Nostr notes by Axel Rauschmayer

Interesting take on USA politics by someone who escaped a cult: ...

2025-09-26T13:50:55Z

Interesting take on USA politics by someone who escaped a cult: Many people seem to be waking up from a cult-like experience—which is a scary and extremely confusing. She suggests compassion instead of “told you so” to help them move further in the right direction.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oyMf6YZTto

There is a proposal to add optional type annotations to JS: ...

2025-09-24T12:56:12Z

There is a proposal to add optional type annotations to JS: https://github.com/tc39/proposal-type-annotations

But I’m wondering: Wouldn’t be better if browsers supported type stripping (like Node.js etc. already do): It feels cleaner to me.

JSPM already supports client-side type stripping (if a file has the filename extension .ts): https://jspm.org/docs/cli/

My “Learning Web Development” series is almost complete. I ...

2025-09-23T17:17:09Z

My “Learning Web Development” series is almost complete. I like how it has turned out:
• I’m amazed by how much people need to know to do web dev (even with as few tools as possible).
• I *think* I managed to teach everything you need to know to be productive. And relatively quickly, too.

I haven’t yet gotten feedback from an actual non-programmer, though! I’d be very curious if they feel overwhelmed, challenged or relaxed by the material.

https://2ality.com/2025/08/learning-web-dev-toc.html#table-of-contents

Interestingly, there is no simple way to replicate the following ...

2025-09-21T14:32:30Z

Interestingly, there is no simple way to replicate the following HTML with Markdown (without using HTML tags):

<blockquote>
<p>
For myself, I am an optimist — it does not seem to be much use being anything else.
</p>
</blockquote>
<div>
— Winston Churchill
</div>

2/ Optional service: Keep a backup somewhere that downloads from ...

2025-09-19T20:40:04Z

In reply to nevent1q…v9n0
_________________________

2/ Optional service: Keep a backup somewhere that downloads from current server and can upload to a new server, should something happen. The latter works because post IDs don’t change.

1/ Would this work with ActivityPub? Idea for making #Mastodon ...

2025-09-19T20:39:57Z

1/ Would this work with ActivityPub? Idea for making #Mastodon accounts more portable:

Domain becomes user name: DNS entry specifies current server. Optional: Domain name also points to current server.

All servers have universal URLs (and IDs) for posts: some-server.com/@some-user.com/021132...
• Each server uses the DNS entry of some-user.com to determine the user’s current server and retrieves posts from there.

In Apple’s Notes.app, you can now export to and import from ...

2025-09-19T17:02:58Z

In Apple’s Notes.app, you can now export to and import from Markdown.
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/ios-import-export-markdown-apple-notes/

In programming, syntax is: A) The specific structure of source ...

2025-09-19T10:34:01Z

In programming, syntax is:

A) The specific structure of source code that follows certain rules
B) The rules for that structure

It’s a minor thing but it feels like #Mastodon should remove ...

2025-09-17T15:17:16Z

It’s a minor thing but it feels like #Mastodon should remove the slash at the end in the following case:

https://example.com/

Example that would look better without a trailing slash: https://fosstodon.org/@rauschma/115220289238584826

For Europeans: This website tells you how to protest against the ...

2025-09-17T15:14:49Z

For Europeans: This website tells you how to protest against the planned Chat Control law which would have significant negative consequences for Europe.

You can switch languages: https://fightchatcontrol.eu/

Nostr event nevent1qqsgt4kmx68putaygqqj35aalfaqazxs8gh98uyy622wy73xrp8avlczypa85ztce3rw7l74fra3yhj3cpx704x2vw2p0gsm264ftcm3rs9ns9fuhfn

2025-09-17T12:27:48Z

#Markdown: What do you prefer?

Another npm supply chain attack. Hopefully npm will add measures ...

