Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about how to hire an assistant — something that can make your life a lot easier as a solo developer. 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 2:34 - Finding someone Virtual Assistant Offset timezones can be handy Flexible is great - two hours here, two hours there 5:55 - Types of tasks to delegate Support Email replies Mail and shipping items Invoicing Expenses Research - find emails for X Blog post edits Sponsorships 14:50 - Standard Operating Procedures If something happens more than once, make an SOP Common questions that come up 18:07 - Tools 1Password Missive Custom backend tools for: Managing courses Issuing refunds Chromebook Google Docs 21:52 - Hours Links 1Password Missive Notion Freshbooks Syntax Ep 184: Desktop & Mobile Apps With a Single Codebase 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about soft skills tips — productivity, planning, communication, 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”. 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 2:20 - Productivity Make a todo list and prioritize Get ideas out of your brain Use a tool like Notion as a second brain Batch related things together Recharge when you need it Have a system and stick to it 16:34 - Finishing projects Start Do a little every day Go all-in for a few days Clearly identify what needs to be done (Github issues, todo app) 23:30 - Planning tips I use Mind Node Whimsical Write it down when you have an idea Put everything in a calendar 30:24 - Communication Be honest and upfront with deadlines Give yourself padding — many people are overly optimistic Don’t let people expect communication from you, at all, or at all times Assume good intentions Don’t be a jerk to clients or coworkers 40:28 - Skill and career advancement FDD — fun driven development Share what you learn Don’t let other’s progress get you down — there is always someone smarter doing crazier stuff Solve your own problems Apply and interview for anything that’s interesting Track your progress I want to ___, I wish I could ____, You are lucky that you get to _____ Just start! Seriously. Plan on doing something. Links Todoist Things Notion Evernote Notable Beginner Javascript Level 1 Electron uses.tech Rework Jason Freid David Heinemeier Hanson It Doesn’t Have To Be Crazy At Work Mind Node Whimsical Javascript30 CodeSandbox Streaks Xerf Xpec YouTube Channel ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Katsumi Horii Project - Sky Cruisin’ Album Wes: AmpliFi ALIEN Router Shameless Plugs Scott: Animating React with Framer Motion - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott asks Wes about Cloudflare — which services he uses, which ones he doesn’t, why, 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. Show Notes 2:45 - What do you personally use Cloudflare for? DNS provider Domain registration at cost Caching DDoS protection Hiding server IP address Free HTTPS Firewall rules Scrape shield Lightweight stats Serverless functions DNS Cloudflare Warp 16:40 - What are you not using? KV storage Video streaming Deep customization around blocking/errors 19:49 - How do you set it up? Links Cloudflare Beginner Javascript Digital Ocean DNS Simple Let’s Encrypt Syntax Ep 224: Serverless / Cloud Functions - Part 1 Begin 7-Eleven hit “Dance The Slurp” 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes do a part 2 about Serverless — databases, files, secrets, auth, 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. 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 2:47 - Wes tried Cloudflare Workers Also this is so cool: Hey Wes, just listened to the latest Syntax episode on the serverless setup. Not sure if it’s an episode idea or not, but if you wanna do a bit of a dive on Cloudflare’s service workers, I’m currently leading an “invisible infrastructure migration” right now from a legacy WordPress setup to a new Storyblok/Netlify setup. We’re using Cloudflare’s service workers to basically “stitch” the headers/menus/footers from the old WordPress site into our new Netlify pages, but serving the page back as if it was part of the normal domain. This means we can migrate from the old to the new slowly without massively disrupting SEO, doing a lengthy/costly rebuild, etc. A word on Digital Ocean Kubernetes + FAAS allows you to scale up/down 13:54 - Secret management Some have a great UI Some have a CLI Some only have production Some have dev/staging/prod 16:24 - Vendor lock-in Two kinds of vendor lock-in Lock into a low-level provider (Like AWS, or MongoDB) Lock into a framework Questions to ask: Can I go, take my app as-is, and host it on another provider? Can I refactor the config and run my code as-is? Do I need to refactor my code for it to run on other platforms? Next.js will only run on Now There is a community package Begin all runs on Arc.codes Firebase is locked in? 25:12 - Sharing dependencies Each function will have its own package.json, which can be a pain Publish utils a private module AWS Layers Import/export Bundle and tree shake 30:26 - Local development Now dev NPX sandbox Wrangler for Cloudflare workers 36:40 - Existing applications Difficult to move with many routes, but easy to move a Graphql API that has one single route Maybe do piece by piece instead of all at once Begin has http express method 45:21 - Data Any DB you want Dynamo DB integrated into many Firebase KV Storage for Cloudflare workers Fauna 48:14 - File storage Generally files go in the associated file place like Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudinary Many also have this integrated as well 52:18 - Auth Serverless is ephemeral and stateless JWT likely as sessions will work, but doesn’t really make sense Links Cloudflare Workers Akamai MongoDB Stitch Hitler uses Kubernetes Digital Ocean Kubernetes Firebase Google Cloud Architect Next.js Now.sh Begin Netlify Now Wrangler Apollo Federation Monaco Postman Codesandbox DynamoDB Amazon S3 Backblaze B2 Cloudinary ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: The Power of Bad by John Tierney Wes: Socket Organizer Shameless Plugs Scott: Animating React with Framer Motion - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about container queries, what they are and how you can use them. 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 4:30 - The General Idea Toward Responsive Elements — Brian Kardell 6:20 - Problems It’s not as easy as, “how do we write them” Some of the requirements may need a fundamental change to browser engines May be very impractical and take a long time “Did you know, for example, that there are multiple many year long efforts with huge investments underway already aimed at unlocking many new things in CSS? There are - and I don’t mean Houdini!” ~ Brian Kardell 8:56 - What’s been happening? Lots of conversations Dead ends “How do we make this into more solvable problems?” and “How do we actually make some progress, mitigate risk - take a step, and and actually get something to developers?” ~ Brian Kardell ‘containment’ and ResizeObserver, Implemented in all browsers in about 2 years 12:00 - Progress Lot’s of discussion Goog, Moz, Apple, smart people Not there yet Big ideas that could go somewhere .foo { display: grid; grid-template-columns: switch( (available-inline-size > 1024px) 1fr 4fr 1fr; (available-inline-size > 400px) 2fr 1fr; (available-inline-size > 100px) 1fr; default 1fr; ); } “A whole lot of the problems with existing ideas is that they heave to loop back through (expensive) phases potentially several times and make it (seemingly) impossible to keep CSS rendering in the same frame.” ~ Brian Kardell Or a system based on resizeObserver “In the coming months I hope to continue to think about, explore this space and continue discussions with others. I would love to publish some research and maybe some new (functional) experiments with JS that aim to be ‘closer’ to a path that might be paveable.” ~ Brian Kardell https://github.com/ZeeCoder/container-query https://github.com/FreddyFY/styled-container-query Links uses.tech Ian Kilpatrick Jared Palmer’s tsdx 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

