Blog Over Bird — #1

Even though we do have Twitter, I miss the days of the informal blog. I figured I’d give myself a break from tweeting for a few days, to see how many valuable points I can put out there.

React: Controllable components #

Throughout the day, Chris and I were discussing the idea of reusable components in React (our current go-to library for any hefty UI development). The ideal scenario is that a component in isolation should be able to be controlled, as well another external component being able to control it. In React, there are two opposing objects, state and props, which means that this ideal scenario cannot be achieved directly. So, we hunted around, and came across this—https://github.com/matthewwithanm/react-controllables. It provides the best of both worlds for this situation.

React: Immutability helpers #

On a current React project, I need the ability to not re-render a component when its state doesn’t change. This is an issue for arrays that are assigned by reference. But, wha’d'y'know, React has a set of immutability helpers, allowing you to performantly create a new array, modified from the old one. My favourite so far is the $splice directive: https://gist.github.com/joecritch/476806f0174ed74791ec

NQ: Guilty By Association #

This is one for the Manchester people. I’ve been a couple of times to this new bar in the Northern Quarter called Guilty By Association. For what seems like a low-key venue (you won’t notice it immediately, but it’s opposite Fred Aldous on Lever Street). The music is Hip Hop—new and old. And, according to Friday night, they take requests over Twitter… or perhaps that was just a one-off! Anyway, it’s a great addition to the Northern Quarter. Check it.

Keynote: the informal proposal tool #

This morning at Strobe, I was on a last-minute dash to wrap up a proposal for a new project. Armed with some low-fidelity material (basic wires, photographs of our notes), I wanted something as equally low-fidelity that didn’t get caught-up by wording. So this time, I went for 16 pages of snappy summaries and photos. I think this opens up room for more personality. Of course, this isn’t to say that it works yet… but novel proposals is something I’m going to spend more time on.

Idea: time-based to-do list #

I often create ‘crash-course’ to-do lists for an ultimate GTD hit that I so often need. (I’m quite unorganised when it comes to my personal life). I love the Clear app’s UI, including the addition of task reminders, but it’d be so cool if dragging a new task in between two others added a reminder time that was in-between its neighbours (with more refined control of the particular time in between that range, depending on where you drop it). I feel a Framer prototype coming on.

I had another idea too, but I’ve decided to keep that one behind closed doors for now!

Anyway, that’s it for now. Maybe see you tomorrow, depending on much I have to talk about!!