Week 39 progress

Hello there!

It's time for the weekly status update. I hope you all had a great week!

Progress

This week, I've worked for about 20 hours on Dev Concepts. It was probably a tad too much as I'm now feeling exhausted, but I really wanted to make progress on the Web Services part.

I've completed the following sections:

• What are APIs
• Why use APIs
• API Design
• REST, RESTful, and Web APIs
• GraphQL
• Server-Sent Events (SSE)
• WebSockets (WSS)
• RPC

I'm pretty happy about the results, but it's really a grind. Even if I know the subjects quite well, I need a lot of time to gather my ideas, to research the subjects, and to make sure that I cover all the important aspects, etc. It's also really difficult to introduce ideas and concepts in a logical and easy-to-follow order. Technology is complex, and it's a maze. Technical writing is definitely not like writing fiction ;-)

I've clearly articulated the difference between REST, RESTful, and Web APIs, as well as why HATEOAS is so important. I sincerely hope that my readers will get to know the real REST architectural style and will build actual REST APIs. I'm not a "RESTafarian", but I think that it's really important to understand that REST is not about pretty URLs!

I've covered the history of RPC APIs and explained why RPC is still useful. I've also explained why I consider that most REST APIs are actually RPC in disguise.

During the week, I took the opportunity to publish a thread about APIs: https://twitter.com/dSebastien/status/1424661897446629379

As usual, the goal is to share a condensed version of some of the ideas covered in Dev Concepts, and of course to try and raise more awareness about the project.

Yesterday, I've also published one more article extracted from the first volume: https://javascript.plainenglish.io/how-to-get-started-in-it-and-grow-as-a-software-developer-a0004790d735. There's a lot more that I'd like to write about career evolution & career paths in IT, but it'll have to wait ;-)

I did not progress on the copywriting part all that much, and unfortunately, the designer won't be able to help me with the re-design before September. It's a small bump in the road, but it gives me a bit more time to revise the marketing copy.

About the marketing copy, I've been contacted by a copywriter that proposed to help me improve it. Getting some help from a professional will certainly boost progress on that front.

Numbers

So far, I've spent ~275 days and about 360 hours working on Dev Concepts. Consider that Dev Concepts is not the only thing that I'm working on. I normally dedicate ~10 hours a week to it, so I can't do miracles ;-). But it shows that I won't let go. I'll keep working on it until all twelve volumes have been released.

Actually, I'll keep improving the content afterward. My goal is for Dev Concepts to be an evergreen series. IT moves fast, and the content will need regular updates to cover new evolutions in the field. In addition, the ideas backlog is full of concepts that I want to add: https://trello.com/b/4oK5lsD1/dev-concepts-ideas.

There were ~50 visitors on the landing page this week, so it stays quite constant.

No new sales either.

Next week

Next week, I'll try to get back to a normal rhythm and rest a bit. Now that RPC is covered, I can write the section about SOAP, as it'll be easier to explain where it comes from. I intend to explain why SOAP is still used by so many larger organizations & financial institutions.

After that, I should be able to cover SOA & ESB, which will conclude the HUGE chapter about software architecture.

Have a great week!

About Sébastien