Marko Manojlović is our colleague from Kragujevac. He has been living and working in Belgrade for 7 years, and he has been a part of the Quantox team for two years now. His love for programming is confirmed by the fact that he is a Full Stack programmer. He mostly uses JavaScript and React, but he is always willing to learn something new. Hence his interest in "Deno" and his desire to share his knowledge with us. You can watch his lecture at Quantox Virtual Confhere.

• Have you ever regretted your choice to become a programmer?

“No, I haven't. I find this job very demanding and challenging but it is equally exciting.”  

• What attracted you to work at Quantox?

“Marketing. (laughs) I worked in the previous company for 5 years and I was engaged not only in programming but also in organizational and leadership activities, after which I wanted to fully dedicate myself only to programming and further development of technical skills. Quantox made it possible for me.”  

• Would you like to pursue programming throughout your entire career?

“Generally yes, but under different conditions. I need to be motivated by the job and it needs to fit in with the client's requirements. Also, to always follow new technologies and enter new areas such as AI and machine learning.”  

• What is the most absurd prejudice about developers and IT people?

“That they are not social types of people, ie that they are not inclined to socialize with people. And the other is that developers sit and code all the time. That is not true at all. Programming is only one part of the job and there is also planning, software design, and constant learning.”  

• Best work experience at Quantox so far?

“Business trips to Germany and Romania. Business trips are always interesting because we get to know the business culture of other countries and we also meet clients in person with whom we usually communicate online on a daily basis.”  

• Favorite Quantox benefit?

“Flexible working hours. Quantox has shown that it can really work, especially at the time of the Covid19. I like the fact that I have the opportunity to organize my own working hours.”  

• Deno or Node?

“Currently Node.”  

• What are your impressions of the conference?

“Positive. I was surprised that so many people signed up. But of course, there is always room for improvement in terms of organization and tools.”  

• Have you had any experience before?

“I was giving a lecture at Quantox and I was also at an Oracle conference, so yeah, I had papers from before.”  

• Would you try again to be in the role of a lecturer?

“Of course. In general, I think it's great that the conference is organized because people are interested in online learning and podcasts. During the quarantine, people realized that there was quality content on online platforms.”  

Today we introduce you to Aleksandar Džavrić, our colleague from Kragujevac. Some of you may have already “met” him during Quantox Virtual Conf. He was the one who opened our conference with his lecture on the development path of programmers and very useful tips. You can watch the lecture here, and get to know Dzavra a little better below.

• Which programming language would you like to learn?"That would definitely be GoLang."
• If you could choose a supernatural power to help you in your work, what would it be?"Maybe levitation. To reduce the pressure on the spine. All of us who sit a lot need it."
• What would be the best project for you?"An internal project of the company which would work with new technologies and which would have a large budget, and whose purpose would be to help children become or stay healthy."
• A favorite anecdote from work?"Every “tavern salary” is a favorite anecdote. Every month on salary day, I go to a tavern with my colleagues from the Kragujevac office. We have a favorite tavern, which is our most common choice, but we do not hesitate to explore new places."
• Early bird or a late owl?"Early bird. I wake up every morning before 6 o'clock… but I don't even go to bed very early." (laughter)
• What are your impressions of the conference?"Positive. I think it's an interesting way to learn something new with the help of people who are experts in their fields."
• Are you satisfied with your performance?"I am, considering that this was my first conference lecture."
• Did you have stage fright?"No. Maybe only when it's all over." (laughter)
• Have you had any experience before?"Yes, I gave lectures at Quantox's internal workshops and at the Faculty of Science in Kragujevac."
• Would you try again in the role of a lecturer?"Yes, I think it's a good experience and also important for the career of us as programmers and future managers/architects." 

Last week we organized the Quantox Virtual Conf; pandemic born, first of its name, breaker of quarantines, freer of knowledge sharers....and we’re happy to say - it exceeded our expectations!

• Lasted for 4 days
• Hosted by 11 lecturers
• Viewed by 1183 visitors
• The total duration of all lectures combined was 483 minutes,
• The longest lecture lasted 84 minutes,
• 22 states were watching
• The audience consisted of 54% men and 46% women, mostly the younger population

A desire to share the knowledge inspired us to organize even more similar events that could possibly become a tradition in the upcoming period.

"Although we organized everything in a short period of time, we are very pleased with the final outcome. We can't wait to share some of the speakers' impressions, who themselves also enjoyed overcoming new challenges.We’re looking forward to having new opportunities to socialize and exchange knowledge and experience."

If you were not able to follow the conference live, we will soon share the presentations as videos. Follow our Youtube channel and don't miss the opportunity to learn something new.

Meet Sascha Mitscherlich, our colleague from Frankfurt. He will help us in the mission to establish our brand on the European market. With only 36 years of age and vast experience in marketing and sales, he is a perfect choice for our brand new Sales Manager in Germany. Sascha likes sport, nature, and he is very creative and has big plans for Quantox.

• Why did you choose Quantox?

"Before I accept a new job-offer I make proper research to get all information about the company history and its reputation. On each platform, I checked the ratings and opinions about Quantox and I was stunned about the number of recommendations of happy customers, users, and employees, which is not self-evident especially in the IT-industry.After a couple of very nice and interesting chats with Filip and Vuk, it was not a question anymore to join Quantox, only when!"

• What do you like the most about us?

"Besides a very good reputation, I would choose the projects Quantox already successfully finished and its impressive customer base. This will definitely help to gain a foothold in Germany.I also like social media appearance. It is a good mix of business and work-life content. I can’t wait to see more of it. Many companies ignore that."

• How do you think Quantox will be positioned on the German market next year?

"The long-term target is to be a market leader for web development in Germany, no question. For this and next year, I focus on our awareness and pipeline building in Germany. That means we will have a strong focus on marketing activities and to find partners which can leverage our sales force. The target is to become the challenger in the German market and to have the first regional partners until the end of the year. We definitely have what it takes to play on the top."

