interested in a career in robotics programming?</u></a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Is a programming language for robotics different from other programming languages?</h2><p>You might be wondering whether robotics makes use of languages that aren’t used in any other field. Luckily, that’s not the case. The most popular programming languages used in the field of robotics today are C, C++, Python, Java, C#, .NET, and others.</p><p>Apart from the Hardware Description Languages, they’re all used by software engineers across every industry. So, knowing them will come in handy if you’re transitioning to robotics from a software development career.</p><p>But whether you’re a <internallink internallinkid="/blog/how-to-become-a-senior-software-engineer-career-path-and-tips">senior</internallink> or a <internallink internallinkid="/blog/useful-coding-resources-for-beginner-programmers">newbie</internallink>, it pays to pick the languages that get you where you want to be in robotics and put your career on the right track.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="top8" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>8 top programming languages for robotics&nbsp;</h2><h3>1. C/C++</h3><p>C and C++ are the two main programming languages used in robotics. They offer a great variety and number of tools, libraries, and functions that are useful in robotics. That’s why C and C++ are the top robotics languages today.</p><p>Most aspiring robotics engineers use them to program robots efficiently and ensure their high performance. If you’d like to build a career in the field of robotics, learning C and C++ is a great move. They’re also considered as very mature programming languages for robotics purposes because they enable easy interaction with low-level hardware that robots need.</p><p><strong>If the robotics device in question has limitations in memory, then standard C programming language is a better technology choice. If the use of the C language isn't dictated by this condition, robotics developers usually use C++.</strong></p><p>One of the greatest advantages of C++ is that the language controls the operating system’s API directly. This means that it doesn’t need any wrappers. This means that developers can use platform-specific libraries that work fast.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Python</h3><p><internallink internallinkid="/blog/python-advantages-and-disadvantages-every-developer-must-know">Python</internallink> is becoming more and more popular today due to its simple syntax, excellent documentation, and massive community. Since the language is easy to use, it requires less time for developers to learn it. And when you compare Python to other object-oriented programming languages such as C, C++, or Java, you’ll see that it saves you a lot of time when it comes to writing code.</p><p><strong>However, Python projects can get a little too complicated because it’s an interpreted language - spotting errors could become an issue. Still, Python is a high-level programming language that is extensively used for developing systems used in robotics applications.</strong></p><p>The language comes with a handful of useful features that make it a key player in the robotics scene. Some examples that show Python's strengths in robotics are Arduino or Raspberry Pi used for designing embedded systems.</p><p>Python is also surrounded by a rich ecosystem of libraries and packages that help to automate lots of things and save developers plenty of time because they don’t have to build functionalities from scratch. That can make a real difference in a robotics project.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Java</h3><p>Most universities that offer robotics courses include Java as a must-have programming language. Java is today used to build many high-level features that are required in robotics programming.</p><p>The Java Virtual Machine interprets instructions during the runtime of the code in a both fast and reliable manner. It’s a battle-tested and secure technology that offers special features to robotics for performing human-like tasks. For example, speech API or the Java Media framework are used to receive and process visual images.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>4. Microsoft C#/.NET</h3><p>C# is a proprietary programming language provided by Microsoft. It’s often used in the Microsoft Robotics developer studio – and that’s why it deserves a mention here. Today, C# is considered one of the key languages for aspiring programmers in the robotics field. It gives you a solid foundation to branch out into different areas, including robotics.</p><p><strong>In general, C# and .NET are used at the port and socket level programming. That’s why they can also be used to implement neural network systems better than Java thanks to superior libraries for programming robots.&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Note: Microsoft also developed Visual Programming Language (VPL) for the Microsoft Robotics Studio - it's a handy visual and dataflow programming language.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>5. MATLAB</h3><p>This high-performance language for technical computing integrates many things together programming, visualization, and computation. They are all served in an easy to use environment where developers can express problems and solutions in familiar mathematical notations.</p><p><strong>MATLAB is quite popular among beginner developers and often used for analyzing information and building control systems. It also comes in handy for modeling and simulation.</strong></p><p>MATLAB is an easy-to-use language that helps to eliminate implementation errors by allowing developers to identify problems already during the prototyping phase instead of later in the production (which is more costly).&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>6. Lisp&nbsp;</h3><p>One of the earliest programming languages, Lisp was originally developed for applied mathematical notation implemented in computer programs. However, you will find that many critical sections of the robot operating system are written in Lisp. That’s why it has also become a crucial language for the domain of <internallink internallinkid="/blog/8-surprising-real-life-artificial-intelligence-examples">artificial intelligence</internallink>.</p><p>Learning Lisp is a great start for stepping into the field of robotics. The language offers developers plenty of features such as automatic data storage management, dynamic typing, tree data structures, recursion, elevated order functions, conditionals, read-eval-print loops, self-hosting compilers, and many others.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>7. Basic and Pascal</h3><p>Basic and Pascal are fundamental scripts that work across multiple industrial robot languages.</p><p>Basic and Pascal are currently outmoded by other trends and technologies but are still useful for beginners to understand the functionality and technicalities of robotics programming.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>8. Hardware description languages (HDLs)</h3><p>This group of computer languages is used by developers to program electronic and digital logic circuits. Naturally, they’re extremely useful for anyone who wants to delve deep into the robotics industry. Hardware description languages are used to specify the gates and chips, as well as simulate the behaviors of the resulting chip specifications in a hardware simulator.</p><p><strong>Hardware description languages blur the distinction between software and hardware development thanks to design tools that allow developing real-time imaging hardware.</strong></p><p>Unlike the other languages that we mentioned above, HDLs require excellent knowledge of electronics since most of the operations are concurrent processor-based. These languages provide simple object orientation and garbage accumulation compared to other technologies.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="career" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Interested in a career in robotics programming?</h2><p>The field of robotics is rapidly expanding as more and more organizations invest in digital technologies to automate their processes, streamline their work, and develop new products for customers.</p><p>Industries ranging from manufacturing to retail are now interested in robotics, so the field is a great career choice for anyone. Mastering one or more of the best programming languages listed above is critical for entering this highly specialized and exciting industry.</p><p><strong>Do you know any of the languages listed above? Did they help you to launch your career in robotics? What other programming skills do developers need to become successful in robotics?&nbsp;</strong></p><p>Please share your thoughts in the comments to help beginners understand what it takes to succeed here and take the robotics field by storm.</p>

