Month: November 2022

Categories
Community Tips

The Rise and Fall of Web Frameworks

Web frameworks speed up and simplify the web development process by providing developers with a set of high-level APIs that allow abstract access to underlying system resources and other low-level functionalities. In this article, we look at how web frameworks have risen or declined in popularity, and we explore the profiles and technology use of the developers who use them. 

The big picture of web usage framework

Born out of the necessity to provide consistent web experiences, frameworks revolutionised how web developers create our online world. With standardised approaches to development and framework-specific communities available for support, they are still a popular choice amongst web developers. According to our survey data, 60% of web developers use either client-side or server-side frameworks. 

Indeed, web frameworks often present a time-saving option for web developers to do their jobs in simple and efficient ways. When turnaround times are tight, developing a website or a web app from the ground up may not necessarily be the best option, particularly when working with demanding clients. Indeed, when we look at deployment frequency, lead time, and time to restore service, framework users are likelier to be at the elite efficiency level. 12% of web developers who use frameworks deploy their code on demand, 8% have a lead time of less than an hour, and 51%take less than a day to restore service. For web developers who don’t use frameworks, 9% deploy their code on demand,5% have a lead time of less than an hour, and 43% take less than a day to restore service.

“Web developers using frameworks are more likely to deploy code on demand, have smaller lead times, and are quicker to restore service”

However, there are disadvantages to using frameworks. For example, it is unlikely that one framework will provide everything a web developer needs, just as it is unlikely that a web developer will use everything that a framework or a library has to offer. The proliferation of different frameworks with different standards and guidelines only further muddies these waters. In this case, it may be easier to stick to one or two frameworks and supplement their use with custom code rather than creating a bloated working environment. 

Indeed, that’s what our data shows–the share of web developers using three or more frameworks is gradually dropping. Now, the average number of frameworks used is approximately the same for developers of all experience levels, around 3.2. However, usage habits change depending on specific years of experience–and may give an indication of what’s in store for the future of web development. 

For example, those with less than five years of experience are more likely to use one framework (22%) than those with six years or more (17%). While age is not necessarily correlated with experience, we see a similar trend for those aged 24 and under(22% use one framework) compared to those 45 and above(17%). 

We can take a look at specific frameworks to see who is using what. React is by far the most popular client-side library, as it is used by 58% of web developers who use client-side web frameworks. React’s stable popularity as a library is contrasted by jQuery’s decline, which has experienced a 13 percentage point drop in usage in the past 12 months. Comparing the two, React is perhaps more capable of handling the modern web development environment–it’s faster, has a larger library of npm packages and is efficient at creating larger web applications.

Who are the developers using jQuery? 

Looking closely, we find that those with more than 11 years of web development experience are nine percentage points more likely to use jQuery than those with less than ten years (49% vs 40%). Similarly, these seasoned web developers are less likely to use React(52%) compared to their peers (58%). As jQuery was created nearly a decade before React, it makes sense that those with more web development experience are sticking to what they know. 

“Experienced developers are more likely to use jQuery and less likely to use React than their peers”

What about server-side frameworks?Next.js and Spring have been on the rise in the past 12 months.Next.js’ and their popularity is likely linked with React–after all, Next.js is a framework built upon React. Infact, 86% of those who use Next.js also use React; for comparison, only 45% use jQuery. As for Spring–a Java-based framework–itsincrease in usage may be explained by a similar increase in Java use amongst web developers–8 percentage points in the past 12 months (27% vs 19%). 

A frameworks user mindset

What does framework use mean for the technology use of web developers? If a web developer is forced to configure or write an application in a particular way, it may narrow their skillset as it forms a reliance on a particular architecture. When we look at the web developer population, it seems that those who use frameworks are actually more likely to be self-driven, have technical skills, or use web technologies when compared to those that don’t use frameworks. 

Framework users are more likely to have learnt how to code through self-education (66% vs 55%) and are more likely to manually download packages from npm(45% vs 36%). Similarly, they are more likely to use each of the top-ten web development technologies listed in our survey.

“Web developers who use frameworks are much more likely to have learnt to code through self-education”

Of these technologies, continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD)services are particularly worth mentioning–framework users are more than twice as likely to use these compared to non-framework users. As we’ve previously highlighted, framework users are more efficient when it comes to code deployment. However, framework users that also use CI/CD tools are 5 percentage points more likely to deploy on demand (15%) than framework users who don’t use CI/CD tools (10%).

Finally, while the share of web developers who use low-code or no-code tools has increased by 9 percentage points in the past six months (54%)–for framework users this share is 40%. This corresponds to an increase of only 5 percentage points in the same timeframe. In other words, those who are using frameworks are more likely to rely on old-fashioned coding by hand and have the skills to do so.

Access research reports that highlight key current and emerging development trends, expertly narrated by our analysts, based on the data from our global surveys by joining the community. Click here to join.