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about Gastby vs everything, Next, Vue, Rails, working with agencies, CSS, 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. 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/freelaning. Use the coupon “SYNTAX” and get 25%. Show Notes 1:39 - This may be a crazy question but I need to build a similar system to Level Up Tutorials where people can access content based on a monthly subscription. Any recommendations where to start with either Next.js or Gastby.js? How do I check to see if a person is up-to-date with payment? 4:14 - What's your favorite new tab page? 6:19: CSS vs SCSS vs Styled Components? When you are developing a React or Next.js application which styling method do you guys use and why? Which one is “best practice”, or a more efficient way of going about it? 11:14 - What do you think of lit-html? 15:25 - I’m relatively new to React, and primarily learning the create-react-app way. When do you go for the create-react-app approach when building an application, and when do you customize the config? I’m uncertain when it’s time to escape the ‘create-react-app’ approach. Also, when escaping it, which main configurations are you grabbing? 18:19 - Is there a reason hasty treat intros are 2.5x the length of normal episodes? Now that Overcast has intro skipping it’d be nice if the intros were uniform in length. 21:23 - I see Kyle Matthews coming out with a lot of input on how Gatsby can be used for web applications as well. After listening to several of your podcasts, where you talk about Gatsby, it doesn’t seem like you agree, and would go for Next.js instead. In your opinion is the development at Gatsby really heading in the direction of SSG and web application? 27:17 - I’ve hopped on the Vue train from jQuery land, and am loving both Nuxt and Gridsome. However, I keep hearing all these good things about Gatsby. Would you guys say that it is worth it to learn Gatsby (and the whole react ecosystem for that matter) over Gridsome? This is mostly for small-medium-ish side-project web sites that connect to a headless CMS. 30:04 - What are your thoughts on CSS pre-processors nowadays? With all the advance and new features from CSS, do you guys really think that it is still worthy to use it those? 32:11 - Scott, can you talk a bit about why you decided to switch back to Meteor after putting in all the effort to convert LUT to Next.js? I am about to start a new fullstack project and was considering Next until I heard you switched back. Maybe I should consider Meteor instead? 40:21 - I’ve recently started an internship at one of my favorite tech companies where I’m using EmberJS and Ruby on Rails. I love the team I’m on (the people are so nice) but I’m not super passionate about the tech stack. I’d much rather be using something like React and NodeJS/Express in my day-to-day coding. Do you think it’s worth staying in a position (if I were to try and get a full-time gig in this role) if you don’t like the tech stack, but really like the people? 40:51 - I’m thinking of doing a bootcamp that teaches Ruby on Rails for backend. I hear a lot that Ruby is a dying language, but at the same time, I know it’s used for a lot of big-timers, such as Airbnb and Shopify. Could you please explain the relevance that Ruby/Ruby on Rails will have in 2020 forward, as well as if it’s worth learning for newer web developers at this point? 45:15 - What is the deal with CMSs/headless CMSs? I hear you guys talk about them all the time (Sanity, Keystone, Prisma?) but I’m not sure what they are good for. To me, they just seem like a UI to my database, but isn’t that what my application is? It just seems like it would be easier to have my frontend talk to my backend talk to my database instead of learning how each CMS wants things to be done and programming for that? Am I missing the point? 48:11 - What does Svelte needs for each of you to use it instead of React in personal and future developments? 50:38 - I freelance on the side as well as have a 9-5. The other dev I work with mentioned he’d help if I ever needed/wanted help on a client project. What are your thoughts on doing freelance work with someone who you also work with at your job? 52:01 - My team is currently in the design phase for a rewrite of our biggest product. We are switching from perl backend (y i k e s) to node (yay) but for some reason, our tech lead decided on hapi for the node framework. I have spent a little time with hapi and it seems cool but I am not sure about its longevity when compared to more establishe

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about how to make servers fast! 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 3:58 - Ram / Memory Things like variables, functions, callstacks, application cache, sessions are all stored in memory Large processes can eat up lots of memory Reading 1,000,000 lines of a CSV npm installing Swap Memory If your node application is limited by memory, it will crash or wait longer for memory to be freed up (garbage collection) Garbage collection can take up CPU resourced High-performance databases 7:52 - CPU The processor on your server - the brains of the computer A task - like 1 + 1, or function handleClick(), takes CPU time - the faster the processor, and the more cores it has, the faster it can think and perform these tasks A faster CPU means your node app will start more quickly 9:26 - GPU Most servers don’t have a GPU GPUs are not only good for graphics, but they are great at solving complex tasks Bitcoin mining is fast on a GPU Machine Learning 11:47 - Disk Space SSD vs HDD The files have to be read from the hard drive and served up to the web server - the hard drive speed determines how fast they can be read, and how fast they can be written SSD is more expensive but makes for a much faster application HDD is cheaper and is better for storing larger files that aren’t as time-sensitive An SSD will mean your node app will start faster and serve up files more quickly Links Atlas Digital Ocean 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about serverless and cloud providers - the benefits, limitations, providers and more! .TECH Domains - Sponsor If you need eyes on your project, you’ll need a domain, and .TECH is perfect for representing your brand. Find out if your .TECH domain is available at go.tech/syntax2020. Use the coupon code Syntax2020 and get 90% off 1- 5- and 10-year domain names. 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 4:05 - What is Serverless? URL driven Startup/shut down (Heroku works this way) Digital Ocean droplet works differently 8:15 - What are the benefits? Scale up specific functions rather than everything - aka potentially cheaper Security - your singular server instance being hacked is not a possibility Less knowledge overhead required You don’t need to manage your own server Empowers front-end devs to do more Faster deploys Only re-deploy the code that changed 17:05 - What can you host on Serverless? Static Files - SPA (React) Single functions It can be in JS, Python, GO, PHP 18:07 - What can’t you host on Serverless? Entire applications Large apps have slow coldstarts 500mb limit 23:40 - Raw Providers Google Cloud Azure AWS Lambda SAP Red Hat IBM Cloud Functions Cloudflare Workers Kind of cool because they work like service workers where you can intercept any HTTP request 27:33 - Easy Providers + Frameworks Begin + Arc.codes Zeit Now + Next.js Anything + Serverless Netlify AWS Amplify Apex Up - TJ Holowaychuk Open Faas + Digital Ocean Links Heroku Digital Ocean Meteor Galaxy Codepen Radio: Preprocessors and Lambda Zeit Now Wes’ tweet about serverless @maxsteenbergen uses.tech Google Cloud Azure AWS Lambda SAP Red Hat IBM Cloud Functions Cloudflare Workers Begin Arc.codes Severless Netlify AWS Amplify Apex Up Open Faas @tjholowaychuk Scott tries Begin.com SyntaxFM Reddit ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Matt McMuscles YouTube Channel Wes: Modern Vintage Gamer Shameless Plugs Scott: Scott’s YouTube Channel Wes: Beginner Javascript Course - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about Framer Motion — why it is so cool, and how it can improve animations in your projects. 