2025-09-16T00:05:34Z

Another npm supply chain attack. Hopefully npm will add measures to make installing packages safe(r) again. pnpm has already added one (*).
https://socket.dev/blog/tinycolor-supply-chain-attack-affects-40-packages

(*) https://github.com/pnpm/pnpm/releases/tag/v10.16.0

On my Mac, `gh auth` (GitHub CLI) works really well: It logs me ...

2025-09-15T09:59:40Z

On my Mac, `gh auth` (GitHub CLI) works really well: It logs me in globally (as if I had used ssh-add). Same on Windows?

Background: I’m exploring how to explain GitHub to beginners. For myself, I use ssh-add, but for beginners gh auth seems simpler.

I’m surprised that this functionality isn’t included in the ...

2025-09-13T18:30:24Z

I’m surprised that this functionality isn’t included in the web crypto API:

import { generateSalt, hash, verify } from "@brielov/crypto";

const password = "mySecurePassword";
const salt = generateSalt(); // Generate a secure salt

// Hash the password
const hashedPassword = await hash(password, salt);

// Verify the password
const isVerified = await verify(password, hashedPassword, salt);
console.log(isVerified); // true or false

https://github.com/brielov/crypto

Learning web development: Implementing web servers ...

2025-09-12T12:56:03Z

Learning web development: Implementing web servers
https://2ality.com/2025/09/implementing-web-servers.html

#2ality #WebDev #JavaScript

“Quote post functionality will arrive on mastodon.online and ...

2025-09-11T20:38:39Z

“Quote post functionality will arrive on mastodon.online and mastodon.social next week, and will be available in Mastodon 4.5 soon thereafter.”
https://blog.joinmastodon.org/2025/09/introducing-quote-posts/

Another Mastodon weakness that’ll soon be fixed: https://2ality.com/2024/11/mastodon-weaknesses.html#quote-posts

#Mastodon

Good point!

2025-09-10T08:38:01Z

In reply to nevent1q…3a89
_________________________

Good point!

Preact without a build step: ...

2025-09-09T16:56:27Z

Preact without a build step: https://rauschma.github.io/learning-web-dev-code/projects/display-clicks-preact.html

I have to say I really like `html` tagged templates: No new JavaScript syntax (vs. JSX) but still fairly intuitive to use.

Interesting new “technology”: tiny vinyl A normal vinyl ...

2025-09-08T12:25:36Z

Interesting new “technology”: tiny vinyl

A normal vinyl record, with two differences:
• Only 4 inches (10 cm) in diameter (less than a CD at 12 cm)
• A smaller center (which most record players should have no problem with)

Two sides, 4 min of audio per side

https://www.tinyvinyl.com/

Learning web development: Installing npm packages and bundling ...

2025-09-07T11:04:29Z

Learning web development: Installing npm packages and bundling
https://2ality.com/2025/09/npm-packages-bundling.html

#2ality #WebDev #JavaScript

URL nomenclature: Does anyone know which one is correct? A) ...

2025-09-06T10:32:09Z

URL nomenclature: Does anyone know which one is correct?

A) https://example.com/
B) ../image.jpg

A always seems to be called absolute URL. For B, I’m seeing:

• Relative reference: https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/URL_API/Resolving_relative_references
• Relative URL: https://www.rfc-editor.org/rfc/rfc1808

I’d trust the latter more but maybe it’s outdated?

Could JavaScript have synchronous `await`? ...

2025-03-28T19:53:15Z

Could JavaScript have synchronous `await`?
https://2ality.com/2025/03/sync-await.html

#JavaScript #2ality

#TypeScript: I’m thinking about the pros and cons of classes ...

2025-03-26T13:43:09Z

#TypeScript: I’m thinking about the pros and cons of classes vs. object types (if no inheritance is involved):
– Pro of classes: compact definition of type, instance factory, operations and property default values in a single place
– Pro of object types: works better with serialization/deserialization (e.g. JSON).

Anything else?

#TypeScript: Node.js has become quite good at auto-detecting what ...

