In a relational database, foreign keys are normally used to associate records stored in different tables, but wouldn’t it be nice to define relationships dynamically without having to add extra columns or tables? And while we’re at it, how about having sparse relationships by associating a record directly with any other record like “post X was last edited by user #123” or “post X was flagged for review by user #456” (who happens to be a moderator)?

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The great majority of the software architectures currently in use are variations of the layered architecture, and what really sets them apart is the implementation details. Some might find this statement controversial, but in my experience, most software applications rely on code organized in layers to manage complexity. Some of the layers may utilize message queues or microservices, but that doesn’t necessarily make the architecture event or microservices based…

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Over the past two decades, I’ve worked as a software developer, tech lead, and CTO at various startups, including my own. I’ve accumulated a number of principles I use to make major technical decisions. Most of the principles outlined here were learned the hard way. You might not fully agree with all of the principles, but I hope at least some of them could help those who struggle with tough technical decisions…

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Software development would be a lot easier without so many bugs. In a typical software application, there’s a never-ending stream of bugs as far as the eye can see. Some of the bugs make users’ lives miserable, some of them are annoying but can be dealt with workarounds, and the rest are mostly minor inconveniences…

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When you work with software developers, especially those with less experience, it’s virtually guaranteed to hear one of them utter a version of the above expression when someone presents them with a situation they think is impossible (or more likely, improbable) to happen in the program they’ve written…

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In the software world, we don’t have as many complicated terms as there are in biology, but we aren’t completely immune to giving complex-sounding names to what should be simple concepts – some of us even enjoy getting pedantic about them. Here are some of my favorites, with examples in JavaScript…

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I will never forget the time I discovered how web pages were made. The year was 1995. I was using Windows 3.1 like most everyone, and it didn’t even support the TCP/IP network stack out of the box. I had to install a program called Trumpet Winsock and a hot new web browser called Netscape to connect to the Internet…

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