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 4:53 - The 411 Previous knowns as Pop Motion Pose Animation library with focus on ease of use Utilizes both spring and duration based animations 7:19 - Pose Pose was previously more pose based - aka you made scenes and toggled between them This still exists within Motion as variants, but isn’t the main way 8:06 - The New New motion.div animate prop is basically a live value for the animation initial for initial state exit for animating out with use of animatePresence Hard stuff made easy drag prop Full control over properties like duration and easing Orchestration features, this then that Variants Multiple scenes allow you to orchestrate many animations with a single state change Handles hover and tap easily Scroll values SVG path animations 19:45 - Final Thoughts Framer Motion is easier React Spring is much smaller React Spring makes very complex animation possible Links Framer Motion React Spring Framer Motion Examples Framer X 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about web dev GUIs — what are they, are they going to replace developers, are they good or bad, and more! Hasura - Sponsor Hasura is an open source real-time GraphQL engine. It connects to your databases & microservices and instantly gives you a production-ready GraphQL API. Check it out at Hasura.io. 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 1:30 - What is “codeless”? The codeless movement is coming in with a force. Are they just selling something? Or is it a real concern? All types of jobs are being replaced by computers Truckers Cashiers Lawnmowers Doctors Why not web developers? 7:22 - First experience building sites with a GUI? Dreamweaver 10:18 - Entire website builders: Wix Squarespace Webflow Modulz Grid.io Wordpress Builders 13:17 - When are GUIs useful? Brochure site Basic e-commerce 20:26 - Is a GUI/Codeless always better? It depends what you’re capable of doing 25:21 - Levels of hell GUI assistance in builders CMS - Just modifying content and basic markup Access to code, drag blocks into place No or minimal access to code No modification outside of options 31:36 - Are there GUIs for making applications? Native Mobile Zapier 36:54 - Are jobs at risk? Yes I think a lot of WordPress tinkering has already been replaced The guy who knows what buttons to push is at risk? Webmaster jobs where the roll was just occasionally updating HTML and text No Government Educational institutions Major corporations that can’t have their content stored via a service 39:55 - Our favorite GUIs to help development Scott: Netlify Heroku Studio 3T VS Code Wes: Sketch CSS Export Digital Ocean Cyberduck Transmit ZSH VS Code Links Roomba’s first autonomous lawnmower Notepad++ Geocities Angelfire Sketch Figma Gatsby Excel Meteor Recurly Gumroad Begin.com ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Baron of Botox Wes: Owlet Smart Sock Shameless Plugs Scott: How To Build A GraphQL API - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about hobbies — how they can improve your life and make you a better developer, as well as the hobbies they enjoy. 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 3:19 - What are our hobbies? Wes: Focus on one thing, learn it, move along Kombucha, Fermentation and Curing Projects Bike flipping Kids ride on repairs + hacks ATV fixing ICE to Battery conversion Scott: Dance - 15+ years Weightlifting / fitness Video games Watching hockey Design Computing / coding Snowboarding Kung fu movies 9:00 - Why are they good? Fuel your coding project Maybe could even become your key to a job you love They keep your mind sharp Good for downtime Good for mental health and mood Can be meditative Be cognizant of what they do to your mental state Promotes creativity and critical thinking Fun man 17:54 - How do you find a hobby? Wes I always need an end game I want to grow hot peppers I want a wicked ATV for cheap I think batteries are fascinating but I need something real to do Scott - I start with the fascination I think dancing is cool, but I could never learn I think _____ is cool, but I don’t know where to start Deep dark YouTube holes YouTube has an endless selection of educational content Facebooks groups or forums Meetups / volunteering Introverts will have a hard time with this, push yourself 22:50 - What is your hobby? Tweet us @syntaxfm SyntaxFM Reddit Links Oculus Quest 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about running backups and a home server — Synology setups, apps, 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. 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 2:03 - What is it? A little headless computer 5:07 - Drives WD Red or Seagate Ironwolf — They are loud, you can put SSDs in them, but it’s $$ 6:25 - RAID 11:17 - Power Backup Time Machine over the network You can upgrade the memory SSDs 22:40 - Backing up your Backups Mirror folders to Backblaze B2 Slow, but worth it 30:53 - Apps Plex + Emby Storage Analyzer Docker - anything really Node js ;) Security cameras Pi-hole or custom DNS server Moments Drive Links Screenflow Synology DS918+ DS219+ WD Red Drives Seagate Iron Wolf Govee Thermometer Now Squizzy Backblaze B2 Plex Emby Storage Analyzer DaisyDisk Docker Node.js Raspberry Pi Dokku Synology vs Blue Iris Moments app Pi-hole Discourse ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Lululemon Men’s Jogger Wes: DS918+ Shameless Plugs Scott: How to Build a GraphQL API - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about the non-glamorous skills that will improve your life as a developer! 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. Show Notes 3:13 - Why it’s needed Make you a better dev Make big tasks easier 7:00 - Why we don’t do it Because it’s hard It’s boring - sometimes It’s not our focus 7:24 - Good command line skills Get around file system Copy, move, delete things 8:58 - Keyboard skills Jump by word/line/BOL/EOL Learn 1 new shortcut per week Custom keybindings for common tasks 14:22 - Communication and interpersonal skills Check out Syntax 125: Hasty Treat - Communication Skillz 14:41 - Time management Focus apps to help How long will something take? Revisit past projects when they are done and see how long it took 16:36 - Good file hygiene Good folder structure Delete old cruft Clear your recycle Desktop and downloads are off-limits Create template structures or tools for commonly used structures Links Wes’ Command Line Power User Course Synology VSCode React PropTypes Generate Syntax 125: Hasty Treat - Communication Skillz CleanMyMac DaisyDisk 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

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about dev culture fit, Slack communities, vanilla Javascript, backpacks, Raspberry Pi, beards, and more! .TECH Domains - Sponsor If you need eyes on your project, you’ll need a domain, and .TECH is perfect for representing your brand. Find out if your .TECH domain is available at go.tech/syntax2020. Use the coupon code Syntax2020 and get 90% off 1- 5- and 10-year domain names. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. Show Notes 3:10 - Q: Recently I took a job as a lead dev doing the exact kind of work I’ve always wanted to do. But after the first week, I really hate it. I feel like I don’t fit in and I’m seeing many red flags. There are no processes and there doesn’t seem to be any real excitement around what we are building. What should I do? Do I suck it up for a while? Or do I start looking for something else, potentially taking a pay cut (and moving back into doing web dev as opposed to building apps) to work at another creative agency with people who are more my jam? 10:32 - Does Syntax have a Discord or Slack community channel to collaborate on topics? 