Build it Better - Advanced Web Development Topics

In this episode of Build IT Better, we have a roundtable discussion with Tracy Lee , Ben Lesh , Adam Barrett , and Jesse Tomchak . They dive straight into an exciting development for web developers and enthusiasts—the integration of Observables into web browsers, with a special focus on Chrome. Join the conversation as they unwrap the technical intricacies behind this initiative. Dive into the hea...

In this podcast episode, Adam L. Barrett and Jesse Tomchak discuss choosing your tech stack and the relevance of frameworks. Does your tech stack matter? Does it not matter as long as you’re shipping your product? While they acknowledge the importance of delivering a product to users, they also highlight the benefits of choosing the right tools and frameworks. They argue that using established fra...

Welcome back to another episode of Build IT Better! We have the whole group for this one with Tracy Lee, Ben Lesh, Adam Barrett, and Jesse Tomchak; joined by Jay Phelps, a software engineer at Netflix. He's a part of the shared client Foundation team at Netflix, a crew that's all about creating exceptional experiences across various platforms, including TV, web, iOS, and Android. Jay and his team...

Hosts Adam L Barrett and Jesse Tomchak sit down with Amelia Graycen from OrthoFi to discuss her role as an architect and her diverse background in front-end development and other technical areas. She highlights the challenges of being an architectural "mercenary," someone who navigates various aspects of software development, from business requirements to technical implementations. The trio talk a...

In this episode of Build IT Better Tracy Lee talks with Jesse Tomchak , Adam Barrett , and Ben Lesh about the journey from a junior developer to achieving the coveted role of an architect.  With a focus on work-life balance, the panel points out that while dedication and hard work are vital, a nuanced approach is key. They advocate for a rhythm of intense effort followed by well-deserved relaxatio...

In this episode of the Build IT Better podcast, our hosts discuss two major topics in the React and Next.js ecosystem. Firstly, they delve into the app directory architecture in Next.js and the introduction of React server components. They explore the transition from a client-first to a server-components-first approach and the challenges faced in development, particularly in managing state and tog...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Tracy Lee and Ben Lesh talk with Maggie Johnson-Pint , co-founder of Stanza. Stanza is a game-changer in the software development world, offering innovative solutions to build more reliable software with responsive UIs. Maggie's journey from being a front-end developer to transitioning into the world of reliability is truly inspiring. She shares her passion for...

Transpilation, Compilation, Bundling…? Jesse Tomchak and Adam Barret demystify these technical concepts in the latest episode of Build IT Better. Revealing their significance in modern web development, they trace the evolution from the days of task runners like Grunt and Gulp, which offered basic bundling and concatenation, to the sophisticated capabilities of today's tools. The conversation highl...

In this "Build It Better" podcast episode, co-hosts Ben Lesh and Tracy Lee interview Jay Phelps about architectural design and the importance of having a spec document. The podcast discusses the benefits of having a spec document for ensuring best practices and avoiding carrying over bad behavior when re-architecting. They also discuss how to avoid over-engineering and the importance of understand...

In this interview on the "Build It Better" podcast, Tracy Lee and her co-hosts Jesse Tomchak and Adam Barrett are joined by Dominic Gannaway from the Svelte core team. Dom is known for his work on the React team.  Tracy asks Dom about his role in naming hooks in React. Dom shares that when the team was developing hooks, they needed a name and had a list of options. He randomly suggested "hooks" as...

In this episode of the "Build It Better" podcast, Ben Lesh and Tracy Lee talk to Colin Ihrig. Colin is a member of the Node.js Technical Steering Committee (TSC) and is a seasoned developer who has worked at companies like Deno, Joyent, Samsung, and currently works at Platformatic. This episode is filled with interesting stories about problems you've probably never encountered before. Colin shares...

In this episode of Build IT Better, co-hosts Tracy, Abby, and Ben sit down with their guest, Laurie, a web developer and former co-founder of NPM. Laurie shares captivating stories of the early days of NPM and the tumultuous experiences they faced. From SSL certificate mishaps to endless loops caused by silent type conversion, the team reminisces about the wild adventures and unexpected challenges...

