
796: Do We Need JS Frameworks × Are You Over-Engineering? × Webview vs Native
Scott and Wes tackle a variety of audience questions, from the nuances of over-engineering to the energy consumption of AI LLMs. They also discuss the pros and cons of monorepos, frameworks, and the ever-important question: Do you really need to learn all the developer tooling? Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:41 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:07 Challenges around a resume playback function. 05:56 Why use Google Forms for Potluck questions? 07:57 What constitutes over-engineering and how to avoid it. 13:28 Webview vs native component based mobile apps. 18:06 Running and managing monorepos. 20:59 Energy consumption of AI LLMs vs static web content. A guide to LLM inference and performance. From Words to Watts: Benchmarking the Energy Costs of LLM Inference. 25:19 Why do we need frameworks? Frank M Taylor Blog Post. 33:05 Handling ad-blockers blocking Sentry and other tools. Syntax GitHub. 38:25 Creating sites without JavaScript. 42:49 Do I really have to learn all the various developer tooling? Wes Bos Tweet. 44:47 What are the best ways to network and meet other developers? 50:16 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: Tweek App/ Wes: Rain-X Waterless Car Wash. Shameless Plugs Scott: Swag Store. Wes: Audio Player Updates. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
17 Jul 202458min

795: Hosting Private Fonts on the Edge With Cloudflare
Scott and Wes dish out the intricacies of hosting private fonts using Cloudflare Pages. They explore the challenges of font security, the benefits of a font server, and the nuances of caching and whitelisting to keep your fonts secure and efficient. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:53 Behind the Code: Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:12 The problem with hosting fonts. Scott’s Fonts. 05:42 The solution, a font server with Cloudflare Pages. 09:37 Utilizing a Key Value Store. 10:53 Storing a whitelist. 13:42 Why not just use a bucket? Check out the code. 15:24 Should whitelisting be done in JavaScript or cores? 17:23 How do you cache to multiple origins? 18:15 Multiple URLs in an allow origin. 19:17 Font security and foundry challenges. 21:43 Moving Domains on Cloudflare. Check out the font Syntax uses! MD-IO. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
15 Jul 202424min

794: Prettier JavaScript with Vjeux
Scott and Wes sit down with Vjeux from Meta to dive deep into the origins and evolution of Prettier, the widely-used code formatter. They discuss the challenges faced, the decision-making process behind its features, and what the future holds for this indispensable tool in the developer’s toolkit. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:45 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:19 New swag! 03:25 Who is Vjeux? 06:56 Is management the key to successful projects? 08:50 The genesis of Prettier. 12:08 Why other JS formatters didn’t work. 16:56 Focusing on edge-cases. 17:41 The goal for Prettier. Prettier Philosophy. 18:31 Next step, integrations. 19:37 Should you run Prettier on save or commit? 21:34 Does Prettier’s limitations lead to higher adoption? Prettier Config. 25:01 What was the most controversial default setting? 28:14 Does Facebook use semicolons? 29:18 Getting approval to devote 6 months to Prettier. 31:42 Working with Mark Zuckerberg. 32:43 Was there ever consideration to augment ESLint instead? Prettier vs. Linters. 35:34 What are your thoughts on the Rust-based alternatives? 36:44 Prettier’s $10,000 bounty. 39:32 What is the future of Prettier? 44:54 Prettier is available in almost every language. 47:59 Advice for other open-source maintainers. 53:26 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Vjeux: TransformersJS. Shameless Plugs Vjeux: Prettier x Syntax Swag. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
12 Jul 202455min

793: The Local First Landscape
Scott and Wes dive into the local first landscape, exploring the benefits and possibilities of local first apps. They highlight some of their favorite tools and discuss why local first is gaining traction among developers. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:27 Behind the Code: Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:06 Catch up with Wes and Scott. 03:00 The local first space. Scott’s Blog: The Spectrum of Local First Libraries. Syntax 739: The Lofi Movement. 04:27 Some local first apps we love. Linear. Tweek.so. Superhuman. 05:15 The advantages of local first. 06:07 localfirstweb.dev. 09:21 Triplit. 15:33 Evolu. 22:32 RxDB. 24:08 ElectricSQL. 26:57 Pouchdb. 28:46 TinyBase. 32:08 Replicache. 44:31 PowerSync. 48:21 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: Battery Jump Starter. Wes: Battery Tire Pump. Shameless Plugs Wes: Syntax Swag Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
10 Jul 202453min

