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The modern web is changing fast. Front-end frameworks evolve quickly, standards are emerging and old ones are fading out of favor. There are a lot of things to learn, but knowing the right thing is more critical than learning them all. Modern Web Podcast is an interview-style show where we learn about modern web development from industry experts. We’re committed to making it easy to digest lots of useful information!
Episodes
3 days ago
3 days ago
On this episode of the Modern Web Podcast, Rob Ocel interviews Daniel Roe, a framework lead at Nuxt, Google GDE, and Microsoft MVP. They discuss Daniel's journey into open source, the role of hype and venture capital in the open source ecosystem, and ways to contribute to open source projects. Finally, they discuss the challenges the open source ecosystem faces and why this is an issue that more companies and developers should be paying attention to.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
Wednesday Nov 15, 2023
On this episode of Modern Web Podcast, Rob Ocel interviews Andrea Griffiths, a Senior Product Manager at GitHub. Andrea shares her story of transitioning into tech and product management from a nontraditional path, and how paid internships and open source contributions helped her along the way. They discuss the role of product manager, what they do, and how product managers need to have empathy and bridge the gap between stakeholders, users, and engineering teams. They also talk about how to build truly global tech communities and reach out to developers across the world who speak every language.
[00:00:00] Tech career journey: GitHub via Latin America
[00:03:56] Non-traditional career success through open source.
[00:08:59] Gain experience, open source, support dreams.
[00:13:15] Innovate, share, learn
[00:18:01] Product management: Global expansion, execution, feedback, accessibility, localization, KPI.
[00:21:33] Product managers bridge teams, stakeholders, users.
[00:26:21] Product manager: glue, communicate, empathize.
[00:31:06] Empower global tech communities
[00:35:56] Global expansion for all developers.
[00:40:39] Grow global developer communities: GitHub’s mission.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
Wednesday Nov 08, 2023
On this episode of Modern Web Podcast, Rob Ocel interviews Mark Erikson, the Redux maintainer and senior front end engineer at Replay.io. They discuss the arcane complexities of publishing JavaScript packages to NPM today, the balance between developer experience and user experience when it comes to open source libraries, the unique troubles for React/Next library authors, and the responses to Mark’s wildly successful blog about upgrading Redux to use ESM.
00:00:01] Ecosystem evolves, nobody at the wheel.
[00:07:02] Open source library complexity: Dev exp. vs user exp.
[00:13:11] ESM vs CJS: Technical merits, tree shaking, syntax.
[00:18:35] Lazy-load files with CJS/ESM.
[00:23:37] Publish libraries in multiple formats, React server components.
[00:30:38] React team locks out valid code paths.
[00:35:26] Open source maintainer responsibility: Maximally compatible, widely respected.
[00:42:25] Competing philosophies on web evolution.
[00:47:54] Unifying competing standards for developers.
[00:53:19] Expertise gained through unexpected challenges.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
Wednesday Nov 01, 2023
In this episode of the Modern Web podcast, hosts Rob Ocel and Tracy Lee interview Aiden Bai, the creator of the Million.js library, a replacement for the Virtual DOM implementation in ReactJS. They talk about the process of creating Million.js as a high schooler, how the library speeds up React applications using blocks and the Million Compiler, and what the future of the library looks like. The conversation also touches on the alternative experience and education paths to becoming a developer, as well as the future of open source libraries, venture funded libraries, and indie hacked frameworks.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
Wednesday Oct 25, 2023
On this episode of Modern Web, Tracy Lee, Ben Lesh, Adam Rackis, and Dax Raad discussed the cloud offerings of SST and the advantages of using AWS. Adam was excited about SST's cloud wrappers and the fact that they were built with Solid instead of React to meet ambitious performance requirements. SST helps people build on AWS by simplifying the hundreds of services available and providing an experience that allows users to become experts in AWS. Dax discussed his experience with React and Solid, and the trade offs between the two.
[00:02:40] Building on AWS made easy.
[00:06:00] Simplifying AWS: Less than five services.
[00:10:43] Hidden gem: IoT core pubsub real-time.
[00:14:33] AWS back-end and front-end support.
