Big Deno Changes

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about VS Code, JavaScript, $100k-per-year dev jobs, sponsored blog posts, how to use dev tools, how to keep your skills up to date, and more! Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS that makes it easy to build website pages as a set of components. Break pages into sections of components using React, Vue, or whatever you like. Make corresponding Slices in Prismic. Start building pages dynamically in minutes. Get started at prismic.io/syntax. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Linode - Sponsor Whether you’re working on a personal project or managing enterprise infrastructure, you deserve simple, affordable, and accessible cloud computing solutions that allow you to take your project to the next level. Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Linode’s Linux virtual machines and develop, deploy, and scale your modern applications faster and easier. Get started on Linode today with a $100 in free credit for listeners of Syntax. You can find all the details at linode.com/syntax. Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, you can use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more. Visit linode.com/syntax and click on the “Create Free Account” button to get started. Show Notes 02:01 - Not so much a question as me saying thanks! I started web dev as a bartender/college dropout in 2017 when Syntax was pretty new. I rarely miss an episode, and this year I’m starting my first >$100k JS job! Your show has always been fun, kept my attention in the realm of web dev, and helped guide my interest — I think it has been extremely valuable to my career so far, and I look forward to more. 04:10 - How do I know when to pull in a package rather than write similar functionality myself? And is there a rule for when enough is enough, in terms of having too many packages? What I’m most concerned about is bundle size. It doesn’t seem to take a lot of packages before Webpack notifies you about large bundle sizes, so what would be best practice? 11:27 - What is your opinion of doing a sponsored post or guest post on your own site? And if you’re in favor, what sorts of terms, payment, etc. would you outline or charge for it? 18:20 - Do you have/know of any resources for those that want to learn more about selling digital products through e-commerce? The sources I’ve found (Scott’s e-commerce/Gatsby courses & Next.js commerce demo page) focus more on creating stores that sell physical products. Are there any gotchas when selling digital vs physical? 22:10 - Do you have any tips for keeping your skills up to date while taking a break from work? I’m a frontend dev currently six months into my year-long maternity leave and I feel like my brain has turned to soup. I listen to podcasts and read blog posts but it never feels like enough. Time and energy are very limited for me to work on personal projects! 25:11 - I remember you guys saying something about making your own UI component libraries. Do you use some CSS libraries like Tailwind or even Bootstrap or others for this, or do you write your Sass/CSS from scratch? 30:52 - Would be interested to hear some of the common ways you use dev tools (chrome dev tools, react dev tools, redux, etc.). I feel like there is a lot of information in there that I am not utilizing properly to help figure out problems during development. Would be cool to hear an overview of how you use the different tabs, some of the most commons things to look for, etc. 35:20 - I am graduating from a bootcamp next month and I feel severe insecurities/imposter syndrome. For whatever reason, I freeze up when it comes to coming up with code or writing things myself, mainly in JS. When in class, watching tutorials, following along, or viewing other people's code, I can tell you exactly what is going on, why it is being done, and I can change and add things and explain them. But when it comes to starting from a blank slate, I freeze, as if everything I know about programming has gone out the window. Do you have any advice as to how to get past this hurdle? I feel like at this point I shouldn’t be feeling like this, but maybe this is normal? 40:36 - Do you think developers have a responsibility to help reduce CO2 emissions caused by the web? A BBC news article stated that “HD video streaming on a phone generates about eight times more in emissions than standard definition (SD)” and noted that on a small screen, the viewer might not even notice the difference. Should the developer limit the resolution available to mobile devices, or should they let the end user choose? 47:53 - I was hoping that you guys could give me, and other listeners, advice on “knowing when you’ve bitten off more than you can chew”? Often I’ll be working on a project for fun, or possibly building out my portfolio, and I’ll continue to get excited about features that I’d like to add to my current app or what have you. At first glance, the ideas or features seemed reasonable enough to tackle, but hours later, I’ll find myself stuck, realizing that I’m in over my head, as I’ve tried to take on something that I’m not yet experienced enough to work with, or I’m lacking the man-power to complete it in a timely manner. At the same time, I want to challenge myself so that I can grow, but sometimes I feel that I’m not using my time wisely. So my question to you is, where is the line between challenging ourselves to take on new and difficult tasks and scaling back our current work to make it more approachable and less overwhelming? 55:01 - What is the right use-case for a database, and what is the right use-case for a headless CMS? Is a headless CMS just a database + a user-friendly way of entering data into that database? Is there a secure way of querying Sanity directly from the frontend if I have data that I want to be only available to logged-in users? Links Syntax Listener Questions Bundle Phobia Shopify Snipcart Styled Components BEM Mux ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Double Sided Mounting Tape Wes: Secret Aardvark Habanero Hot Sauce Shameless Plugs Scott: All Courses - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