2025-03-22T11:01:57Z

#TypeScript: Node.js has become quite good at auto-detecting what kind of code is passed to it via CLI options or stdin—e.g. this works (type annotation is only there to demo this feature):

node -e 'const x: string = "YES"; console.log(x)'

Details: https://nodejs.org/api/cli.html#--input-typetype

Makes sense!

2025-03-19T21:43:24Z

In reply to nevent1q…hxy6
_________________________

Makes sense!

#Golang 🙄: “‘Code point’ is a bit of a mouthful, so Go ...

2025-03-19T19:19:29Z

#Golang 🙄: “‘Code point’ is a bit of a mouthful, so Go introduces a shorter term for the concept: 'rune’. The term appears in the libraries and source code, and means exactly the same as ‘code point’ […]”
https://go.dev/blog/strings

I’d like to hide implementation details, so I’d do: ...

2025-03-17T20:34:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…s5lr
_________________________

I’d like to hide implementation details, so I’d do: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?#code/JYOwLgpgTgZghgYwgAgJIgVCBbC4D2UyA3gFDLKgIAUAlAFzIBu+wAJqQL6kwCuGYYPhDJMEOJHRjcBKACZqCXlCzhkAXmQAGBmgxYZYQiXLIsYZSLIUKVOiZs2lKvGADUbgNymKnADSm3NxAA

(Looking at the code right now, I realize that I should change the interface because with only .inc():void there is no way to retrieve the current counter. But that doesn’t change the basic challenge.)

Interesting. Maybe a setting in a tsconfig.json that is in range? ...

2025-03-17T19:14:49Z

In reply to nevent1q…ehwc
_________________________

Interesting. Maybe a setting in a tsconfig.json that is in range?

You could try this one (leave all settings as they are but adjust "include"): https://rauschma.github.io/tsconfigurator/site/

Have you removed the (a)ts-expect-error? ...

2025-03-17T18:19:09Z

In reply to nevent1q…wpxh
_________________________

Have you removed the (a)ts-expect-error?

https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?#code/JYOwLgpgTgZghgYwgAgJIgVCBbC4D2UyA3gFDLKgIAUAlAFzIBu+wAJqQL6kwCuGYYPhDJMEOJHRjcBKACZqAZzBwoYZAF5kABgZoMWGWEIlyyLGF5QRZChQT5+kKI2WqwAGjMUqdU3bswAAtgRQA6BydoAGpogG5vZE4vCk5kOEV9aTxjKATOIA

You’d think that would work, but alas: ...

2025-03-17T17:54:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…tqgk
_________________________

You’d think that would work, but alas: https://exploringjs.com/tackling-ts/ch_typing-objects.html#:~:text=Alas%2C%20even%20with%20a%20type%20assertion%2C%20there%20is%20still%20one%20type%20error%3A

#TypeScript – surprisingly tricky to fix: type Incrementor = { ...

2025-03-17T16:59:48Z

#TypeScript – surprisingly tricky to fix:

type Incrementor = {
inc(): void,
};
function createIncrementor(start = 0): Incrementor {
return {
counter: start, // error
inc() {
this.counter++; // error
},
};
}

Best solution (AFAICT): Assign object to a variable, return that variable (then excess properties are allowed).
https://exploringjs.com/tackling-ts/ch_typing-objects.html#allowing-excess-properties-example-incrementor

I kind of like it so far. What do you prefer when it comes to ...

2025-03-16T21:43:44Z

In reply to nevent1q…38d4
_________________________

I kind of like it so far. What do you prefer when it comes to compiling to native code?

I’m playing with Go (the programming language…) a little. ...

2025-03-16T21:16:59Z

I’m playing with Go (the programming language…) a little. Really easy to get started.

This symbolizes how big tech works now: I told YouTube that I’m ...

2025-03-16T20:19:24Z

This symbolizes how big tech works now: I told YouTube that I’m not interested in shorts. But it doesn’t take no for an answer.

