Front-end TDD sucks. Let's make it better!
Featured Post
02.05.2022
I am a practitioner of test-driven development. I feel the code I write is better while practicing TDD. I am also a front-end developer, mainly using React to build web applications. Recently I have uncovered a tension between these two aspects of myself. Over the last six months I’ve spent more time working on back-end (python) code than front-end. Naturally, I’ve been applying TDD to my work. Almost immediately, I noticed how much easier it was to practice TDD in Python than React. It was only…
Recent Posts
Learning to "See the Boxes"
1 minutes to read
The twitter debate about "should designers code?" is meme-worthy topic, but I'd like to bring the discourse somewhere back to the middle. I believe that designers should understand the structure of the elements on the page, but not necessarily understand the details for how they get there. I believe the main skill in this is learning to "see the boxes". What I mean by this is to be able to look at a design and imagine all the elements inside of containing boxes. This fundamental skill can help…
Reusability in React through Composition
3 minutes to read
I recently identified a common anti-pattern that plagues a lot of React code. This pattern starts off as innocent, as many anti-patterns do. This pattern seems like the simplest solution to the problem at hand but leads to the death of reusability by one-thousand paper-cuts. This pattern is props . Now before you get out the pitchforks, hear me out. Props are one of the handful of tools we have on our React tool-belt for passing around data. It is often taught that props are the way to get data…
Site Revamp with Chakra and Gatsby
1 minutes to read
Introducing my new personal site built using Chakra UI and Gatsby ! Background The last personal website I created was done in a mad rush right before applying for jobs. It was my senior year of college and I wanted to get something out the door. I have since outgrown what that site can offer. Motivation I am interested in writing more frequently and therefore I need more of a publication tool. Since I already use React at work, and have been spending a lot of time learning Chakra UI, Gatsby…
About me
I'm Adrian Aleixandre, an engineer and designer in Fargo, ND. Right now I'm working at Simon Data.
My vision
I am passionate about building UX-research backed products in autonomous cross-functional teams.
Interests
My favorite technical tools are React, Elm, Clojure, and Elixir. I make home-made ice cream often with neat flavors like "Toast", and "Coffee Stout".
Contact
Drop me a line at adrian.aleixandre@gmail.com or on Twitter @_aaleixandre
Adrian Aleixandre • 2022
Made with in Fargo, ND