• What are your expectations from cooperation with us?

"One important process already started: the knowledge transfer.That’s a point where all my new colleagues can help me with. You think it is interesting for me or it can help me or my prospects? Share it with me, please!Another point is to get in touch with the different departments to get a better understanding of the responsibilities and the internal processes are essential. I expect support and excellent cooperation with everyone, especially with the Marketing team."

• What are your expectations from Quantox in Germany?

"We have established a legal entity in Germany including a well-located office in the Frankfurt Area with modern infrastructure to have a place to meet customers and prospects. An organically growing team of German-speaking professionals for various positions will be needed for that tough but very exciting challenge.I would like to work with clean CRM and structured processes because I live by the motto: ”What’s not written in the CRM, never happened.”And of course, I would like to get introduced to our existing customers in Germany and our internal project owners."

• How do you see the development in Germany at this moment?

"We have a lot of innovative and global companies in Germany. Everyone is trying to remain competitive, especially in the age of digitalization, where start-ups are springing up like mushrooms and both, start-ups and global companies, are desperately trying to get the few available professionals on the market. The “Fachkräftemangel” (in German) is a problem for all companies looking for IT professionals. The German Government and the German industry are trying for years to attract more IT professionals and experts from other countries but even with those measures, the demand isn’t served at all.Currently, there are no real big names or market leaders when it comes to web development companies in Germany. But we can already see companies intensifying their activities in Germany to get a part of the big cake and of course, now, one of them is Quantox."

• Do you have any special strategy on your mind?

"The key to success in Germany is awareness, credibility, and trust. To become a well-known company for web development in Germany, we need to invest in marketing, selective ads, establishing a recommendation- and partner network, intensifying the social media content and activities in German, and much more. We will focus on all business sizes, from start-ups up to global enterprises therefore our German headquarter will be near the global business hub of Frankfurt/Main. The location will have a positive influence on many points. Be it the accessibility, the good infrastructure, a larger range of potential employees due to the size and popularity of Frankfurt, many trade fairs, or the short distance to future major customers. Once we have a reputation in Germany and we fulfill the requirements, Quantox Germany will participate in public tenders which would further accelerate our growth and awareness in the German market."

• Are there any innovations that you would like to implement in Quantox’s business culture?

"From what I saw, the business culture is already great at Quantox and I’m sure the Quantox team shares the same values as I do. Be honest and transparent everything else will definitely hurt the reputation of the company, always treat customers and colleagues with respect, be punctual/keep deadlines and keep your promises, work more focused and cleaner than quick and dirty, structure your day as good as you can but stay agile and don’t forget the fun besides all the work." 😊

• What are the advantages of Quantox over the competition in Germany?

"It is a combination of our good reputation, our long history of successfully finished projects of all sizes and focal points, our references, the skills of our highly qualified employees (many of whom have been with us for a very long time), the team spirit, the very well experienced management team and of course our competitive offering."

We present to you Djordje Sosic. Djole is our colleague from Cacak and he has been part of the team for more than four years. He deals with web design and today we will get to know him a little better through seven short questions. So, let's begin:

• Which programming language would you like to learn?

"I would like to learn "all" programming languages. Imagine what the salaries are when you are a full-stack programmer." (laughs)

• What would be the best project for you?

"It has to be as interesting and as complicated as possible, to be a challenge for me."

• What are the biggest challenges in working with clients?

"I think the biggest challenges are to understand what the clients really want, what is behind their demands in order to reach a solution that will satisfy the client as soon as possible."

• Have you ever regretted your choice to become a designer?

"Actually, yeah, when I saw other members of the design team. I realized that dealing with design can destroy you both mentally and physically." (laughs) "I’m just kidding, of course, I didn’t regret it. The job of a designer is creative and dynamic so I recommend it to everyone."

• Recommend a book you've read or a documentary you've watched lately.

"I recently read the book "Animal Farm" written by George Orwell, and the documentary I would recommend is "The Last Dance" about Michael Jordan."

• Photoshop or Illustrator?

"Photoshop."

• Work from home or from the office?

"From home. I got used to it, although I miss the crowd and colleagues more and more. I hope that soon all this about the virus will pass and that we will get back together."

Although physically separated, we found a way to show love to our employees. We celebrated Labor Day together! 💚

For the weekend of April 4 and 5, a Humanitarian Counter-Strike tournament was organized for all domestic IT companies in Serbia, which aimed to raise funds for organizations and institutions that help the most vulnerable groups of people affected by the Covid-19 virus pandemic.

In addition to raising funds for organizations that help health workers and other most vulnerable groups of people in our society, the goal of the competition was to maintain contact with colleagues from our company, contact and community between all domestic companies, an exercise in quarantine as well as focus and fun at a time that is stressful for many of us.

70 teams from domestic IT companies participated in the tournament, and the initial fund of 1,000,000 dinars increased daily and 3,242,000 dinars were collected.

After the successful realization of the tournament, it was decided that the funds will be directed as follows:

50% of the budget - 1,621,000.00 dinars to the Clinical Center in Nis

30% of the budget - 972,600.00 dinars to the Republic Health Insurance Fund for assistance to medical staff

20% of the budget - 648,400.00 dinars to UNICEF for the purchase of equipment

You can find more about the tournament on the official website: https://hitturnir.com/

Due to the great interest and positive impressions of the actors in this event, the epilogue of this humane story is that the IT league was formed in cooperation with other organizations.

The greatest satisfaction of us, as a company that was in the role of organizers, is that all participants as well as companies from the community enjoyed and came out of the event with extremely positive impressions.

