
The best boilerplate app is the one you code yourself - Hyra
https://mindthecode.com/the-best-boilerplate-app-is-the-one-you-code-yourself/
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dopeboy
As someone who works for themself, balancing productivity with learning is on
my mind a lot.

Yes, creating my own boilerplate is attractive from a learning experience.
Except when it's not learning but figuring out how to configure Webpack. Or
how to get HMR working. Then it just becomes a chore and I explore Github for
the best boilerplate for my needs.

To me, a boilerplate and a library aren't significantly different. The former
is just exposed a lot more.

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taneq
Likewise self-employed, I find myself increasingly strict on making new
knowledge 'pay rent'. It's heresy hereabouts to say "I don't want to learn
that new thing" but if you spend a week learning a new framework or package to
solve a problem when you could code up a custom solution in three days, you've
wasted time. Learning is an investment and you only get returns if you benefit
from the knowledge.

Sharpening your saw is great but if you just want some firewood you should use
your trusty old blocksplitter.

~~~
stcredzero
_if you spend a week learning a new framework or package to solve a problem
when you could code up a custom solution in three days, you 've wasted time._

However, if you code up a custom solution that ignores some important detail
of some deeper area of knowledge like security or concurrency, then your
"3-day" solution might literally wind up costing millions or hundreds of
millions. (Exercise: Name some famous historical precedents from famous
companies relevant today.) Of course, the downside for your garden variety
consultant is probably only worse by a factor of 2 to 10, but the point
remains.

This is why the mastery of knowledge and practical experience necessary to
reliably do such a cost-benefit analysis is very valuable. The upside in
making decisions like this is something like saving 4 days or a week of
programmer time. The downside can be literally worth a 21st century fortune.

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nathan_f77
I have to disagree. Writing your own boilerplate can be a great way to learn a
new stack, but I think seasoned developers should use (and contribute to)
projects that are maintained by the community.

Whenever I come back to a boilerplate project, they're usually using the most
recent versions of libraries, or they have some great new features. Examples:

* Rails Composer, for Rails apps: [https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer](https://github.com/RailsApps/rails-composer)

* Ignite, for React Native: [https://github.com/infinitered/ignite](https://github.com/infinitered/ignite)

I do have one hand-written script that I use for all of my static sites. It
copies all the static files into a build directory, gzips HTML/CSS/JS, syncs
everything to an S3 bucket, then makes an API request to Cloudflare to purge
the cache. But I'm planning to move all my static sites to Netlify [1], so I
won't need that script for much longer.

[1] [https://www.netlify.com](https://www.netlify.com)

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cooervo
Please don't put so many gifs near text, it is annoying and gives headache

~~~
Double_a_92
And we can't read it at work without looking like you're looking at memes...

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majewsky
I find the occasional GIF acceptable if it adds something to the text or the
presentation. In this particular article, I would get rid of the GIF at the
top, but keep the one near the Subscribe box.

~~~
Hyra
Ironically, I only added these header gifs to two recent posts i did as i read
they increase readability (ux wise). Even though not convinced I did feel i
should try.

Thanks for the feedback, i'll go back to content-only.

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oneweekwonder
I'm in need of js boilerplate. Currently I have a hacked together $,
slickgrid, jdorn/json-editor, $-ui, bs3 setup I minify with closure-compiler.
All 1.8MB(cdn) with my code 50KB.

I'm running the above on a flask/swagger api. But I need a backbone or
something similar.

I looked at reclinejs but their more focused around the data. So missing some
slickgrid functionality I need.

I tried to componentize it with mithril... but mithril great; the way I want
to use it wrong.

So back to drawing board thinking of componentize with $.onmount next. I just
need some small kind of mvc, I'm looking at backbone. But I need a slickgrid
dataview that understands collections nicely :/

gah!?! why do I do this to myself!

~~~
fourstar
Learn React and then use next.js.

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RHSman2
I used Flask App Builder. Spent a lot of time understanding it. But way better
than building my own.

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King-Aaron
I keep thinking to myself that I should write a MEAN-stack boilerplate for
myself, but it's finding the free time that stings me.

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gandutraveler
I created my boilerplate app by customizing other boilerplate.

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maxscam
I discovered this myself, creating boilers is underrated.

