In this episode, I had the absolute pleasure of talking with Mihalis Tsoukalos, a long-time Twitter friend and someone who's given me loads of advice, about software development.

He shared with me so much about his journey with C-based languages, particularly Python, C, Go, & Rust. He talked about Linux shells including Bash and Zsh (and of course the excellent Oh My Zsh project). On the flip side, he shared why he's no fan of Java and Microsoft Windows, preferring almost all things Linux and Unix.

Then, he finished up by talking about file formats such as Latex, Markdown, and AsciiDoc (my favourite format), the importance of software documentation, and what he believes it takes to become a professional developer. You don't want to miss this closing aspect of the episode!

Some key takeaways are:

• Start by writing small command-line utilities, re-implementing the ones that you know. Then, gradually take on bigger, more complex ones.
• Keep writing code and keep improving each time.
• Read a lot of code, experiment even more, talk to other developers, and fail better each time. Even if you only learn a little something, it's something more than you knew before.
• Software documentation is very important.
• To learn Rust, you really have to do it full-time.
• He's a big fan of Go because of the speed, size of the standard library, and because it's a simple and fast language.

Links

• Mastering Go, 3rd edition (written by Mihalis)
• Go Systems Programming (written by Mihalis)
• Latex
• AsciiDoc
• Markdown
• Oh My Zsh

Guests: Mihalis Tsoukalos (@mactsouk).

Hosted By: Matthew Setter.

Thanks for tuning in to Free the Geek. If you'd like to be a guest on the podcast or know someone who'd make a great guest, email me: matthew@matthewsetter.com. This podcast is produced by Matthew Setter.

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