Categories
Tips

11 Tips And Tricks To Write Better Python Code

Here are 11 tips and tricks that will help you write better Python code and become a better programmer:

1. Iterate with enumerate instead or range(len(x))

In Python, we generally use a for loop to iterate over an iterable object. A for loop in Python uses collection based iteration i.e. Python assigns the next item from an iterable to the loop variable on every iteration. The usual usecase of a for loop is as follows:

values = ["a", "b", "c"]

for value in values:
  print(value)

# a
# b
# c

Now, if in addition to the value, you want to print the index as well, you can do it like this:

index = 0

for value in values:
  print(index, value)
  index += 1

# 0 a
# 1 b
# 2 c

or another common way to do this is by using range(len(x)):

for index in range(len(values)):
  value = values[index]
  print(index, value)

# 0 a
# 1 b
# 2 c

However, there is an easier and more pythonic way to iterate over iterable objects by using enumerate(). It is used in a for loop almost the same way as you use the usual way, but instead of putting the iterable object directly after in in the for loop, or putting using it as range(len(values)) , you put it inside the parentheses of enumerate() as shown below:

for count, value in enumerate(values):
  print(count, value)

# 0 a
# 1 b
# 2 c

We can also define a start argument for enumerate() as shown below :

for count, value in enumerate(values, start=1):
  print(count, value)

# 1 a
# 2 b
# 3 c

The enumerate() function gives back two variables:

  • the count of the current iteration
  • the value of the item at the current iteration

Just like the loop variables in a for loop, the loop variables can be named anything, for instance, we can call then index and value and they’ll still work. enumerate() is more efficient than a for loop as it saves you from the hassle to remember to access the value inside the loop and use it correctly and then also remember to advance the value of the loop variable, it is all handled automatically by Python.

2. Use list comprehension instead of raw for loops

List comprehension is an easier and elegant way to define an create lists based on the existing lists. They are just a single line of code consisting of brackets containing the expression that is repeatedly executed at each iteration. Hence, they are more time and space efficient than loops and transform iterative statements in a single line of code.

The usual syntax of a list comprehension looks like this:

newList = [ expression(element) for element in oldList if condition ]

Here’s an example of list comprehension in code:

# Using list comprehension to iterate through loop
List = [character for character in 'HackerNoon']
 
# Displaying list
print(List)

# Output
# ['H', 'a', 'c', 'k', 'e', 'r', 'N', 'o', 'o', 'n']

3. Sort complex iterables with sorted()

The Python sorted() function sorts the elements of an iterable object in a specific order (ascending or descending) and returns them as a sorted list. It can be used to sort a sequence (string, tuple, list) or collection (set, dictionary, frozen set) or any other iterator.

The syntax of the sorted() function is as follows:

sorted(iterable, key=None, reverse=False)

sorted() function takes at max three parameters:

  • iterable: It could be any iterator
  • key: It is an optional argument that serves as a key for sort comparison.
  • reverse: It is also an optional argument that is used to specify a reversed sorted list as the output

4. Store unique values with Sets

A Python Set stores a single copy of the duplicate values into it. Hence, it can be used to check for unique values in a list. For example:

list_inp = [100, 75, 100, 20, 75, 12, 75, 25] 

set_res = set(list_inp) 
print("The unique elements of the input list using set():\n") 
list_res = (list(set_res))
 
for item in list_res: 
    print(item)

So the output of the above program would look like this:

The unique elements of the input list using set():

25
75
100
20
12

5. Save memory with Generators

The basic function of the generator is to evaluate the elements on demand. It is very similar to the syntax for list comprehension, where instead of square brackets, we use parentheses.

Let’s consider an example where we want to print the square of all the even numbers in a list:

myList = [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
print("The given list is:", myList)
mygen = (element ** 2 for element in myList if element % 2 == 0)
print("Elements obtained from the generator are:")
for ele in mygen:
    print(ele)

The output of the above code would look like this:

The given list is: [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
Elements obtained from the generator are:
4
16
36
64
100

Having said that their syntax is quite similar to list comprehension, you must be wondering how it is different from list or set comprehension. Unlike list or set comprehension, generator comprehension does not initialize any objects. As a result, you may utilize generator comprehension instead of list or set comprehension to lower the program’s memory requirements.

6. Define default values in Dictionaries with .get() and .setdefault()

.setdefault() method allows to set dict[key]=default if key is not already in dict.

The syntax of .setdefault() looks like following:

dict.setdefault(key, default=None)

Here’s an example code snippet to understand how to use .setdefault():

a_dictionary = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "d": 4}
a_dictionary.setdefault("c", 3)

print(a_dictionary)

The output of the above code would look like:

{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'd': 4, 'c': 3}

The same thing can also be achieved by using .get() method by passing a default value for the key, as you can see below:

a_dictionary = {"a": 1, "b": 2, "d": 4}
print(a_dictionary.get("c", 3))

print(a_dictionary)

The output of the above code would look like following:

3
{'a': 1, 'b': 2, 'd': 4}

7. Count hashable objects with collections.Counter

The Collections module supports high-performance container datatypes (in addition to the built-in types list, dict, and tuple) and contains a variety of useful data structures for storing information in memory.