We are transmitting some of them to you

"Great fun. And of course, very happy to win the tournament :) We would participate again"  winning team

"First of all, a very positive surprise since the whole IT community organized very quickly and the number of registered companies was much larger than I expected. It is difficult to describe in words the moment where due to the given circumstances and difficulties in economic and social terms there is such a large number of people, organized in a short period of time around the humanitarian action. In addition, I accepted this activity as an online team building where we had a lot of fun and laughter :). Also, in addition to games and fun, we had the opportunity to discuss various topics with colleagues and share experiences and opinions, which is, of course, another positive result "

"Really nice and pleasant experience. An interesting goal of the tournament was set, so everything got an interesting note :-D"

"Great! The team had fun, hung out, reminded of the times when Counter was played much more actively ... :)"

JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages available. It is a lightweight, interpreted, or just-in-time compiled programming language with first-class functions (your functions can be arguments and returned values as much as any variable, or any literal). While it is mostly known as the scripting language for web pages, many non-browser environments also use it, such as Node.js, Apache CouchDB and Adobe Acrobat. It is dynamic and event-driven - uses an event-loop in a single thread, which reduces concurrent programming complexity a lot. It is also prototype-oriented (rather than class-oriented like Java or C++)JavaScript is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm, dynamic language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and declarative (e.g. functional programming) styles. It represents the de-facto programming language for client code running in the browser.The biggest thing to me about JavaScript is how light it is to write code. It is easy to learn and easy to use, except when it’s not. There are many “gotchas” that can trip you up. Sadly, this design is what gives JavaScript a lot of bad parts or how I like to call them "the dark side".Let’s cover them.

Types

Sadly, and probably the worst choice ever made about JS, is that it’s weakly typed. Variables are untyped, only values are, and what types are they? It’s either Object, Symbol, String, Number, Boolean, Null (yeah), and Undefined (yeah, undefined is a type of his own). What’s even kind of ridiculous is that when you test that your variable is an object, you have to do this :if (typeof myObject === "object" && myObject !== null)Because your object can be of type Object, and still be null you know.It is easy to write code with a dynamically typed language, but it is also easy to create errors. That’s where people started using TypeScript and Flow.

It Can't Do Arithmetic

Numbers in JavaScript are double-precision floating points. Which means you have no integer type. What’s the problem with it? At a high level, it's because JavaScript used the IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic0.1 + 0.2 = 0.30000000000000004

Coercion

The most painful topic about JS is coercion. This is what all should be aware of.Recall that JS has native types (Number, String… etc) and that variables are not typed, values are. When you do:typeof myVar === "number"You are actually looking to know if the type of the value myVar is pointing to is a number. It’s important to understand that.Now, what happens when you want to do an operation with two variables, whose values are different types?let a = 10;let b = "10";let c = a + b; // ???A decimal 10 is represented differently than a string 10. For example, the number 10 could be represented in 8 bits as 00001010. The string 10, is encoded using two ASCII characters *: 00110000 (48) and 00110001 (49).To do a proper calculation, the JavaScript Engine must ensure both operands are of the same type. And JS tries to do the best for you, so in this case, it will assume you just want to concatenate a decimal 10 to a string 10, and returns a string value of “1010”.You have to be very careful. And you know where this might hurt you the most? Here are some coercion examples:[] + [] → "" // Empty string? These are arrays![] + {} → [object object]{} + [] → 0 // Why isn't the operation commutative???{} + {} → NaN // ???16 == [16] → true // Array converted into string, then into number16 == [1,6] → false // But what is array converted into?"1,6" == [1,6] → true

CallBack Hell

Callbacks are just the name of a convention for using JavaScript functions. There isn't a special thing called a 'callback' in the JavaScript language, it's just a convention. Instead of immediately returning some result like most functions, functions that use callbacks take some time to produce a result. The word 'asynchronous', aka 'async', just means 'takes some time' or 'happens in the future, not right now'. Usually, callbacks are only used when doing I/O, e.g. downloading things, reading files, talking to databases, etc.Nesting callbacks (function calls) will create an issue for you without knowing what function and when will be executed (callback-hell)Solution for this is using promises, generators, async-await.

Global Variables

Why are global variables wrong?That’s some space allocated you’ll never get back until you nullify them explicitly by callingwindow.x = nullIt induces sides effects in your functions that are going to use that, which makes the code way more complex to understandOther people could as well have used this variable for a library or something (which isn’t rare for browser UI libs). Worst than that, one could inject malicious code in that global that would make your code crash or worst, leak pieces of information.It’s hard to test global variables because they are global, and their usage is hard to determine.There’s tons of way to get away without using global variables (such as closures and IIFE). Always use let and const when you declare a variable, and if you’re not confident, use strict.

Scope Inconsistencies

Developer should be aware of using scopes. Especially when "this" comes in question. Every function, every object create their own scope, and some variables or other functions might not be available at some parts of the code. Therefore you need to be careful about inner and outer scope of some object/functionTalking about this keyword, developers often make mistakes using this in arrow functions.const foo = () => {let a = 10;console.log(this)}foo() -> // this will refer to global (outer scope).The reason why is this happening is that arrow functions do not have this.

Support for Other ES versions

There are a lot of bugs covered in new ES versions of the language. But to have support for older libraries and scripts, browsers support older versions, and therefore all older sites could "live".The advice and solution for this is using the newest versions like ES6+ with 'use strict' directive on top of your code or top of function body that you write.When it is located at the top of a script, the whole script works the “modern” way. The "use strict" directive switches the engine to the “modern” mode, changing the behavior of some built-in features. Several language features, like “classes” and “modules”, enable strict mode automatically. Strict mode is supported by all modern browsers. Without "use strict", everything still works, but some features behave in the old-fashion, “compatible” way. We’d generally prefer modern behavior.I love JavaScript and use it daily. But that doesn't mean that there aren't some really awful errors in the language. I think I didn’t even closely cover every bad thing in JS and how to avoid them, but I want this list to be updated as much as possible, so please don’t hesitate to give some feedback, and subjects that I should cover.

