How to Spark your Imagination and Get Excited about Coding

Wes and Scott talk about the ins and outs of accepting payments online—from choosing processors like Stripe and PayPal to handling fraud, taxes, custom checkouts, and more. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 02:34 Payment processors Stripe PayPal Square Authorize.net 09:29 Checkouts 18:22 The checkout flow 23:10 Methods of accepting money 25:30 Brought to you by Sentry.io 28:34 Merchant of Record Lemon Squeezy Gumroad Paddle Beacons 32:51 Handling fraud, disputes, and refunds 41:25 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Scott: Parcel Wes: Parcels App Shameless Plugs Syntax YouTube Channel 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

2 Apr 46min

Scott and Wes talk about the planning process for a major redesign of the Syntax.fm website. They share their thoughts on organizing tasks, choosing tech, handling styling, and the debates that come with deciding what to keep and what to change. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:36 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:48 Why we need version 3.0 of Syntax.fm. Level Up Tutorials, Travis Neilson. 04:41 Project planning and organization. 05:53 The codebase. 09:50 The CSS changes. Episode 770: Design Systems With Brad Frost. 12:27 Tooling. 15:54 Development process. 16:38 Mobile and responsiveness. 18:37 Saving VS Code extension into the repo. 19:56 Using a dev container. 20:53 AI agent rules. 21:35 Code styles. 23:42 Canadian podcast. 24:33 Content storage. 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

31 Mar 29min

26 Mar 52min

Is Vibe Coding the future of software development or just a fun way to experiment? Scott and Wes talk about coding with AI, the risks of ignoring the details, and the cool (and sometimes cursed) projects they’ve Vibe Coded. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:31 “Personal Software”. 01:30 What exactly is Vibe Coding. 02:46 The challenges of coding with AI. Levelsio Airplane Game. 04:49 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 05:39 Vibe coding quality concerns. 07:25 Vibe Coding as a learning tool. 10:11 Things we’ve Vibe Coded. Scott’s Piano UI on X. Episode 876: MIDI & Music In the Browser. Wes’ Roomba on X. Wes’ Roomba on YouTube. 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

24 Mar 16min

Wes and Scott talk about Infrastructure as Code and how SST makes deploying to AWS easier than ever. They dive into SST’s features, developer experience, and how it simplifies managing services like databases, email, and more. Plus, insights on Cloudflare integration, auto-scaling, and real-world use cases. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! Supper Club × Next.js on AWS + Serverless with Dax Raad 02:37 Brought to you by Sentry.io 04:52 Intro to SST config SST AWS 05:40 Overview of Scott’s SST config file 12:33 Exploring SST’s endless capabilities SST’s docs Cloudflare 15:42 The SST developer experience Infrastructure for TS Devs: Kubernetes, WASM and Containers with David Flanagan Supper Club × Flightcontrol with Brandon Bayer 19:05 SST console and GUI overview 22:13 Resource management and pricing 24:52 Secrets management 27:38 Tunneling and security https://sst.dev/docs/live 30:52 Simplifying DNS 35:18 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Scott: Aquaphor Healing Ointment Wes: Magnetic Picture Hanger Frame Shameless Plugs Syntax YouTube Channel 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

19 Mar 39min

Scott and Wes dig into the wild world of CSS fonts—covering fallbacks, variable fonts, and new tricks like text-box-trim. They also break down font-display, font kits, and how to avoid layout shifts when loading custom type. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:06 Brought to you by Sentry.io. Damnit Sans. 02:53 @font-face. 03:27 Font Display. 07:40 Avoiding layout shift. Fallbacks. 10:45 Variable fonts. Fontaine. font-kit Wakamai Fondue. Syntax Ep. 782. Font Variation Settings. 16:23 Variable font sizing. 17:46 v-fonts. 19:10 text-box-trim & text-box-edge. text-box-trim examples. 21:28 Browser support. 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 Mar 23min

Wes and Scott talk with Anders Hejlsberg and Daniel Rosenwasser about TypeScript’s leap to native code. They discuss the challenges, trade-offs, and the decision to port TypeScript to Go, unlocking faster compilation, better concurrency, and new possibilities for AI-assisted development. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:38 TypeScript compiler goes native 05:24 Challenges in rebuilding TypeScript 08:49 How long has this been in development? 10:32 What does porting TypeScript to native entail? 16:36 Why choose Go? 26:48 The porting process 35:02 Brought to you by Sentry.io 35:27 Type checking and parallel compilation 42:36 Fixing TypeScript’s performance bottlenecks 49:09 Large TypeScript codebases 54:11 What’s the timeline for the new compiler? 58:39 Optimization and AI 01:00:32 New features? 01:04:15 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Daniel: pprof-it Anders: USB Hand Warmers Shameless Plugs TypeScript 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

11 Mar 1h 8min

What are Web Vitals, and why should you care? Scott and Wes break down metrics like LCP, FCP, CLS, and INP, explaining what they measure, how they impact your site’s performance, and how to track them yourself. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 03:26 What each web vital means. Web Vitals Playground. 03:38 LCP - Largest Contentful Paint. 05:04 FCP - First Contentful Paint. 06:07 CLS - Cumulative Layout Shift. 10:58 INP - Interaction to Next Paint. 13:43 Measuring the impact. 14:22 TTFB - Time to First Byte 15:27 How to track this on your own. 17:42 Checking the performance of Syntax.fm. 21:07 Brought to you by Sentry.io. Sentry Web Vitals. 21:49 Checking the performance of Wes’ site. 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 Mar 22min