12:00 - What is one thing that really annoys you about Javascript? I’m curious if you could change one thing about the language itself, what would it be? 15:08 - Have you tried Fauna DB? 19:13 - What are your thoughts on including tutorial projects in a portfolio? (For example, putting the Sick Fits site from Wes’ Advanced React course in a portfolio.) I’m relatively new to React and have a couple of my own projects, but a bunch of projects from following a course. 23:58 - A site you’re maintaining is hacked, how do you handle fixing it? 30:28 - My bookmarks are overwhelming! I just started learning web dev and even though I sort my bookmarks into folders, I end up with so much that I don’t even know how to use them. What do you guys do for managing bookmarks on browsers? 34:15 - How would you recommend integrating React and other modern JS frameworks into (more or less) “static” or “brochure” websites? Say for instance I have a banking website that has mostly static content, but also has complicated JS pieces such as calculators, location finders and sign-up forms? I currently reach for jQuery & jQuery plugins for these pieces of functionality, but React and Vue sound like they could also help solve these one-off pieces of functionality. Most tutorials and examples are based on creating apps from the ground up, but what if you only want to sprinkle these frameworks in and only use them where JS is necessary? How might the both of you solve for these scenarios? 38:00 - I was wondering whether you could share which backpack, or bag do you use for carrying your laptops? I’m looking for something that would be useful for carrying my 16" Macbook Pro, but also could hold some other stuff like groceries, clothes, or other various things that one may want to put there. 41:50 - Do you write out a vanilla fetch() in your components that need it, or do you use a fetch “wrapper” written by yourself or someone else? If so, what does it look like? 46:16 - Have you ever done any automation projects using a Raspberry Pi? I am trying my hand at remote access to the solar power setup at our ‘bach’ (pronounced ‘batch’) here in New Zealand, which is the same thing as a ‘cottage’ in Canada. Finding it hard to find good resources for this online as most get really technical really fast. My idea is to take the RS485 modbus data and just send it up to a DB every 5 minutes or so. 51:38 - What do Wes and Scott think about beards and have you ever thought about growing one? Links Syntax 215: Hasty Treat - Picking the Stack for uses.tech - Gatsby, React, Context, Styled Components r/SyntaxFM/ Fauna Hasura neo4j Wes’ Advanced React Course Pocket Full Stack Radio 132: Caleb Porzio - Just Enough JavaScript with Alpine.js Peak Design Everyday Bag Raspberry Pi Extreme ironing ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Shogun Wheel Yoga Wheel Wes: Velcro Cable Ties Shameless Plugs Scott: How To Make a GraphQL Server - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about community building online — some of the different software techniques and things you can do to either get started with a web community or join one. 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 7:16 - Chat options Slack Discord Level Up Tutorials Discord Faster communication 9:00 - Forum based Indexable Searchable Slower communication Discourse Spectrum Facebook groups Reddit Syntax Reddit 27:27 - Commenting systems YouTube comments Comments systems in general Links Github Slack Discord Discourse Spectrum Reddit r/reactjs 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about tech to watch in 2020 — things you should keep an eye on and learn this year! 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. Show Notes 6:39 - CSS Subgrid 8:10 - CSS Houdini 11:20 - CSS features not supported in older browsers yet Scrollsnap - IE 11 and up. Lot’s of mobile issues. position:sticky - no IE at all 14:24 - NPM tink installer-less npm Load packages at runtime into a shared cache across all projects Intelligently download the parts you need 17:25 - Yarn PnP Hard links to eliminate package duplication Shared cache across all projects 18:31 - Pika & Snowpack 21:10 - Deno New Node? 25:39 - 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 Next.js 36:37 - Serverless Going to get easier Begin.com Next.js / Now Functions 38:14 - Gatsby A single useQuery (made possible by suspense) 39:36 - Headless CMS Thunderdome 42:20 - Next Gen Frameworks Keystone Strapi Meteor Vulcan.js 43:46 - Cypress End to end testing Currently no Firefox support, but hopeful for 2020 44:21 - Modulz Exports to JS component 45:00 - Figma Was already amazing in 2019 Constantly improving and adding new features Can import from Sketch Links Syntax 109: CSS Grid Level 2 aka Subgrid CSS Houdini Interactive Introduction to CSS Houdini Tweetdeck Next Generation Package Management tink Pika Yarn PnP Syntax 212: Pika Pkg Snowpack Entropic Deno Ryan Dahl - 10 Things I regret About Node.js https://github.com/denoland/deno Cloudflare Hover Meteor Meteor roadmap tiny Svelte 3 Apollo Nextjs Vue Begin Firefox Keystone Strapi Vulcan.js Prisma Hasura Syntax 209: Hasty Treat - Wes Teaches Scott about Keystone.js Cypress Modulz Framer Figma Sketch James Quick YouTube Channel ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Govee Thermometer Wes: Rack Mount Power Bar Shameless Plugs Scott: Fullstack React and Firebase - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about Wes’ new website, uses.tech — the stack he chose for building it, as well as what it does and how to use it! 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 2:23 - What is uses.tech? 5:33 - The stack 8:13 - Avatars 10:43 - Filtering 15:51 - Github actions 19:25 - Favicon 21:30 - Search 22:03 - Hosting Links uses.tech awesome-uses repo Gatsby React Gatsby Node API Clearbit API unavatar Now.sh webserv.nl country-emoji Andrew Luca joi Making setInterval Declarative with React Hooks Netlify Algolia 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about fitness — how to stay in shape as a developer, nutrition, goals, and more! DevLifts - Sponsor Refactor your body with DevLifts. They have a few different programs: 1) fit.Start (normally $19/month) has a few options (lean, bodyweight, and strong). Workouts are delivered via email each month, with access to a Slack community for questions and accountability. 2) Premium (normally $199/month) is a custom-tailored option, where you get your workouts and nutrition advice after answering a questionnaire. They also check in with you each week via Slack to see how it’s going and make changes if necessary. Get 50% off fit.Start plans with code SYNTAX and 50% off Premium with code TASTY. 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 4:42 - Past year reflections Scott Tried several different lifting Breaking didn’t happen as much, so my cardio took a hit I finally found a full body plan / bro split that has been very effective Weight belt has really helped my form Wes Overcommitted in 2019 Feeling great - physically Gained about 12 pounds past where I want to be - rough year! Noticeable loss in energy when I don’t hit the gym DevLifts since November Cardio / HIIT up 12:15 - What we’re doing now Scott 4 day split Chest/Triceps Back/biceps Shoulders Legs Abs every day Wes 3 days a week Set A - Chest and back Set B - Legs and chest Set C - Legs and back Cardio finisher (BLASTERS) At home helpers Kettle bells Foam roller 30:32 - Nutrition Scott Nothing too hardcore, salads for lunch - not religiously though Good dinners IF occasionally (e.g. not eating before 10 and not eating after dinner snacks) Desert items allowed Wes Macro Tracking - still want to enjoy things Low Carb High on veggies Brussel sprouts Green beans Salads Chickpeas Olives Still super into fermentation, crunchy + sour + fizzy + spicy No sweets either Beer is my downfall 41:04 - Supplements Scott Not doing anything right now other than high quality protein On meds for nerve damage Probiotic Fish Oil Psylluim husk Wes Megafood Men’s Once Daily Multivitamin - they are natural and organic, empty stomach Magnesium Fish Oil Lions Mane Ashwagandha Shilajit 53:49 - Year Looking Forward Scott New gym remodel going to help life Yoga once twice a week Breaking once a week Lifting every day Stretching every day VR Gaming (I burned 400 cals last night playing Super Hot) Goals to dead lift 350, weighted GHR, continue to progress at current rate Make cardio a thing Wes Lose a Few Pounds + Energy + consistency Kettle Bells in office Consistent Gym before life takes a dive Lock down macros Stretches Less beer HIIT Links HeavySet App Syntax 020: Fitness, Nutrition, and Losing Weight Syntax 084: Fitness for Developers Skinny Taste Recipes Daniel Tiger MegaFood Men’s One Daily Multivitamin Examine.com Caffeine App Superhot VR ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Fitness Blender Bob & Brad YouTube Channel Jeremy Ethier YouTube Channel Wes: TechBoss Torch Lighter Shameless Plugs Scott: Level Up Tutorials Pro - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about a month of using Firefox — what they liked, what they didn’t, and whether or not they’ll keep using it. 