I had the same thought: I had never checked if `type` supports ...

2025-03-15T16:32:20Z

In reply to nevent1q…54vl
_________________________

I had the same thought: I had never checked if `type` supports multiple, comma-separated definitions. But indeed it doesn’t.

To be fair: default exports are kind of a weird feature.

#TypeScript: Interesting small syntax inconsistency: // Works ...

2025-03-15T16:17:18Z

#TypeScript: Interesting small syntax inconsistency:

// Works
export default interface Intf {}
export {
type SomeType as default,
}

// Does not work:
export default type SomeType;

#TypeScript is being rewritten in Go: “The native ...

2025-03-11T14:56:21Z

#TypeScript is being rewritten in Go: “The native implementation will drastically improve editor startup, reduce most build times by 10x, and substantially reduce memory usage.”

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/typescript/typescript-native-port/

I take it this is about X/Twitter and not about Boston TS? 😉

2025-03-10T19:25:42Z

In reply to nevent1q…ypa8
_________________________

I take it this is about X/Twitter and not about Boston TS? 😉

Lynx is a new competitor to React Native by ByteDance: ...

2025-03-05T13:15:33Z

Lynx is a new competitor to React Native by ByteDance: https://lynxjs.org/

• Can be used via React (but that’s optional): https://lynxjs.org/react
• Build tools are based on Rspack: https://lynxjs.org/rspeedy

It’s a shame that it only runs in the terminal (OK, that one’s a joke).

It’s really difficult to pick an operating system right now: ...

2025-03-04T20:39:37Z

It’s really difficult to pick an operating system right now:
• macOS is continually degrading in quality: Apple are over-promoting their services and there are more and more small bugs and glitches: https://mjtsai.com/blog/2025/03/04/premium-hardware-subpar-software/
• Same for Windows: ads, AI, etc.

Linux still has many issues but is slowly catching up.

What are the most popular bundlers at the moment, apart from ...

2025-02-26T16:17:08Z

What are the most popular bundlers at the moment, apart from Vite?

My list is currently:
* Libraries: esbuild, Rolldown, Rollup, Rspack
* Larger: RSBuild, Parcel, Turbopack, Rsbuild

I haven’t heard much of Turbopack since its introduction, though. Is that because it’s used internally by the Next.js tooling?

Why still bundle JavaScript? Given that HTTP/2 lets us download ...

2025-02-26T11:52:37Z

Why still bundle JavaScript?

Given that HTTP/2 lets us download multiple files per connection, the one remaining benefit is the elimination of unused code, right?

I’ve never seen that before on the web. https://frame.work is ...

2025-02-25T20:18:47Z

I’ve never seen that before on the web. https://frame.work is getting a lot of traffic after new products were introduced.

This “waiting room” is a Cloudflare feature: https://www.cloudflare.com/application-services/products/waiting-room/

Node.js wish: Parse the hashbang on all platforms and use its ...

2025-02-25T16:08:53Z

Node.js wish: Parse the hashbang on all platforms and use its options. Example:

#!/usr/bin/env -S node --disable-warning=ExperimentalWarning

#TypeScript: Baffled where the `never` comes from. Is that a TS ...

2025-02-21T22:18:16Z

#TypeScript: Baffled where the `never` comes from. Is that a TS bug?

type SimpleEqual2<X, Y> =
X extends Y
? (Y extends X ? ['trueY', X, Y] : ['falseY', X, Y])
: ['falseX', X, Y]
;
type R = SimpleEqual2<'a'|'b', 'b'|'c'>;
// ["falseX", "a", "b" | "c"] | ["trueY", "b", "b"] | ["falseY", never, "c"]