A counter is a container that keeps track of the number of times equal values are added.

It may be used to implement the same algorithms that other languages employ bag or multiset data structures to implement.

Import collections makes the stuff in collections available as:

import collections

Since we are only going to use the Counter, we can simply do this:

from collections import Counter

It can be used as follows:

import collections

c = collections.Counter('abcdaab')

for letter in 'abcde':
    print '%s : %d' % (letter, c[letter])

The output of the above code would look like this:

a : 3
b : 2
c : 1
d : 1
e : 0

8. Format strings with f-Strings (Python 3.6+)

f-strings, also called as “formatted string literals“, are a new and more pythonic way to format strings, supported by Python 3.6+. They are a faster, more readable, more concise, and a less error prone way of string formatting in Python.

As the name “f-string” says, they are string literals that have an f at the beginning and curly braces containing expressions that will be replaced with their values at the runtime and then formatted using the __format__ protocol.

f-strings can be used as following:

name = "Eric"
age = 74
print(f"Hello, {name}. You are {age}.")

# 'Hello, Eric. You are 74.'

9. Concatenate strings with .join()

In Python, we can use the .join() method to concatenate a list of strings into a single string. The usual syntax for this method looks like below:

'String to insert'.join([List of strings])

It can be used in multiple ways — if you use the empty string ““, [List of strings] is simply concatenated, and if you use a comma, a comma-delimited string is created. When the newline character \n is used, a newline is appended after each string. See the example below:

l = ['aaa', 'bbb', 'ccc']

s = ''.join(l)
print(s)
# aaabbbccc

s = ','.join(l)
print(s)
# aaa,bbb,ccc

s = '-'.join(l)
print(s)
# aaa-bbb-ccc

s = '\n'.join(l)
print(s)
# aaa
# bbb
# ccc

10. Merge dictionaries with {**d1, **d2} (Python 3.5+)

The easiest way to merge dictionaries is by using the unpacking operator (**). The syntax for this method looks like this:

{**dict1, **dict2, **dict3}

Here’s an example to understand this method better:

d1 = {'k1': 1, 'k2': 2}
d2 = {'k3': 3, 'k4': 4}

print({**d1, **d2})
# {'k1': 1, 'k2': 2, 'k3': 3, 'k4': 4}

11. Simplify if-statements with if x in list

Assume we have a list with the primary colours red, green, and blue. And somewhere in our code, we have a new variable with a colour, so c = red. Then we’ll see if this is one of our primary colours. Of course, we might check this against each item on our list as follows:

colors = ["red", "green", "blue"]

c = "red"

# cumbersome and error-prone
if c == "red" or c == "green" or c == "blue":
    print("is main color")

However, this may become quite time consuming, and we can easily make mistakes, such as if we have a typo here for red. It is more simpler and far preferable to just use the expression if x in list:

colors = ["red", "green", "blue"]

c = "red"

# better:
if c in colors:
    print("is main color")

Conclusion

Python is a widely used programming language and by using the above tips and tricks, you can become a better Python programmer.

I hope this article was helpful. Keep reading!

Categories
Community

Writing: Software Development’s Underrated Skill

In college, as I was finishing up my engineering degree, I roomed with a bunch of English majors. Every now and then, we’d get together with friends and have short-story writing competitions. Admittedly, not the coolest way to spend a Friday night, but it unlocked my love of writing.

Looking back on my career as a software engineer, manager, and CTO, that time I spent writing was actually one of the most impactful of my college career. Besides helping me as I started Draft.dev, writing contributed to my growth as a developer, leader, and professional.

In this article, I’m going to expand on why writing is such a complementary skill for a software developer and the many ways this skill can benefit your career. I’ll also share some pointers to help you get started as a technical writer and improve your skills.

You Write More Than You Think You Do

“Once somebody hits a minimum threshold of technical skill to hold a job in the industry, about 80% of their ability to succeed in software development is determined by their communication and people skills, not their technical abilities” — Ben McCormick, Engineering Manager at Meta

Software development is typically associated with skills like coding, analytical thinking, math, and problem solving. However, equally important is effective communication.

Joel Spolsky, Co-founder of StackOverflow, concurs with this and even goes so far as to say that he wouldn’t hire a programmer unless they can write well:

“The difference between a tolerable programmer and a great programmer is not how many programming languages they know…It’s whether they can communicate their ideas…By writing clear comments and technical specs, they let other programmers understand their code, which means other programmers can use and work with their code instead of rewriting it. Absent this, their code is worthless.”

Spolsky makes a good point, because whether you realize it or not, you’re doing a lot of writing over the course of your day as an engineer. This includes, but isn’t limited to:

  • Commenting on code
  • Collaborating with colleagues and clients on Slack and email
  • Writing bug reports and code reviews
  • Posting and answering questions on community forums
  • Creating technical documentation

Jon Leydens puts it this way in an IEEE article:

“In their first few years on the job, engineers spend roughly 30% of their workday writing, while engineers in middle management write for 50% to 70% of their day; those in senior management reportedly spend over 70% and as much as 95% of their day writing.”

