Samuel Cicero

With Javascript changing the landscape of modern web development, it's hard not to be excited and constantly learning / sharpening my skills. I've built many enterprise scale projects using both angularJS and Backbone.js, handling all off the client side logic, and communication with server side technologies / RESTful services. As easy as frameworks / libraries are to plug in these days, I still am no stranger to the core of javascript and what we have available to us today is built on. Depending on the size / scope of the project, their is always an appropriate tools for the job, but most important is learning / teaching the basics first. I've spent plenty of time defining custom objects with getter/setters, and manually binding events, and will always have a love for the fundamentals.

When looking at front end development at its core, there is nothing more important than HTML and CSS, and having the skills to master both. I have the most extensive knowledge about these subjects, and am always staying on top of current trends regarding new specs and browser compatibility. On the HTML front, i have spent a lot of recent time perfecting my craft with accessibility compliant markup from all aspects. this not only includes semantic tag structures and naming conventions, but full compatibility with screen readers and low contrast settings. As far as CSS, it has always been a passion for me as i have a background in design as well. I find it amazing what we are able now do with layout and flexbox that years ago we'd have to fallback on javascript for. I have styled countless applications, and am currently working on building a set of web components with modularized SASS included for completion seperation of styles . This also falls right into my love for SASS and what it has done for the web community as far as development goes. With the use of variables / mixins / function / includes / ect, we now have the ability to bring our stylesheets to life with organization and a methodology that is easy to follow and maintain.

I have had tons of experience using jQuery. From simple DOM manipulation/seelctions, to firing/listening to events, or iterating over objets. These days you find that you use less and less jQuery as you are less tied to the DOM with Data models and such, but jQuery is always a great tool to have in your back pocket when needed.

Backbone.js was my first time digging into MV* frameworks in javascript, and i fell in love and never looked back. The idea of backbone allowing you to completely divide your markup from your business logic, from your data model is a huge convenience when programming. I have tons of experience building single page apps with routing including in backbone, setting up complex listeners on models/collection to force rendering of new templates, and iteration over nested views with an inheritance model defined. One of the things i really enjoy about using Backbone is they do not make a lot of assumptions on implementation, and leave it to you to define your own style.

Learning git was an an adjustment for me coming off of using both Team Foundation Server and SVN previously, but once it clicked in my head it was full steam ahead. I have now worked in all kinds on environments including main line development, and a feature branch / pull request model. There are always new things to learn, usually stumbling on them as you need to do something, but what I have learned it no task in impossible (usually jsut a few commands away)

i have setup all kinds of tasks using grunt doing a variety of different things. For example: a dev build that would run a js and css linter, concat / compile all static resources, set formatting to expanded for easy debugging (or with source maps), set headers in your files with time stamps / last built, run unit tests, pass in env variables into files for QA / test envs, watch for changes in IDE to compile again a production build that would compile / gzip all files, add cache busting to static assets, compress images for better load times.

Marionette was a great framework to pick up for me because it patched a lot of the flaws that backbone had never accounted for. For example, the view / model / collection relationship became forced, with many new 'view' optioned extended off of the original Backbone.view. These new views allowed you to easily nest iterated views in parents, set up specific views for layouts / defined regions, and handle collections. Also i have taken advantage of using Bacbone.Radio to further enhance a broadcast messaging system across a singles page app with a request/reply promise system for sharing data.