20 Jan 20211h 4min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about CSS typography, and how to quickly get up and running with type systems. Sanity - Sponsor Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your code, track errors and monitor performance with Sentry. Sentry’s Application Monitoring platform helps developers see performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize their code health. Cut your time on error resolution from hours to minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners new to Sentry can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code TASTYTREAT during sign up. Show Notes 05:00 - How do you define type at the start of a new project? 15:03 - How do media queries and screen sizes affect your system? 16:58 - Why are systems in type important? 20:21 - How do you design a type system? Scott’s type system: /* Font Sizes */ --baseFontSize: 1rem; --baseNavSize: 0.64rem; --smallFontSize: 0.8rem; --smallestFontSize: 0.512rem; --xtra-big-ass-heading: 3.052rem; --xtra-heading: 2.441rem; --heading-1: 1.953rem; --heading-2: 1.563rem; --heading-3: 1.25rem; --heading-4: var(--baseFontSize); --heading-5: var(--smallFontSize); --heading-6: 0.64rem; --heading-7: var(--smallestFontSize); Links https://type-scale.com/ Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

18 Jan 202126min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes are coming at you live from Reactathon with audience-favorite segments including All I Want for Christmas in React, JS or Nay-s (or Both), Overrated / Underrated, Hot Take Tweets, Listener Questions, and more! Freshbooks - Sponsor Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Magic Bell - Sponsor MagicBell, the embeddable notification inbox - magicbell.io. Use the coupon code SYNTAX to get a 20% discount if you sign up in the next two weeks. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 04:17 - All I Want for Christmas in React is: Suspense for data fetching On mount animations Unmount for me Single file components preventDefault shortcut Input to state mapping 09:45 - JS or Nay-s (or Both) Shout out to Pigeonhole Graphene - 1) Carbon atoms organized in a hexagonal lattice, or 2) An opinionated Python library for building GraphQL Libraries in Python? Floodlight - 1) A super simple syntax highlighter for XHTML documents, or 2) a large light used to illuminate dark outdoor spaces? Toy Machine - 1) An early 2000s skate brand, or 2) A Vue-based GUI for creating state machines? Joplin - 1) A free, open-source note taking and to-do application based on markdown, or 2) A city in the northwestern corner of Missouri? Noco - 1) A JavaScript library that connects to No Code tools including bubble.io, or 2) A smart car battery maintainer & charger? Innr - 1) A smart lightbulb, or 2) A CSS in JS library for selecting parent selectors? Cabkoma Strand - 1) A thermoplastic carbon fiber composite rod used in modern buildings, or 2) A Redux-like state management library for Svelte? Sputnik V - 1) Code name for the upcoming WordPress release with built-in headless CMS mode, or 2) A non-replicating viral vector COVID-19 vaccine? 18:44 - Overrated / Underrated Deno ESM import from URL (no npm) Remix.run Xstate 27:49 - Hot Take Tweets https://twitter.com/wesbos/status/1336367385683636225 34:34 - Listener Questions Q: If you recently started doing web dev work, which career path would you choose - startup, FANG, or freelance? Q: TypeScript all the things? Q: What do you do to keep up with the latest and greatest changes in tech - front-end libraries, new languages, etc.? Q: Can you share some exclusive BBQ tips? Q: What do you expect of Blitz.js in the next few years? Q: What’s the first node module you install in a brand new React project besides React itself? Q: Thoughts on using languages other than JS and TS with React like Kotlin? Q: Do you have an approach for optimizing hi-res images that are stored in your back-end, like S3 for your Gatsby website? Links Watch the live recording of this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xJpxj6T1BQ Formik Mux Syntax Ep 206: State Machines, CSS and Animations with David K Piano Check My Hair - Wes Bos Houdini.How Rust Cloudinary LockPickingLawyer YouTube Channel ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: VS Code color conversion extensions Wes: Acrylic lock picking kit Shameless Plugs Scott: All Courses - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