In fact, communication is the primary skill employers are looking for now that remote work is here to stay. By ignoring it, you’re limiting your utility at your current job as well as your future career prospects.

How Writing Can Level Up Your Career

Initially, I mostly wrote for fun and to see if I could get some passive income going on the side. None of my early attempts took off. But they did give me deep insight into the value of technical content as well as lots of practice in creating that kind of content. 

Come 2020, the pandemic struck and the company I was with at the time hit a rough patch. I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do next and I realized writing full-time was a real option. This led to the founding of Draft.dev.

Since then, it’s been a pleasure to see what a difference writing has made, not just for our clients, but also the engineers who write for us, both financially and professionally. Provided you stick with it, writing can help you level up your career too.

  1. Writing Establishes You As a Subject-matter Authority

One of the immutables of life as a developer is that we’re constantly learning. A recent StackOverflow survey found that nearly 75% of developers learn a new technology or framework every few months or once a year. 

Writing is a great way to reinforce your learnings and document your experiments with a new tool. It can help improve your critical thinking abilities and integrate prior knowledge with new concepts. 

What’s more, your observations can help other engineers learn as well. With remote work as prevalent as it is, junior developers don’t get as much face time with their managers and existing use cases and tutorials can help them get up to speed with their work.

Writing can also help you improve your ability to clarify complex topics to non-technical stakeholders and create better alignment between product and business teams. 

In fact, the more you write, the more you build and exert influence, directly accelerating your career trajectory.

  1. Writing Can Help You Find the Job You’ve Always Wanted

Job-hunting in software development can be an aggravating process, especially for newcomers. 

Writing can help you bypass the traditional recruitment system by putting yourself out there. A well-written tutorial is social proof of the fact that you understand a tool or framework well enough to implement it. After all, claiming you know React in your resume is one thing. Publishing a tutorial where you’ve integrated it with other libraries to build a working prototype is another altogether.

Recruiters or engineering managers who spot your work will be tempted to reach out to you directly instead of wading through a hundred other applications. I did the same thing when I was an engineering manager, and others I talked to have confirmed this.

“I once got a full-time offer to join a cloud computing startup as a copywriter on the strength of a few blog posts I’d written,” says Stephanie Morillo, a content strategist and technical program manager. “I was offered a role as a part-time technical writer for an open-source organization, and I even started doing freelance copywriting on the side for [software development] agencies”

Adam DuVander, Founder of EveryDeveloper, goes even further, “I owe my entire career to a couple of articles I wrote…A tutorial I wrote on Webmonkey led to my first developer job. They saw how I discussed the technology and knew before we even chatted that I could handle the work.”

  1. Writing Can Be a Lucrative Side Hustle

Engineering salaries can differ widely based on everything from the language and frameworks you specialize in to where you’re located.

According to StackOverflow’s 2021 Developer Survey, Clojure developers enjoy a median salary of $95,000, compared to PHP developers who make just $38,916.

The average salary for a full stack developer in the U.S. is $101,402 plus yearly cash bonuses of $5,500, whereas it’s around $58,000 for one in Germany and approximately $9,767 for one in India.

Writing can provide supplemental income and help you bridge this pay gap by utilizing existing skills and knowledge. Draft.dev, for instance, offers you a chance to do just that. So far, we’ve paid over $600,000 to writers in over 64 countries in the two years we’ve been operating.

  1. Writing Can Lead to Public Speaking and Book Authorship Opportunities

Around 2017, I was writing a lot about using PHP with Docker. While I wasn’t able to monetize the site directly, it did lead to a short, self-published book on the subject that was downloaded by over 1,000 developers. 

It also led to a host of conference speaking opportunities and consultancy offers. I wasn’t necessarily an expert on the subject, but I was one of very few people publishing any material on it and so my work stood out.

James Hickey, Principal Engineer at SAVVY, had a similar experience, “I have had many people reach out to me about doing contract work simply by reading my blog and had many offers to write books in the last couple of years.”

Morillo adds, “I wrote a few articles about tech culture in the mid-2010s and was able to secure conference speaking engagements from them.”

Authorship and speaking also tend to bring you more exposure, which leads to similar opportunities in the future, creating a flywheel for yourself.

Improving Your Skill As a Writer

“I have never considered myself expressive or eloquent, so I used to doubt that I would make a good technical writer…However, the truth is that writing, like every other skill, can be learned and developed through practice.” — Linda Ikechukwu, Technical Writer and Developer Advocate at Smallstep

New writers frequently experience the resistance that accompanies all creative endeavors. The only way past this is to have a plan and keep at it. Here are a few tips I’ve found helpful over the years: 

  1. Start With Something Familiar

The first block new writers tend to face is what to write about. It’s easy to get caught up between something that’s easy to write and something that you believe is more interesting for readers. My advice? Go with the former.