Full exploration: https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?#code/C4TwDgpgBAKgrmANhAzgDQDxoDRQJoB8UAvFGlBAB7AQB2AJivlAPxQDaA5MAE5wRpOuHPgC6UAFwdOAMwCGiFAKFlceUQG4AUKEixypeElSZOczgB9OAIxU3LnAMacC2qFAD0HjgCJ5igR9cHzkgqB9rHygLcMcfcRj2H15+NDCI9Mjo2PitHXBoI2QUPCw1IlI8Cmo6RjJWaRSIPBURdUlpfyUW4TVNfL0YKsMEYtKM4KyYnzjXLXcvXya8TNWE3y7m1eC40TzdaABlAEsAW2MAUQBHOAUAJjL8Cvn6qhoGJjwX9zYACiq3rUmOQ2Fxlq0+h0uJseqoxABKb5Q2QKJSCXpiLTaA5QABKJCgJ3OyGut0QDzMDlsuHsVmccwW3iSmzSwVCkyi0122SSy224Ui62ZqK2uFoEAAbhAeDtckA

Symbols in TypeScript ...

2025-02-17T12:36:25Z

Symbols in TypeScript
https://2ality.com/2025/02/symbols-in-typescript.html

#TypeScript #2ality

#TypeScript: Is it possible to create an object that is ...

2025-02-16T18:39:13Z

#TypeScript: Is it possible to create an object that is assignable to the following type (without using `as`)?

type Obj = {
readonly sym: unique symbol,
};

const SYM: unique symbol = Symbol('SYM');
const obj: Obj = {
sym: SYM,
// Type 'typeof SYM' is not assignable to type 'typeof sym'.
};

Argument in favor of single-quote string literals: It’s easier ...

2025-02-16T17:02:29Z

In reply to nevent1q…973k
_________________________

Argument in favor of single-quote string literals: It’s easier to quote HTML—where double quotes are a clear standard.

I got used to single quotes there and now use them elsewhere too.

Nostr event nevent1qqs9jvjrznezhdp996kh250zkztw6xm34earsg5mevflaptkkpw5hwszypa85ztce3rw7l74fra3yhj3cpx704x2vw2p0gsm264ftcm3rs9nsdkjfv7

2025-02-16T14:11:35Z

#TypeScript—Check all that apply:

It’s not always possible to go that route, but I prefer ...

2025-02-14T11:50:47Z

It’s not always possible to go that route, but I prefer repeating directory names—e.g.:

utils/utils.js
resources/resources.md

Over a generic “main file” name:

utils/index.js
resources/index.md

Exceptions:

* index.html in HTML
* README.md on GitHub

TypeDoc: testing code examples in doc comments ...

2025-02-09T22:58:05Z

TypeDoc: testing code examples in doc comments
https://2ality.com/2025/02/testing-typedoc-examples.html

#TypeScript #2ality

I was wondering about that! Type stripping could lead to packages ...

2025-02-04T14:50:33Z

In reply to nevent1q…c3qd
_________________________

I was wondering about that! Type stripping could lead to packages such as htm (*) becoming more popular.

(*) https://www.npmjs.com/package/htm

Nostr event nevent1qqspfv5v9ml5gr4p0g4rswumfa4xaf3dy3ch4k7f9w7rlyahsnhuv8szypa85ztce3rw7l74fra3yhj3cpx704x2vw2p0gsm264ftcm3rs9ns8e078j

2025-02-04T14:43:56Z

How do you access global values such as encodeURI?

#TypeScript: Now that I know about type stripping (*), I wish tsc ...

2025-02-01T17:03:55Z

#TypeScript: Now that I know about type stripping (*), I wish tsc supported it.
Benefit: In npm packages, we could do without JS source maps.
(*) https://2ality.com/2025/01/nodejs-strip-type.html#type-stripping-and-source-maps

===== BEFORE =====
src/
util.ts
dist/src/
util.js
util.js.map
util.d.ts
util.d.ts.map # enables definition-jumping to util.ts

===== AFTER =====
dist/src/
util.js
util.d.ts
util.d.ts.map # points to util.js(?)