In this episode of the Build IT Better podcast, Ben Lesh, Tracy Lee, Adam Barrett, and Jesse Tomchak delve into the debate between object-oriented programming and functional programming. Are classes really "in" or are they out? We discuss the pros and cons of each approach, and why classes are not as bad as some might think. We also explore the issues with prototypal inheritance and shared global...

In this captivating episode of the Build IT Better podcast Jesse, Adam, and special guest Dane Grant discuss React server components, an innovative technology that's transforming the way we build web applications. Join this trio of experienced developers as they explore the benefits and limitations of using server components, and some best practices for implementing this cutting-edge technology. P...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Ben Lesh joins the panel to discuss the new observable primitives and patterns that have been added in RxJS v8. They will discuss how these patterns can be reused to simplify your code, and make it more efficient, compare observable patterns to streams, and explore the differences between the two. The panel also cover how to create a cleaner, reusable API surfac...

Join Ben Lesh and Tracy Lee as they interview Adam Bradley, creator of Ionic, Stencil, and now a member of the Qwik team. In this episode, we dive into the complex issues of building a new JavaScript framework. Adam shares the advanced problems they have had to solve rendering and streaming on every edge platform and the challenges dealing with the multitude of different http APIs. This is a must-...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Tracy and Ben talk to Manu Martinez-Almeida from Qwik. They discuss what hydration is and is not, how to design your codebases around hydration, resumability, building applications with Qwik, and much more! Panel Tracy Lee @ladyleet Ben Lesh @BenLesh Manu Martinez-Almeida @manucoporat Build IT Better is presented by This Dot: https://www.thisdot.co/ Follow This...

In this episode of Build IT Better, our hosts Tracy, Ben, Adam, and Jesse cover the trade-offs of GraphQL, tRPC, and other network protocols. They discuss the lost timeline if PWA's took off instead of Mobile App Stores, what would the web be like today. Eventually we'll all be writing in WASM, or will we? Panel Jesse Tomchak @jtomchak Adam L. Barrett @adamlbarrett Tracy Lee @ladyleet Ben Lesh @Be...

In this episode of Build IT Better, special guest Jake Lumetta from ButterCMS joins Jesse and Adam. They talk about how Butter has evolved over time, how caching is at the heart of good performance, and the tradeoffs of optimizing reads over writes. They also dive into what makes ButterCMS unique in the space, and a joy to use for developers and marketers alike. Panel Jesse Tomchak @jtomchak Adam...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Adam and Jesse discuss Hexagonal Architecture. They define what it is, and cover some tips for applying it to your software. They also talk about layered-architectures, the Onion Architecture, structuring your code, and the merits and trade-offs of doing as little as possible until absolutely necessary. If you have heard those terms before and want to know more,...

Our very own Dustin Goodman , Engineering Manager at This Dot Labs, joins Jesse Tomchak and Adam L. Barrett to talk about the path from individual contributor to people manager. They reminisce about the Build IT Better multiverse building an e-commerce platform. Then, they tackle testing for the JavaScript ecosystem. They discuss how the 'cold start' to testing is just too high for JavaScript, wha...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Tracy Lee and Ben Lesh sit down with Jay Phelps , a senior software engineer at Netflix, who works at the forefront of the company's multi-faceted re-architecture with Server Driven UI. Jay provides a useful definition of Server-driven UI, and discusses the benefits and trade-offs of using Server Driven UI, including the challenges of maintaining a consistent us...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Matt Hargett joins Jesse and Adam to talk about open source contribution from the enterprise, all the way down to individual contributor, level. They discuss improving website performance, and how persistent technical problems are really workplace organization problems that can be addressed at the managerial level. Panel Adam L. Barrett @adamlbarrett Jesse Tomch...

In this episode of Build IT Better, Jesse Tomchak and Adam Barrett dive into the world of Serverless architecture. They discuss the pros and cons of using a Function as a Service (FaaS) category of cloud architecture as the core pattern for building an entire app. They explore the commonly touted benefits and tradeoffs of Serverless. Join Jesse and Adam as they provide an analysis of Serverless an...

Build IT Better is back with Tracy Lee and Ben Lesh, featuring David Khourshid from XState and Stately! David will be sharing the challenges in implementing XState in Angular, and SolidJS and will walk us through what XState is, and how to use it in different libraries. He'll also discuss the nuances and trade-offs in choosing technologies for building the diagraming tool for a state machine edito...