Eze Sunday, Software Developer and Technical Writer, echoes this sentiment, “Start writing about the things you currently know and share them with the community. You’ll be surprised how many lives you’ll impact.”

Pick a problem you just solved or a tool you just tried out and write about it, even if it feels like something trivial. Just the act of putting some words to paper can tell you something about your writing style and the unique perspective you have to offer.

  1. Aim for Quality

Quality trumps quantity every time. It’s much better to write a few outstanding articles than to write a bunch of average ones.

Be selective about your topics and go deep when you find one you really like. Some of my most popular blog posts are the ones that delved deep into a subject, like this 4,500-word guide to API development.  

Alternatively, write more often, but keep it short and interesting. David Heinemeier Hansson, creator of Ruby on Rails, Founder of Basecamp, and a prolific writer over the years, used to employ this method a lot (and still does), almost as if he wants to cut short an article before it loses value for the reader. Doing this may also help you get more practice without feeling pressured to write huge articles.

  1. Write Regularly

On the flip side, don’t get so caught up with perfection that you neglect to publish regularly.

Frequent practice keeps your skills sharp and gives you a constant flow of feedback from your readers. Personally, I like to block four to eight hours of focussed writing time on my calendar each week. 

A few other writers I’ve spoken to like to use timeboxes throughout the day to churn out productive content. Choose whatever method works for you, but ensure you’ve set aside some time to write regularly.

  1. Keep Your Goals in Mind

Finally, keep moving towards something. Whether you’re looking to monetize a blog, capture a niche, or just record your own learnings, keep that plan in mind as you work on your articles.

And be honest with yourself. As DuVander points out, “Decide whether it’s a side thing or a main thing. You can make either work, but you’ll want to set your expectations appropriately…There are a lot of ways to use writing in an engineering career.”

Track progress towards your goal with readership metrics. You can do this by creating a newsletter that readers can sign up for, running analytics on your website, and paying attention to comments and feedback.

Conclusion

Many software developers ignore communication skills at their own detriment. I hope some of the data and experiences here offer proof of this, but if you’re afraid to start or don’t think you’re very good, don’t worry. As with anything else, the more you write the better you’ll get at it. 

If you’re a developer or an aspiring technical writer looking to start contributing professionally, consider writing for us at Draft.dev. We’re always looking for more writers and we’re open to people of all experience levels!

Finally, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts on writing as an engineer and what it takes to be a better writer. Leave a comment below or connect with me on Twitter.

Categories
Community

Best Project Management Software for Freelancers in 2023

When one works on a regular job, one has specific external frameworks that control productivity. On the other hand, freelancers do not have any frameworks, so a person either has the superpower of self-organisation or, sooner or later, finds some specialized project management software to use.

It seems as if freelancing is about freedom. Freelancers can choose their projects, regulate their time and plan their future. However, freelancing is just the opposite, accurate organisation and planning. A freelancer must manage work without outside help or guidance to make good money, stay productive, and avoid falling into an extreme workload.

The second stakeholder in streamlining a freelancer’s work is the client. Communication between the two parties must be managed for sustainable work and productive results. The best way to do this is to implement some management.

Why We Need Project Management Software 

A freelancer’s work can produce both excellent results and total headaches. 

When working with a freelancer, the client, for his part, should understand that he is hiring a specific specialist, such as a designer, an accountant, a copywriter, a developer, etc. More often than not, the freelancer will know precisely how to draw design, reconcile debit and credit, and write text or code. Usually, he cannot or is not required to draft the terms of reference, to be an excellent negotiator or a manager. At the same time, clients want the collaboration with a freelancer to include the following:

  • A high level of negotiation,
  • Fulfillment of obligations,
  • Control of work deadlines.

In companies, these functions are often performed by different people or even departments. The freelancer does everything himself. He can be the most talented performer and, simultaneously, a lousy negotiator, supervisor, and manager. In such cases, project management software comes to the rescue.

Key Criteria for Selecting Project Management Software for Freelancers

Today’s digital project management software for freelancers can solve many aspects of the interaction between the client and the contractor. There are plenty of them, and they are all suitable for one task or another. Let’s discuss the criteria for selecting tools worth paying attention to:

Cost and availability

Availability is the main criterion for choosing a tool for a freelancer. Many of them are free and have a wide range of functions. Therefore, payment is implied only if the user wants to apply additional features.

Budget tracking

Freelancers often work for many different clients with hourly rates, so being able to track hours, payment, or even the cost of a project is essential.

Communication

A unified communication system is critical because chaos occurs when some tasks are sent to messenger, others to e-mail, etc.

Time management

It’s about the importance of matching tasks to a deadline. The software development should have calendar functions, scheduling, reminders, and, if necessary, a time tracker.

Collaboration tools

For many remote activities, it’s vital to be able to share information in real-time to continue the course of the project. It’s also essential to track the progress of tasks, segmenting them by status, deadline, and priority.

Reporting

Automated reporting allows the creation of a comprehensive understanding of the work process, analyzes it, and identifies problem areas.