Top 8 Programming Languages for Robotics | Codete Blog

Top 8 Programming Languages for Robotics

Engineer passionate about building stuff displayed in the browser window but not only. Almost like Iron Man in software development, so maybe Software Man?

Szymon Oleszek

<p>What would the IT project look like if we wrote everything from scratch? Well… most probably, quite OK if the app is easy or you have a lot of time to spend on designing it. But when it comes to delivering things fast and with good quality in mind, additional tooling is where you should look for help.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s widely known that bigger projects frequently use things that already exist and you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Every programming language ecosystem has its own source of these ready-to-use parts. Some of them include Maven, RubyGems, or the title NPM. But can we place NPX on this list? And what is the relationship between the NPX / NPM couple? Let's see.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#intro">NPM in a nutshell</a></li><li><a href="#npx">What is NPX? Is it a better version of NPM?</a></li><li><a href="#differences">NPM vs NPX – 3 main differences</a></li><li><a href="#choosing">NPX or NPM – which one to choose?</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="intro" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>1. NPM in a nutshell</h2><p><strong>NPM</strong> stands for <strong>Node Package Manager</strong> and is considered to be the largest software registry. However, the registry is only one part out of three NPM consists of. NPM has its own web app for viewing and managing pieces of software that are stored in the registry - which is nothing else than a public database of JavaScript software and related metainformation.&nbsp;</p><p>Those pieces of software are commonly named and called <i>packages</i>. In addition to this, NPM gives you the possibility to create user accounts and cooperate with others to develop public or private packages. Last, but not least, part of NPM is the Command Line Interface (CLI). NPM’s CLI gives you plenty of commands, and each of them is very well described. Oftentimes, the documentation is enriched with short but very descriptive information.</p><p>Examples of NPM commands are as follows:</p><ul><li>“<code>npm init</code>” - a command to initialize a new npm package; after the invocation, the file named package.json appears in the directory in which this command was invoked</li><li>“<code>npm install &lt;package-name&gt;</code>” - another commonly used command that installs a package and any packages that it depends on. All of those packages can be found in the node_modules folder that should appear following the installation of the first package.</li><li>“<code>npx &lt;package-name&gt;</code>” - npx… it’s not a mistake - npx is another command of NPM CLI that allows us to run packages without downloading.</li></ul><p>To get to know the rest of the NPM commands and see how powerful NPM is - see the documentation.</p><p>What’s also important, is that the prerequisite to use NPM CLI in a given terminal is to have Node installed on the machine. And NPM as a Node Package Manager comes with this installation.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="npx" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>2. What is NPX? Is it a better version of NPM?</h2><p>We already know the answer to the second question from the last example of NPM commands. We cannot think of it as being the equivalent of NPM because it is one of its commands. However, this command is a bit different than others. It comes with NPM if we have a version of NPM that is 5.2 or higher.</p><p>The <strong>NPX </strong>stands for <strong>Node Package Execute</strong>. It can also be called the npm package runner that can execute packages that you want from the npm registry without installing it locally.</p><p>A very good and descriptive example of how NPX is used and how it works is a simple project that consists of an index.html file without any <code>package.json</code> and <code>node_modules</code>. To run this project to preview the result, you can use the package called “serve” that is published on the npm registry.&nbsp;</p><p>To do this, you have two ways - the first one is to initialize the new package (<code>npm init</code>), then install the “<code>serve</code>” package locally (<code>npm install serve</code>), and next add a new npm script in the <code>package.json</code> file that can invoke the “<code>serve</code>” script. The second one is when NPX comes to play and you don’t need to invoke all of these commands except for the “<code>npx serve</code>” one.&nbsp;</p><p>This simple example shows that we don’t need to install packages on our machine to use them. We can just run them by invoking “<code>npx &lt;package_name&gt;</code>” and we don’t need to worry about initializing or installing something additional.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="differences" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3. NPM vs NPX – 3 main differences</h2><p>Now that we have definitions of both tools, let’s compare them in some crucial aspects. What is difference between NPX and NPM?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Difference 1: Running packages as developer tools/dependencies (e.g. ESLint, Serve, Nodemon, etc.)</h3><p><strong>[NPM]</strong> NPM itself is not a package runner. If you want to run a package by npm command you need to specify this package in package.json or install it globally and then run it.</p><p><strong>[NPX]</strong> NPX by definition is a package runner so you can simply use it to run any executable package from the NPM registry but not only from there as NPX gives you the possibility to run gists from Github, too.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Difference 2: Packages as dependencies of the web/server project</h3><p><strong>[NPM]</strong> allows us to install packages locally and store them in <code>node_modules</code> - which, with the additional help of other tools, makes packages visible and accessible in the project.</p><p><strong>[NPX]</strong> NPX is not a tool for installing packages. It is not the purpose of NPX.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>Difference 3: Testing different versions of executable packages</h3><p><strong>[NPM]</strong> Testing different versions of packages by installing them first and then executing them is possible but, in comparison to NPX, can be uncomfortable and ineffective in the long run.</p><p><strong>[NPX]</strong> NPX is a good tool to test different versions of packages. We don’t need to worry about installing different versions, again and again, we can just simply run the “<code>npx &lt;package-name&gt;</code>” and specify its version.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="choosing" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>4. NPX or NPM – which one to choose</h2><p>If you still have doubts concerning the NPM NPX use, the answer is quite simple: use both, as both are handy and necessary. NPX is a very handy add-on to NPM, and there are some things we can do by using NPX, and some things we can do by using NPM. Good example that confirms this statement is the setup of the ReactJS project through the create-react-app package. We can simply run the “<code>npx create-react-app &lt;name-of-app&gt;</code>” command which generates the whole structure of the project with the required dependencies. In the case of most of the projects that need additional packages, the latter may be installed by the “<code>npm install &lt;package-name&gt;</code>” command.</p><p>With that being said, we’ve got knowledge about what NPM and NPX are and why, in real life, we use and need both of them. We’ve learned the common use cases of both of them, as well as how the basic commands look like. NPM is a very big and complex tool. It comes with plenty of different packages that have millions of downloads but certainly not every one is worth installing.</p><p><strong>And what are your preferences in the NPX vs NPM competition? Do you have experience with utilizing any of these tools? To you, which one is more valuable and useful?</strong></p>

