Tommy Hodgins tomhodgins

"How do I get started with Node?" is a commonly heard question in #Node.js. This gist is an attempt to compile some of the answers to that question. It's a perpetual work-in-progress.

And if this list didn't quite answer your questions, I'm available for tutoring and code review! A donation is also welcome :)

Setting expectations

Before you get started learning about JavaScript and Node.js, there's one very important article you need to read: Teach Yourself Programming in Ten Years.

Understand that it's going to take time to learn Node.js, just like it would take time to learn any other specialized topic - and that you're not going to learn effectively just by reading things, or following tutorials or courses. _Get out there and build things!

Don't use VPN services.

No, seriously, don't. You're probably reading this because you've asked what VPN service to use, and this is the answer.

Note: The content in this post does not apply to using VPN for their intended purpose; that is, as a virtual private (internal) network. It only applies to using it as a glorified proxy, which is what every third-party "VPN provider" does.

A Russian translation of this article can be found here, contributed by Timur Demin.
A Turkish translation can be found here, contributed by agyild.
There's also this article about VPN services, which is honestly better written (and has more cat pictures!) than my article.

The State of Container Queries

tl;dr Developers would like the idea to style components based on a parent's width rather than depend solely on the viewport media query. This would allow modular components to style themselves while being agnostic to the viewport.

There is currently a lot of developer interest in getting a feature like Container Queries (née "Element Queryies") shipped in a browser.

2-min Catchup

Here are official'ish documents to outline the developer community's desires.

Instructions

CloudFlare is an awesome reverse cache proxy and CDN that provides DNS, free HTTPS (TLS) support, best-in-class performance settings (gzip, SDCH, HTTP/2, sane Cache-Control and E-Tag headers, etc.), minification, etc.

Make sure you have registered a domain name.
Sign up for CloudFlare and create an account for your domain.
In your domain registrar's admin panel, point the nameservers to CloudFlare's (refer to this awesome list of links for instructions for various registrars).
From the CloudFlare settings for that domain, enable HTTPS/SSL and set up a Page Rule to force HTTPS redirects. (If you want to get fancy, you can also enable automatic minification for text-based assets [HTML/CSS/JS/SVG/etc.], which is a pretty cool feature if you don't want already have a build step for minification.)
If you

Theming Slack for OSX

So, you love Slack, but you hate applications with large white backgrounds? Why not use Dark Mode!

Unfortunately, Slack does not have a Dark Mode, although it's on their list of possibilities.

But, don't fret - there is a solution! Because the slack native desktop apps are just wrappers around a web app, we can inject our own CSS to customize the application to our liking.

	/*

	# The Mad CSScientist's Basic CSS Stylesheet
	written by Tommy Hodgins: https://gist.github.com/tomhodgins/e330ec1826d1cde2b8b0

	## Usage
	Add this stylesheet to barebones HTML documents to instantly add some sensible defaults for text or documentation

	<link href=http://staticresource.com/basic.css rel=stylesheet>

	const I = x => x
	const K = x => y => x
	const A = f => x => f (x)
	const T = x => f => f (x)
	const W = f => x => f (x) (x)
	const C = f => y => x => f (x) (y)
	const B = f => g => x => f (g (x))
	const S = f => g => x => f (x) (g (x))
	const S_ = f => g => x => f (g (x)) (x)
	const S2 = f => g => h => x => f (g (x)) (h (x))

	/**
	* Gulp Packages
	* =============
	* Import our gulp packages.
	*/

	import gulp from 'gulp';
	import svgmin from 'gulp-svgmin';
	import svgstore from 'gulp-svgstore';
	import cheerio from 'gulp-cheerio';

	/**
	* S-expression parser
	*
	* Recursive descent parser of a simplified sub-set of s-expressions.
	*
	* NOTE: the format of the programs is used in the "Essentials of interpretation"
	* course: https://github.com/DmitrySoshnikov/Essentials-of-interpretation
	*
	* Grammar:
	*

	/! Microsoft EdgeHTML 13.10586 \| Copyright (C) Microsoft. All rights reserved. /

	address {
	display: block;
	font-style: italic;
	}

	article {
	display: block;
	unicode-bidi: embed;