I built a browser extension using Elm - GoalMet - Achieve your goals. Even though Elm’s evolution is rather slow, the JS community can learn heaps from this wonderful language and its ecosystem. Here are the main reasons why I chose Elm for my side project. Stable ecosystem Everything I learned about Elm 2-3 years ago still applies. Even though I used Elm for anything substantial around two years ago, I could jump in and be productive immediately....
During one of my interviews in late 2023 - early 2024, a person asked me: “Who cares about the language we choose or frameworks or type system… all that matters is a working product”. I wrote about it already, but I used a clumsy analogy with building a house. Recently, however, the internet (or at least, the algorithms that take care of my YouTube feed) started buzzing with news about the problems at Boeing....
It seems that these days, at times of React (and similar frameworks), CSS receives less attention. However, I remember a not-so-distant past, perhaps, five years ago, when using CSS for simple UI elements was the desired approach. True, it has its limitations. But I don’t think we can discard CSS completely and rely on JavaScript driving even the most trivial elements of UI. By applying (or at least trying to apply) the CSS-first approach, we can achieve some great results without necessarily relying on JavaScript....
It’s the beginning of 2024, layoffs happen on every corner, and I’m one of those who were affected. One thing I’ve been reminded of is that interviews are tricky for me. As controversial as it sounds, it gets even trickier when I am asked questions related to my area of interest. It’s easy if you don’t know anything about a subject - admit it, and that’s it. But when you’ve been working in the field for a few years and you know the question is related, but you can’t remember some of the details - that’s when it gets interesting....
I recently had a conversation about why I insist that JavaScript (and especially TypeScript) developers should learn from Rescript, Elm, Go, Rust, and other languages. A person asked me: “Who cares? Users don’t care what language you use to build your product. Often the business doesn’t care either! There are plenty of companies with tons of spaghetti code, and they sell their products well! So why bother?” Well, I couldn’t spontaneously say why I care....
A great product experience is when the product works as expected in the scenario it was designed for, and communicates with users in a meaningful way. As developers, we cannot control how and where our product will be used, or the user input. But we have the tools to guard the flow from unexpected inputs. In this post, I want to give two pieces of advice for people working in the JS ecosystem on how to create better programs....
JavaScript is a dominant language for building web applications. I’ve been using it for a very long time. However, in my opinion, it just doesn’t cut it any more. Luckily, there are some compelling alternatives. JavaScript: A Dominant Yet Flawed Language JavaScript offers a quick and cheap solution for building web applications in the short term. However, in the long run, its design quirks and inherent flaws will work against its users....
Being a big proponent of TypeScript, I keep noticing that this language inherits all the flaws of JavaScript. However, it does not mean we have no choice. The problem Consider a function that turns an object representing a URL into a string: type UrlRecord = { protocol: string; host: string[]; } function urlToString(urlRecord: UrlRecord): string { const { protocol, host } = urlRecord; return `${protocol}://${host.join('.')}`; } This code snippet looks innocent and pretty solid....
In the ever-evolving landscape of web development, the choice of tools and technologies can have a profound impact on the flexibility, scalability, and longevity of a code base. One critical decision that developers often face is whether to use a framework or embrace more framework-agnostic solutions like Web Components when building a UI library. In this post, we’ll explore why opting for Web Components can offer unparalleled advantages when it comes to ensuring flexibility and avoiding lock-in....
I chose the railway photo for the cover for a reason. TypeScript as a type system has many powerful and unique features. But people often do not know about them or neglect them. In this post, I want to highlight some common escape hatches that people use and why they make TypeScript feel like bloated JavaScript. More often than not, we use TypeScript as bloated JavaScript. For example, { options: Record<string, string> } I would argue that this is why people keep saying that TypeScript doesn’t add much value....