NPX vs NPM – Which One to Choose? Comparison | Codete Blog

NPX vs NPM – 3 Key Differences

Software Developer. Passionate about creating readable and testable code. Python enthusiast since version 2.0.

Robert Wojciechowicz

Everything You Must Know About Searching Algorithms | Codete Blog

Everything You Must Know About Searching Algorithms

<p><strong>What is Gulp and why do software developers ever use it? Advertised as „</strong><a href="https://gulpjs.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><strong>a toolkit to automate &amp; enhance your workflow</strong></a><strong>”, it is supposed to „automate slow, repetitive workflows and compose them into efficient build pipelines”.</strong></p><p>And, according to its proponents, it certainly does. They say that gulp is time-saving, powerful, simple and easy to use, and that it offers comprehensive documentation. Thanks to taking advantage of it, routine, time-consuming tasks within the soft developers’ world are not that painful anymore.</p><p>But Gulp doesn’t only have avid supporters. Its opponents claim that this open-source JavaScript toolkit, is, in fact, dated and not exactly cutting-edge, and that the front-end web development world doesn’t really need it. They say that one of the Gulp’s most serious drawbacks is the fact that multiple tasks cannot be performed simultaneously. Another one is transitioning between older and newer versions and repositories.</p><p>Certainly, it’s good to know <strong>Gulp’s ins and outs</strong> to be able to assess it right. In this short guide, we’ll try to shed light on this streaming build system, initially released back in 2013.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#nutshell">Gulp.js in a nutshell – all you need to know</a></p><p>2. <a href="#use-cases">Gulp’s best features &amp; most common use cases</a></p><p>3. <a href="#improvements">How Gulp can improve your software development</a></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="nutshell" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>1. Gulp.js in a nutshell – all you need to know</h2><p>But what is Gulp.js, in fact? It is one of the well-known <strong>task runners</strong>, listed along with <a href="https://gruntjs.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Grunt</a> and npm scripts. Moreover, it’s still present in many recent Front-end Developer Roadmaps, including <a href="https://www.decipherzone.com/blog-detail/front-end-developer-roadmap-2021" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">the latest, for the year 2021</a>. As a task runner, it is supposed to automate many development tasks and thus reduce repetition in a programmer’s activities.</p><p>Gulp is built on Node.js and npm. It is often appreciated for having a good and easy syntax. To make gulp work properly, there are two files (<i>package.json</i> and <i>gulpfile.js</i>) needed to perform any Gulp task. Those tasks are run from a CLI (command-line interface) shell.</p><blockquote><p>There are over 4,200 single-purpose Gulp plugins available (as of September 2021), but Gulp tasks involving plugins have to be performed manually. Moreover, those plugins Gulp relies on so heavily need to be installed first, and it also takes time.</p></blockquote><p>Sometimes programmers complain that the use of external plugins they need to install to perform specific operations can be a little tricky. It’s because it may turn out that a plugin they utilized in previous projects is not supported anymore by its author – another software developer.</p><p>Gulp’s ecosystem may not be that remarkable, then. However, extensive documentation and a large community are where Gulp’s users may find help and support when needed.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="use-cases" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>2. Gulp’s best features &amp; most common use cases</h2><p>But what is Gulp used for, in detail? What does Gulp do? This toolkit’s proponents emphasize its versatility, flexibility, and quickness in making software development more smooth and trouble-free. Indeed, the number of its possible use cases is quite impressive.</p><p>It is used for many functional and practical things like building frameworks and single-page web applications, executing and automating tasks and file operations, running test suites, optimizing source code, and compiling styles and scripts for CSS and JavaScript, e.g. Sass to CSS.</p><blockquote><p>In general, Gulp’s use cases include tasks such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulp.js" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">unit testing, linting, minification (with Gulp-imagemin), concatenation, cache busting</a>. What’s important is that Gulp is proper for handling both synchronous and asynchronous tasks.</p></blockquote><p>Utilizing JavaScript Gulp not only may give relief to software developers doing their front-end duties but also to end-users of applications they work on. One of the most evident immediate effects may simply be increased efficiency in web page loading.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="improvements" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3. How Gulp can improve your software development</h2><p>There’s certainly a reason why Gulp’s supporters love it. How Gulp works can simply make a software developer’s life easier. Its fans say that it is time-saving, powerful, simple, and easy to start with, even for JavaScript beginners.</p><p>Since Gulp automates routine, repetitive tasks and speeds up the build process, they can save a lot of time. And, because those tasks are often boring or even exhausting, it may, to some extent, prevent developers from feeling burnt out and make them more satisfied with their jobs. What’s also important, is that the learning curve is shallow, and the entry barrier – low, in the case of Gulp. The integration as well as build processes – from writing code to deployment – are made easy. This way, streamlining software development gets triggered.</p><p>Despite being lightweight, Gulp can execute even complex tasks. While it does great in the majority of popular tasks, it may not be that good in the case of some more complicated builds. What’s more, it may require installing some specific plugins, and those used previously may turn out not to be compatible with Gulp’s newer versions.</p><p><strong>And you, would you recommend utilizing Gulp in a day-to-day front-end developer’s job? What applications and use cases is it best suited for? Do you find it proper for today’s world challenges, or a little obsolete?</strong></p>

