List with sticky headers and List with sticky headers and expandable items

    Here is a project that implement a list with sticky headers - list that has two types of list items (lets say sections and items in each section), when scrolled to the top the header sticks to the top of the list.
    The other project builds on the same implementation, but we can collapse and expand the sections of the list.


The project is at GitHub:

https://github.com/ektodorov/ListStickyHeadersExpandable

Remote work

    It means your office can be anywhere. It saves time and money. It is beneficial for the employee and the employer. And now working remote has an anthem:

(Fifth Harmony - Work from Home ft. Ty Dolla $ign)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GL9JoH4Sws

Task tracking with shared spreadsheets

    We would describe how we can use a simple spreadsheet to assign and track new task - requirements, change requests, bugs, chores, etc.

    We would need some kind of could solution like Google apps or Office 365 where we can share documents between team mates who can edit them.

    We have a directory holding our tasks. In this directory there is a spreadsheet file for each task we have. Let’s say our project is called Rap. We would have a directory called RAP and inside it we would have files called Rap1, Rap2, Rap3, … with the number of the tasks.

In the spreadsheet we have a few columns:

   Number - which is the same as the filename, so we can decide to omit this column

   Description - description of the task. If it is a new functionality it would be a description of what we want that functionality to be. If it is a change request it would be a description of what we want to change and how. If it is a bug it would be a description of the incorrect behaviour and what is the correct behaviour that we want.

   Status - it is an indication of the position of the task in our workflow. In the example spreadsheet our workflow is:

       -ToDo - the task is in a list of task is sitting and waiting to be picked up.

       -In Progress - someone is currently performing work on the task. It can be that someone is defining the task, and filling in the fields of the task - it is being created. It can be that QA is performing work, or that the task is being implemented - developed.

       -QA - the task is ready for QA.

       -Reopened - the task has been to QA and it has not passed successfully, or that the task has been closed, but it has been reopened again.

       -Done - The task has been completed successfully.

       -Closed - The task has not been completed, but of some reason we have decided to not complete it (we don’t need that work done anymore), so we just close the task, but still keep it around for accounting purposes.

   Assignee - the person that the task is currently assigned to.

   We can have a comments section after the end of the description or we can have the comments as a separate sheet in the spreadsheet, it is up to us.

   It is popular to use Agile software development process, for example Scrum. When we plan a spring we would have a directory for each sprint and the tasks that go in that sprint will be moved in the sprint directory.

   In our example Rap project in the Rap directory we would have a RapSprint1, RapSprint2, … directories. We could also have directories: Backlog for all the task that are not completed, and not in an active sprint; Completed for all the completed tasks. After a sprint is completed we would move the completed tasks in the “Completed” directory and the ones that are not we would move to the “Backlog” directory. In the finished sprint directory we can place a file with statistical data what was done, which tasks, were in the sprint, which ones we completed, which ones we didn’t, hours spend for the sprint and whatever else we want to keep track of.  

   By using a simple shared spreadsheet we showed that we can manage our tasks and even have some functionality that is not available in some of the dedicated software solutions for task tracking. Here Here are screenshots of an example spreadsheet created with Google Sheets:

Good code organization

    We all have read code organization rules or the so called - coding style guidelines. The better ones have an explanation behind every rule. Otherwise it is just a dictatorship of personal preferences. And even not that much personal preferences, because a person would have a reason for the preference, so more appropriate to say would be personal habits and we can only hope they are good and not bad habits.

    In our opinion a good starting point for a rule is to forget of all the fancy features of the IDE we are using all the coloring schemes and imagine we can only use a file listing and a simple text editor without any markup highlighting. Then the decision of using one convention over another becomes apparent.

Don't be clever

I remember reading a concept in a book, but it seems that I can't find which book it was. But while I was reading some of the Golang documentation I came across something that is in the exact same spirit. Here it is from the Golang Memory Model - http://golang.org/ref/mem:

"If you must read the rest of this document to understand the behavior of your program, you are being too clever.
Don't be clever."

Remote work

    One of the things that gets cited as an advantage to be physically in the office is collaboration. You get to walk to someone’s desk, meet with people face to face and chat, and discuss things. What actually happens is that there are always people “collaborating” - talking, most often near you, there is a constant "buzz"(noise) in the open space like it is a factory floor. Put on headphones, or ear muffs, you would say. So be in the office to be near people and in the same time think of ways to isolate from them. Make meetings only in dedicated places, you say. So be in the office to have the freedom to walk to anyone and collaborate, but forbid this and cripple it by requiring meetings be held in dedicated areas instead.

    What in our connected world prevents us from collaborating regardless of physical location. We have lots and lots of tools to connect, meet, talk, chat, collaborate all we need is an internet connection and it doesn’t matter where each of our team members is physically located. When you are collaborating with a person you are not interfering the work of lots of others that don’t need your noise and distraction. We could be at home, at a coffee shop, at the park, you name it, just pick the place where you could be most productive and that is your office.

    You could check out a book “Remote office not required” by 37signals:

    https://37signals.com/remote

Native mobile applications with cross content

What is the right format for a mobile application? Some would insist on native only all the way, every day. Some would go cross platform in an attempt to save time and reuse development resources.
We would argue firmly against cross platform development. It doesn't matter if it is HTML/Javascript or C#/Xamarin (some of the most frequently used technologies for cross platform development). In the case of HTML/Javascript we would say that one would be far better off with just a mobile friendly/responsive web app. In the case of C# it is just plain doing it wrong, because it is almost impossible to have a C# developer that would be familiar with the mobile's platform SDK and almost no experience when it comes to the UI, because it is developed in the native platforms technique.
The way to go is definitely native. But what if you have a big amount of content that can be displayed in the same way for multiple mobile platforms. Then just use HTML pages for that content. We would have a native mobile application that uses HTML for part of the content (something that we like to call cross platform content). We could call it a custom cross platform solution/technology, because it is, and in the same time it is more appropriate to think of it as a native application with some (little or a lot) of HTML content with or without the capability to interact with the native code (depending if the solution needs it or not), because this is the intent purpose of this solution.
This is the sweet spot for complete set of capabilities on the device and time and resource savings.

Here are some native applications which can be used for templates where a custom HTML5 content can be added:

https://github.com/ektodorov/TemplateApp