Best Tools in 2023

Asana

This task manager is convenient when there are a lot of projects. The program is intuitive, and tasks start quickly. A user can assign each task a priority, an executor, and a time limit. Tasks are placed according to projects. For convenience, the user can give a detailed description of the task and subtasks in the “description” section. When the team works on tasks in Asana, they get all the news about updates in the feed.

Freelancers just starting to manage projects can take advantage of Asana’s basic free plan, which includes an unlimited number of tasks, projects, and storage. Up to 15 people can work together on this plan. A mobile version is also available.

Basecamp

It is one of the most popular project management software. The advantages of Basecamp are its simplicity and distribution of tasks and its intuitive interface. In addition, the software integrates into popular development services and allows you to create your add-ons.

Unfortunately, Beyscamp has a partially free version. However, a trial period will allow you to see if the software is convenient for the needs of a particular freelancer. 

ClickUp

ClickUp is a versatile project management software. The cloud-based tool allows you to work smoothly in real time. It includes all necessary functions: task creation and management, internal communication, documentation and reminders, and integration of third-party applications. The tool allows you to assign people responsible for tasks, work with repetitive tasks, exchange comments between team members, and so on. In addition, the software cares about the security of free users and offers them two-factor authentication.

The application has a free version with somewhat limited functionality, which is enough for freelancers. 

Insightly

The feature of this project management tool is that it allows for managing contacts, tasks, events, and resources. In addition, it integrates with the most popular collaboration services.

Insightly has a free version and a 14-day trial period for paid packages.

Monday.com

It is an excellent tool for freelancers with minimal budgets for operational processes. It also provides the ability to visualize processes in the form of charts and tables in one of its low сost packages, which for many looks pretty convenient. In addition, the service has more than 70 templates for tasks of various kinds. Prepared board templates greatly facilitate the work because they already have a thought-out logistic algorithm for managing many tasks.

Thanks to a simple, intuitive interface, it is easy to work in, and the mobile version allows you to work on a smartphone or tablet.

Notion

Notion is a great all-in-one program for individual freelancers, as it allows them to create tasks, notes, and a mood board for art. 

The tool is completely free for individual use. However, a free limit of 1,000 blocks is available if you need to use it for teamwork. That’s enough to see if Notion is suitable for use.

Solo

Solo is a task manager literally made for freelancers. Because in addition to the standard features of many management software, Solo lets you view a list of deadlines, overdue invoices, invoicing projects, average hourly rate, and all major project data and then skip to the details of each aspect. You can send electronic invoices to your clients and view when they are due, overdue, or due to be sent. Turnover reports for the current year, month, or week are also available.

The program is available on iOs for $19 a month, which is not very cheap for freelancers, but it can provide a lot of helpful information for scaling.

TickTick

TickTick is an indispensable to-do list app for a freelancer who works on different platforms. The app also has a web version. Tasks are created quickly and intuitively. The subtasks have as many features as the tasks. The program’s main advantage is the distribution lists with the ability to output tasks from them to a common list of tasks. It helps to distinguish operational work issues, household chores, and long-term tasks.

The application has a free version and a “premium” version. Feature-wise, they are almost similar, and the free one is reasonably competent in its functionality.

ToDoist

It is the task manager with one of the broadest functionalities for freelancers. It is available as an app and a web service. In addition to the standard features for such applications, ToDoist has a recurring deadline feature for tasks. The user can create priorities and delegate tasks to performers. To make sure users remember the charges for the day, ToDoist will notify each of them. Graphs clearly show how productively the user spent his day/week. ToDoist highlights several types of services for integration: automation, communication, email, file management, scheduling, productivity, and time tracking. 

ToDoist works on a subscription basis. There are three plans: Free, Premium, and Business.

Toggl Plan

It is a network solution for task scheduling, project planning, and team management. Tasks are created through a “drag-and-drop” interface, which is very convenient. Marking assignments as completed helps track progress and increases accountability in the team. Users can see all the tasks that need to be completed on a single project or get a simple overview of all the tasks that team members are working on. In addition, the Toggle Plan allows for project budgeting, risk management, and personal and team performance tracking. Conveniently, the service is available online and offline.

The free plan allows one to form a team of up to 5 people, create an unlimited number of projects, etc.

Wrike

Wrike allows the creation of conditions for cooperation with high interaction. The program has excellent usability, good logistics, and a friendly interface. It integrates with third-party services. Everything is intuitive. No extra clicks are required to perform the targeted action. Suitable for managing remote employees and freelancers. Wrike contains a network schedule and project reports. It allows setting reminders and logging task times.

The tool is available for free for novice teams. The free plan includes mobile and desktop versions, project management, and a Kanban board view. Paid plans include Team, Business, Enterprise, and Pinnacle.

Have you used any of these tools? What is your opinion please write in the comments.