What Is Gulp & How To Use It? | Codete Blog

What Is Gulp and How to Use It?

<p><strong>Code review</strong> is one of the most powerful tools in a developer team’s arsenal when building software. However, it sometimes gets neglected or becomes used in ways that cause more harm than good. But when done right, a code review can help your team share knowledge, mentor junior developers, and improve the skills of more advanced developers all at once.&nbsp;</p><p>Consider this: <i>When reviewing code, team members become familiar with parts of the code that they would otherwise never learn about. </i>That’s why code reviews are so important for spreading product knowledge within the team. By engaging everyone in reviewing code, you can be sure that there is always a person you can consult about a part of the code - even if the author of that part isn’t present.&nbsp;</p><p>When reviewing code, developers usually become more attuned to code quality standards when they know that others will be reviewing their work once it gets into a pull request. You can probably already tell code reviews streamline the development process and collaboration between developers.&nbsp;</p><p>So, what exactly is a good code review and how to achieve the idea? Read this article to learn the ins and outs of code review best practices from our team at Codete.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#how-to">Code review - how to do it well</a></li><li><a href="#best-practices">10 code review best practices</a></li><li><a href="#wrap-up">Wrap up</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="how-to" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Code review - how to do it well</h2><p>Every development team out there strives to run good code reviews. There are a few common and easy-to-follow industry best practices that you can get started with. They open the doors to high quality and helpful reviews in the long run.&nbsp;</p><p>But when code reviews can always get better. Great code reviews are the ones that actually inspire engineers to keep improving how they perform code reviews. They examine the code changed in the context of the entire codebase, the particular situation, and the person requesting the review. Reviews like that can easily adjust their approach on the basis of the context.&nbsp;</p><p>The goal isn’t only a high-quality review but also helping teams to become more productive.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="best-practices" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>10 code review best practices</h2><h3>1. Make sure to cover these areas in your code review</h3><p>High-quality code reviews examine not only to change itself but also how that change fits into the entire codebase. They look at the clarity of the title and description as well as the “why” behind making the change. A good code review also explores the correctness of the code, functionality changes, and test coverage - all to confirm that they follow the best practices and coding guidelines of the team.&nbsp;</p><p>Then, a review points out improvements that need to be made and fixes to problems such as unclear names, hard-to-understand code, or unhandled edge cases. <i>If too many changes end up crammed into a single review, it’s best to keep the change to a single purpose or break it into several more focused parts.&nbsp;</i></p><p>But for a code review to make a real difference, it needs to look at the changes in the context of the larger system, all the while checking that the changes are easy to maintain. Reviewers might ask questions about why the change is necessary and how it impacts other parts of the system.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s smart to look into obstructions introduced by the change and check how they match the existing software architecture. Problems like overly complex logic, structure, duplications, and others will all be noted in such a review.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>2. Achieve the right tone for your review</h3><p>The tone of your code review will impact the morale of the developer team. If you carry out a review with a harsh tone, you might end up creating a hostile environment with problems like microaggression and lack of trust. The overly opinionated language will make people defensive and might spark heated discussions that aren’t really productive.&nbsp;</p><p>A professional and positive tone, on the other hand, will create a more inclusive environment where developers are encouraged to share constructive feedback. As a result, the review will trigger healthy and lively discussions that are incredibly productive to the team.&nbsp;</p><p>So instead of making opinionated statements, a good code review:</p><ul><li>asks open-ended questions,</li><li>offers alternatives and possible workarounds,</li><li>doesn’t give teams solutions,</li><li>doesn’t insist on solving problems in a particular way.</li></ul><p>Good code reviews assume that the reviewer might be missing an element or knowledge about the context - instead of forcing a correction, they ask for clarification.&nbsp;</p><p>In our experience, the best code reviews also come with a degree of empathy. They understand that the person writing code spent a lot of time and effort on it. They’re unassuming and simply kind.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>3. Build a process for requesting and approving changes</h3><p>Once the reviewer completes a review, they can mark it as approved, block the review with a change request, or leave it as “not yet approved” without leaving any specific status.&nbsp;</p><p>The way in which reviewers use these methods to approve and request change statuses is an indication of the review’s quality as well. For example, a good code review won’t approve of any changes when there are still any open-ended questions left to be answered.&nbsp;</p><p>They also clarify which comments or questions are non-blocking and mark them distinctively. And when approving a change, reviewers need to be explicit about it - for example, by adding a thumbs up comment. That’s how you avoid costly and time-consuming communication between team members.</p><h3>&nbsp;</h3><h3>4. Prepare code reviews for new team members</h3><p>Starting out a new job with a new team can be overwhelming. The codebase is brand new, the style of programming might be different, and people will review your code in a completely different way.&nbsp;</p><p>So, here’s the question:</p><p><i>Should the code review be gentler for new hires to get them used to the new environment or keep the bar just as high?