Fullstack History

These articles and links have shaped how I think about technology. I add will add others. Feel free to drop me a line if there is a good ones to add.

What is Code?

Paul Ford

This article explains everything on the software spectrum from burning barrels full of cash to what it takes a computer to print an “A” on the screen.

The first time I read this.. my. mind. was. blown.

Because of some visual animations in the official online version, below, I find somewhat difficult to /readconsume. I recommend googling for the PDF and reading that instead : PDF version.

The full article is available online for free What is Code (Interactive).

Steve Yegge’s Google+/AWS Rant

Steve Yegge

The rant is available here and is a great retrospective on the rise of platform as a service.

Buried in this angry rant are some nuggets on Amazon’s transition to AWS and platform approach. The rant is from 2011 but has history back to mid-2000s.

The summary below is taken from this wikipedia article

Accidental posting: Yegge accidentally made an internal Google memo public on Google+ in October 2011. His 3,700-word comment garnered major media and blogger attention for Yegge's pointed commentary criticizing the leanings of the company's technological culture (such as labeling Google+'s minimalist and, in his view, lackluster public platform "a pathetic afterthought") as well as for his comments about his former employer, Amazon (such as calling Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos "Dread Pirate Bezos"). Google co-founder Sergey Brin stated that he would still have his job.^[24] Washington Post reporter Melissa Bell stated that Yegge's public rant was a Jerry Maguire moment.

The Joel Test: 12 Steps to Better Code

Joel Spolsky

Read The Joel Test

Joel cofounded StackOverflow. But before that, he wrote 12 Steps to Better Code (in August 2000!) which was the precusor to the cultural shift to Agile and DevOps. The 12 steps seem like no-brainers now but that’s because Joel articulated them in this post and then this post made its rounds.

The Unix Shell

Software Carpentry Foundation

Course, Walk-Thru Here:The Unix Shell

Using a computer terminal, shell, command line is a requirement for doing full stack development. I found this free course, The Unix Shell, by SW Carpentry to be an amazingly comprehensive crash course on using the Unix Shell.

Here is the introduction taken directly from the site:

The Unix shell has been around longer than most of its users have been alive. It has survived so long because it’s a power tool that allows people to do complex things with just a few keystrokes. More importantly, it helps them combine existing programs in new ways and automate repetitive tasks so they aren’t typing the same things over and over again. Use of the shell is fundamental to using a wide range of other powerful tools and computing resources (including “high-performance computing” supercomputers). These lessons will start you on a path towards using these resources effectively.