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Every Tuesday at 12pm Mountain Time

weekly-dev- chat logo

A casual weekly virtual chat mostly focused on web and software development.

Weekly Dev Chat is a place to ask questions, hear different viewpoints, and get to know your fellow developers. Every week there is an initial topic posted to get the discussion started. Sometimes we discuss the initial topic the entire chat, and other times the topic changes several times through the natural flow of the conversation.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

  • 1 min read

Edmonton IRL: Swap Meet and Hardware Show - January 28th

In the Edmonton area and looking to find a good home for hardware you no longer use? Looking for some "new to you" hardware? Have something cool you want to show off? Just want to meet and hang with other technologists in Edmonton?

If you answered yes to any of the above, then you should join at the Weekly Dev Chat IRL: Swap Meet and Hardware Show on January 28th!

For more details and to register, please see the event on Luma:

https://luma.com/dbx9zrfr

Feel free to post questions to this messages thread or DM me.

Weekly Dev Chat IRL: Swap Meet and Hardware Show Image

  • 1 min read

What's in a name? That which we call a var by any other name would make code smell

In today's (2026-01-27) chat we will discuss names.

In Clean Code (Robert C. Martin), naming variables, functions, classes, and other structures is compared to naming a child. Yet we still see placeholders like x, tmp, or d littered throughout codebases.

How do you approach naming? • Do you iterate endlessly? write → delete → rewrite—until the name feels perfect? • Do you drop a quick name and come back to refactor later? • Or do you stick with the first name and tell others to stop “wasting time” on naming?

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

Cookie jar labeled as 'Basmati Rice'

  • 1 min read

I Attended ${EVENT_NAME} Because ${YOUR_ANSWER_HERE}

In today's (2026-01-20) chat we will discuss why you attend technical events. I'm curious what makes you click the register button? What makes an event worth your time, attention, and possibly money? What makes you say "That event was totally worth it!" versus "That event was totally NOT worth it!".

Inspired by the WDC hosting more IRL events and looking for ideas to ~~steal~~ borrow.

Everyone and anyone are welcome to join as long as you are kind, supportive, and respectful of others.

P.S. - As usual the feature image was created using ChatGPT. This one did not disappoint!

2026-01-20 Feature Image