#Markdown: I often find myself inserting separators before H2 ...

2025-01-31T14:28:49Z

#Markdown: I often find myself inserting separators before H2 headings. I feel that’s something editors could handle—e.g. by drawing horizontal lines above lower-level headings.


## Title of a section

#JavaScript (h/t @npub1s4w…gdf2): If you don’t know what ...

2025-01-31T13:19:12Z

#JavaScript (h/t Ashley Claymore 🌈 (npub1s4w…gdf2)):

If you don’t know what `value` is then this statement is problematic:
console.log(`Unexpected value: ${value}`);

Why? `value` might be a symbol: https://exploringjs.com/js/book/ch_symbols.html#converting-symbols
Thus:

console.log(`Unexpected value: ${String(value)}`);

Interesting #Mastodon detail: If you reply to a post and don’t ...

2025-01-30T18:59:16Z

Interesting #Mastodon detail: If you reply to a post and don’t mention any account names then the author of that post is not notified.

My impression: We are moving from top-down changes to bottom-up ...

2025-01-30T12:59:15Z

In reply to nevent1q…ve3r
_________________________

My impression: We are moving from top-down changes to bottom-up changes in society. I’m seeing lots of positive grassroots initiatives, lots of goodness at the local level, but the tops of the hierarchies are still often problematic.

I’m not saying that’s a done deal, but there are things to be hopeful about.

I wouldn’t use a CDN myself either, but the setup is compelling ...

2025-01-28T18:30:59Z

In reply to nevent1q…cct2
_________________________

I wouldn’t use a CDN myself either, but the setup is compelling in its minimalism.

For large projects, Vite seems to have become pretty much the ...

2025-01-28T17:37:44Z

For large projects, Vite seems to have become pretty much the standard(?)

What would you use for small projects?

#TypeScript’s mapped types: Due to their syntax, I assumed they ...

2025-01-25T13:01:28Z

#TypeScript’s mapped types: Due to their syntax, I assumed they only work for objects, but they work just as well for tuples:

type Wrap<T> = {
[Key in keyof T]: Promise<T[Key]>
};
type _ = Wrap<['a', 'b']>;
// [Promise<"a">, Promise<"b">]

// #TypeScript syntax: tuple (not array). Are there more? const ...

2025-01-23T12:10:31Z

// #TypeScript syntax: tuple (not array). Are there more?

const tuple1 = ['a', 1];
// (string | number)[]

// Non-empty tuple
const tuple2 = ['a', 1] satisfies [unknown, ...unknown[]];
// [string, number]

// Any tuple
const tuple3 = ['a', 1] satisfies [] | unknown[];
// [string, number]

Interesting, wasn’t aware! Handbook even says: “The new ...

2025-01-23T08:56:02Z

In reply to nevent1q…zta3
_________________________

Interesting, wasn’t aware!

Handbook even says: “The new satisfies operator lets us validate that the type of an expression matches some type, without changing the resulting type of that expression.”

But:

type NonEmptyTuple = [unknown, ...unknown[]];
const tuple = [1, 2, 3] satisfies NonEmptyTuple; // changes type

I don’t think it helps because it never affects the type.

2025-01-22T15:13:12Z

In reply to nevent1q…7ryn
_________________________

I don’t think it helps because it never affects the type.

#TypeScript: I don’t think TColor being Color can be avoided(?) ...

2025-01-22T10:41:52Z

#TypeScript: I don’t think TColor being Color can be avoided(?)

class Color {
static red = new Color();
static green = new Color();
static blue = new Color();
}
type TColor = typeof Color.red | typeof Color.green | typeof Color.red;

Even adding a private slot to make Color nominal doesn’t change anything.

#TypeScript: Does anyone know why and how to fix it? const Red = ...