&nbsp;</i></p><p>The best approach is to use the same level for everyone, regardless of their job title or when they joined a company. Still, it’s smart to pay extra attention to making the few first reviews for new joiners a nice experience.&nbsp;</p><p>Start with being empathetic to the fact that the person might not be aware of all the coding guidelines or familiar with other parts of code. Such reviews put some extra effort into explaining alternative approaches and point the person to the right guidelines. The tone should always be positive and encouraging, basically welcoming the new person to the team.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>5. Ace cross-office or cross-time zone reviews</h3><p>Code reviews can become challenging when the reviewers are located in the same location 0, but they get especially problematic if reviewers and authors are located in different time zones.&nbsp;</p><p>First of all, it’s important that reviews account for the time zone difference whenever they can. The idea is to review the code in the overlapping working hours between the two offices. If a review has many comments, the reviewer can offer to have a direct conversation or video call to talk over the changes.&nbsp;</p><p>If you notice that your code reviews keep on encountering challenges related directly to time zone issues, you need to start looking for a systemic solution.&nbsp;</p><p>For example, if a team from Asia frequently triggers code reviews from the Europe-based owner of the service, you need to ask yourself:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>Why are those changes happening so often?</li><li>Are they down to the right database, or should another system be changed?</li><li>What about the frequency of changes? Should it stay the same or go down in time?</li><li>Is it possible to address such cross-office dependencies in any way?</li></ul><p>The solutions to these issues aren’t going to be easy and might involve refactoring, creating your own services, or improving your tooling. But it’s all worth it - solving such dependencies will make the life of your developers much easier.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>6. Put a limit on the review sessions</h3><p>Code reviews can’t be limitless or rushed. The idea of introducing limits is to catch mistakes when people can truly focus, not at times when they’re in a hurry and just want to get into or out of the office.&nbsp;</p><p>Many software developers can get through some 300 to 500 lines of code within an hour. According to <a href="https://smartbear.com/learn/code-review/best-practices-for-peer-code-review/&amp;sa=D&amp;source=docs&amp;ust=1634216725523000&amp;usg=AOvVaw2qSFHARkukPuTNU3qj-js6" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">statistics</a>, after the first 60 minutes, their effectiveness drops significantly (and then drops even further after 90 minutes).&nbsp;</p><p>That’s why it’s essential to limit review sessions to 300-500 lines of code.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>7. Create metrics and goals for code review</h3><p>Once you have set up a solid process, you’re on the way to success. But you also need to find a way to measure its success. This is where metrics come in. By using external and internal metrics, you can decide whether the code review needs revising or it’s going in the right direction. <i>Note that code review should always be a modifiable process that matches the needs of your team, product, and company.</i>&nbsp;</p><p>The external metrics you can use here are, for example, defects found before releases or defects reported by users. Internal metrics can be inspection rate or defect rate. Naturally, you shouldn’t ever use the results to blame anyone but rather use them to assess the process and ensure that it’s as efficient as you want it to be.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>8. Use automation to your advantage</h3><p>Many teams use automated tools for making code reviews primarily because they work really well for implementing stylistic conformity. Developers don’t have to put in the extra effort into following the outline of a code review perfectly on each and every line of code.&nbsp;</p><p>When it comes to formatting and style, automation is your best friend. Everything will go smoother without wasting the precious time of your developers.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>9. Make sure to annotate code before the code review</h3><p>By annotating a piece of code before sending it out to be reviewed, you will be accelerating the process significantly. Self-describing code is helpful - especially for the more complex part of the code. The reviewer can spend less time figuring out what the code actually does.&nbsp;</p><p>Thanks to proper explanations, you can also avoid potential issues before they even happen or at least streamline the discussion on them. As a result, your code review will be faster and more efficient.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>10. Include everyone in the code review</h3><p>Make sure to involve every single developer in the code review process. <internallink internallinkid="/blog/useful-coding-resources-for-beginner-programmers">Junior developers</internallink> can learn a lot from code reviews. The code review spreads product knowledge to the entire team. And seeing reviews from both sides helps everyone to become more comfortable with the process. Of course, it’s helpful to have a <internallink internallinkid="/blog/how-to-become-a-senior-software-engineer-career-path-and-tips">senior developer</internallink> review certain pieces of the code but make sure to include everyone in the process.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="wrap-up" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Using our code review best practices = better code quality</h2><p>Code reviews can work wonders in a team of developers, but they require some time and effort to set them up. Your team needs to make sure that the review of the change itself is combined with the right tone and lack of nitpicking. Regardless of who requested the review, the bar should remain consistent. And the code review process should support teams working across different time zones.&nbsp;</p><p>It’s best to continue improving the details of your code review and looking at the changes requested from the higher level. Teams that invest in tooling and process improvement are the ones that benefit most from code reviews.</p><p><strong>What is your experience in code reviews? Are you using any tools to support your team’s code review process? Give us a shoutout in the comments! We look forward to hearing more about industry best practices for code reviews implemented in your companies.</strong></p>