Quantox has a Jedi Mind!

JavaScript is far from perfect, but Quantox JavaScript developers love what they do and they know how to avoid the snares and traps of this programming language. Thanks to the years of experience and vast knowledge, they've mastered the art of JavaScript development and are ready to build perfect apps despite the imperfections. Partner up with Quantox to build your dream app using JavaScript. Let's Talk!

Becoming a Programmer...

In the introduction of this text, I would like to convey my experience, offer a few tips for technologies and how to use them, write a short guide through the languages that I myself have passed and how, by learning, I became a Front-end developer.

The first thing you should ask yourself and be real with the answer - "Why do I want to become a programmer?"

The "Why" question is an important part because it deals with specific motivation. Working in a programming company, cool things, salary, the possibility of attaining new knowledge, hanging out with colleagues and remote work are some good sides of working in a developer environment.
Why is it most important to deal with this issue? Precisely because programming and work in IT companies besides cool things, good earnings, frequent organizations of meetups, socializing, excursions, remote work, there is another side - which is great responsibility, dedication, renunciation for the advancement and learning of new technologies , all in order to track new trends in a time where technology has taken great power and is rapidly advancing.

The basic and first precondition for fast and easy mastering of technologies is the knowledge of English. All tutorials, all books are in English. Every communication is done on the same, and every problem or solution you are searching is also in English.

Important things to keep in mind when entering the world of computers, programming, or some other IT job:
Everything has to start from the basics and that should apply to every programming language. For example, if you are far off with your knowledge in Java, you would have to start from the basics if you had to learn C#.

Do not compare yourself with other developers, not everyone progresses at the same tempo, it is important to be persistent because persistence is everything, however hard it may be. You should be able to get out of the comfort zone because programming demands it, every problem is solvable, but each problem is unique and needs to be approached in a unique way.

Also, competing with others can have a negative effect on you, because you will see that you will not be moving fast enough in order to reach someone. This is not a solution. I am saying this from my own experience, right from the start you need to dive into research about programming and languages as such, you need to decide in which direction you want to improve, learn and ultimately what to do.

Programming is a very broad concept that comes through a lot of spheres over the web, programs or games to robotics, science, and so on. You need to learn how to allocate time both in learning and working on projects, it's important to get work habits as well as the habit of coding.

Set small goals for the beginning, not because you care about your progress, but because you care for that progress. Make a list of things you want to end on that day, at least if it's just one page of reading or watching a video tutorial or writing 20 lines of code.
Make a git account and commit a significant change every day, so you'll keep up with your progress.

Programming Languages Overview

So, we have basic divisions (directions), such as Operating Systems, Applications for Phones, Web Applications and the Web Generally, VR, AR, MR, Game Development, Robotics, Networks, System Administrators, DevOps, IoT.

Popular Programming Languages

            Java, C, C#, C++, Objective-C, Swift, JavaScript, PHP, Python, Ruby

           As we have said, it is best to decide for one direction and to stick with it. Nobody says it will be easy and fast. You should skip tutorials and books that offer to learn in 21 days, 10 days and so on. It is best to choose one language to stick to the basics, rules, understand the structure of the data, the variable, the command, the syntax of the language itself and, of course, after the theory comes to practice, practice, practice.

After that comes the higher level, which is work on the project. My first project was a personal portfolio site. In short, I will walk you through some programming languages and what they are used for.

Java

It is mostly used for applications on phones, android. We also have a great application in IoT.
Java is a very portable, cross-platform, (JVM) Java virtual machine. Otherwise, it is a statically-typed language, which means that the code is checked before the application is built. It is designed to be similar to C++. Java is an (OOP)   object-oriented programming language.
Its most famous framework is Spring.
A lot of popular tools have been written in Java, most notably: Eclipse, Hadoop, Android, Android App ...
* Statically typed languages are faster than dynamically typed languages.

Python

Very versatile language, applicable almost everywhere, powerful and easy to learn. It is recommended for beginners because it develops a good programming logic. Its power and diversity is seen in the fact that it can be good for web applications (backend framework Django) and is also good for data analysis, AI, scientific analysis. Most developers use python to create some tool or mini-game for raspberry pi or Arduino.
Python is a dynamically typed language, however, it is quite fast.
Things that are written in python:
Atom, Eclipse, Sublime Text, PyCharm, Blender, BitTorrent, part of Ubuntu, Civilization VI uses python for most tasks, Overwatch.

PHP

A programming language specifically designed for the web. Its focus is on the back-end, programming web applications on the server side.
A very popular and sought-after language because, as with JS, a large part of the web works on PHP.
PHP is dynamically typed.
The most famous web application written in PHP is only Facebook.

C, C++, C#

Similar to each other, all come from the C language. Except C#, which is Microsoft's product, C and C++ are very difficult to learn. If you go into the adventure with these languages, keep in mind that you will not only learn the language as such but also how the computer actually works, what is happening on low-level programming processes, because C is the closest to machine language.

• C# developed by Microsoft is also used to create applications for making games through the Unity Game engine.
• C# is a statically typed language.
• .NET is the framework that goes with C# and is used for the web.
• C++, known to be a very powerful language, allows you to control computer resources - processor, memory.
• Used in the game industry, game engines, desktop programs. Many AAA video games are made in this language. It is a very complex, statically typed language of incredible speed. Simply put, created for all and any platform.
• In C/C++ code that is written is primarily for operating systems. C is a great language for writing OS drivers, as well as writing the OS kernel. This power gives him precisely what is low-level language.
• The most popular applications/programs which are written in this language are Winamp, Sublime TEXT.

