Phacks’ weekly roundup #3 — September 4th issue

Talks

Max Stoiber — I want you to contribute to open source
Max Stoiber, the esteemed creator of React Boilerplate (15k★) and Styled Components (10k★), wants you and me and everyone to contribute to Open Source. He makes some compelling arguments and has some great tips 👌

Articles

Paul Sherman — Redux Middleware Tutorial
Redux Middlewares, such as the Redux Dev Tools, may sometimes feel like magic. Have you ever felt puzzled by the applyMiddleware shenanigans? Want to know how they really work? Or learn how to write one on your own? Then go read along! (Thanks to AuroreM for tweeting it!)

Li Haoyi — What's Functional Programming All About?
Time is a flat circle, and Functional Programming (invented in the 50s) is becoming trendy again. If you’re curious about FP, jump on the bandwagon and follow this tiramisu-recipe-based great explanation.

Jeff Dickey — Evolution of the Heroku CLI: 2008-2017
Looking back on 9 years of maintaining and evolving their CLI (Command Line Interface ) tool, Heroku shares what they have learnt in the process (and why they rewrote it from the ground up in NodeJS). Must-read if you want to write a CLI!

Libraries

Workbox
Workbox was built by the Google Chrome team to make it easier to build caching strategies for your PWA (so that your app is available offline!). As a bonus, it provides an Offline Google Analytics feature, so that you can continue to gather data even when network conditions are harsh.

Vorpal
“Vorpal is Node's first framework for building interactive CLI applications.” Speaking of CLIs, I’m actually trying Vorpal out right now for a small personal project and it’s a pleasure to work with!