Welcome to the Dev Journal
I’m not a big fan of the word “blog”; it often evokes the idea of personal thoughts shared publicly, and this endeavour is something quite different. I find that “Journal” is a rather comprehensive term for the story I’d like to tell, and prefixing it with “Developer” or “Dev” makes it complete.
In this journal, my primary focus (for now) is a single, exciting project: the creation of a full-stack product leveraging the power of the Django framework and a carefully selected array of supporting technologies.
A quick note about the name I’ve chosen here. Several years ago, I was considering a good series of names I could use for my development projects. I realised that using the names of precious stones might be a rather good idea, hence we have Beryl here. I also have other projects named like Amber, Onyx, and Jaspis. This naming convention makes the whole process more enjoyable for me.
Reimagining Beryl: An Open-Source Evolution
After some initial brainstorming, I’ve decided to embark on building the next iteration of my existing application, Beryl.
Subsequently, all the code I write here will be available on a public GitHub Repository.
The Genesis of Beryl
Beryl is a personal application I developed to meticulously track my cherished collectibles, including books and vinyl records. Currently designed for individual use, and while capable of displaying public lists, it falls short of its full potential. Driven by a passion for the concept, I’ve made the decision to open-source this project and rebuild it from the ground up, fostering community involvement and innovation.
Charting the Course: Our Development Roadmap
Here’s a glimpse into the journey ahead and the key milestones we’ll be tackling:
- Code Repository: Establishing a dedicated repository to house all the code discussed and developed within this journal.
- User-Centric Development: Gathering and prioritising User Stories to ensure the application is built with user needs at its core.
- Architectural Blueprint: Carefully designing the application’s architecture and selecting the most suitable components and frameworks.
- Conceptual Insights: Explaining the fundamental principles and design choices behind the code, focusing on overarching concepts rather than granular line-by-line explanations.
- Community-Driven Growth: Building an application that welcomes and facilitates contributions from the wider development community.
- Deployment Pipeline: Implementing a comprehensive build chain to enable seamless deployment of the application as a container.
- Production Readiness: Deploying the application and establishing robust status monitoring for ongoing maintenance and performance analysis.
Let the Journey Begin!
With the roadmap laid out, it’s time to take the first step on this exciting development adventure.
Read next: The Repository