10 Code Review Best Practices for Every Developer | Codete Blog

10 Code Review Best Practices Every Developer Must Know

Software Developer. Passionate about creating readable and testable code and architecture. Happy dad and traveller.

Mateusz Angulski

<p>Node.js has been in the limelight for over a decade and utilizing<strong> Node.js as backend </strong>is much more common than making use of it in the frontend of applications. A <a href="https://nodejs.org/en/user-survey-report/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">2018 Node.js User Survey Report</a> indicated that while 37% of Node.js users are focused primarily on the back-end, and 39% - on full-stack development, only 14% use it first and foremost for front-end purposes.</p><blockquote><p>This lightweight, efficient, fast, multi-purpose, and extremely versatile JavaScript environment is immensely popular, outshining many other well-known technologies. In Stack Overflow’s annual Developer Survey for 2020, <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-other-frameworks-libraries-and-tools" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Node.js came first</a> in the „Other Frameworks, Libraries, and Tools” category, with over a half of professional developers (51.9%) utilizing it.</p></blockquote><p>What’s more, over two-thirds (66.8%) of programmers who already use it want to continue doing so in the future, making Node.js one of the <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020#technology-most-loved-dreaded-and-wanted-other-frameworks-libraries-and-tools-loved3" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">technologies that are the most „loved”</a> in this category. Microsoft, PayPal, Netflix, eBay, General Electric, and Yahoo! are all where we can find Node’s trace. Another Node.js backend example? NASA, Netflix, Uber, Twitter, Trello, PayPal, LinkedIn, and Groupon are also on the list.</p><p>Is Node.js backend only? Using Node.js as backend may be more obvious as Node.js is most commonly referred to as a backend JavaScript runtime environment. However, not only Node.js server side but also Node.js client side applications are possible to design and implement. But let’s focus on the main topic, which is Node.js backend applications.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><p>1. <a href="#when-why">Node.js as backend – when and why develop with it</a></p><p>2. <a href="#pros-cons">Node.js backend: pros and cons</a></p><p>3. <a href="#wrap-up">Node.js as backend wrapped up</a></p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="when-why" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>1. Node.js as backend – when and why develop with it</h2><p>On the website devoted to it, Node.js is called a „<a href="https://nodejs.dev/learn" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">popular tool for almost any kind of project</a>”. However, its definition published <a href="https://nodejs.dev/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">in the same source</a> reads that this JavaScript run-time environment lets programmers „write command line tools and server-side scripts outside of a browser”, with the back-end side of Node.js emphasized from the very beginning. But what kind of server-side tasks it is best suited to? When to use Node.js as backend, to take advantage of it fully?</p><p>Building highly scalable applications, even data-heavy ones, is one of the major use cases of Node.js. In particular, this event-driven environment based on a non-blocking I/O model is perfect for developing real-time solutions, being famous for quick client-server interactions, no latency, and push capabilities. Online gaming and single-page applications are also often in the mix.</p><p>In general, many of the backend use cases of Node.js include web applications that have to do with things like <a href="https://www.credencys.com/blog/node-js-development-use-cases/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">multiple concurrent requests, heavy client-side rendering, and frequent shuffling of data</a>.&nbsp;</p><blockquote><p>What companies that take advantage of Node.js <a href="https://www.techmagic.co/blog/companies-that-use-node-js-for-backend-how-do-big-players-benefit-from-it/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">may gain by utilizing</a> it are, among others, scalability, transparency, improved user experience, decreased number of servers needed, immense connectivity, increased traffic capacity and loading speed, reduced response time, and decreased loading time, and thus lowered expenses.</p></blockquote><p>The <a href="https://nodejs.org/en/user-survey-report/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">2018 Node.js User Survey Report</a> indicated that for many users, Node.js entails a positive business impact. As much as 68% said it increased developer productivity, 62% that it improved developer satisfaction, 56% that it reduced development costs and 48% that it increased application performance. As for the latter, it was the case of eBay who switched to Node.js from Java due to its „<a href="https://www.techmagic.co/blog/companies-that-use-node-js-for-backend-how-do-big-players-benefit-from-it/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">long startup times and poor performance</a>”.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="pros-cons" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>2. Node.js backend: pros and cons</h2><p>An impressive number of Node’s advantages explains the reasons why it has taken the software development world by storm. Some of the pros of making use of it include the possibility to use JavaScript also on the server side. In short, front-end developers who already know JavaScript don’t have to learn a new programming language if they wish to write some code for server-side purposes. Of course, it works both ways, making Node.js an exceptionally advantageous technology with code universality as its hallmark.</p><blockquote><p>Those two-way connections between server and client are one thing, and the fact that they are event-driven is another. For this reason, Node.js is a perfect solution for those who want to develop things like real-time collaboration tools, and real-time chat applications as well as <a href="https://www.credencys.com/blog/node-js-development-use-cases/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">streaming web apps and microservices architecture</a>.</p></blockquote><p>Node.js is simply known for being very fast – not only in terms of the development process but also data processing. Another Node’s advantage is the <a href="https://nodejs.org/en/user-survey-report/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">ease of learning it</a>. Interestingly, about half of programmers utilizing Node.js praise this feature, and this is the case of 50% of those who use it primarily for backend purposes. As for those who focus on front-end development, 42% say that it was easy to learn Node.js. A strong community and huge Node.js ecosystem certainly facilitate it.</p><p>As for the downsides, <a href="https://snipcart.com/blog/javascript-nodejs-backend-development" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">some of the developers</a> emphasize the fact that although Node.js gives programmers a lot of freedom in terms of decision-making, this also entails greater responsibility and the risk of choosing the wrong path. Moreover, building a massive web server as well as debugging may be somewhat demanding with Node. Specifically, this platform is ideal for I/O-bound work but not really for CPU-intensive tasks. In other words, it is fast when the work associated with each request is small in terms of processor time needed to handle it.</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="wrap-up" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>3. Node.js as backend wrapped up</h2><p>Node.js, an open source, cross-platform JavaScript runtime environment built on Chrome’s V8 JS engine, is primarily used in backend applications. Obviously, this trending technology for building cutting-edge web applications is great for full-stack developers, too. Some software developers even argue that it’s worth going the extra mile to learn Node despite developing the frontend only to know how the backend works. Also, most of the tooling for frontend frameworks these days is based on the Node.js platform.</p><p>Node.js significantly speeds up the development as well as the team’s efficiency and performance, and one of the reasons for that is that it makes use of JavaScript on both the front end and the back end. And because time is money, we may expect that this technology’s huge popularity will continue to grow.</p><p><strong>And how would you comment on that? What are your experiences with Node.js as backend? To you, what are the challenges of developing with it? What kind of projects or content type is it best suited to? Can you spot any significant limitations of using it?</strong></p>

