Innovative Sock Technology

Responsive Screens, Readable JSON, and More

Author

David Thurman
January 30, 2025

In partnership with

Morning folks! This is Beyond Code - the newsletter designed to help developers build their careers, one Thursday at a time.

Did You Know…

There Are Over 700 Programming Languages

Developers have no shortage of programming options—from the practical to the utterly bizarre. Here are a few rare gems:

  • INTERCAL: Designed in 1972 as a parody, INTERCAL makes coding intentionally frustrating with commands like PLEASE (and yes, you must be polite for your program to run).

  • Whitespace: This 2003 creation uses only spaces, tabs, and line breaks as syntax. To the untrained eye, a Whitespace program looks completely blank.

  • LOLCODE: Inspired by internet memes, LOLCODE lets you write code in “LOLspeak.” Example: HAI 1.2 CAN HAS VAR?

  • Brainf#ck: This minimalist language has only eight commands, making it one of the most challenging to read or write—hence the name.

  • Piet: Named after artist Piet Mondrian, this language uses abstract art as code. Programs look like colorful paintings.

    Imagine all of those options out there, and some people still have to code in PHP…

Handy Coding Tool

Web Dev Testing Made Easier - Responsively

Building a responsive website usually requires a lot of testing, screen resizing, and annoyance. If you don’t love that constant headache, check out Responsively.

This app lets you see various screen sizes all at the same time. It also mirrors input as you navigate the site so you can see everything in realtime. So now that 1% of users on a tablet can finally get some UI support

Tech Highlights

CES 2025: The Tech Future is Now (And It’s a Little Weird)

This year’s CES brought a mix of mind-blowing tech and “wait, but why?” moments. Here are some of the highlights that caught our attention:

  • Roborock’s Saros Z70: Robot vacuums are getting smarter—and apparently stronger? The Saros Z70 comes with a robotic arm that picks up objects off the floor before vacuuming. They demoed this groundbreaking tech by having their robot pick up a few socks (to moderate success). (Source)

  • Aptera’s Solar-Powered EV: Aptera debuted an electric car that charges itself with built-in solar panels. Its futuristic design cuts drag by 70% compared to other EVs, giving it a potential range of up to 1,000 miles. (Source)

  • This Laptops a Grower: Lenovo’s new laptop, the ThinkBook Plus Gen 6, actually contains a rolling screen that extends the 14in display up to 17. (Source)

  • Xpeng’s Land Aircraft Carrier: Xpeng presented a flying car inside a truck. Yes, you read that right. The Land Aircraft Carrier concept lets you drive your truck, park it, and then take off in a smaller vehicle (Source)

CES 2025 gave us tech that’s equal parts genius and “what were they thinking?”—and we can’t wait to see which ideas actually stick.

(Hint: probably not the flying car.)

Here’s Why Over 4 Million Professionals Read Morning Brew

  • Business news explained in plain English

  • Straight facts, zero fluff, & plenty of puns

  • 100% free

Programming Tip

Break Up Big Functions – In Code, Size Matters

Functions that do too much are hard to read, test, and maintain. By breaking up large functions into smaller, single-purpose ones, you’ll improve your code’s modularity and reusability.

Why it helps:

  • Better readability: Smaller functions are easier to understand at a glance.

  • Easier testing: Unit testing becomes more straightforward when functions have a single purpose.

  • Reusability: Smaller functions can be reused in different parts of your app.

Bad:

function processEverything(data) {

    // A 300-line function... yikes.

}

Good:

function validateData(data) { }

function calculateResults(data) { }

function generateReport(results) { }

Ask the Experts

"I am about to begin learning my first programming language. Is there any advice you have with regards to the learning process?"

Focus on a task you want to accomplish. One of my first programming languages was Python. Picking up the Python book felt like trying to boil the ocean since it's useful for so many tasks. When I decided to focus just on web apps with the Django framework I gained enough fundamentals to progress to learning the whole language.

Brian Morton, Owner @ Morton Software Insights

Open Source Highlight

“Wanna Play A Game?” No? How About Make One? - Ancient Beast

Ancient Beast is a free, open-source, turn-based strategy game that you can play directly in your browser. Engage in tactical battles against other players by summoning a diverse array of creatures, each with unique abilities, to outmaneuver and defeat your opponents. Designed to be easy to learn yet challenging to master, Ancient Beast offers an engaging experience for strategy enthusiasts.

As an open-source project, Ancient Beast invites developers, artists, and enthusiasts to contribute to its ongoing development. Whether you’re interested in coding, creating artwork, or simply providing feedback, your participation can help shape the future of the game.

What’s Open Source?
“Open sourced projects” refer to projects that have their code open to the public. They allow anyone to contribute to the project and help maintain it. Not only are they a great way to get hands on experience early on in your career, they also provide you a way to add bigger projects to your resume!

Shameless Plug

Enjoying Beyond Code?

If you enjoy our newsletter, be sure to check out our full site! We’ve got:

• Courses for building your tech career.
• AI Tools that make your job search a breeze.
• Interviews with professional developers.
• Handy resources to make coding life easier.
• A Discord community to network with fellow devs.

www.beyondcode.app - Join for free!

Pop Quiz

Can You Spot the Bug?

function runCalculation(a, b) {
  var total = a / b;
  return total * 1.5;
}

console.log(runCalculation(10, 2));
console.log(runCalculation(5, 0));
console.log(runCalculation(-100, 10));

Find the answer at the bottom of the newsletter!

Rate this weeks newsletter:

Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.

Pop Quiz Answer: This will raise a ZeroDivisionError since dividing by zero is undefined. You would need to create a way to handle this!