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 3:42 - Dev tools are really good 19:16 - Browsing experience 22:40 - Setup and switchover tips 26:45 - What we didn’t like 29:57 - Will we stay? Links Firefox Errors in Firefox Debugging messages in Firefox Harald Kirschner GraphQL 1Password WhatsApp Videostream for Chromecast 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk with Fred Schott about Pika Pkg, a new kind of package registry for the modern web. 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. 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 3:24 - What is Pika? 9:40 - What about peer dependencies? 12:53 - What does migration look like? 17:30 - Are these tools making things easier? 21:25 - What is the Pika Registry? 34:48 - What is the Pika editor? 41:13 - Is it open source? 47:30 - What about security? Links Fred Schott @FredKSchott Pika @pikapkg Snowpack Pika Builders Babel Typescript Webpack CSZ Parcel Deno VSCode Entropic Homebrew Plex Synology NAS Luke Jackson Toolsday Podcast ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Fred: Idle Supermarket Scott: Theragun Wes: Emby Shameless Plugs Fred: Pika Scott: Level Up Tutorials Pro - 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about Gihub Actions — what they do, why you might be interested in them, best practices 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. Show Notes 2:30 - What are Github Actions? 4:40 - Examples of Github Actions 6:02 - Will Github Actions replace continuous integration services? 9:19 - Libraries Links Codeship Github Actions nextdiff Figma Action 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

It’s another potluck! In this episode Scott and Wes talk about tabs vs spaces, coding music, SEO, React vs Angular vs Vue vs Svelte, Rapping, Soy sauce 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”. 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 3:18 - Q: I am potentially starting a job as an Angular developer (modern angular). But I am scared that, even though I will continue to stay on the cutting edge in my personal projects, using Angular in my job will make it harder to get a job after that in more modern tech like React. Do you think there is any truth to this? 5:30 - Q: Yo guys, saw soy sauce stirred up quite the controversy…lol. What are some big developer disagreements you guys have? 11:40 - Q: In JavaScript, ! == is the same as ! =, but I was told there was a slight technical difference. I cannot find what the difference is. Could you elaborate on this? 14:17 - Q: What are the rules on using another dev’s repos as a boiler plate? Example: Using Wes’s advanced react starter files to utilize his set up for my own project? 15:35 - Q: What music do you listen to while you code? As an extension, could we crowd source a dev playlist and host it on Spotify? 20:26 - Q: How do you go about working with different technologies and stacks (front-end related) when you have to accommodate for the client or other developers’ biases towards specific things. For example, you have to learn a different set of tools because in a new project someone doesn’t like what you use and says X is a better tool for the job. 23:11 - Q: I know there is no magic SEO silver bullet, but what are some best practices for implementing SEO into your website or web application? 27:26 - Q: When dealing with responsive sites, how do you go about respecting the request in iOS safari to show desktop sites? 28:45 - Q: I get confused about your usage of the word ‘app’. You don’t make iPhone or Android apps, but you often through the word around like “I would create a Node App”, or “Some of the apps I made” etc. Is it just website applications, or how exactly should I interpret “Node App” or “Web App” compared to a mobile app? 31:36 - Q: I wanted to ask your thoughts on transform class properties plugin from Babel? Heard the podcast on react state, I found it mind blowing when setting everything up without constructors. 36:53 - Q: I am a beginner, I have mostly learned front-end so far (HTML/CSS, JavaScript, React). Should I first get pretty good at these before I start learning some back-end? Or, should I actually start learning back-end now and have a basic knowledge of both front-end and back-end? 39:00 - Q: If for some reason React died today and you were no longer able to use it, which framework would you pick up and use full time? Would it be Vue or Angular? Or something new like Svelte? 40:11 - Q: What habits, strategies, or specific tools do you rely on to prevent your hard drives from filling up with useless files? find . -name "node_modules" -type d -prune -exec rm -rf '{}' + 47:20 - Q: Which JS library is most like the Tesla Cybertruck? Links Tailwind CSS Syntax Spotify Playlist Head Bob Spotify Playlist Retired Scenester Metalcore Spotify Playlist DaisyDisk CleanMyMac Backblaze Tesla Cybertruck RxJS SynthWave '84 VS Code Theme RoboCopJS ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Keychron K1 Mechanical Keyboard Wes: Everlane Uniform Crew Neck Shameless Plugs Scott: Black Friday Sale on All Courses 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about new CSS Logical Properties. Hasura - Sponsor Hasura is an open source real-time GraphQL engine. It connects to your databases & microservices and instantly gives you a production-ready GraphQL API. Check it out at Hasura.io. Show Notes 2:27 - The Box Model 5:32 - Grid and Flexbox 10:17 - Widths and Heights 11:20 - Text Align Links New CSS Logical Properties! Elad Shechter Adam Argyle 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes celebrate 200 episodes of Syntax with a live Q&A! 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. 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. Show Notes 2:27 - With 2020 around the corner, what are your wild predictions for the the future of web design and development? 8:44 - Are site builders going to replace us as web developers? 13:30 - What does the future look like for Syntax? 19:01 - What emerging tech advancements most excite you for the next 5-10 years? 23:27 - What is the future of web hosting? What should hosting companies do differently? 27:40 - Why do you set your base font size to 10px? 32:40 - If you could go back in time, what would you say to yourself? 36:29 - How do you make an iFrame go 100% high? 39:10 - What’s one thing you see developers stress out about for no reason? 44:46 - Do you feel overwhelmed with creating new content when there’s so much already out there? 48:42 - How do you stay sane with your naming conventions? 51:15 - If Gatsby is best for static websites and Next is best for apps, how does Create React App compare? 54:30 - How much is too much or too little magic in a framework or library? 58:11 - Does Kait ever get tired of you buying a bunch of stuff? 61:45 - What is your office setup? 