Node.js as Backend - Why, When and How to Use It | Codete Blog

Node.js as Backend - We Are Explaining Why, When and How to Use It

<p>One of the things developers love about Python is the fact that its syntax is so simple and concise. Python code is almost as easy to read as plain English. Python’s most distinctive features, such as dictionary comprehension, list comprehension, and generator expression are the source of this elegance. Developers can use these three methods to create powerful functionalities within a single line of code.&nbsp;</p><p>However, many software engineers still struggle to take full advantage of some more advanced features of list comprehension in Python. And others tend to use this too much and end up with code that is harder to read by others and less efficient.&nbsp;</p><p>In this article, I dive deep into <strong>list comprehension</strong>, <strong>dictionary comprehension</strong>, and <strong>generator expression</strong> to show you what they are, how they work, and what potential trade-offs come with using these features.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Table of contents:</p><ol><li><a href="#basics">List and dictionary comprehensions in Python: the basics</a></li><li><a href="#key-info">Python dictionary comprehension, list comprehension, and generator expression - what do you need to know</a></li><li><a href="#wrap-up">Wrap up</a></li></ol><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="basics" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>List and dictionary comprehensions in Python: the basics</h2><p>In Python, dictionaries are used to store elements - just like you would in a regular list. But instead of accessing these elements with the help of an index, what you do is assign a fixed key to a value and then access it using that key. The key-value pair might sometimes be a better data structure than a list for some kinds of problems. For example, dictionaries are a common feature used by data scientists.&nbsp;</p><p>Note that all the keys in a dictionary need to be hashable. Hashing is the process of running an item through a particular kind of function called the hash function in Python. It returns a unique output for a unique input value. Just to give you an example, floating-point numbers, strings, and integers are all hashable. List, dictionaries, and sets aren’t.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>So, why use comprehensions in Python?</h3><p>Good comprehension helps to develop code that is more expressive and easier to read. The primary thing you need to remember when creating a comprehension construct is to never allow it to become too complex – to the point where you’re not too sure about what exactly they’re doing anymore.</p><p>Dictionary comprehension refers to a method for turning one dictionary into another one. During this kind of transformation, you can conditionally include the items from the original dictionary into the new one.</p><p>Dictionary comprehensions come in handy if you want to substitute for loops or lambda functions in Python. Not all for loops can be written as dictionary comprehension, but all dictionary comprehension can be written with a for loop.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="key-info" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Python dictionary comprehension, list comprehension, and generator expression - what do you need to know</h2><h3>List comprehension</h3><p>This feature offers a more compact and elegant method for building a list than for loops.</p><p>What exactly is a for loop? In Python, a for loop is used to handle repetitive programming tasks. You can use it to iterate over a sequence such as a list, dictionary, or string. Here’s an example of a for loop to help you understand how it works:</p><pre><code class="language-python">animals = ['cat', 'dog', 'lion']
for animal in animals:
print(animal)</code></pre><p>A for loop takes the first element of the fragment and checks whether it exists. If it does, the for loop performs the required action – in our example, it’s printing. The loop starts again and looks for the next element. If it discovers that this element exists, it carries out the action again. This is repeated until the loop can’t find any more elements, and it ends.&nbsp;</p><p>Ok, back to list comprehension.</p><p>You can use it to create lists from an existing list. Developers construct list comprehensions from brackets that contain the expression followed by a for clause. Optionally, the for or if clause can come next.&nbsp;</p><p>Here is an example to show you how it works:</p><pre><code class="language-python">x = [i for i in range(10)]</code></pre><p>This generates the following result:</p><pre><code class="language-python">[0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]</code></pre><p>It’s far more concise and readable than its for loop equivalents.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Dictionary comprehension</h3><p>As I explained before, dictionary comprehensions work very similarly to list comprehensions – only for dictionaries. They offer an elegant way for building a dictionary from an iterable or transforming one dictionary into another.