aeveltstra

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to Java

If you're wondering why #java applications have a bad rep for #GUI #accessibility: the default GUI frameworks (SWT, JavaFX, Swing) are not accessible out of the box. None of the components support the keyboard shortcuts available on the various operating systems. It's like they were designed to be as different from everything else as possible. Thinking different hurts accessibility. Do better.

aeveltstra, 1 month ago to accessibility

Bloody hell: don’t disable the copy and paste functionality in electronic input forms, dear software developers and managers! Doing so only makes it more difficult for people to enter their information. Do you want to frustrate people to the point of giving up? Scare them away? No? Then allow copy and paste. #usability #accessibility #ux

aeveltstra, 6 months ago to haskell

I may bitch and gripe a bit about the insane learning curve of programming languages like #haskell... but I cut my teeth on #javascript and #php : I've seen worse. Of all the languages I've used, my favorite by far is #python, but only for processing. What's yours, and why?

aeveltstra, 8 months ago to random

If you needed yet another reason to hate javascript-only applications: I've been waiting for an hour to log into my web host's control panel. Of course then it times out. It's time to find a different web host.

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

As an application developer, I have to think of ways how to abuse the software I create, so I can come up with ways to mitigate potential attack vectors. Thinking like a hacker should be part of every computer engineer's training or education. Learn how to break things.

aeveltstra, 8 months ago to rust

https://blog.rust-lang.org/inside-rust/2023/09/01/crates-io-malware-postmortem.html

#rust #crates are vulnerable to #typosquatting and #malware injection. Of course they are. Vetting software packages takes a LOT of work and needs to be rewarded.

aeveltstra, 9 months ago to python

There are so many single-threaded GUI applications programmed in many a language that prevent interaction while some heavy data analysis is happening that I really don't care whether or not #python 's #GIL causes that for Python programs. Too many software developers out there who don't use asynchronous execution.

aeveltstra, 26 days ago to random

I support clients who believe things happen as if by magic. We may agree that magic merely is something sufficiently complex as to defy understanding. For my clients, that magic is me.

Thus you have to communicate with me if you want things to happen, and preferably ahead of time, rather than expecting them and then complain if they don’t happen.

It’s like praying to God, except that the mover and shaker is me. And I refuse to read your mind.

#communication

aeveltstra, 1 month ago to Java

Hey, #java software devs: how do you prevent the #jvm from dumping memory into the application folder if the application or system causes it to malfunction? I still want the memory dump, just somewhere else. Can that be done? Please show me the way!

aeveltstra, 2 months ago to accessibility

I'm filling out a high-school survey that asks whether or not it is important to spend federal grant money (a.k.a. my taxes) on literacy programs for parents.

But it's worded in near legalese.

Think about that for a second, dear survey makers!

#accessibility

aeveltstra, 15 days ago to random

Please, makers of email subscribe and unsubscribe systems, stop allowing just anyone to supply any email address. That’s just asking for abuse. Stop putting your trust in random anonymous strangers.

What you should do when having someone subscribe: send a confirmation email to their address, with an expiring link.

What you should to when having someone unsubscribe: put an unsubscribe link into their email with a unique identifier that finds their subscription and instantly unsubscribes.

aeveltstra, 8 months ago to random

Throwback to the 1990s: when I started out on the web, it was common to get your connection and session closed before you'd be done editing or writing or whatever you were doing. You would lose your progress instantly: nobody had implemented intermediary save moments.

We adjusted by creating offline, then using the connection only to place files.

We got spoiled by modern apps that save intermittently, and by connections that stay open.

Why do I bring this up?

aeveltstra, 6 months ago to Java

Advances in the #java #programming language, version 16 and newer, slashed a million lines of code from my codebase. Maintaining my programs became easier overnight, due to this 1 secret trick: Records.

Unfortunately version 16 was not LTS, so I had to wait until this year's release of version 21, which is LTS.

Go read this article on Java Records: https://medium.com/naukri-engineering/avoid-lombok-use-records-to-write-cleaner-code-in-java-17-b174548a6f5f

aeveltstra, 6 months ago to webdev

Free animated icons to use for #webdev: https://animatedicons.co/

aeveltstra, 3 months ago to random

Between programming in PHP, python, Javascript, Java, haskell, and rust, I really prefer the ease of programming offered by python, and the strength and helpfulness of the rust compiler and doctests. What programming language do you prefer?

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to UX

https://adrianroselli.com/2023/08/where-to-put-focus-when-deleting-a-thing.html

Adrian Roselli discusses #ux : where to put the focus next, after having deleted something. A very insightful read. @aardrian

aeveltstra, 26 days ago to random

If anyone knows of, or can come up with a projected input device that feels like a typewriter, please, share!
#usability

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

Why is cheese cheaper than butter? Dear Shoprite, riddle me that? Half a pound of cream cheese for $1.50, and half a pound of butter for $2.69? Even a full pound of butter comes in at $3.69! Same brand, too. How? Why?

aeveltstra, 2 months ago (edited 2 months ago) to random

Which hashtag / marketing buzzword would you choose, if you need to convey that your services and solutions are created by humans, and not by a.i.?

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

To all of you who hate on a.i. because shitty people make shitty decisions about how to use the technology, I want to ask: have you ever played a video game against a computer opponent? I bet it's an a.i.. Ever played RPGs alongside NPCs? Yep: those are a.i.-s. Ever played a casino game machine? That thing inside that determines whether this time you're the lucky winner? That's an a.i..

Your hate is based. Direct it at the right people.

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

Remember today all USA cell phones will sound a test alarm. If you have a phone hidden, turn it off.

aeveltstra, 6 months ago to random

https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/6331920

Andrez Sainz de Aja writes that comments are a code smell: they make us lazy. Instead of using comments to convey intent, the coding should. But that is hard, so it is easier to write dumb coding and just put the intent into comments.

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

Protip for web application developers: if you POST a form to a folder, hoping for the default script in that folder to process it, make sure to end the folder path with a forward slash. Otherwise, the web server will redirect the request automatically, changing the request method from POST to GET. That causes the POSTed form values to be lost.

(Hours. Literal hours spent debugging this one. I do this for a living. Sheesh.)

aeveltstra, 7 months ago to random

The other day my family and I attended the meeting of the Board of Education in my town, where my spouse and kids go to and used to go to school. They voted to abolish policy 57.56, which protects transgender students from harms way. Abolishing the policy means part of the school staff will out a transgender child against their will to their parents. This has disastrous consequences.

aeveltstra, 17 days ago to random

I'm building #umpire, an anonymous registration of #missing and #murdered people, intended to match missing against murdered people's profiles. My spouse is a forensic genetic genealogist who specializes in marginalized communities and found existing sources to be lacking in their ability to search, match, and review. Follow my progress live on Mastodon, here, or over on GitHub: https://github.com/aeveltstra/umpire-web and https://github.com/aeveltstra/umpire-db.