Widget Tricks Newsletter #36

Be Tony Stark. Who is hiring? Next Composition in Firebase. Security in Mobile. Local-first using Powersync. Origin of DS_Store. Software is Changing Again. Flutter Liquid Glass, AI slop & much more.

📝Post of the month:

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💡Flutter Tips:

1. Create your own text input formatter using TextInputFormatter

Checkout this post and this video for more information.

2. Subdomain in localhost

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3. Nest composite filters in firestore

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💼 Job To Apply:

Lead Flutter Engineer at goTenna

We’re seeking a Flutter Software Lead to help lead and manage the development of goTenna’s mobile apps. The ideal candidate for this role will not only make significant individual contributions to mobile application development but will also play a key role in shaping the technical direction of software engineering practices at goTenna. This includes providing expert guidance on development methodologies, project estimation, and implementation strategies. Additionally, you will manage a small team of engineers at a hands-on capacity, balancing software engineering duties with leadership responsibilities. You will collaborate closely with the Director of Mobile Software to prioritize and delegate tasks for both you and your team.

Salary Range : $140,000 - $180,000

✍🏻 Articles to read:

Software Is Changing. Be Like Tony Stark in the Age of AI. By Burhanuddin Rashid

Software 3.0 is changing how we build software (again). Andrej, in his latest talk, gave an analogy about Ironman suits vs Ironman Robots. This blog captures my thoughts.

Security in Mobile Apps by VGV

We often neglect security in mobile apps and treat it as a housekeeping task that needs to be done at the end or when a code audit is required. This article addresses some common security concerns like social engineering or exposing sensitive user information in logs, etc.

By far, the most common security threat is social engineering. Be sure to educate your team and create well-defined trust structures which require face-to-face confirmation for any proposed changes that affect security.

Building Local-First Flutter Apps with Riverpod, Drift, and PowerSync by Dinko Marinac

Offline-first apps are a favorite problem to solve for mobile apps. This article explores the combination of tools to make your app seamless, assuming there is no internet.

Imagine a scenario where a user who creates a new task, updates its title twice, and then marks it complete—all while on airplane mode. Your sync engine must capture each step in the correct order to ensure proper synchronisation when connectivity returns

What do you mean by “Event-Driven”? by Martin Fowler

Currently, we are migrating our Flutter app (which has 50+ modules) to an event-driven architecture to allow the team to work independently using event contract mechanisms. This article was used to set up the foundation.

On the origins of DS_store by Arno Gourdol

The most annoying file I keep adding to .gitignore when opening a project on a Mac is .DS_Store. This article explains the origin of .DS_Store and why it was created.

📺 Videos to Watch:

1. Andrej Karpathy: Software Is Changing (Again)

Everything happening in the field of AI. The past, present, and future are described very well in this video. It already got 1.5M views which is rare for tech videos. A must-watch for all software engineers.

2. StringBuffer (Technique of the Week)

3. dart:convert (Technique of the Week)

📦 Code from Packages

Liquid Glass Renderer

A Flutter package for creating a stunning "liquid glass" or "frosted glass" effect. This package allows you to transform your widgets into beautiful, customizable glass-like surfaces that can blend and interact with each other.

Quantify

A type-safe unit of measurement converter library for Dart with elegant syntax, high precision, and optimal performance.

Flutter Downloader

A plugin for creating and managing download tasks. Supports iOS and Android.

This plugin is using WorkManager on Android and NSURLSessionDownloadTask on iOS to run download tasks in background.

🔖Post I Found Useful

1. How to Spot and Grow the Next-Gen AI Application Engineer

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2. Anyone struggling to get value out of coding LLMs?

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3. Why Reading Flutter’s Source Code Is the Ultimate Learning Hack

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4. AI is not our future

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😂Fun and Memes

A few days back, I posted about "AI Burnout", but it turns out to be "AI Slop" which I am fed up with. A hilarious take on AI-generated content 😂.

1. AI Slop: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

2. Clippy

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3. Congratulations on creating the one billionth repository on GitHub!

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4. Waterfall vs. Agile vs. AI vs. Vibe Coding

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👋🏻 That’s it, Folks

I am currently open for consultation part-time/full-time, specialized in mobile development with Android and Flutter. So if you are looking for someone to:

1. Build product architecture from scratch

2. Train existing developers to level up

3. Fix major bottlenecks in legacy codebase

4. Improve code quality

5. And most importantly, ship things faster

then reach out to me at info@burhanrashid52.com.