JavaScript

JS allows us to build interactive websites. As the main programming language used on the web at the front of the web, it is popular with a number of frameworks and libraries, such as ReactJS, VueJS, Angular, Ember, jQuery.  Application in JS or its frameworks can be found in the back-end, nodeJS, and also with Electron, you can make a cross-platform desktop application.
As a dynamically typed language, JS is slow in creating desktop applications but it is used and is getting better at it.
JS, as well as PHP, are responsible for the entire web, so it makes no sense to list what is written in JS.

Swift

If you want to be exclusively engaged in the development of native iOS and MacOS applications, then Swift is just for you.
Swift is a statically typed language, xCode (its IDE) will check everything before the application goes out.
The language is very young, but also very popular, has the tendency to replace Objective-C, which also serves for writing anything that is under the Apple brand.
For the purpose of enumeration in Swift, Firefox is written for iOS, Flappy bird, HN Reader.

Ruby

Ruby's popularity is the first in its syntax, which is almost like writing something in English. Ruby on Rails is a framework that is, in fact, a full stack web framework. Designed to make programming easier and more fun, it has been used in web development, as well as in making games.
Ruby is a dynamically typed language.
After all this, I hope that you have a little clearer picture of the way the programming works. So if you decide to learn to programme, regardless of the language you decide to use, it's important to investigate it thoroughly. Learning programming is best through college or some licensed course, but it is important to learn by yourself throughout the entire school. Good books, internet, and good tutorials are all you need.

If you are a gamer, make tic-tac-toe, sudoku or flappy bird. It does not have to look the same for the same logic of the application itself.
If you want to better understand front-end development, make your own website.
If you want to create a full product web application, start by making an online bookstore, blog, using google maps API for your personal web navigation.

Several sites for beginners, basics.

https://www.w3schools.com                                         W3Schools
https://www.codecademy.com                                      CodeCademy
https://www.udemy.com                                                 Udemy
http://webnstudy.com/                                                    WebnStudy
https://www.webprogramiranje.org                              WebProgramiranje
https://enki.com/enkiapp                                                EnkiApp
http://www.bestprogramminglanguagefor.me           BestProgrammingLanguageForMe

Understanding Your ''Why'' With Quantox!

For over 12 years, Quantox has been known as a leading IT company in the region that's also dedicated to its team and with a clear goal of encouraging and helping one another toward career growth and mutual success. Every one of us was once a 'beginner', but through support and guidance, we were able to create an environment that is familiar, welcoming, and motivating. Today, our people are known as the experts in the industry, using the best technology as they combine tech, creativity, and data analytics to create what we believe in the most- creating innovations and getting advanced results. Is our team the perfect one for your projects? Let's Talk!

This is a small step for developers, but the big one for Quantox.Congratulations to all members of the team on the achieved success in the previous period. Work always pays off and brings good results. This time, your hard work brought the well-deserved promotion to you!

Milos Aksentijevic Front-end developer @ Quantox

JavaScript framework is popular among developers for such benefits like efficiency, safety, and cost. The variety of frameworks for each development platform is huge. It’s impossible to describe all of them and there is no need for it. Let’s narrow down our choice. As almost every company tends to have a website or at least a landing page, it would be good to review the most popular JavaScript frameworks.

For front-end developers, it’s increasingly challenging to make up their minds about which JavaScript application framework to choose, especially when they need to build a single-page application.
To simplify this choice of a JS framework for client-side development, we should reduce our options to several top solutions. For client-side development, our list of JavaScript frameworks includes React, Angular (Angular 2 or higher) and Vue.

Not every JavaScript-based “framework” we’ve just mentioned is an actual framework. But we can throw in several libraries to the pack and make those not-quite-frameworks feel like actual ones. We’re talking about React and Vue.js, which are both JS libraries for the view layer; and Backbone, which also only partially implements the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. For the purposes of this overview, however, we’ll use the term “framework” loosely to refer to all five of these JavaScript solutions.

An up-to-date JavaScript framework must comply with several requirements.

• First, modern front-end JavaScript frameworks must respect the Web Components specification. In modern client-side development, we should build custom HTML elements, and it’s great that all the frameworks we’re reviewing support Web Components.
• Second, a solid JavaScript framework should have its own ecosystem. Ready solutions aim at solving various problems of client-side development such as routing, managing app state, and communicating with the backend to name a few.
• Angular, React and Vue all adhere to the latest JavaScript ES6+ specification; also each of them has their own ecosystems. Now, we can jump into the reviews of these top JS frameworks.

Angular2+

Benefits

The biggest strength of Angular 2+ is its popularity. It could be argued that having the name Google associated with it has an impact on organizations considering it. There is a strong market for developers. It is also one of the few frameworks compared in this series that has an official set of rich components for building user interfaces.

Cons

We feel the Angular framework focuses on creating user interfaces in a single page application and does not address the larger concerns of a building a web application. This can lead to difficulties while maintaining projects if conventions are not established early. At a practical level, there is a lot of magic that occurs to provide run-time behavior that is not part of the core framework-provided technologies. This diminishes the value of TypeScript to the end-developer.

Why choose Angular?

If you need to source skills in a framework at scale, where the skills are generally easily portable, or you need to train teams on a framework and have a level of confidence they will be productive in short order, you might consider Angular 2+. If your web applications translate well into a model view pattern, then you might also consider Angular 2+. If you are happy with the Google Material UX pattern, then Material for Angular is a quick, easy, and robust way to follow that pattern.

React + Redux

Benefits

The biggest strengths of React and Redux are their relative simplicity and focus. Taking the mantra of doing one thing and do it well it is hard to find fault that both libraries achieve very effectively what they set out to do.

Cons

The biggest weakness of both React and Redux are not what they are, but what they are not. To build a feature-rich web application, you need many other features and once you get away from the core of React, Redux and a couple of other libraries, you will find a hugely fragmented community, with countless solutions and patterns which may or may not be easy to integrate together.

Why choose React?