&nbsp;</p><p>What is the syntax of dictionary comprehension? It’s very similar to the one you use for list comprehensions (more on that later on). However, you need to include the key-value pair in the expression. Here’s an example that shows you how it works:</p><pre><code class="language-python">{i: i+10 for i in range(4)}</code></pre><p>The return value will be as follows:</p><pre><code class="language-python">{0: 10, 1: 11, 2: 12, 3: 13}</code></pre><p>You can follow that basic syntax with an additional for or if clause if you need it. Dictionary comprehension is a powerful alternative to for loops and lambda functions.&nbsp;</p><p>More often than not, for loops or nested for loops can become very complicated and, as a result, become very confusing for the team. Dictionary comprehensions, on the other hand, provide a compact way of writing the same code, which makes it easier to read and understand by developers.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><h3>Generator expressions</h3><p>Finally, we have generator expressions - another high-performance method for writing code in Python. Generator expressions are far more efficient than traditional class-based iterators. In Python, class iterators are often verbose and require a lot of overhead from teams. Generators can perform the same function while reducing the overhead. And developers find creating generators relatively easy.&nbsp;</p><p>All you need to do is define a normal function with a yield statement rather than a return statement. The yield statement pauses the function and saves its local state so that successive calls can continue from where it left off.&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s how generators work:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>When you call a generator function, it doesn’t execute instantly but instead returns a generator object.</li><li>The code won’t execute until <i>next()</i> is called on that generator object.</li><li>When that happens, the control is passed temporarily to the caller, and the function is paused.</li><li>Local variables and their execution states will always be stored between calls.</li><li>Stop iteration will be raised automatically once the function is complete.</li></ul><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Generator expressions allow developers to build generators very quickly, without even having to use the yield keyword. They’re much more concise than generator functions.&nbsp;</p><p>Here’s an example:&nbsp;</p><pre><code class="language-python">g = (x**3 for x in range(20))</code></pre><p>What is the difference between generator expressions and list comprehensions?</p><p>If you take a look at these two, you might notice that their syntax is very similar. The only difference here is that they use round parentheses as opposed to square brackets.&nbsp;</p><p>A generator expression can be written in the following way:</p><pre><code class="language-python">(i ** 2 for i in range(10) if i % 2 == 0)</code></pre><p>Now compare it to list comprehensions which are written as follows:</p><pre><code class="language-python">[i ** 2 for i in range(10) if i % 2 == 0]</code></pre><p>However, the type of data they return is completely different. List comprehensions return the entire list, and the generator expression returns only the generator object. The values will be the same as those in the list, but they will be accessed one at a time by using the <i>next() </i>function.&nbsp;</p><p>This is what makes list comprehensions faster than generator expressions. That might not be the case if the size of the data being processed is larger than the available memory, though.&nbsp;</p><p>Since generator expressions produce value on-demand - contrary to list comprehensions that require memory for producing the entire list - generator expressions are more memory-efficient. It makes sense to use generator expressions if you’re working with large data sets and don’t need all of the results delivered to you at once.&nbsp;</p><p>Also, use generator expressions if you would like to avoid allocating memory to the results that will be produced. Another good use case for generator expressions is representing infinite streams of data since only one item will be produced at a time. That way, you eliminate the problem of storing an infinite streaming memory.&nbsp;</p><div class="raw-html-embed"><section id="wrap-up" style="height: 20px;"></section></div><h2>Wrap up</h2><p>Python’s for loops come in handy for dealing with repetitive tasks, but there are other options that Python grants to developers that help you achieve the same results - only faster and more efficiently. List and dictionary comprehensions are a powerful alternative to for loops and lambda functions. They make code more concise and easier to read.</p><p>However, it’s key that developers never let them become too complex to cross off all the benefits they chose them for in the first place. Similarly, generators and generator expressions provide teams with high performance and a simpler way of creating iterators. They might be similar to list comprehensions in their syntax, but they return value only when asked for that. Unlike list comprehensions, they don’t deliver the entire list. As a result, they consume less memory and are more suited for processing big data.&nbsp;</p><p><strong>Are you planning to use one of these constructs in your next Python project? Or do you have experience in using them for building real-life applications? Give us a shout-out in the comments; we look forward to learning how developers are taking advantage of these Python functionalities to build products today.</strong></p>

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