792: Perfect Sitemaps for SEO
Scott and Wes break down the importance of sitemaps for SEO. They dive into the different file formats, essential fields, and common pitfalls to avoid when creating and submitting your sitemap to search engines. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! New Swag Coming Soon. Tolin.ski. 02:09 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:39 Sitemaps. 04:36 Why do you need a sitemap? 06:34 Sitemap file formats. 08:31 Choosing a file format. 09:17 Site map file size limits. 10:32 Fully-qualified URLs. 10:50 Fields and metadata. 10:58 What fields matter for SEO? 14:20 What to avoid in your sitemap? 14:23 Dynamic user pages and account pages. 14:43 Parameter-based URLs. 16:01 Redirects, duplicates or disallowed pages. 16:11 Unlisted pages. 17:07 How do you make a sitemap? 20:06 What to do once you have a sitemap. 20:08 Validation. 20:20 Submit to search engine. Bing Webmaster Tools. Google Search Console. 22:11 Cache them! Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
8 Jul 202423min

791: LLRT The Serverless Runtime w/ Richard Davison
Scott and Wes chat with Richard Davison from AWS about LLRT, a new runtime tailored specifically for Lambda. They dive into the benefits of using LLRT, challenges with JavaScript in serverless, and why Rust was chosen for its development. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:07 Who is Richard Davison? 05:11 What is LLRT and what’s the motivation for building it? 08:25 AWS Lambda example. 11:20 What makes LLRT specifically tailored to Lambda? 14:55 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 15:22 Node.js in Lambda. 16:00 What are some challenges that people have with JavaScript in serverless? 17:20 Lambda memory configuration. 19:23 Managing cost of compute. 21:29 Simpler and faster than Node, Bun, Dino, but not a replacement. 22:31 The benchmarks. 27:00 Quick.js, the main reason for the performance gains. Fabrice Bellard QuickJS. 28:03 The Quick.js engine. 30:35 What was the reason behind creating Quick.js? 33:46 What made you pick Rust for LLRT? 36:34 Abstractions and the value of speed. 39:08 The JIT Compiler. 42:38 Compile cache. 43:27 De-optimizations. 44:59 Node.js Compat, what to use and avoid with LLRT. GitHub AWS Labs Compatibility Chart. 47:52 Will you target with WinterCG spec? 50:22 Streams API. 52:06 What about WebSockets? 53:10 Is this going to be promoted from a labs project? 54:49 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Richard: QuickJS Engine, JSLinux. Shameless Plugs Richard: Javascript Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
5 Jul 202456min

790: State of JS 2023 Reactions
Scott and Wes dive into the 2023 State of JavaScript survey, breaking down the latest trends and pain points in front-end frameworks, build tools, and JavaScript runtimes. Tune in for their hot takes and insights on what’s shaping the JavaScript landscape this year! Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! State of JS 2023. 03:04 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:43 New Syntax Swag! Syntax Swag Store. 04:42 Front end frameworks. 08:30 Front end framework pain-points. 12:17 Metaframeworks. 17:45 Metaframework pain-points. 22:17 Build tools. Rolldown. 24:45 Build tool pain-points. 25:54 JavaScript runtimes. 28:19 Edge + serverless runtimes. 29:30 Backend frameworks. 33:17 Non-JavaScript languages. 36:12 Hosting service. 38:50 Usage. 40:05 Javascript usage. 41:03 Missing features. 45:04 Industry sector. 47:37 The awards. 51:34 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: Electric Lighter. Wes: Monkey Noodle. Shameless Plugs Wes: Syntax Swag Store. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
3 Jul 202457min

789: Do More With AI - LLMs With Big Token Counts
Join Scott and CJ as they dive into the fascinating world of AI, exploring topics from LLM token sizes and context windows to understanding input length. They discuss practical use cases and share insights on how web developers can leverage larger token counts to maximize the potential of AI and LLMs. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:31 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:42 What is a token? Quizgecko GPT-4 Token Counter. 04:22 Context window sometimes called “max tokens”. OpenAI Platform Models. Claude Models. 10:42 Understanding input length. 11:59 Models + services with big token counts. Gemini Docs. 13:22 Generating open API documentation for a complex API. 17:29 Generating JSDoc style typing. Drop-In stolinski GitHub. 21:07 Generating seed data for a complex database. bytedash w3cj GitHub. 24:34 Summarizing 8+ hours of video. 29:35 Some things we’ve yet to try. 31:32 What about cost? Google AI for Developers Cost. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads CJ: X Instagram YouTube TwitchTV Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads
1 Jul 202433min