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Community

The Aspiring AR/VR Developer

Thanks to the advanced camera systems and even LiDARs nowadays in our smartphones Augmented reality is subtly blending into everyday consumer life; you can actually see how a new Ikea couch or Apple Homepod will look in your living room before you decide and buy one. Companies like Meta (formerly Facebook) are building an entirely new world using Virtual Reality termed Metaverse where you can create virtual office spaces to have real-time meetings with your colleagues, play a game of basketball and even attend concerts. 

AR augments the real-world scene by adding layers on top of your real world, whereas VR creates completely immersive virtual environments that need VR goggles or headsets to experience it. Both of these technologies started as the next chapter of the gaming industry but quickly found their way into other applications like Fashion, Interior Designing, e-commerce, Architecture and Metaverse. You no longer have to visit a physical store to experience how a new jacket or pair of glasses will look on you or a theme park in Florida to enjoy a roller-coaster ride. 

Download the Aspiring AR/VR Developer infographic here!

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Community

A Saga of Programming Languages: 2022 Update

The choice of programming language matters deeply to developers because they want to keep their skills up-to-date and marketable. Programming Languages are a beloved subject of debate and the kernels of some of the strongest developer communities. They matter to toolmakers too, because they want to make sure they provide the most useful SDKs.

It can be hard to assess how widely used a programming language is. The indices available from players like Tiobe, Redmonk, Stack Overflow’s yearly survey, or GitHub’s State of the Octoverse are great, but offer mostly relative comparisons between languages, providing no sense of the absolute size of each community. They may also be biased geographically or skewed towards certain fields of software development or open-source developers. 

The estimates we present here look at active software developers using each programming language; across the globe and all kinds of programmers. They are based on two pieces of data. First is our independent estimate of the global number of software developers, which we published for the first time in 2017. We estimate that, as of Q3 2022, there are 33.6 million active software developers worldwide. 

Second is our large-scale, low-bias surveys which reach tens of thousands of developers every six months. In these surveys, we have consistently asked developers about their use of programming languages across 13 areas of development, giving us rich and reliable information about who uses each language and in which context.

size of of programming language communities in Q3 2022

JavaScript continues to be the largest language community

JavaScript remains the most popular programming language for the 11th survey in a row, with over 19.5M developers worldwide using it. Notably, the JavaScript community has been growing in size consistently for the past several years. Between Q3 2020 and Q3 2022, Javascript experienced a 59% increase as 7.3M developers joined the community – one of the highest growths in absolute terms across programming languages. Not only do new developers see it as an attractive entry-level language, but existing ones are also adding it to their skillset. JavaScript’s popularity extends across all sectors, with at least a quarter of developers in every sector using it.

Developers joined the JavaScript community in the last two years

In 2020, Python overtook Java as the second most widely used language and now counts nearly 17M developers in its community. Python has continued to show strong growth, having added about 8M net new developers over the last two years. The rise of data science and machine learning (ML) is a clear factor in Python’s growing popularity. To put this into perspective, about 63% of ML developers and data scientists report using Python. In comparison, less than 15% use R, the other language often associated with data science.

Java is one of the most important general-purpose languages and the cornerstone of the Android app ecosystem. Although it has been around for over two decades, it continues to experience strong growth. In the last two years, Java has almost doubled the size of its community, from 8.3M to 16.5M. For perspective, the global developer population grew about half as fast over the same period. Within the last year alone, Java has added 6.3M developers, the largest absolute growth of any language community. Our data suggest that Java’s growth is supported not only by the usual suspects, i.e. backend and mobile development but also by its rising adoption in AR/VR projects, likely due to Android’s popularity as an AV/VR platform. 

The group of major, well-established programming languages is completed with C/C++ (12.3M), C# (10.6M), and PHP (8.9M). PHP has seen the slowest growth rate of all languages over the last year, growing just 22%, adding 1.6M net new developers. PHP is a common choice for cloud and web developers but has seen decreasing popularity, particularly amongst web developers where it has gone from the second most popular language in Q3 2021 behind JavaScript, to the fourth most popular in Q3 2022, with Python and Java becoming more popular choices.

C and C++ are core languages in embedded and IoT projects, for both on-device and application-level coding, but also in mobile and desktop development, which are sectors that attract 17.7M and 15.6M developers respectively. C#, on the other hand, has maintained its popularity among multiple different areas of software development, particularly among desktop and game developers. C/C++ added 4.3M net new developers in the last year and C# added 2.8M over the same period.

Rust and Kotlin continue their rise in popularity

We have previously identified Rust and Kotlin as two of the fastest-growing language communities and this continues to be the case. Rust has more than tripled in size in the past two years, from just 0.8M developers in Q3 2020 to 2.8M in Q3 2022. Rust has added 0.7M developers in the last six months alone and is close to overtaking Objective C to become the 11th largest language community. Rust has formed a strong community of developers who care about performance, memory safety, and security. As a result, it has seen increased adoption in IoT software projects, but also in desktop and game development, where Rust is desired for its ability to build fast and scalable projects.

