920: How to Build MCP Servers

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about modules in Node — what are they, how they’re different from browser modules, and more! 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 3:06 - How were they done before? 5:11 - How do they work? 7:07 - How to use Modules in Node 9:57 - Gotchas 13:18 - What should you use? Links Node Node Modules Babel ESM Meteor Keystone MJS 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 202018min

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about fonts, frameworks vs custom, drinking tea, learning to code, client work, and more! Kyle Prinsloo Freelancing - Sponsor Kyle Prinsloo teaches you everything you need to know about freelancing, including how to quit your job, earn a side-income and start taking control of your life. Check it out at studywebdevelopment.com/freelancing. Use the coupon “SYNTAX” and get 25%. 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 2:01 - Q: When you run audits like lighthouse on a website, do you run the audit on each page? Or have you found an app or hack to run the audit over the entire site / multiple pages? 5:30 - Q: What makes a font “good”? I stumbled upon haleyfiege.fun/fonts, where she says her first font was not “good,” but it looks perfectly usable to me. When you are picking fonts for web apps, how do you judge them? Is it entirely subjective? 9:14 - Q: As a solo founder, speed is essential. What’s faster, building your own components, using a theme, or using a framework? 12:05 - Q: I’ve never been a tea drinker, but lately I’ve been wanting to start drinking a hot tea in the afternoon (instead of coffee). I know Scott is the Tea Guru, so what would your suggestions be for starting out? 15:30 - Q: Is it worth bundling JavaScript for websites that aren’t using a framework (i.e. WordPress / CMS websites)? The company I work for uses a large enterprise CMS and our JavaScript is just a minified mash of several different JS files, most of which are several hundred lines of spaghetti code. It would be nice to break up all these files in some sort of modular way, plus have the added benefit of using Babel so we can write modern JS. However, the output of the bundled JS file seems massive. Won’t that hurt performance and page load? 21:17 - Q: I know both of you put out a ton of content, both together and individually. I’m just curious to hear if you listen to any other podcasts out there in the land, or any other types of content that you consume to hone your skillz to pay the billz. Thanks! 25:14 - Q: What are your thoughts on Blazor? Is it a good move to be an early adopter of a framework like this, or should you focus on the ones that are already in a fully released state like React, Vue etc.? 28:51 - Q: I would like to ask Scott how you make subscriptions in a website? Also, how you give users a lifetime locked yearly subscription? 39:53 - Q: I feel like other developers’ code is always shorter, better structured, and easier to read than mine. Any tips (or resources) on writing clean, ‘good’ javascript code (or any other functional programming language)? 44:02 - Q: Both of you have CMS backgrounds, Scott with Drupal and Wes with WordPress. When you moved to freelancing, did you build for clients using a CMS? Or did you create custom admin interfaces for clients to manage their own site? You’ve mentioned some headless WordPress in the past, but was that the norm? 47:02 - Q: Hey Scott + Wes, you’re obviously very successful with your course creation careers, but do you miss client work? If people for some reason ever stopped buying your courses, would you go back to client work? Links Lighthouse Syntax203: Hasty Treat - What Are Github Actions? Lighthouse Batch NPM Package Lighthouse Action GitHub Action Next.js haleyfiege.fun/fonts Radnika Next Sipsby Babel Shop Talk Show CodePen Radio Heist Podcast Mixergy The Dream React Podcast Indie Hackers Akimbo Command Line Heroes Blazor Braintree Syntax055: Hasty Treat - User Role Systems Clean Code concepts adapted for JavaScript codecademy Javascript30 CakePHP Drupal WordPress ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Aerial America Wes: Streamer for Chromecast Shameless Plugs Scott: Level Up Tutorials Pro - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript - 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

1 Jan 202057min

In this Hasty Treat, Wes teaches Scott about Keystone.js — best practices, things to avoid, why you should check it out, 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. Show Notes 3:10 - What is Keystone? 7:38 - How do you handle mutations? 14:26 - What’s the hosting situation like? 19:34 - Shortcomings 21:40 - Plugins Links KeystoneJS Prisma Hasura Next.js GraphQL Stripe API WordPress ThinkMail Drupal Redux Now MongoDB MongoDB Compass pm2 TypeScript Apollo Helpers GraphCool 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 Dec 201927min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes do a 2019 year in review — the most popular Syntax episodes, what they learned, some personal updates, plans for next year, 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. 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 1:40 - Plans for 2020 Syntax Live March 2019 Plans for 2020 Twitter has done really well for @syntaxfm Community feels great 9:20 - Top 10 Syntax episodes of 2019 Syntax162: The Fundamentals - JS Syntax120: Gatsby vs Next Syntax158: The Fundamentals - HTML + CSS Syntax126: Bootcamps vs School vs Self-Learning Syntax138: What’s New in Web Development Syntax130: The VueJS Show (Scott teaches Wes) Syntax146: CSS the Cool Parts Syntax174: How to Build an API Syntax154: SVGs with Sara Soueidan Syntax106: A Look Forward to 2019 25:17 - Personal stuff Scott Brooklyn Tolinksi 2019 was really tough for me Level Up courses for 12 months Huge changes to my production values and office Huge changes to LUT codebase (React hooks, Typescript, Next.js, Mongoose) Wes New Baby in June / 3 months Paternity Leave Bought a cottage Hardest course to make was Beginner JS — it was a slog, hard to stay motivated at times, with 80 hours of recording alone Course Platform re-write (Next.js) 39:17 - Stuff we learned Scott Better speaker Lots of TypeScript Better debugging Hooks Svelte General improvement in JS writing and programming skills Wes Really good at Vanilla.js DOM API React Hooks Suspense Audio Visualization Shape Detection API - Faces, Barcodes, Text Headless CMS: Prismic, Sanity, WordPress GraphQL, Keystone.js, Hasura Very good understanding of the nitty gritty of JS (closures, objects, this, new keyword, classes, etc.) Links Reactathon freeCodeCamp Podcast CSS Houdini Syntax109: Hasty Treat - CSS Grid Level 2 aka Subgrid Syntax092: React Hooks Dev Mugs TypeScript Svelte Prismic Sanity WPGraphQL Keystone.js Hasura ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: The Dream Podcast Wes: Synology DiskStation DS918+ Shameless Plugs Scott: React & TypeScript For Everyone - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript - 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

