The past two and a half or so weeks have been really productive, especially with the banking project.

Bank

Errors and tests

The bank project underwent a fairly substantial rewrite to add proper error handling throughout, as well as write tests for all the relevant packages. It was a fantastic learning experience and the project is in a much better state for it.

You can read more about the rewrite here.

HTTP API

After I did the above rewrites, I could finally implement the HTTP REST API. This is really needed, especially for the iOS client (and other clients in the future). The current TCP CLI client is more for bank-to-bank communication.

The HTTP API was really easy to write using the Go standard library and Gorilla Mux. The Gorilla Mux package may not be needed, but the overhead as far as I can tell is minimal. If the amount of functionality needed for the HTTP API is not increased, I’ll take the package out. When possible it’s always better to go fully with the standard library.

Go books

I’ve been making my way through Programming in Go: Creating Applications for the 21st Century (Developer’s Library) but it is seriously dense.

I’m a subscriber of the Golangweekly newsletter and they shared an incredible special on two Go books: Go in Action and Go in Practice - both at 45% off. These looked like a better read for getting to know Go as they weren’t outright reference books. Also, despite the titles, these serve different purposes. Stoked.

Misc

• Got news back from the t-shirt project I’ve been doing. The total cost is double my willing budget so getting a rough first draft back. Still excited to see the result.
• I’ve been reading the Bleach manga in gaps during the day and loving it.
• Going to gym twice a day and eating as much as I can (healthily), loving the way I feel.
• I’m really missing the mountains.
• There’s an outside chance I will be visiting Switzerland in the coming weeks which is exciting. Trying to get the Swiss Embassy in the USA to let me apply for a Schengen visa here, instead of having to fly all the way back to SA for it.
• A good friend of mine Victor is coming through to the USA for a month which will be awesome. Trips to NYC imminent.
• One Piece is getting ridiculously good.

Conclusion

The past week and a bit has been great, especially with how much work I’ve done on the banking project. I’ve got some calls set up with prepaid card providers this week so can hopefully make progress on that.

I’ll also be doing some work on the iOS app this week, rewriting it to use the HTTP API and then getting ready for store deploy. Exciting.

Cover image: One Piece