64:01 - How long until we can use Suspense for data loading with libraries other than Relay? Links Pigeonhole Keystone VulcanJS NextJS Gatsby Meteor Wix Squarespace Modulz Figma Sketch Framer Netlify dnsimple Digital Ocean AWS Heroku Syntax016: Rems vs Ems Seth Godin Notion Laravel Blaze Relay SWR Suspense Project Farm YouTube Channel ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: The Missing Crypto Queen Wes: Bosch Wiper Blades Shameless Plugs Scott: React and Typescript Wes: Beginner Javascript Black Friday Sale - Get 50% off! Scott’s Courses Wes’ Courses 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about making courses — techniques, best practices, things to avoid, 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 3:07 - Validating your ideas 4:44 - Generating ideas 6:38 - Figuring out which ideas will stick 10:00 - Show your expertise 14:02 - Pay attention to what’s popular 15:50 - Collect email addresses Links Microsoft Excel Stream Highlights Refactoring UI Adam Wathan Steve Schoger Scott’s Svelte 3 course Wes’ Sublime Text articles 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about how to get better at problem solving — one of the most important skills to build as a developer. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. Prismic - Sponsor Prismic is a Headless CMS for your next front end project. Create complex content type, relate data, and have your clients edit it all with the Prismic UI. Then pull the data into your project with their JSON or GraphQL API. Try it out with your next project - Gatsby, React + Apollo, or any other language. Check out their examples to get you started at Prismic.io/syntax. Show Notes 2:43 - Gather info What is this thing trying to do? Use tools DevTools are your best friend during this phase 8:01 - Know where to look (and use tools) Dev tools for client side Error logs Sentry LogRocket The most experienced people in any field know how to ask the right questions. Some of this will come with experience and nothing else. If you’ve seen a problem before, it’s easier to solve. 10:00 - Look at the end game What are you really trying to do here? Don’t focus so much on the tech that you miss the bigger picture. 13:17 - Read Again Error logs provide the best clues. Read them closely. Actually read your code — don’t skim it. Write comments while reading it, or follow existing comments — good for documenting, but also for structuring your thoughts. 18:08 - Make it simple (break it into smaller parts) Limit the number of inputs and outputs Get it working in a limited capacity (e.g. safe mode, Codepen, etc.) Comment out major sections of code until you have a working example Does this problem exist outside of the framework? Does this work in a clean environment? 25:35 - Take yourself out of your environment You should be able to take a look at the problem at all zoom levels Does it work locally but not on the server? Does it work in other browsers? 27:32 - Stay calm It’s easy to get nervous or worked up when the stakes are high It won’t serve you to panic. If you are panicking, take a 10 min walk to deep breath Take a shower, lift weights (seriously) 30:14 - Talk it over Getting the perspective of another developer can be invaluable 32:28 - Make things obvious Use debugger or label logs — don’t let it be ambiguous For CSS bugs, use primary colors to make things stand out Use the right tool to make the problem stand out Layers for CSS issues Network for network issues Performance tab (etc.) 35:12 - Use Git correctly to free up your techniques If you’re code commits are up to date, you can heavily modify code without fear of deleting things — just revert to a previous commit once you find the issue and fix. 36:10 - Don’t jump at solutions Take the time to fully dissect the problem Question you assumptions It can’t possibly be a problem with ____. Well maybe it is. Wes once spent hours trying to diagnose a check engine light when the gas cap was lose. 43:51 - Get good at pattern matching This comes with experience When did this problem start? Did we deploy any code? Did we change any logic? 44:54 - Get good at googling Being able to describe your problem is key. Search the error from Firefox Links DevTools Sentry LogRocket CodePen Syntax 154: SVGs with Sara Soueidan @walpolea Syntax 152: Debugging Tools + Tips @bowlendev @dan_abramov Ryan Dahl on creating Node.js @LaurieonTech Firefox DuckDuckGo ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Jeremy Ethier Youtube Channel Wes: Marpac Rohm Sound Machine Shameless Plugs Scott: Typescript in React Course - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about tips for writing good CSS. Sizzy - Sponsor Sizzy - The browser made for developers and designers. Stop manually resizing your browser window and switching between devices so you can test responsive design. Speed up your workflow by developing and previewing your website on multiple devices at once. Sizzy includes powerful features and plugins that will help you take your web development game to the next level. Sizzy.co. Show Notes 4:08 - Use a system 4:50 - Use overrides and cascading Embrace the cascade Don’t rewrite the same CSS over and over again Understand why scoping is good 9:07 - Nail down typography early You can always revisit if it isn’t what you need 10:36 - Pick a pattern and stick to it BEM Functional CSS CSS in JS 14:39 - Don’t style based on element type (kind of) — a class should describe the component 17:09 - Good naming techniques Describe what it is, not what it looks like Thing ThingChild ThingChild-modifier Scale sizes (e.g. s, m, l, xl) 21:43 - Other tips Group like CSS together Chunk into different files Write good comments CSS properties FTW Links Stylus Webpack Parcel 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about design foundations for developers — tips to follow that will make your designs better! 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. 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 6:35 - Our backgrounds in design 12:41 - Foundations Consistency makes a big difference Use “training wheel” tools until you are confident Always work within a system Less is more - subtle is better 19:39 - Color Color theory Complementary colors and shades Stick to color pallet generators until you are good enough 28:51 - Spacing More spacing than you think you need Vertical rhythm Letter spacing: -1px Consistent margin and padding 34:47 - Typography Sans vs serifs Finding fonts Use proven combinations until you know your way around 41:49 - Interaction Design for all states (e.g. standard, visited, active, hover, etc.) Animations should be quick Interactions should make sense 45:04 - Concerns beyond visuals Accessibility via color contrast Thin fonts and light grey are awful Think about the poor Windows users 48:47 - Inspiration + Resources Take inspiration from the best — you’ll find your own voice after enough work Go easy on trends - blobby characters with purple hair Take a trip around the world wide web Stripe Dribbble Site Inspire codrops Refactoring UI Links Designer Starter Pack - Andrea Crofts LastPass Colour Lovers Syntax 142: Travis Neilson on Skills Gap, Design, Focus and Working at Google Bloomberg Dropbox FontPair FontJoy Figma - Google Font Pairings Type Scale Creative Market Radnika Next Stripe Dribbble Syntax 72: Accessibility Firefox Site Inspire codrops Refactoring UI Adam Wathan Steve Schoger ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Reelgood Wes: Magnesium Shameless Plugs Scott: FullStack React with NextJS - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Beginner Javascript 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about domain names — buying and selling, best practices 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. Show Notes 2:50 - Buying a domain 10:47 - Selling a domain 13:50 - Transferring a domain Links who.is GoDaddy JavaScript.co BeginnerJavaScript.com LearnNode.com BeginnerJS.com KitBos.com Cloudflare Learn.li Learnli.co Escrow.com Hover Bob.com Sedo.com Park.io 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