2025-01-17T08:56:45Z

#TypeScript: Does anyone know why and how to fix it?

const Red = Symbol('Red');
const Green = Symbol('Green');
const arr1 = [
[Red, 'RED'],
[Green, 'GREEN'],
] as const;
new Map(arr1); // error

const arr2 = [
[0, 'RED'],
[1, 'GREEN'],
] as const;
new Map(arr2); // OK

https://www.typescriptlang.org/play/?target=2#code/MYewdgzgLgBASgUwCYwLwwMoE8C2AjEAGwAoByRJUgSgG4AoUSWAcQCcEEw1NcCTS2HMNXqNoMAIatWARm4BtOjBjyKAGhjkAogBFSAXTVKVgzhoFwtWgHIGj+yRBhio9MAgDuMALISADsRSsrQwAPShMAjSIKx0DODiQQBMCsbyAAzmlnqGaTLmzJY2dnQOEk4ubp4+-oHSSSHhMADyANJAA

#TypeScript: How confident do you feel about your tsconfig.json? ...

2025-01-16T14:00:17Z

#TypeScript: How confident do you feel about your tsconfig.json?

For me the answer was always: “not very”. So I wrote a blog post to change that: https://2ality.com/2025/01/tsconfig-json.html

I know that that term is tricky. That’s why I used quotes the ...

2024-12-01T17:40:48Z

In reply to nevent1q…9ruv
_________________________

I know that that term is tricky. That’s why I used quotes the first time I mentioned it.

Is it not clear from the context what I mean?

I often read that Mastodon is too complicated for “normal” ...

2024-12-01T17:15:34Z

I often read that Mastodon is too complicated for “normal” people. I’m curious: How tech savvy do you consider yourself to be?

I’d especially love to hear from #1 people.

My list of upcoming Mastodon improvements: https://2ality.com/2024/11/mastodon-weaknesses.html

:Mastodon: Boosts appreciated, to get as varied a sample as possible!

#Markdown: Joplin interprets text line breaks as Markdown line ...

2024-11-30T18:21:49Z

#Markdown: Joplin interprets text line breaks as Markdown line breaks and I really like that now—especially for notes:

Sometimes, I’m lazy and jot down items: one item with 1+ words per line. Thankfully, Joplin does not turn those lines into a single paragraph.

True. Especially since there is a difference between prototype ...

2024-11-28T23:24:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…8fgm
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True. Especially since there is a difference between prototype and instance and since `static` exists.

#JavaScript syntax: 😬 class C { [x] = 'abc' } new C() ...

2024-11-28T22:00:26Z

#JavaScript syntax: 😬

class C { [x] = 'abc' }

new C() creates an instance property whose key is the value stored in the variable `x` (i.e., `x` must exist in a surrounding scope).

True! As an aside, That made learning foreign languages much more ...

2024-11-28T16:07:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…akv7
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True! As an aside, That made learning foreign languages much more challenging. Additionally, you can’t really have dictionaries with scrolls.

I relatively recent development is that Prettier made ...

2024-11-28T16:06:03Z

In reply to nevent1q…x57l
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I relatively recent development is that Prettier made no-semicolon styles less problematic.

#JavaScript without semicolons is old-school, not new-school: ...

2024-11-28T15:55:49Z

#JavaScript without semicolons is old-school, not new-school: 😀

“During antiquity, most scribes in the West wrote in scriptio continua, i.e. without punctuation delimiting word boundaries.”

“After 200 BC, Greek scribes adopted the théseis system invented by Aristophanes of Byzantium, where a single dot called a punctus was placed at one of several heights to denote rhetorical divisions in speech”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punctuation

Teaching frontend development with minimal tooling: – I love ...

2024-11-25T17:04:53Z

Teaching frontend development with minimal tooling:
– I love the idea of using no tools at all.
– But: While you can develop without a build tool, you still want to bundle for deployment: Deploying all of node_modules seems undesirable.
– I’m leaning towards esbuild because it’s fast (not much overhead during development) and simple (not that much to learn).

