People seem to enjoy my shakes-fist-at-cloud npm rant.
Microblog
I hate npm so much. I had a situation where I couldn’t work on a project because I couldn’t get the dev environment running locally.
I’ve gotten to the point where I hate even having a build step at all. The benefits are not worth it in the long run.
I feel like I should be able to create a moderately complex website (or even a web app) and it should be able to run for a minimum of five years without needing compatibility updates.
The worst part of this is that the web platform is probably one of the most backward compatible runtimes in the history of computing. You can take some HTML/CSS/JS from 20 years ago and it will probably run just fine in a modern browser now. Build steps ruin this.
If you build a web application with no build steps, you could pick up working on that project a decade from now and not have to worry about not being able to work because of compatibility issues.
There has really never been a better time to ditch build steps. CSS is awesome now. It has variables. It has nesting (maybe not everywhere yet but still).
Code organization? Modern browsers support ES modules, so it’s not like you need one gigantic bundle.
As @jimniels@mastodon.social said, if you are writing JavaScript in VSCode, you are using TypeScript. You get a lot of editor support without actually needing to build anything.
I can’t speak to other frameworks, but Vue works great in the browser without a build step. No, you don’t get to use the official single file component feature, but with ES modules, you can get something kind of close.
There is also Alpine.js which works really great with existing HTML.
I can’t speak to other frameworks, but Vue works great in the browser without a build step. No, you don’t get to use the official single file component feature, but with ES modules, you can get something kind of close.
There is also Alpine.js which works really great with existing HTML.
https://vuejs.org/guide/extras/ways-of-using-vue.html#standalone-script
There has really never been a better time to ditch build steps. CSS is awesome now. It has variables. It has nesting (maybe not everywhere yet but still).
Code organization? Modern browsers support ES modules, so it's not like you need one gigantic bundle.
As @jimniels said, if you are writing JavaScript in VSCode, you are using TypeScript. You get a lot of editor support without actually needing to build anything.
https://blog.jim-nielsen.com/2023/the-flavors-of-typescript/
The worst part of this is that the web platform is probably one of the most backward compatible runtimes in the history of computing. You can take some HTML/CSS/JS from 20 years ago and it will probably run just fine in a modern browser now. Build steps ruin this.
If you build a web application with no build steps, you could pick up working on that project a decade from now and not have to worry about not being able to work because of compatibility issues.
I hate npm so much. I had a situation where I couldn't work on a project because I couldn't get the dev environment running locally.
I’ve gotten to the point where I hate even having a build step at all. The benefits are not worth it in the long run.
I feel like I should be able to create a moderately complex website (or even a web app) and it should be able to run for a minimum of five years without needing compatibility updates.
We’re looking for a backend engineer for NASA projects (US remote). .NET (C#, Web API), Postgres, CI/CD.
I made a lil Simon-style memory game (warning: flashing colors). https://codepen.io/blakewatson/pen/NWBrzrj
For the lazy vanilla JS peeps out there, I submit to you the following:
```
const qs = (selector) => document.querySelector(selector);
const qsa = (selector) => Array.from(document.querySelectorAll(selector));
```
Regarding the Cloudflare app, I used 11ty to generate the frontend site. It uses Alpine.js for interactivity and Pico CSS for styling. Deployed to Cloudflare Pages.
The backend API is Hono running in a Cloudflare Worker. I used Cloudflare’s embedded SQLite database (D1) for data storage.
It was a little bumpy figuring things out, but the docs are pretty helpful. I find Cloudflare’s UI and docs less intimidating than AWS.
I used 11ty to generate the frontend site. It uses Alpine.js for interactivity and Pico CSS for styling. Deployed to Cloudflare Pages.
The backend API is Hono running in a Cloudflare Worker. I used Cloudflare’s embedded SQLite database (D1) for data storage.
It was a little bumpy figuring things out, but the docs are pretty helpful. I find Cloudflare’s UI and docs less intimidating than AWS.
TIL how to use Cloudflare Workers and Cloudflare Pages. Hilariously I deployed a home-cooked app that is only used by me and @mhilltopple.
But hey, at least it’ll be lightning fast if we happen to find ourselves on the other side of the world.
My spicy take is that spicy food is overrated.
I don’t know who needs this but I have a bunch of examples of a filterable list using various JavaScript frameworks. https://codepen.io/blakewatson/pen/bGOdBLR
No React tho ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Let's say you are a frontend developer and you have made an app than has some data stored in localStorage. What is the dead simplest way to persist this data beyond the browser (eg, in a database, in a file on a server, in the cloud, etc)?
I have a fast approaching talk about home-cooked apps—the ones we make just for ourselves and family and friends. Tell me about yours so I can give examples! https://blakewatson.com/notes/13827e9b/
I just now discovered CHVRCHES. This song was released in 2021 but it sounds like it came straight out of the eighties. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRYTaT0PB8
I was just forced to do an image verification captcha to unsubscribe from a marketing email list. 😖
When I was in high school complaining about math and asking when I would ever need this, I wish my teachers would have said “In 20 years when you finally try to make a video game.”