13 Jan 202149min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about nothing — null, undefined, void, false, 0, ‘’, NaN, [], {}, never — all sorts of values that could mean the things that do not exist. Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS that makes it easy to build website pages as a set of components. Break pages into sections of components using React, Vue, or whatever you like. Make corresponding Slices in Prismic. Start building pages dynamically in minutes. Get started at prismic.io/syntax. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Show Notes 03:35 - Undefined Implicitly nothing A variable declared, but not set is undefined 04:25 - Null Explicitly nothing 04:41 - Null vs Undefined Null has a value of nothing Undefined does not have a value You can set variables to either If you want to set a score variable to nothing, set it to null If you want to un-set a value, set it to undefined == will check if a value is either null or undefined 05:35 - Void In Javascript You can pop void in front of calling a function and it will return undefined (even if that function returns a value) I’ve seen it on links that go nowhere (don’t do this — use a button) To prevent an arrow function from leaking onSubmit="javascript:void()" is a quick-n-easy prevent default on forms In Typescript Void is when you don’t care about what is returned from a function, or if nothing is returned A click handler that goes off and does stuff (side effect) can return void 09:15 - Never (in Typescript) Some functions will never return: Functions that throw errors Functions that have infinite loops Also, unreachable variables have a type of never if(true == false) { let var = 'this will never be true'; } 11:05 - Falsy values 0, -0, 0n false ‘’ (empty string) Empty array Is a value Its .length can be falsy Empty object Is a value Its object.keys(object) length can be falsy (0) Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

11 Jan 202115min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about their predictions for 2021! Sanity - Sponsor Sanity.io is a real-time headless CMS with a fully customizable Content Studio built in React. Get a Sanity powered site up and running in minutes at sanity.io/create. Get an awesome supercharged free developer plan on sanity.io/syntax. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Linode - Sponsor Whether you’re working on a personal project or managing enterprise infrastructure, you deserve simple, affordable, and accessible cloud computing solutions that allow you to take your project to the next level. Simplify your cloud infrastructure with Linode’s Linux virtual machines and develop, deploy, and scale your modern applications faster and easier. Get started on Linode today with a $100 in free credit for listeners of Syntax. You can find all the details at linode.com/syntax. Linode has 11 global data centers and provides 24/7/365 human support with no tiers or hand-offs regardless of your plan size. In addition to shared and dedicated compute instances, you can use your $100 in credit on S3-compatible object storage, Managed Kubernetes, and more. Visit linode.com/syntax and click on the “Create Free Account” button to get started. Show Notes 02:06 - ESM Scott: It’s going to be big Snowpack Wes: Everything going forward should be ESM 05:44 - Wes: Remote work will grow Whole new talent pool opens up Whole new living situations open up 08:23 - Scott: Deno will grow Deno 101 for Web Developers 11:12 - Wes: Tooling will fade away Less setup, more behind the scenes Rome Deno Linter Formatter Transpiler Tester Parcel2 Snowpack Nextjs 14:14 - Scott: Greater usage of other languages to build Javascript esbuild Rust Go 19:35 - Wes: Programming communities will gain traction Github Discussions Forem Circle spectrum Discourse 23:25 - Scott: More WASM Mongo Spline 27:19 - Typescript Wes: Typescript will become more popular Scott: Tooling will get better VS Code 29:37 - React Scott: Scoped CSS in React will evolve SSR and hydration will be better Wes: People will fall out of love with React Or more magic will get added to React 32:52 - Scott: More web component frameworks Stencil 33:17 - Scott: Markdown and mdx-like frameworks will skyrocket in use 33:59 - Wes: Gatsby Hosted GraphQL / SSR / Render on demand Solve the pain of long build times Syntax 308: Gatsby vs Next.js in 2021 Next.js 35:24 - Scott: AR tech will grow Target AR app 36:38 - Wes: AI will become accessible Something as easy as a search result RTX Voice 38:43 - VS Code Scott: It will continue dominating Cloud and shared coding env will become better Figma Wes: Github Codespaces 40:18 - CSS Wes: Color functions More use of built-in features Scoped CSS Scott: People are going to love and use CSS variables Modern CSS Design Systems Course 42:39 - Serverless Scott: Ease of use will get better and better Wes: Netlify Vercel 45:30 - Wes: Enterprise Jamstack will become a thing Cloudflare hosting Next.js Gatsby Sapper SvelteKit 46:30 - PWAs might become more popular Apple will never want you to go around the app store ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Ted Lasso Wes: Neewer Dimmable Bi-Color LED Shameless Plugs Scott: Deno 101 for Web Developers - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

6 Jan 202154min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about keyboard shortcuts, window management, and how to stay productive. Freshbooks - Sponsor Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Sentry - Sponsor If you want to know what’s happening with your errors, track them with Sentry. Sentry is open-source error tracking that helps developers monitor and fix crashes in real time. Cut your time on error resolution from five hours to five minutes. It works with any language and integrates with dozens of other services. Syntax listeners can get two months for free by visiting Sentry.io and using the coupon code “tastytreat”. Show Notes 03:54 - Karabiner-Elements 06:11 - Better Touch Tool 13:55 - ScreenFlow 17:52 - VS Code Shortcuts 21:20 - Text Expander 23:00 - Clipy Links Davinci Resolve Divvy Uberlayer Elgato Stream Deck iShowU Rocket Clipy source Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

