I had hard time collecting support letters from my past employers and open-source projects for the EB-1A green card program (not done yet). Some were flexible and gave me full support and involvement. Others limited what they write to strict policies, which rendered their letters useless from that program’s perspective. Some were negotiating the content for 4 months. Some denied supporting letters entirely despite the good feedback they gave me privately.

Therefore, I am declaring "Supportinve Past Employer" initiative. I drafted a policy that an employer can adopt to improve experience of their past employees seeking references:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/the-supportive-past-employer-initiative-on-support-letter-policies-7c89fff27591

Please help me polish it. Leave any comments on Medium or here.

I want to use ChangeNotifier in pure Dart in CLI and server apps without Flutter, so I filed a feature request for that. If you also want to see it happen, you can upvote the issue: https://github.com/flutter/flutter/issues/136155
Thumb-ups is one of the factor to the Flutter's team priorities.

I have moved to an all-electric building. What it feels like to get rid of gas entirely:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/i-have-moved-to-an-all-electric-residence-45cb8aebaec3

Thank you. ❤️

Can you tell what will happen here?

Will both exceptions be caught? Or none? Or which one?

The answer is in my article:
https://medium.com/flutter-senior/why-use-async-await-instead-of-future-then-2e9c340aabfb

It is old, but I added this case there because a customer specifically asked about it.

How to localize packages with easy_localization and not just apps?
Announcing two alternative loaders for easy_localization to support that.
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/how-to-localize-packages-with-easy-localization-a71d7eb417a0

On my first job, I was making an internal portal for the company. I asked my manager if I should use some existing engine or code from scratch (it was 2005). He asked me of pros and cons.

I said: "If we want it fast, we should use an existing engine, but if we want a customizable thing and to learn a lot in the process, we should make it from scratch." I emphasized the second option because I wanted that more.

He said: "You just answered your own question".

Back then I thought he approved a custom solution, and I dived into it. Now I think in his shoes I would want and mean the first one.

Never give vague answers to juniors.

Dart 3.2 is out yesterday. It has one new lint. Read my new article that explains it:
https://medium.com/flutter-senior/the-new-lint-in-dart-3-2-287dbddede51

I translated it to Russian the same day, and the Russian version got x10+ more views even without boosting it on this channel.
https://habr.com/ru/articles/774744/

If you are a writer, there are benefits in writing English-first: more global prominence, and more competition forces you to write better. But there is also a huge potential in writing in your native language since the information in it is scarce. Keep this in mind when seeking visibility.

When you are making a package, should you import its main library into its inner files? Or should you import specific files as needed? Read the pros and cons in my new article:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/the-8-reasons-to-not-import-a-local-library-in-in-dart-f74c9bc7de2b

My GDE membership was extended to 2024! Every year, the contributions of all GDEs are evaluated to extend or not extend their membership.

Looking forward to write even more in 2024 for you guys.

I dug out my first article from 2004, translated it to English and put on Medium. Enjoy the nostalgia of 88x31 buttons:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/making-a-graphical-counter-in-php-2f69039f4bee

How I became a Senior Member of IEEE:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/how-i-became-a-senior-member-of-ieee-e7ce1f35dbae

I was trying to figure out the pattern of new technologies emerging and being replaced over the past decades. I think I have a solution:

https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/the-law-of-burden-elimination-how-to-predict-technology-trends-coming-and-dying-out-bd447ed4318e

If your employer does not allow you to post articles on your personal Medium account, show them my new article:
https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/why-you-should-post-on-medium-on-employees-accounts-aa4c5754ca07

Today is exactly 20 years that I am a programmer professionally. This is the most important text in my life with advice to my younger self and those who want to achieve the same faster. It can save you many years. Please read and share.

https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/advice-to-my-younger-self-and-you-after-20-years-in-programming-a3a2ccc7a942

Thank you for your support, my dear friends! ❤️

The largest hackathon in Russia has deleted all public records of the awards for a few years. No one in the new management could figure out why they were important even when directly pointed at the problem. This teaches us a lot. Here is a checklist of how not to be affected by such neglect:

https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/how-russia-erased-2000-award-records-and-how-to-prevent-this-in-the-future-b8aa81690840

I promised some advice on writing and publishing when I cross 1000 followers on Medium. While I was writing it, it's 2300 already. 🤔
Anyway, here it is: https://medium.com/@alexey.inkin/how-i-gained-2000-followers-on-medium-and-how-you-can-do-it-faster-96435042ebf7

It shows crucial charts that are not available on Medium. For them, I wrote a custom script, and it is available on my GitHub.