25 Dec 201957min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about launching courses — a behind-the-scenes look at their platforms, processes, best practices, and what it takes to get a course published. 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 2:13 - Scott’s process 8:48 - Wes’ process 20:57 - Additional tips Links Beginner Javascript Level Up Tutorials Figma Tim Smith YouTube Vimeo HandBrake Screenflow Backblaze B2 VS Code 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

23 Dec 201926min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk with David K Piano about state machines, CSS, animations and more! 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 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 2:30 - Who is David K Piano? 4:00 - Did you have a background in animation prior to web development? 5:45 - How did you build the CSS Responsive House on Codepen? 8:36 - What are state machines? 14:47 - How does it relate to programming? 17:20 - How do you go about changing states? 20:20 - Is this similar to how RxJS works? 21:40 - How would state machine work in CSS? 29:07 - Perspective in CSS 34:47 - How do you like Twitch vs YouTube? 35:48 - How do you add XState to a current project? 41:42 - Visualizing sate machines 46:15 - Do you have a day job as well? Links @davidkpiano David’s Codepen CSS Responsive House InVision Framer Figma XState RxJS React Apollo Vue.js Javascript30 Tailwind CSS GROQ.dev Keyframe.rs Babel Twitch Keygrame.rs Patreon ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× David: Lynn Fisher Scott: The Big One Wes: American Factory Shameless Plugs David: XState and Keyframe.rs Scott: React and Typescript for Everyone - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript - 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

18 Dec 201953min

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about the new 16" MacBook Pro and how it performs as a web development machine. 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 2:24 - Why did the old ones suck? 4:43 - What did we get and why? Wes 32GB RAM 2.3GHz 8-core i9   1TB SSD Scott 64GB RAM 2.4GHz 8-core i9 8gb AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 2TB SSD 9:40 - Is it still the best? The MacBook Pro is the workhorse of developers Keyboard is amazing Screen is even bigger Esc key is back Touch ID is very fast Heat is good Speed is very fast. Great for video editing, recording, etc… Trackpad feels great 15:18 - Still not good: Webcam sucks Ports 16:09 - Y NAWTS: Why not Windows? Why not Hackintosh? Why not iMac? Links 16" MackBook Pro Surface Book Alfred CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock 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

16 Dec 201921min

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes bring you an entire episode of sick picks — the 2019 gift guide! 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. 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 3:48 - Gadgets Apple Watch Sabrent Qi Wireless Charger Sony wh-1000xm3 Bose QC35 II Sabrent 8-in-1 hub Satechi Aluminum Multi-Port Adapter Anker 5-in-1 quick charge hub 3 in 1 charge cable Elgato Cam Link 16:59 - Smart Home Automation Google Nest Home Hub Wyze cams + plugs + bulbs Ecobee thermostat Google Chromecast Google Home Smart Powerstrip 27:14 - Laptop Stands 12 South Rain Design mStand Roost Nexstand 29:59 - Phone Cases RhinoShield 30:52 - Mechanical Keyboards Ctrl Keyboard Keychron K1 Code Keyboard 34:34 - Mice Logitech MX Master Mouse 35:27 - Tripods Lammcou Flexible Tripod GorillaPod 37:04 - Cameras Sony a7 III 38:06 - Experiential Massage Float Knife Skills Class Butcher Class Cooking Class 40:08 - Food Cold Brew Coffee Maker Prep Naturals Glass Meal Prep Containers Blue Top Creamy Buffalo Heartbeat Hot Sauce Pineapple Habanero Maldon Salt Weck jars Thick sheet pans Precut parchment Instant Read Thermometer Umai Dry Steak Aging Charcuterie bags Mesh produce bags Beeswax wraps Yeti drinkware 49:24 - Grooming & Wellness Theragun Foam roller Power Blocks Japanese nail clippers Links Anker Deal Extreme Prismic YouTube Channel Shameless Plugs Scott: Level Up Pro - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript Course 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 Dec 201955min