Dougie Richardson

Every day is a school day

Tag: React

  • Expo on Codespaces

    Expo on Codespaces

    What will I need?

    How long will it take?

    About ten minutes.

    Lets give it a go!

    Create a new Codespace using the blank template:

    Once initalised, create an empty Expo React App (select (y)es when prompted):

    npx create-expo-app example

    Install the expo-cli command line tool globally:

    npm install -g expo-cli

    Change into your example project’s folder and edit App.js, maybe adding an image or whatever, before updating packages:

    cd example
npm update

    Login to your Expo account from the command line:

    Create an account with Expo and login using the expo login command.

    Expo-cli supports tunnelling, a proxy URL accesible from any device over the Internet, using ngrok. 

    expo start --tunnel

    After installing the requested library (@expo/ngrok@^4.1.0), you should see a QR code:

    Open the Expo Go app on your device, login, and then scan the QR code. The app will bundle and be available on your device.

    Further reading

  • Metro not starting automatically on Ubuntu

    Metro not starting automatically on Ubuntu

    Expected behaviour:

    npm run android

    Should launch Metro and an Android emulator but Metro is not launched. Manually launching metro works:

    npm start

  • Tech for Good – Volunteers Assemble

    Tech for Good – Volunteers Assemble

    The message at this year’s Tech for Good Summit was that as a society we face significant challenges, only by working together can we have an impact on those challenges.

    One of the day’s events, Volunteers Assemble, saw three big challenges identified by the Scottish Tech Army presented to small groups of volunteers. We had two and a half hours to develop an innovative solution.

    Although a short amount of time, it was surprising how much each team achieved. Our challenge was an educational web app to help teachers deliver computing lessons.

    I try to focus on a single lesson, something to take away for future projects. Here it was the value of timeboxing.

    A short sprint focussed team members, resulting in two prototypes for the client to choose. There are two advantages. If the team misunderstands the brief or client can’t convey the requirement, little time or resources are wasted. Secondly there are often so many ideas that teams can end up in decision paralysis.

    It is important roles are assigned and understood, but that comes with effective communication and anyone volunteering learns that skill quite quickly.

    That just leaves presenting. I’ve a lengthy career in the armed forces behind me, and confidence speaking in front of people is part of that. I realised some time ago that that’s not true of everyone.