If you are in a situation where you need less hand-holding and are looking more for good libraries than a comprehensive framework, then React + Redux might be right. You do need to be honest about the abilities of your team and organization, not only during your initial development but throughout long-term application maintenance.

VueJS

Benefits

The ability to incrementally adopt Vue.js is likely the biggest strength. Vue has a concise and rational architecture which makes it straightforward to understand and easy to build upon.

Cons

The desire to pivot between model view application and state container type applications can be confusing. It feels like there is a desire to remain relevant without fully embracing one application pattern over another. It feels to us that, at a minimum, it is confusing to those looking to Vue.js for a complete solution and could lead to inconsistent application patterns that are difficult to maintain.

Why choose Vue?

If you have a legacy web application that needs a more robust and contained application layer, then Vue.js might be a good fit for you to adopt. It has clear patterns and even with inexperienced teams, there is a right way and a wrong way. While there are not any out of the box Vue UX frameworks, there are extensive sets of coherent frameworks built on Vue.js that might work for your project.

A framework is nothing more than an embodiment of some patterns, integration of some technologies, and source code to help make our web applications easier to build and maintain. Challenge yourself or your team to take a holistic look at a framework, but first, start with a list of what is important to you and your organization, especially those things that transcend technical features.

Although we’ve mentioned only three web frameworks, professional developers should have an open mind as there’s no best JavaScript framework. There are many other examples of JavaScript frameworks and they are enough for building client-side apps.

JavaScript Frameworks Coming Together in Quantox!

Whether it's Angular or React, or even Vue.js, Quantox ensures our clients have the best pick when it comes to JavaScript developers working on their projects. Our front-end developers are always learning, forever evolving and innovating new ways to create and better software development in order to expedite your business journey to success. Do you need a JavaScript framework developer? Let's Talk!

What is a front-end development? What does an FE developer do? What was the road of front-end development from its beginnings? Well, those are just a couple of questions for which you can find answers here.

Front-end Developer-Start of the Road

Front-end development first appeared alongside appearance of HTML and CSS. So it’s fair to say that the first front-end developers actually appeared in the early 1990s. It was not that popular at the moment, but with the expansion of the internet, HTML, and CSS it started to grow up as a really important part of web programming. At its beginnings, front-end developer didn’t do much. Their job was to just create a static website and make it look good. At the time until early 2000s front-end developer was called a web designer. A real breakthrough and the bright future for Front end developer started on 22nd of December in 1995. On that day, JavaScript as scripting language appeared for the first time. And then it was clear that front-end developer, oh sorry, the web designer is going to do much more than just making websites look good. After JS appearance new era for front-end development started.

What is front-end development?

Since I am mentioning that term front-end development all the time, why shouldn’t I explain it a bit before we continue on with FE developer road? Front-end development is part of web development which code is executed on the client side. That actually means that code written by FE developer is served like that into a browser of the visitor of that web location and executed there. Throughout the time, that actually changed a bit, but I will speak about it when we reach that place on the front end developer road.

The Second Part of the FE Developer Road – Rapid Expansion

From moment JavaScript first appeared it wasn’t long after when the potential of it got on the surface of the web. Many people used JavaScript the way they wanted so it was very important at that time to actually create some ground rules and form standards and guidelines for use and its development. So, in 1997, ECMAScript first appeared as a standard for JavaScript. That was the beginning of a new Era for FE developers, still web designers at the time. ECMA did a lot concerning JavaScript evolving, but the road they had was very bumpy. Especially with version 4 which was supposed to be very innovative at the time. It got abandoned due to some political reasons about the complexity of update in 2008. Some people even had an opinion that it could break the internet, so it was abandoned. In December of 2009 ECMA released version 5, and on that version, JavaScript became what we know today.I took a bit of detour from FE road, just because of the importance of JavaScript and ECMAScript, but I back on road again.In early 2000s JavaScript already was very popular, but still didn’t become an important part of FE developers. In 2006 one thing appeared that changed everything in FE developer (still web designer at the time). It was an appearance of jQuery, as cross-platform JavaScript library.That was the year in which web designer found a crossroad.They got 2 roads ahead: one was to stay a designer and just design websites, and the other one was to become a programmer – WEB programmer – Front End Developer. And that is how web designers got divided and that’s how we became FE developers that we are today.

Now, we who took a programmer road, well, we still had very bumpy road ahead of us. With jQuery, we had a lot of new possibilities to add to websites. Websites were no longer static. We have a dynamic part of a website. Sort of speak, we brought websites to life.So FE developers were then programmers, using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, building much more than just web page, but still it wasn’t enough. We wanted to do more. ECMAScript continued to grow, new versions were released, but what made us today an important part of WEB development process, wasn’t just ECMAScript.

New FE Era – Frameworks and Preprocessors

Beside ECMAScript and jQuery, frameworks made a boom in FE development.The year was 2010, and that year made the great impact of FE developers. The first frameworks that we use today appeared. For example, it was Angular and Backbone. But why they made such an impact? Well, a difference between libraries and frameworks lies in how its implemented. When you use a library, you just call predefined functions from it and that’s it. What frameworks give you is much bigger. It gives you a set of rules, guidelines, frames in which you can create apps and websites with a lot of more possibilities. It allows you to design entire apps, combine it with libraries, manipulate DOM and much, much more. So today we have a lot of frameworks around us, and we can choose which we want to develop our apps. There is a lot of them and the most popular ones are Angular, Vue and React.

In the new era, the late 2000s also made a breakthrough for FE developers when CSS is in question. As CSS is well, a bit uptight when developing is in question. Something had to happen in order developers get a chance to do more with less code. That Idea was the most important link in the chain that gave us CSS preprocessors. They give us an opportunity to do many things, have functions in CSS, have variables, entire parts of code used on multiple places, divide code into smaller pieces. And what’s the best in it: when you are done it gets compiled in plain CSS, and works like a charm. So today, preprocessors are used all the time. We also have a variety to choose from. We have the stylus, LESS, SASS and much more, but those 3 are the most used.One more thing was worth mentioning in this era: HTML expansion. Throughout years HTML evolved a lot too. Today, we have HTML5 which way more powerful than before.

