2023.03.06 - You Don't Need a Build Step

Title: 2023.03.06 – You Don’t Need a Build Step

Why Python & React criticism & Modern Digital Organization Manifesto & 龙芯

This Week’s Hot Topics

You Don’t Need a Build Step https://deno.com/blog/you-dont-need-a-build-step
Today, the web‑developer version would be “my site’s building” while they’re sword‑fighting in VR. Sites take a long time to build these days. A large Next.js 11 site can take several minutes to compile, which wastes time in the development cycle. Build tools like Vite or Turbopack brag about shaving that number down. But the deeper question is often ignored: why do we even need a build step at all? Related: All you may need is HTML.

Why Python Keeps Growing, Explained https://github.blog/2023-03-02-why-python-keeps-growing-explained/
A deep dive into why more people are using Python than ever, its key use cases, and why it’s still wildly popular more than 30 years after its initial release.

Client‑Side JavaScript and React Criticism: What Comes Next? https://molily.de/javascript-criticism/
How can we improve JavaScript usage, teach progressive enhancement, and reconcile the community?

Gondola: An Internal PaaS Architecture for Front‑End App Deployment https://engineeringblog.yelp.com/2023/03/gondola-an-internal-paas-architecture-for-frontend-app-deployment.html
The Yelp website serves millions of users and business owners each day, and engineers on our product teams are constantly adding and improving features across hundreds of pages. Webcore, Yelp’s front‑end infrastructure team, is always looking to ensure that developers can ship changes quickly and safely, without the burden of maintaining complex, team‑specific infrastructure.

Airtable: New Interface Designer Updates to Build Even More Powerful Apps https://blog.airtable.com/build-powerful-apps-with-interface-designer-updates/
For months, teams of all sizes and disciplines have used Interface Designer to create and share custom apps. Now brand‑new layouts and features make it even easier for anyone to build the apps they need to collaborate—and extract value from them quickly.

In‑Depth Reading

Could We Make the Web More Immersive Using a Simple Optical Illusion? https://shopify.github.io/spatial-commerce-projects/WonkaVision/
Among the pantheon of mind‑blowing tech demos, Johnny Lee’s Wii Remote hack that creates VR displays stands out. We wondered whether his technique could be reproduced in the browser using only a webcam. If possible, it would make the trick accessible to everyone and open a whole new world of interactive web experiences.

Stop Saying “Technical Debt” https://stackoverflow.blog/2023/02/27/stop-saying-technical-debt/
Everyone who says “tech debt” assumes they all mean the same thing, but their mental pictures differ quite a bit.

“Clean” Code, Horrible Performance https://www.computerenhance.com/p/clean-code-horrible-performance
Many programming “best practices” taught today are performance disasters waiting to happen.

Introducing Service Weaver: A Framework for Writing Distributed Applications https://opensource.googleblog.com/2023/03/introducing-service-weaver-framework-for-writing-distributed-applications.html
We are excited to introduce Service Weaver, an open‑source framework for building and deploying distributed applications. Service Weaver lets you write your app as a modular monolith and deploy it as a set of microservices.

The Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work https://world.hey.com/dhh/the-simplest-thing-that-could-possibly-work-8f0d8b43
What really attracted me to Beck’s vision of software development was his irreverent insistence on practicality. There was plenty of vision, plenty of principles, but they all led to running code. In the battle for software development’s soul, Beck was formulating a war cry for a rebel army tired of circling endless commands from above.

The Lone Developer Problem https://evanhahn.com/the-lone-developer-problem/
In short: in my experience, when a single programmer builds something, it’s often hard for others to maintain later. There are several possible reasons why. Even great programmers fall into this trap!

Design for Digital Sustainability https://blog.prototypr.io/design-for-digital-sustainability-7b1b7879c521
As designers, we play a crucial role in promoting sustainability. We shape the products, services, and environments people interact with daily, giving us the power to influence behaviors and attitudes toward sustainability.

The Inside Story of How ChatGPT Was Built—from the People Who Made It https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/03/03/1069311/inside-story-oral-history-how-chatgpt-built-openai/
Exclusive conversations that take us behind the scenes of a cultural phenomenon. Related: How to Convince a Large AI, According to Smaller AIs, We’re Never Getting Rid of ChatGPT.

Fresh Finds

W3C launches beta of its new website Why did Google close its coding competitions after 20 years? Announcing TypeScript 5.0 RC Introducing ChatGPT and Whisper APIs iDraw.js: a simple JavaScript framework for drawing on the web React Flow: a highly customizable React component for building interactive graphs and node‑based editors.

BITMOVIN HANDBOOK: The Definitive Guide to Video Codecs Godot 4.0: free and open‑source 2D/3D game engine Wolfram Language and Mathematica Free on Every Raspberry Pi

Products & Others

What I Learned Reading 1,000 Investor Reports https://collabfund.com/blog/i-read-1-000-investor-reports-last-year-heres-what-i-learned/
I read 1,000 investor reports last year. It’s part of my job. Along the way I’ve learned a few things I’d like to share—from the very basics to some that may surprise you.

Seven Years of Innovation in Freehand https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/seven-years-of-freehand/
What we learned over the course of more than a decade informs…

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Originally written by Ping Xia (平侠) and published in Chinese on Web技术周刊 (Web Tech Weekly). Translated and adapted for DriftSeas with permission.