Welcome to my PinkLetter. A short, weekly, technology-agnostic, and pink newsletter where we cultivate timeless skills about web development.
My Ramblings This Week
What do you do with ass-saving comments on the internet?
I’m sure it happened to you too: you’ve been stuck on a cryptic error for hours when you land on the 4824th comment in a thread that magically solves it.
I used to close the tab and go on with work. I did a disservice to myself and others.
We give OSS for granted: we don’t pay or support, we shout in the issues, and we don’t get in touch with the community.
But you and I can do better!
Engage with the author next time you find some info that helps or inspires you: upvote or react, comment in an issue, send a direct message, mention them in a tweet.
Just let them know.
They probably spent hours on the problem so that you could fix it in minutes. And if it’s you solving an issue, please share it with the internet.
Imagine saving hours to one developer. Now, multiply it by a million devs.
Picture what we could do as a community if got less stuck on accidental problems and laser-focused on essential complexity.
Be a good citizen!
(Reply to this email; I’m looking forward to hear from you!)
Elsewhere on the Web
Falling Into The Pit of Success by Jeff Atwood
Wouldn’t it be nice to use a language designed to keep you from falling into the pit of despair? But avoiding horrific, trainwreck failure modes isn’t a particularly laudable goal. Wouldn’t it be even better if you used a language that let you effortlessly fall into The Pit of Success?
The State Of Web Workers In 2021 by Surma
The web is single-threaded. This makes it increasingly hard to write smooth and responsive apps. Workers have a bad rep, but can be an important and useful tool in any web developer’s toolbelt for these kinds of problems. Let’s get up to speed on Workers on the Web!
(Riccardo: I’ll admit it: I didn’t know WebWorkers and ServiceWorkers were two different things.)
Keep a Changelog by Olivier Lacan and Tyler Fortune
Who needs a changelog?
People do. Whether consumers or developers, the end users of software are human beings who care about what’s in the software. When the software changes, people want to know why and how.
(Riccardo: Great UX is not only in the UI. Clear and actionable changelogs contribute to the design of your code.)