Writing Awesome CLI Tools in Ruby: Part II

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This is Part II of my series on writing awesome CLI (command line interface) tools using ruby (Part I). In the first part I described how to create your project layout, add an executable binary, and get started. In this next part I will cover:

  • How to structure your code to be usable as both a tool and a library
  • Building your CLI frontend to your library.

When Will Software Developers Become Obsolete?

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Software development and software engineering are booming right now. Engineers are in high demand and commanding high wages. There are simply not enough software engineers available to fulfill the needs of companies looking to build applications and services.

While it seems demand for software developers will be strong for the foreseeable future, how long will it be before these engineers are replaced by the very software that they are tasked to create?

Understanding The iOS Main Thread

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If there’s one rule to remember in iOS native programming, it is this: UI components can only be properly manipulated on main thread. Keep this in mind and I’m sure it will spare you from headaches in the future.

Let’s dwell deeper.

Writing Awesome CLI Tools in Ruby: Part I

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Introduction

I am always writing small tools to help me out on a daily basis. Sometimes shell scripts, but
other times I want something a bit more complex. When I need more than a simple shell script, I like to leverage ruby for its vast library of gems which can greatly accelerate and simplify the task of building these helpful tools.

This post will give an introduction to writing your own CLI tools in ruby and packaging them
as a gem.

back me up

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Rapid evolution of technology have many of us wondering what’s next. In the past 20 years, we have seen enormous changes to the way we socialize, work, learn, and relax. In witnessing this acceleration of technology, there is no reason to believe that it will slow, barring cataclysm.

Hiding Android’s System Bar

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For years developers (and consequently consumers), have had to accept the fact that the Tablets (and some phones) would always have the System/Navigation Bar visible on their screens. A 10.1 inch advertised screens, offered in fact a 9.8 inch usable screen.

Finally Google’s latest Android OS, KitKat, introduces a decent user-friendly tool that gives us ownership of that last bit of screen.

Using Photoshop CC to Automatically Generate Web Graphics

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Adobe Generator App Icon

Let’s face it, creating web graphics takes time and is often tedious, especially if you have to slice images from detailed web page layouts. Sometimes it’s even necessary to copy and paste graphics from a Photoshop layout into a new Photoshop document just so you can isolate graphics and save for web. Recently I began experimenting with creating web graphics automatically from Photoshop layers using the new Adobe Generator feature, which was released in Photoshop CC version 14.1 (to check your version launch Photoshop and go to the menu and select Photoshop/About Photoshop and this will open a panel that includes the version number). When Generator is turned on it will monitor the file you’re working on and generate web graphics based on how you name layers. The cool thing is that as you continue to work in Photoshop and make changes Generator will automatically update assets.

Your Own Mini-Heroku on AWS

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Heroku
is one of those really great tools to help you get started fast with hosting. They support a variety of stacks and save you blood, sweat and tears when it comes to deploying an app. But what about those times where you need to mess with filesystems or have custom binaries that you want to run? How about just having more control of your servers?