Hey there! Welcome to Developer’s Corner, a segment of the FoodSpan blog where we give you insight on how FoodSpan is developed! Hopefully we’ll be able to make this a weekly segment, looking into product development, website development, mobile apps, and anything else tech related to FoodSpan. In addition, we’ll get different devs every week, so you get to meet the FoodSpan dev team!

Picture of Matt Wang

First things first, a formal introduction. I’m Matthew Wang (though people call me Matt), your lead developer: I’m the team lead for Website and Application Development, and helper with Product Development. In English, that means I’ve coded this website, web application (WebSpan), and our mobile companion apps, with the help of our awesome dev team! In addition, I help with product development, marketing, digital design, and anything else that needs help.

Why FoodSpan

Picture of Matt Wang

I wasn’t part of the original 8 people in our DE project: I was brought onboard for my web development skills, but also because I was pretty interested in the idea of FoodSpan. Since then, I’ve put my blood, sweat, and some tears into the project. Originally, I was supposed to be a web developer, but it turned out that they also needed app, backend, and product development skills. I rose to the challenge, and while it’s been pretty hard, I’ve got respect for the FoodSpan team.

I’m pretty happy to be working on FoodSpan, and hopefully we’re able to make a difference with food insecurity.

A Normal Weekday

I can’t say that I’m used to a “work schedule” (being a teenager who only works part-time), but I can fill you in on what my typical day looks like:

8:00 AM - Wake Up, Shower

8:30 AM - Self-cooked Breakfast (I like eggs, so that usually is part of the meal)

9:30 AM - Browse Internet (Reddit, The Economist, NYT, etc.)

10:00 AM - Work Period 1 (normally non-FoodSpan related)

12:30 PM - Self-cooked Lunch (Usually it’s Udon noodles + some sort of meat and vegetables. I like Japanese food!)

1:00 PM - Rec Time (Video Games, Starbucks, Movie, etc.)

3:00 PM - Work Period 2 (normally FoodSpan related work)

5:30 PM - Rec Time

6:00 PM - Dinner

7:00 PM - Prep for Meeting + Finish Extra Work

8:00 PM - FoodSpan Team Meeting (yep, every single day!)

10:30 PM - Meeting ends, Rec Time (normally when I stream)

12:30 AM - Shower, Go to Bed

1:00 AM - Sleeeeeeep

And yeah, that’s what my weekday schedule looks like during the summer. Not particularly weird or anything, but I do go hard in the paint for FoodSpan. I’m a bit sleep-deprived somedays on crunches (for example, we did a 12 hour crunch to figure out some kinks in the display), but it’s mostly because I actually care about our product. Plus, it’s pretty fun, and educational.

Worktools

Website development.

Marshall McLuhan once said:

We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us.

What tools you use are pretty important, and that’s no different in any form of development. I’m passionate about the technology stack that I do use, and it’s pretty cool stuff. Let’s go over what tools and applications I love to use.

Applications

  • GitHub is a Git-based version control system, and it’s pretty damn popular. We host all of our open-source code on GitHub, at our organization.
  • Atom is my text editor of choice (pictured). It has a robust feature set, even better extendability, and it’s made by the guys at GitHub. It works with every language, has thousands of plugins, and feels pretty awesome.
  • Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for image-manipulation, and I’m lucky enough to have a school license for it. We’ve used the Adobe suite to make logos, banners, mockups, and most other images on the site.
  • Discord is our VOIP service. It’s server-based, has different channels, varies member permissions, works on browsers and all other platforms, and most importantly, is free.
  • Meistertask is our Trello-like organization board, that lets us figure out what work we need to do and when. Keeps us agile!

Platforms, Frameworks, and Libraries

  • Jekyll is the static-site generator that we use to code and maintain this site. It makes writing blog posts like this a breeze, editing cross-site code a walk in the park, and general web development a piece of cake.
  • Ionic is the mobile cross-app framework that we use to make our FoodSpan mobile companion apps. Ionic is based on web technologies, which means that our app works on iOS, Android, and even the Windows Phone! Plus, cool CSS animations.
  • Arduino is the microcontroller that we used for our product prototype: it has a vibrant community, awesome set of features and plugins, and looks pretty sleek. In addition, they have their own IDE and product set. Cool!

Conclusion

Hopefully you enjoyed this edition of developer’s corner! If you want to contact me, or anybody else on the FoodSpan team, check out our team page. I also have a website if you’re into that kinda stuff.

Until next time!