[00:17:20] Reaching new audiences with NextJS.
[00:20:06] Simplicity over complexity: Solid wins.
[00:24:01] GitHub-powered effortless development for all.
[00:26:24] Serverless event-driven architecture solves cold start issue.
[00:30:13] Granular auto-scaling, milliseconds up/down.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
Wednesday Oct 18, 2023
In this podcast episode, hosts Rob Ocel, Alyssa Nicoll, and Mark Thompson discuss the "Angular Renaissance." They reflect on Angular's evolution from its early days through the pivotal transition to Ivy to the current trend of biannual releases, highlighting the community's warm and supportive nature. The focus then shifts to the upcoming release of Angular 17, emphasizing the significance of control flow features and deferred loading in optimizing applications. The team underscores the importance of community engagement, evidence-driven development, and the promising future of Angular. They also tease an upcoming developer event in November, encouraging listeners to stay updated on the latest developments.
This episode is sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
Wednesday Oct 11, 2023
In this podcast episode, Tracy Lee, Ben Lesh, and guest Adam Rackis talk through the successful fusion of TypeScript and React. They chat about various web frameworks, like Angular and Svelte, emphasizing the impact of TypeScript support on the development process. The episode also highlights the excitement around Svelte's new feature, signals, and speculates on its potential standardization, as well as React 18's challenges and the evolution of the React ecosystem.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
Wednesday Oct 04, 2023
In this podcast episode, Jerome Hardaway and Rob Ocel explore AI-powered development. They discuss the importance of active engagement in tech communities and the value of skill development. Jerome highlights the changing landscape for junior developers and the availability of free online resources for learning.
The episode also emphasizes AI's practical benefits, such as boosting productivity and aiding job readiness. It dispels misconceptions about AI hindering creativity, presenting it as a valuable tool for developers.
This episode is sponsored by CircleCI.
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
Wednesday Sep 27, 2023
In this episode, hosts Rob Ocel and Tracy Lee are joined by Chuck Carpenter and Robbie Wagner from the Whiskey Web and Whatnot podcast. They discuss the future of web development, highlighting the industry's shift towards performance-focused development over flashy animations. They explore the longevity of jQuery, the use cases of frameworks like AngularJS and Ember, and the potential for combining components of Ember with Astro. The hosts also touch on the challenges of convincing stakeholders about performance and the need for developers to prioritize foundational web skills. Throughout, Robbie and Chuck share insights from The Whiskey Web and Whatnot podcast, celebrating its 100th episode.
Sponsored by This Dot Labs.
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
Wednesday Sep 20, 2023
In this podcast episode, Rob Ocel chats with Kathleen McMahon, a senior design systems engineer at Northwestern Mutual and a key contributor to the W3C Design Tokens Community Group.
Kathleen McMahon kicks off the conversation by defining design systems as versatile collections of patterns and efficiencies that streamline workflows in design and engineering. She emphasizes that design systems can encompass diverse elements, such as design patterns, component libraries, CSS frameworks, and more, tailored to the unique needs of a company or product. The focus isn't on rigidity but rather on promoting consistency and efficiency while allowing flexibility for innovation.
The dialogue then shifts to Kathleen's role as a design systems engineer and the dynamic nature of her work, influenced by factors like team size and company maturity. Kathleen shares her experiences in both small, multifaceted teams and larger, specialized teams at Northwestern Mutual. She provides insights into the varied responsibilities, from creating design tokens and components to ensuring accessibility and collaborating with diverse stakeholders.
Rob and Kathleen delve into the invaluable role of design systems in simplifying workflows for designers and developers. Kathleen highlights how design systems liberate creative energy by offering reusable patterns, enabling teams to focus on solving more complex problems. They also explore the strategic decision of whether to build a design system within a specific framework or keep it framework-agnostic, shedding light on the considerations and potential challenges associated with third-party component libraries.
The episode culminates with a discussion of ARIA (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) and its pivotal role in enhancing accessibility within design systems. Kathleen discusses the opportunities and challenges of leveraging libraries like Adobe's React ARIA hooks for accessibility.
This episode is sponsored by This Dot Labs.