I have been working on different technologies for over 20 years. PHP, Javascript, Java, Clojure and most recent, Python.
Even though I did some Java, it was just for a couple of months and I have been willing to use a statically-typed language for some time now. However, it's always difficult to find a job when you don't have experience with the language, even if it's quite new.
So I decided that instead of just reading some books, tutorials, videos, or other sources, I will build a side project using Go.
TL DR: I'm creating a project to practice GO and HTMX and document what I learned. Don't use it in real life.
I tried solving a simple program using different languages (Python, Java, Rust and Go) and I found a very good balance between learning curve, ease of coding, documentation and an active community in Go.
I happen to have a very strong opinion regarding the javascript and frontend direction for the past 6-7 years. I have found over-engineered solutions to very simple problems that we never had in the JQuery era. I've tried React and Vue and just got very frustrated on how complicated things are and how little benefit you get from using those tools other than getting hired in some full-stack position where you will kind of understand the front end and noticing that the rest of the team also kind of understand how it works.
I heard of HTMX a couple of months ago and I loved the idea as soon as I read the documentation. Just go back to what HTTP and HTML were meant from the beginning and build everything on the server. Use whatever backend language you prefer and actually enjoy programming it.
If you have never heard of it, I recommend that you read this Hypermedia document.
It's often difficult to choose a portfolio project that is not too small, or too big. Sure, a hospital can be VERY large. However, it can be just a part of it and not the whole thing.
I also happen to be working on a project for a small Hospital that has very specific needs, so I can bring most of it to his project and do both at the same time. I will be able to play and experiment here while solving a real life problem.
This is not an application intended for real life use. It's mostly a therapy place for me that I can share with the world as I LOVE programming, and it relaxes me to learn. I have never done something like what I have in mind for this project.
My idea is to have some kind of blog. At this point is to have log files when I push changes explaining what I did along with the reasoning around my decision to do what I did. Maybe it can help someone to decide on a pattern or tool to use.
If there is interest from a single person, I will add something to have discussions on my decisions as this will be a learning experience for me. I will investigate if GitHub has something for this.
I will probably do very big changes from time to time as I learn about Go and HTMX specially in the project structure.
What I'm familiar with.
- Postgres
- Docker
- Bootstrap
- AWS CDK (initially. I might look into Terraform)
And I will add things as they are needed.
I'll try to commit the code that I already have in parts. Some of the tools that I use were not really chosen by me, but by someone in some mix of tutorials that I read or view. So far I have:
- Base models for addresses
- Migrations using Fizz
- Docker compose file for development with Postgres
These will probably change over time as I learn about different tools.
With the little experience that I have with go at this moment, I want to emulate the tools that I'm familiar with. Something that I like about frameworks like Laravel, Django and Spring is the option to execute commands using all the service related tools from the application.
I like the minimalism that Go has, so I want to use as minimal tools as possible. My intention is tu have this repo as a base module to be used in a repo with the HTMX implementation and another repo with a CLI program for different purposes.