Teaching people some of the basics of frontend & backend ...

2024-11-25T17:00:36Z

Teaching people some of the basics of frontend & backend (incl. databases):
– What service would you use?
– Important: It should be virtually guaranteed to still exist in a few years. That precludes many startups that I, personally, find very interesting and would use for my own projects.
– It must have a free tier that permits small experiments.

My impression: It depends on who sets the agenda: people who are ...

2024-11-23T15:50:45Z

In reply to nevent1q…jduh
_________________________

My impression: It depends on who sets the agenda: people who are motivated by profit (MBAs, investors, etc.) or people who are motivated by creating great products. Co-ops tend to be much different from companies owned by investors.

The book “Reinventing Organizations” also shows what is possible w.r.t. making companies not evil. This is a good video about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcS04BI2sbk

Apple’s trajectory makes me sad: I used to root for the company ...

2024-11-23T14:55:57Z

In reply to nevent1q…4fr9
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Apple’s trajectory makes me sad: I used to root for the company because they are doing a lot of things right: tech as something that has to be useful, focus on accessibility, etc.

But it’s become clear how cut-throat, greedy and anti-user they are. Their devices could be much more repairable (incl. fewer design changes over the years) and be supported much longer.

And I’m not anti-corporate. Companies are not evil per se. Linux has its own set of issues!

If iPadOS were as open as macOS, iPads would rival Macs with ...

2024-11-23T14:46:26Z

If iPadOS were as open as macOS, iPads would rival Macs with regard to versatility. Right now, I can’t use an iPad because it doesn’t have:
– Homebrew
– Terminal
– Visual Studio Code

File and window management could also be improved but that’s much less important.

It would be great to have Mac-like power with the option of touch input.

But I’m not holding my breath. It currently seems more likely that I’ll eventually switch completely over to Linux.

Mastodon’s weaknesses and how to fix them ...

2024-11-20T10:50:22Z

Mastodon’s weaknesses and how to fix them
https://2ality.com/2024/11/mastodon-weaknesses.html

#2ality #Mastodon

“Bluesky and enshittification” by @npub1fdr…lvhs Good, ...

2024-11-02T17:52:11Z

“Bluesky and enshittification” by Cory Doctorow (npub1fdr…lvhs)
Good, measured arguments against Bluesky
https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/02/ulysses-pact/

I’m watching an interesting new sci-fi series where farm ...

2024-09-10T18:59:47Z

I’m watching an interesting new sci-fi series where farm animals have evolved, developed speech and taken over the world (presumably after killing all humans). The protagonist is a piglet called Peppa.

1/ I like both React and web components and it always makes me ...

2024-08-31T11:00:15Z

1/ I like both React and web components and it always makes me sad when the web components community simplistically bashes React (the reverse happens too, but much less frequently, IINM):
– Be specific. Constructive and concrete criticism is always useful.
– Ideas of React influenced current approaches—e.g.: Lit’s tagged templates remind me of JSX. As does how the data flow is managed (roughly—there are probably differences that I’m not aware of).

2/ – I agree with saying no to (unnecessary) complexity: I have ...

2024-08-30T13:23:56Z

In reply to nevent1q…n05e
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2/
– I agree with saying no to (unnecessary) complexity: I have always tried to use as few technologies as possible and prefer lightweight technologies.
– Key innovation of frameworks for me is simplified data flow—which most frameworks now support, even very lightweight ones. For anything beyond simple apps, I wouldn’t want to go back to jQuery and manual state management.
– I’m not sure that bringing PHP or Ruby (via Rails) into the mix makes things simpler (unless you don’t like JS).

1/ I don’t think “say no to frameworks” properly summarizes ...

2024-08-30T13:23:51Z

1/ I don’t think “say no to frameworks” properly summarizes the very different opinions in this article: https://thenewstack.io/developers-rail-against-javascript-merchants-of-complexity/