FE Developer Today and a New Crossroad Around the Corner

Today, FE developers do a lot, not just make the website look good. FE developer today creates the structure of websites and apps. Makes the site have its life: creates all possible interactions of users with apps. He manipulates the DOM on the much higher level, a not just that. Creates virtual DOM and manipulates the content displayed. Communicates with a server to pick up data, but if needed, formats the data as needed or even creates data independently from Server.All that makes FE developer a very important link in the web development process.The new crossroad, what did I mean with that? JavaScript became so powerful that today, FE developer took one step from client side to server side. Today with JavaScript we have a possibility to create apps executed on the server, so are we going to stay Front End developers or we are stepping into Back-end part? JavaScript gave us that but also gave us Node.js. With JavaScript, we can now create REST structure…That is our next crossroad, where will FE developer go, only time will tell. Let's see what years to come to have to offer.FRONT END Developers, let's buckle up and enjoy the ride we are on!

Build Your Future With Quantox Front-end Development!

Quantox has been blessed to have some of the best front-end developers under its roof. Our FE developers are not only developers- they are mentors and lecturers, but also innovators as they look for a new way front-end technology can better websites and application development. Thanks to them, our clients can tap into the endless well of knowledge that leads to exceptional results and powerful website and app solutions. Do you need help designing and building your new website or app? Let's Talk!

Quantox Technology is a fairly young company, especially in this composition, but on this occasion, we would like to thank one of our first employees for dedicated and valuable work. Our colleague Miljan is with us for 10 years, and you will admit it is not a small thing at all. This way, we want to get to know you better with the guy who was there when it was difficult and when everything went smoothly. Read the entire interview below and get ready for some hilarious answers, because he is just like that - Funny as it gets!

• To begin with, we must say that it is a pleasure to interview someone who has been working for our company for 10 years. Of course, the first question must be related to the beginning, can you tell us how he was?

Miljan: Like every other start - hard and hard. Moving from one job to another and learning basic IT related matters at the moment you are 19 is not a small thing. It was hard for me, but I managed with the right people and their full support.

• How would you describe your way of work?

Miljan: Hardworking, fair...

• Which of your achievements are most prominent

Miljan: I'd say this jubilee, a decade spent in Quantox!

• Can you remember the situation in which you were criticized at work?

Miljan: Ooooh... There were plenty of them. Criticism, but also praise.

• How did you gain trust and build a successful business relationship that has been in place for 10 years?

Miljan: Honest work, persistence, desire to prove. Perfecting my skills was a crucial part of it also.

• What's the most important thing you've learned in these 10 years, and did it help you only on a professional or both professional and a private plan?

Miljan: Trust! Definitely both!

• Which of your professional qualities you take the most valuable?

Miljan: Loyalty!

• What has influenced you the most over these years and how?

Miljan: Hmm... what? The whole team, the friends who have supported me in the difficult and good situation... They always dragged me to the top and because of that I am extremely grateful. And my wife, of course.

• In what direction would you want your career to develop, and where do you see yourself in 10 years?

Miljan: I would like to continue to improve on a personal plan, and to "grow" together with the company. And to the other part of the question, I will answer with one word: Here!

• How do you think your colleagues would describe you in a few words?

Miljan: A very witty person I guess.

• Why is Quantox an ideal company for you, now, and 10 years ago, and what has changed since the beginning so far?

Miljan: We have progressed, we have expanded. I remember the days when only four of us started and today the company has more than 200 employees. It is ideal because it provides almost everything that other companies can not. You can learn and progress in various IT industries. Good salaries which are always on your account in time, which is rare in Serbia. A lot of traveling and hanging out with people from the company... I could continue like this for a long time, but you get the point.

• What would you do if you were not what you are and what are you really?

Miljan: Hm, let say culinary.

• When you are not in the office, you are spending your free time on?

Miljan: Kitchen, agriculture, reading books. Also, I spend a lot of time with my wife in recent months, we are waiting for a baby.

• Would you like to share some secret with us, something that we do not know about you yet?

Miljan: No!

• Given your internship in the company, you've certainly gone through many pleasant and unpleasant situations. Our next question for you is: What is the most beautiful moment in your career?

Miljan: Yes, of course, there were plenty of pleasant situations, but it's hard to tell. There are many beautiful moments, and from all the pleasant and beautiful situations that I have experienced for the past ten years, I would like to single out the moment when I was voted by the collective for the most humorous colleague.

• And the heaviest one?

Miljan: The first cancellation from the client. I was young, I fell hard, there were thousands of questions at that moment, what further, how, where ... But the company and people in it are always ready to help you find a solution!

• Quantox company is made up of young people, and where youth is, there is a joke. Can you point out the funniest moment you've experienced in the company?

Miljan: As I mentioned above, I have experienced a lot of interesting and funny situations here, and it's just impossible to single out one. If you asked me what is the most ridiculous situation today, maybe I could make a decision... For example, this morning Sale and I were having a breakfast, and we were eating the burek and yogurt, however, before he started eating, he opened up yogurt. Then, we started chatting about something, he forgot that he had opened it and he started to wave with that glass, thinking that it was not open ... Can you imagine how the office looked after this performance?

• Favorite book, movie, series?

Miljan: What the footballers would say, Dostoyevsky, The Alchemist. There are plenty of books and movies too. Maybe from Stephen King's Green Mile, Shining. The movie also Fluttering, Fight Club...

• If you can choose, which superhero would you be and why?

Miljan: Aladdin. I have a carpet that flies, I go wherever I want, I have a ghost from a lamp who fulfills all my wishes and what more can I ask for?! To fight with some scumbags is not my style.