4 Jan 202126min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about 2020 in review — predictions, hits and misses, hot tech, what they worked on, and more! LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Freshbooks - Sponsor Get a 30 day free trial of Freshbooks at freshbooks.com/syntax and put SYNTAX in the “How did you hear about us?” section. Show Notes 01:43 - Predictions from 2020 CSS Subgrid CSS Houdini CSS features not supported in older browsers yet Scrollsnap - IE 11 and up. Lot’s of mobile issues. position:sticky - no IE at all NPM tink Installer-less npm Load packages at runtime into a shared cache across all projects Intelligently download the parts you need Yarn PnP / Yarn 2 Hard links to eliminate package duplication Shared cache across all projects Pika & Snowpack Deno React Suspense in more libraries Suspense for Server Rendering Meteor New ownership. v1.9 just dropped with lots of promise for future growth Svelte 3 Vue 3 Apollo 3.0 came out Fine grain cache control Hooks API Custom logic over how things are read and merged New dev tools Next.js 10.0 came out Images! Gatsby A single useQuery (made possible by suspense) Serverless Going to get easier Begin Next.js / Now Functions Headless CMS Thunderdome Sanity WordPress WPGraphQL Keystone Strapi RedwoodJS Blitz.js Cypress End to end testing We got Firefox support in 2020 Modulz Exports to JS component Figma Was already amazing in 2019 Constantly improving and adding new features Can import from Sketch Auto Layout Spline 42:24 - What other tech was hot in 2020? ES Modules is king We’re ready in the browser Node shipped stable Deno has it Snowpack Bundlers and tools Snowpack Vite Rollup made gains Rome GraphQL got way easier Battle of the Types Typescript Flow Reason Rust Wasm Viable to use Starting to exist in more real ways 52:53 - Working from home Remote work is hotter than ever Starlink is coming Webcams - Cam Link Discord Remote Pairing Live Share - I used VS Code with Jed from Keystone Tuple 57:13 - Code libraries React Query Alpine.js Stencil 59:25 - Personal / Professional updates Hard year for productivity Published more than 100 episodes of Syntax Links Syntax 216: Tech To Watch In 2020 Adam Argyle https://ishoudinireadyyet.com/ Syntax 212: Pika Pkg Fred Schott Level Up Tutorials: Deno 101 For Web Developers React Suspense Sapper How to Supercharge Your Productivity with GraphQL Tooling by Scott Tolinski Wes’ Master Gatsby Course Syntax 308: Gatsby vs Next.js in 2021 Syntax 299: Hasty Treat - Bundlers in 2020 https://github.com/ffmpegwasm/ffmpeg.wasm ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Innr Bulbs Wes: Pendleton Weighted Blanket Shameless Plugs Scott: All Courses - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

30 Des 20201h 6min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about how hosting and web services pricing works, and how to figure out what you need, and what you don’t. LogRocket - Sponsor LogRocket lets you replay what users do on your site, helping you reproduce bugs and fix issues faster. It’s an exception tracker, a session re-player and a performance monitor. Get 14 days free at logrocket.com/syntax. Show Notes 01:55 - Per minute Spin up, do the work, spin down Popular in serverless space Can apply to other types of computing such as graphics, AI, machine learning, etc. 03:49 - By resources Ram CPU Disk space 06:02 - Per “dyno” These are Heroku Linux servers You can add more dynos and make your app faster They scale it for you 08:54 - By bandwidth Sitting files Inbound (ingress) Output 12:24 - By DB calls or entries Databases 14:04 - By users This is more of a Sass thing, but can bleed into hosting too Seat-based - Netlify does something like this 17:23 - By apps Digital Ocean app platform Each app is $5 21:22 - By “work” Cloudinary does transforms on images Mux Links Heroku AWS Digital Ocean Meteor Galaxy Linode Rackspace MediaTemple GoDaddy Bluehost Backblaze B2 Mux GraphQL Github Netlify 1Password Cloudinary Firefox Containers Chrome grouped tabs Brave Digital Ocean app platform Cloudflare Vercel Prisma Tweet us your tasty treats! Scott’s Instagram LevelUpTutorials Instagram Wes’ Instagram Wes’ Twitter Wes’ Facebook Scott’s Twitter Make sure to include @SyntaxFM in your tweets

28 Des 202026min