Kotlin has also seen a large growth in the last two years, more than doubling in size from 2.3M in Q3 2020 to 6.1M in Q3 2022. As such, it went from the ninth to the seventh largest language community during this time, overtaking Swift and those using visual development tools. This growth can largely be attributed to Google’s decision in 2019 to make Kotlin its preferred language for Android development it is currently used by a fifth of mobile developers and is the second most popular language for mobile development. Despite Google’s preference for Kotlin, the inertia of Java means that, after three years, it is still the most popular language for mobile development.

Swift currently counts 4.2M developers and is the default language for development across all Apple platforms. This has led to a phase-out of Objective C (3M) from the Apple app ecosystem. However, Objective C has maintained its place among IoT developers and increasing adoption for on-device code, and AR/VR developers, leading to a similar increase in the number of Swift and Objective C developers in the last two years; 1.8M and 1.6M respectively.

The more niche languages – Go, Ruby, Dart, and Lua – are still much smaller, with less than 4M active developers each. Go and Ruby are important languages in backend development, but Go is the third fastest-growing language community and has added more than twice as many developers as Ruby in the last two years; 2.3M and 1.0M new developers, respectively. This is likely due to the fast development cycle it offers even though it is a compiled language.

Dart has seen steady growth in the last two years, predominantly due to the increasing adoption of the Flutter framework in mobile development, with 13% of mobile developers currently using Google’s language. Finally, Lua is among the fastest-growing language communities, mainly drawing in IoT, game, and AR/VR developers looking for a scripting alternative to low-level programming languages such as C and C++.

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Community Tips

The importance of the development of AI in your professional career

There is no longer a stage in the creation of artificial intelligence when the technology is in the experimental phase with minimal proof of concept. Organisations all over the globe are struggling with how to incorporate it into their culture and locate the appropriate individuals to lead artificial intelligence and machine learning initiatives because they are aware that it is a force that must be reckoned with.

According to research, sixty percent of Indian businesses are under the impression that Artificial Intelligence (AI) would have a disruptive effect on their industry over the next two to three years. According to a survey, the number of available positions in the fields of analytics and data science has increased by thirty percent between April 2021 and April 2022.

The rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and automated systems is opening up prospects for companies, the economy, and society.

Automation and artificial intelligence have been around for some time, but current technological advancements are expanding the capabilities of machines to perform more and more. According to the findings of our study, society needs these advancements to create value for companies, contribute to economic development, and make progress on some of the most challenging social issues that we face.

The rise of AI and new jobs

Although the technologies of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, powered by AI, will continue to dramatically transform the world and the way we work and live, it is possible that AI may not result in a significant rise in employment. Instead, artificial intelligence will result in the creation of more employment than it eliminates via automation.

These newly generated positions will call for new skills, which in turn will entail considerable investments in upskilling and reskilling programs for both young people and adults. However, private companies and public administrations may – and are obligated to – collaborate to confront this transition and welcome the beneficial effects of AI on society.

According to the Global Artificial Intelligence Study conducted by the year 2030, AI would cause a software projected rise of $15.7 trillion, or 26 percent, in the total GDP of the world. The expansion of GDP will be driven by consumer spending to the tune of around sixty percent, with increased productivity accounting for approximately forty percent of the overall expansion.

Reskilling and Upskilling

For corporations and authorities to reap the advantages of AI in terms of productivity and profitability, they will need to work together on huge reskilling and upskilling initiatives. These projects will assist workers in retraining and preparing for new and upcoming employment opportunities.

Artificial intelligence can automate 3 percent of employment opportunities over the next few years. Increased digitalization brought about by COVID-19 may speed up this process. As artificial intelligence develops and becomes increasingly self-sufficient, thirty percent of all employment and forty-four percent of people with low levels of education will be in danger of being automated by the middle of the twenty-third century.

According to the World Economic Forum, during the next five years, almost half of all employees will need some kind of further training or retraining to be adequately prepared for changing and new employment opportunities. The fast speed of technological progress necessitates the development of new models for employee training to adequately prepare workers for a future dominated by AI.

The development of workers’ soft skills, which can’t be replicated by artificial intelligence, should be a priority for businesses. It seems probable that the importance of creative thinking, leadership and emotional intelligence will only continue to rise in our ever-changing world.

Since 2018, AI and IoT have managed to land in the top 3 on the list of Emerging Technology Top 10, and with valid reasons that showcase the strength of AI and IoT, alternatives are abundant SUCH helping businesses generate productivity improvements, end up saving time, and raise profits. In other words, AI and IoT are helping businesses create a better future.

Businesses seek managers who can embrace the power of artificial intelligence to make successful business choices that may reform ineffective business models and establish new ones that can have an oversized benefit as the competency of AI continues to rise. With proper training and appropriate programs applicants can make their career in AI may explore the concept of combining value creation and value appropriation in corporate CRM Development Company and changing current organizational procedures and offers.

Author Bio – Ethan Millar is a technical writer at Aegis Softtech especially for computer programming like Asp.net, Java, Big Data, Hadoop, dynamics AX, and CRM for more than 8 years. Also, have basic knowledge of Computer Programming.