Gymnasium in Cuprija

In its long and rich history, Gymnasium in Cuprija has seen a large number of pupils. Some of them have become National Heroes, professors, doctors, and some have even earned the membership in the French Science Academy. But, no matter where they are and what they do, pupils from this famous gymnasium never forget their school and professors. Also, there are some of them who, with the great joy and a lot of proud, in the education field in their curriculum vitae put Gymnasium Cuprija! These people have decided to somehow pay the debt they feel they own to the school which has shaped them in the people they are today!That's the case with the Popovic Brothers - Vuk and Milan. Once pupils of Cuprija's gymnasium, these two young people are building their IT careers both in their home country and abroad. They are the owners of the Quantox Technology company which has been successfully dealing with the creation of websites and applications, for both the European and World market. Even though they have finished their education and left Cuprija's Gymnasium behind long ago, Milan and Vuk gladly come back to visit their hometown and the school which has, as they both say, had a huge influence on the development of their both personal and professional life.

In order to pay their "debt" they feel they owe to the school (at least one part of it), but also to motivate current pupils to work hard and diligently, these two, for the fourth year in a row are providing scholarships for the most successful pupils.Three of the best pupils at the end of each school year are getting 50.000, 30.000, and 20.000 dinars from the Quantox Technology company. Besides this, the company has donated over 30 computers for the Informatics cabinet of Gymnasium.

"This is just a small sign of gratitude for the school we attended and for which the most beautiful memories bind us. At the same time, we want to encourage young people to devote themselves to the education, because education with their constant work and monitoring of the demands of the market will bring them desired success"  says the founder of Quantox, Vuk Popovic.

Quantox Technology now employs more than 180 programming experts in the offices in Cacak, Belgrade, Kragujevac, and Nis when speaking of their homeland, Serbia, and one office in Santa Monica, LA.

"By developing and improving the company, we have learned to listen and follow the need for the advancement of the communities in which we operate, because only together can we achieve goals that will be fruitful for the whole society. This is also the reason why we actively participate in the lives of these communities and support their development" they say from Quantox.

Whether you are a Linux user or a MacOS, or even Windows, a programmer or even SysAdmin / DevOps, Terminal is an inevitable and very powerful thing in the OS. This will be a brief description of the Terminal and its basic commands.

What Is Terminal and What's it For?

Basically, the bash shell is used by default. A shell is a program that uses commands assigned to it by the user (commands are defined, while new ones can be created) and forwards them to the OS that will show some output when executing the command. In addition to the bash shell (Bourne-Again shell), there is also sh and csh.

There are many standard Linux commands that are already installed along with the OS, which allow you to navigate through the system, install software packages, configure the system and applications, search the whole system or project, work with the git and more.

An instant when running a command is called the process.

It is very important to know that almost everything in Linux is case-sensitive, including file names and directories, commands, arguments, and other options.

Popular Terminal Emulators You Can Install

• Mac OS X: Terminal (default), iTerm 2
• Windows: PuTTY, cmd
• Linux: Terminal, KDE Console, XTerm

An excellent addition to the terminal is zsh (oh my zsh), this is an open-source framework. It comes with a large number of functions, plugins, themes, so you can beautify your Terminal and save time when writing commands.

The information displayed in the command prompt can be modified by the user; this looks like the command prompt on Ubuntu: name @ example: ~ $
name: current username
example: hostname server
"~": the current directory in which we are located. In bash, which is by default shell, tilde or "~", it is a special character that actually represents the path of the "home" directory, in this case, it represents "/ home/name"
"$": prompt symbol, this marks the end of the command prompt, followed by the input of the user's keyboard

Linux commands:

uptime -> displays the time since the last boot time
whoami -> shows who you are
uname -> displays system information
whereis -> finds the location of the file that is running for the given program
screenfetch -> displays information about hardware and software (installation required)
top -> shows processes
free -> displays memory usage
history -> displays all commands that are written by the user in the past
date -> displays the time and date
calendar -> displays calendar (holidays etc.)
curl -> captures html code from the website and displays its content in the terminal
curl wttr.in/serbiapwd -> displays the directory in which we are currently located and its path
cd -> command to change the directory
mv -> move or rename a file / directory
cp -> copy the file / directory
ls -> list files / directories
mkdir -> command to create a new directory
rmdir -> command to remove the directory
rm -> command to remove files
rm -i -> command to remove files, it is necessary to confirm more once you want to remove the file
rm -rf -> removes the folder although it is not empty
touch -> is used to create a new text file
nano / emac / vim -> editors available in the OS
cat -> list the contents of the file in the terminal
clear -> removes everything that is written in the terminal (clear text from the terminal)
sudo -> super user do
are -> root user
sudo dpkg -i example.deb -> install .deb files
sudo dpkg -r example.deb -> uninstall
sudo dpkg -P example.deb -> uninstall and removing config files
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade -> update packages and upgrade
sudo apt-cache show packagename -> displays packages (repositories)
sudo apt-cache search something -> search programs and so on in packages
find. -type f -name "* .sass" -> to search everything in
system / project / folder (f - is for files) find. -type d -empty -> searches for empty folders (d - is for directories, folders)
sudo ufw enable / disable -> firewall enabling / disabling
chmod g + w somefile.txt or chmod u + r somefile.txt -> change (permission) of the authorization u-user g-group o-others w (4) r (2) x (1)
chmod 642 -> the first number belongs to the user, the other belongs to the group, and the third one belongs to others
wget -> download (downloads) files or pages via URL

How Quantox Expedites Projects By Knowing Terminal Inside-Out

At Quantox, our programmers, System Administrators and DevOps know how powerful Terminal can be. It is what allows them to build high-performing applications and software for our clients. Do you need a programmer that knows your app inside-out? Let's Talk!