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about Gatsby vs Next, Google Home and privacy, flat file CMS, working with designers, CSS frameworks and more! Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. 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 6:15 - Q: Curious if you would ever consider running your course platform on Gatsby instead of NextJs? If not, what dynamic content would prevent you from doing so? 10:48 - Q: What’s the difference between a software developer and a software engineer, in your opinion? 13:11 - Q: How do you deal with designers who design without any thought about how dev will implement it? 15:46 - Q: I saw that Wes has an example in one of his slides where the Array prototype is written onto the Nodelist prototype. Is this safe enough for production as it overrides all regular NodeList behavior? 19:18 - Q: In a potluck episode you mentioned that you do not host your clients’ website. If you don’t host you clients’ website how do you usually go about handling clients that are less tech savvy? Or do you avoid those types of clients? 21:30 - Q: I know you guys (especially Wes) have been pretty insistent recently on not hosting clients’ sites yourself, but what do you guys think about continuously hosting client sites with a service like Netlify? It’s highly unlikely to go down and scales all for you, so it might be a bit of reoccurring income if you bill them yearly for the minimal Netlify fees. 24:44 - Q: I was listening to your episode on “The Smart Home” and I’m very interested in buying a Google Home Mini myself. However, I cannot stop thinking about the privacy implications of an always listening device around the house. What are your thoughts on this topic and on privacy related to online services in general? 29:08 - Q: What are your thoughts about using a CMS that uses flat files vs one that uses a traditional MySQL or Postgres database for a company blog that won’t have insane traffic? We’re currently evaluating Grav CMS and Craft CMS. 32:17 - Q: Have you used data attributes as custom elements in CSS and JS? 37:32 - Q: Why do so many people jump on styled-components/CSS in JS? Are these all people who have never used Sass/SCSS?! It seems like such a PITA to get Sass working with either of these. It feels like coding tables vs HTML 5. To me it seems like a step backwards. 44:26 - Q: When do you, if ever, reach for a component library, like Material or Bootstrap? Currently working a corporate job where it’s almost expected to use one of these for all internal applications. I usually prefer to make my own, but I’m wondering if I’m just making my life more difficult than it needs to be? Any advice? 48:30 - Q: Could you guys chat about Git clients and which ones you guys use and why? Or are you guys hardcore terminal geeks? Links Gatsby Next.js Bling.js Syntax 118: The Smart Home Grav CMS Craft CMS prismic Sanity Contentful Tiny CMS Forestry Airdale Chemical Material Bootstrap VS Code ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: HeavySet - Gym Workout Log Wes: Baroness Von Sketch Shameless Plugs Scott: FullStack React with NextJS - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes bring you more web dev horror stories! 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 2:26 - Perf Woes 3:42 - Always Backup Your Backups 4:54 - Kill Children 6:03 - Robots Don’t Eat Food 8:32 - Email Goof Up 9:44 - Hundreds of Thousands of Date Issues 10:46 - Spooky August 12:32 - You’re up to .bat 13:17 - Printed Code 15:12 - ThinkGeek 16:12 - It would take a while to Ketchup on all these orders 17:05 - This story makes me want to stick my head in async 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about web dev horror stories — things you can only hope will never happen to you! 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. 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. Show Notes 2:09 - Scott’s Disastrous Git Clean 4:35 - Magic Updates the Gathering 8:52 - YAAAAS 9:37 - Token Trouble 12:16 - jQuery Plugins 15:22 - Success! 18:00 - Parental Advisory 21:47 - Students Changing Grades 22:46 - Lorem Sh!tsum 26:22 - Drowning in a Waterfall 28:53 - Magneto Upgrades 30:00 - JOHN CENA 33:24 - Migration Migraine 35:39 - Primary Key Nightmare 36:26 - The $20,000 YAML formatter Links Adam J. Sontag jQuery GitLab Gitlab Database Incident Magento Meteor ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Dyson Hand Vacuum Wes: /r/ AbsoluteUnits Shameless Plugs Scott: Fullstack React with JS9 - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott talks about moving to iPhone — his experiences with both Android and iOS, the advantages and disadvantages of both, 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 1:59 - My device history OG Droid → Nexus → Pixel Misconceptions of android It’s Windows for phones It’s cheaper or not as nice 5:03 - Why switch? 6:39 - Who wins what? Android Homescreen Low light photography Usability Squeeze assistant Google search integrated everywhere Search Keyboard Notification iOS Apps Performance Camera overall Device quality Fun stuff Haptics Links 1Password LastPass Gboard 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk with Brad Touesnard of Delicious Brains about migrating, deploying, and hosting WordPress. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. Hasura - Sponsor Hasura is an open-source GraphQL engine that helps you instantly setup a scalable and realtime GraphQL backend. Hasura makes your team super productive by dynamically composing a schema backed by databases and services that you can securely query from frontend clients. Get started at hasura.io to try it out in 30 seconds! Show Notes 3:50 - Why did start Delicious Brains? 5:25 - What plugins does Delicious Brains make? 11:40 - Migrating WordPress 16:50 - Migrating databases 24:20 - How do you do version control with WordPress? 37:06 - What’s the easiest way to deploy and host WordPress? 40:23 - What are some examples of managed WordPress hosts? 46:58 - What does your deployment process look like from beginning to end? 50:22 - Thoughts on headless WordPress 53:12 - Is serverless WordPress a thing? Links Delicious Brains WP Migrate DB Pro WP Offload Media WP Offload SES SpinupWP Heroku Now.sh WP Engine Flywheel Advanced Custom Fields Composer WP Packagist WordPress.org React Laravel Pagely Kinsta GoDaddy WordPress.com SiteFround Buddy Digital Ocean Laravel Forge npm Codeship Gatsby Laravel Vapor Installing via Composer WordPress deployment workflow Managing your WordPress site with Git and Composer ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Brad: Teppanyaki Grill Scott: Succession and The Righteous Gemstones Wes: Magnatiles Shameless Plugs Brad: All Products Scott: Svelte For Beginners - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about server side rendering — what it is, how to use it, best practices, things to avoid, 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 3:20 - What is SSR? 4:16 - Why SSR at all? 8:39 - Platforms that do SSR out of the box 11:18 - Gotchas useLayoutEffect import { useEffect, useLayoutEffect } from 'react' const useIsoLayoutEffect = typeof window !== 'undefined' ? useLayoutEffect : useEffect export default useIsoLayoutEffect 18:20 - Tools Links Next.js Gatsby Webpack Parcel Meteor React NoSSR component Syntax 127: Hasty Treat - React Suspense 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

In this episode of Syntax, Scott and Wes talk about server side fundamentals — the important things you should know if you’re interested in diving into server side. 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”. 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 2:53 - Requests and responses 9:21 - What is a server? 10:33 - Ports 13:50 - Database connection and interaction 15:16 - Cookies and sessions 15:48 - Writing files and directory permissions 19:34 - Headers 22:13 - Error Handling 22:50 - Logs 25:04 - Async data handling 26:33 - Routing 30:44 - Mime types 36:26 - Authentication 37:49 - Environmental variables 40:37 - Deployment 43:24 - Advanced Links GraphQL Node React For Beginners Next.js Meteor Papertrail pjax jQuery Github iMazing HEIC Converter Now.sh Netlify Twitter streaming API B is for Build ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Samcrac YouTube Channel Wes: Wyze Plugs Shameless Plugs Scott: Svelte For Beginners - 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about their experiences with float tanks! 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 2:28 - What is a float tank? 6:47 - What are the benefits? 8:50 - How did you feel during the float? 17:28 - Would you do it again? Links The Joe Rogan Experience 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

