The Ultimate Guide to Writing Technical Blog Posts

The Ultimate Guide to Writing Technical Blog Posts

Writing technical blog posts can be a challenging task for many individuals. Whether you struggle with finding the right words to express your ideas or have difficulty organizing your thoughts, it's important to find methods that work best for you. In this article, we will explore some tips and techniques that can help enhance your technical writing skills and create compelling blog posts.

Record your voice to overcome writing difficulties

For some people, writing can be a daunting task. If you find yourself struggling to put your thoughts into words, there is a simple technique that can help: record your voice. By speaking out your ideas and thoughts, you can overcome the barrier of writing and easily express yourself.

To implement this technique, all you need is a recording device or an app on your phone. Simply speak out your ideas, thoughts, and key points related to your blog post. Once you have recorded your voice, you can upload the audio to your computer and use a tool like Descript to transcribe your words into text.

Descript is a powerful tool that does an excellent job of transcribing audio. However, it's important to double-check the generated text for any mistakes and make small edits if necessary. This technique allows you to convert your spoken words into written content, making the writing process much more accessible and enjoyable.

Read your writing aloud for improved clarity

Reading your writing aloud can significantly enhance the quality of your content. When you read the text silently in your head, you may overlook certain issues or potential improvements. However, reading aloud offers several benefits:

1. Improve clarity and flow: By reading your content aloud, you can identify awkward sentence structures or unclear explanations. This allows you to revise and rephrase your sentences to improve clarity and ensure smooth flow.

2. Enhance tone and voice: Reading aloud helps you gauge the tone and voice of your writing. You can evaluate whether your content sounds formal, casual, friendly, or professional, and make adjustments accordingly to match your desired style.

3. Spot grammatical and stylistic errors: Reading your writing aloud allows you to catch grammatical mistakes, typographical errors, and other issues that might have been missed during silent reading. It helps you polish your content and ensure it is error-free.

4. Evaluate rhythm and cadence: By reading aloud, you can assess the rhythm and cadence of your writing. This is particularly important in technical blog posts, as a monotonous or uneven flow can make the content difficult to read. By identifying any inconsistencies in rhythm, you can make necessary adjustments to improve readability.

5. Assess audience appeal: Reading your writing aloud allows you to put yourself in the shoes of your readers. You can assess whether the content is engaging, interesting, and appealing to your target audience. This helps you refine your writing to better resonate with your readers' needs and preferences.

If you find yourself too lazy to read your writing aloud or have difficulty maintaining focus, you can use a text-to-speech reader like Natural Reader. This tool converts your written content into spoken words, allowing you to listen to your writing and identify areas that need improvement.

Microservices with pebl — a complete and free cloud platform

In the world of software development, microservices have gained significant popularity due to their scalability, flexibility, and modularity. Pebl is a complete and free cloud platform that offers a unique approach to implementing microservices. Unlike traditional Infrastructure as Code (IaC) approaches that rely on YAML files, pebl embeds cloud capabilities within your application through language-specific Software Development Kits (SDKs).

Getting started with pebl

To get started with pebl, you need to sign up for a free account at pebl.io. Choose your desired identity provider and follow the steps to create your account. Once you have signed up, make sure to claim your free *.pebl.rocks subdomain, as you will be using it throughout the tutorial.

Before diving into the pebl CLI, you need to ensure that you have Docker installed on your system. Head over to the Docker website and follow the installation instructions specific to your operating system. Once Docker is installed, you can proceed with installing the pebl CLI. Visit the pebl setup documentation and download the correct version of the CLI for your system.

To verify that the pebl CLI was installed correctly, open your terminal and run the command "pebl" without any arguments. You should see a list of available commands and their descriptions. This confirms that the CLI is ready for use.

Creating a simple service with pebl

The core building block that pebl provides is a service, which is equivalent to a serverless application on other platforms. A pebl service is a server that can respond to requests. Let's create a simple service using Python to understand how pebl works.

Start by creating a scratch project folder on your system. For example, you can create a folder named "scratch" in your work directory:

$ mkdir -p ~/work/scratch  

Within the scratch folder, create a subfolder for your service. For this example, let's create a folder named "hello":

$ mkdir ~/work/scratch/hello  

Inside the hello folder, create a file named "main.py" that will hold the main method of your service:

from flask import Flask  
  
app = Flask(__name__)  
  
@app.route("/")  
def root():  
    return "hello, world!\n"  
  
import pebl  
pebl.service(app, "hey.pebl.rocks")   put your own domain here  

In this example, we are using the Flask framework to create a simple web service. The @app.route("/") decorator defines a handler for the root path ("/") that returns the string "hello, world!". The pebl.service(app, "hey.pebl.rocks") line declares that this Flask application should be a service hosted at your *.pebl.rocks endpoint. Make sure to replace "hey.pebl.rocks" with your own domain.

To run this service locally, you will rely on pebl's base Docker image to create a reusable container. Create a file named "Dockerfile" inside the hello folder with the following content:

FROM peblcloud/python  
COPY . .  
RUN pip install flask  
ENTRYPOINT python -u main.py  

The Dockerfile specifies the base image as peblcloud/python, copies the content of the current directory (including the main.py file) into the container, installs the Flask library using pip, and sets the entrypoint to run the main.py file.

To start the local pebl cluster and run the service, navigate to the hello subfolder and execute the following commands:

$ cd ~/work/scratch/hello  
$ pebl up  

This command initializes a new pebl cluster and starts the local pebl cluster. Once the cluster is configured, you can run the service using the following command:

$ pebl run  

This will build the Docker project, start the container, and run your service locally. You can now access your service by sending a request to "localhost" using the port specified in the pebl info pane.

To deploy your service to the cloud runtime, use the following command:

$ pebl deploy  

If you encounter authentication errors, make sure to run "pebl auth" and follow the steps to manage your credentials.

By incorporating cloud capabilities (pebl.service) into your application as regular code, you can rely on any other Python library without additional configuration. Pebl makes it easy to migrate your applications to the cloud once you have finished testing them locally.

Adding internal services with pebl

In addition to regular services, pebl also supports internal services. Internal services are similar to regular services, but they are only exposed to other workloads within your pebl cluster and are not configured for external traffic.

To understand how internal services work, let's explore an example using Go instead of Python. Create a subfolder named "go" within the scratch folder:

$ mkdir ~/work/scratch/go  

Initialize a Go project within the go folder:

$ cd ~/work/scratch/go  
$ go mod init scratch  

Unlike Python, Go is a compiled language, so we don't need a Dockerfile. Instead, we need to download the pebl package for Go:

$ cd ~/work/scratch/go  
$ go get github.com/peblcloud/go  

Now let's create an internal Go service that acts as a user service, handling user data. Create a file named "main.go" within the go folder with the following content:

package main  
  
import (  
    "github.com/peblcloud/go"  
    "net/http"  
)  
  
func main() {  
    mux := http.NewServeMux()  
    mux.HandleFunc("/", func(w http.ResponseWriter, r *http.Request) {  
        w.Write([]byte("this is an internal service!\n"))  
    })  
  
    pebl.InternalService(mux, "go.internal")  
}  

In this example, we are using the net/http package to create a server object and defining a handler that returns the string "this is an internal service!" for all requests to the root path ("/"). The pebl.InternalService(mux, "go.internal") line declares that this Go application should be an internal service with the endpoint "go.internal".

To run the internal Go service locally, navigate to the go folder and execute the following commands:

$ cd ~/work/scratch/go  
$ pebl run  

This will build the Go project, stage the build, containerize the build, and start the container. You can now send requests to the internal service by accessing "localhost" using the port