It’s another potluck! In this episode, Scott and Wes answer your questions about freelancing, handing off projects to other developers, terminal configs, podcast apps, how much flexbox is too much flexbox, npm dependencies, 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. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. Show Notes 3:49 - Q: I’m interested in freelancing full-time and have some projects, big and small, lined up over the next few months to work on the side. How much work is a good amount of work to transition into freelancing full-time? 9:52 - Q: How much flexbox is too much flexbox? Is it a bad idea to use a dozen flexboxes for a viewport-filling application? 13:19 - Q: Can you explain the “potential” benefit of resetting CSS and whether it’s necessary? In which circumstances should we use such an approach? 15:26 - Q: I would love to hear an episode, or potluck segment, about your shell/fish/zsh configs. Maybe explain little tweaks you’ve made and why you’ve chosen the shell you use. 23:26 - Q: I always get confused on when and how to use .bind() method. Any pointers on when I should use .bind(), like in what situations? I also see it used a lot in React apps, but have no idea why they are using it. Could you explain this in detail? 27:02 - What are your suggestions for handing off client sites for freelance work? I don’t take many contracts (I have another full time job) but I’ll take one here or there during summer to supplement a little bit. I’m finding it difficult to make a clean hand-off when the project is finished. The contractual requirements are met and like anything, there are always tweaks to be made. I’ll handle some minor deployment issues without billing, but I struggle with where to draw the line. What suggestions do you have? 35:19 - This question is for Wes. I live in Central New York, and every time I go on the highway heading north or south I see several Ontario license plates. Where are ya’ll going all the time? Is there a secret Canadian spot down here? 38:20 - Each time I re-open an old project I lose so much time with npm dependencies being outdated and it drives me mad! I’m starting to dislike npm and everything around it, but is it npm only? How does other languages like php, python or GO handle this mess of dependencies? Are we better today than yesterday and I’m just complaining about nothing? 43:50 - Which podcast player do you use (Android, PC, or other phone/tablet), and why? Where do you listen to them? Links Flexbox React Native CSS Grid Normalize iTerm2 zsh Fish Hyper Wes’ Command Line Power User Course Overcast Pocket Casts Planet Money Joe Rogan The Indicator ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Garmin vivoactive 3 Wes: Untitled Goose Game Shameless Plugs Scott: Svelte For Beginners - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Wes’ Instagram 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes talk about feature and release planning — dealing with bugs, task management, best practices, 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 4:06 - Wes: Features are logged into software (Github, Jira, etc.) I use a Kanban board - I bubble them up and down in the order in which I want to release them I don’t plan for Q1, Q1, etc… Tear off an issue, tackle it, test and deploy. 10:39 - Scott: All issues/features get a priority tag (e.g. p1 → p4) regardless of the system Bugs go in Github Features and platform improvements go in Notion Table of priorities (with git branch, lead dev, release number, emoji icon, what it contains, etc.) Links Github Trello Kanban Jira Canny Notion Getting Things Done 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

In this episode, Scott and Wes talk with Etienne Lemay, developer of Missive, about his experience building Missive, best practices, and the pros and cons of building desktop and mobile apps with a single codebase. 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 0:57 - What is Missive? 6:10 - What is the desktop app built in? 9:44 - Did you use any particular libraries for the front-end? 11:44 - How are you managing state? 13:37 - Is it challenging to do all of this in JS? 15:07 - What was the catalyst for the “multi-conversation swipe”? 21:32 - What is the mobile app built in? 24:00 - What are the advantages of Cordova? 30:30 - How do you manage offline/syncing/etc. so well in a JS app? 34:56 - How do you test it? 36:52 - Have you looked into Cypress? 39:35 - How do you style it? Links @EtienneLem Missive Spark CoffeeScript Backbone Redux Typescript Electron Webpack Javascript30 Cordova React Native Fastlane Amazon S3 Cypress Sass TailwindCSS Svelte Syntax 176: Building Steam Games with React ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: Disgraceland Podcast Wes: Wagner 590 Spray Gun Etienne: Prettier Shameless Plugs Scott: Svelte Course Coming Soon! - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: All Courses - Use the coupon code ‘Syntax’ for $10 off! Etienne: Missive 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

In this Hasty Treat, Scott and Wes are talking about developing better habits — strategies, avoiding distractions, best practices, 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 2:03 - Habits we’re trying to build Scott Focus on one project at a time Alfred tasks to quit apps and block sites Not being efficient with my time Daily todo lists and utilizing calendar Too much screen time Listening to music in the background instead of having the TV on Wes Flossing Mindless context switching 13:37 - General strategies for building habits Make them trackable Easy enough to not ignore them Quantifying them is key Make them small enough Be accountable Tell other people your habits and have them remind you about them Replace bad habits with good things Design a sticker Reply to three emails Drink some water Celebrate your wins productively Keep the streak alive Can’t do x until y is done Links uhabits Done Loop K-Safe Alfred Codepen Atomic Habits The Power of Habit 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

In this episode, Scott and Wes are trying something new! It’s called Practical, in which Scott and Wes take a topic and flesh out all the theory into something super practical. Today’s topic comes from a listener question asking how they would build a simple version of a modern web app like Twitter, Reddit, or Airbnb. Netlify - Sponsor Netlify is the best way to deploy and host a front-end website. All the features developers need right out of the box: Global CDN, Continuous Deployment, one click HTTPS and more. Hit up netlify.com/syntax for more info. 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. Show Notes 3:03 - Backend Express Node GraphQL MongoDB 14:45 - Frontend React Next.js Styled components Stay as close to real CSS as possible 22:39 - Deployment process Serverless Now Ideally one app that handles everything 28:38 - Email Syntax Ep 32: Designing, Templating, Inlining and Sending Email mjml Juice Inky Nodemailer Postmark Mailjet Mandrill Get everyone set up and working in two different systems, so you can switch easily if something goes wrong 33:32 - Users / Auth / Cookies / Permissions Use something a pre-existing package or service rather than role your own (though it can get expensive quickly) Passport Auth0 accounts-js 38:48 - Images Cloudinary imgIX 41:50 - Other things to be aware of Handling cash Stripe PayPal Braintree Recurly Queueing Links Ruby on Rails Django Meteor MySQL PHP Postgres Mongoose Drip ConvertKit Feathers David Luecke Tweetdeck Next.js react-router Reach Router Gatsby Digital Ocean Heroku Redux Svelte Gridsome Mailchimp ××× SIIIIICK ××× PIIIICKS ××× Scott: K-Safe Wes: Bon Appetit YouTube Channel Shameless Plugs Scott: Svelte Course Coming Soon! - Sign up for the year and save 25%! Wes: Flexbox.io 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