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’s the programming language you hate the least?
If you asked me, I’d say Elm.
- Zero runtime errors aka dumb mistakes. Elm is prolly the safest type system out there: if it compiles, it’s not going to explode on production.
- Intro to functional programming. Elm is what opened the doors of PureScript and Haskell to me. But it keeps it simple so that every Elm program feels familiar.
- Small language and framework. To this day, I’m shocked that Elm can solve all the problems I throw at it with such a small set of primitives. You can master it in a few days—modulo some functional concepts that need some time to marinate in your head but will serve you for life.
- Kind community of hackers. The vibe in the community is just great. You can see that everyone gives a damn about solving problems without getting lost in the next shiny thing.
However, is Elm always the right choice? Absolutely not.
Sometimes you need to pick another tool like TypeScript where types are an afterthought and you can just feel the friction. Not to count all the ways in which you can misuse it without any warning from the compiler.
That’s why I’d like to hear about your challenges and pains in TypeScript. Please reply to this email and let me know you are available for a quick chat. I’d be happy to help back with any questions you may have!
Elsewhere on the Web
How to design better APIs by Ronald Blüthl
15 language-agnostic, actionable tips on REST API design.
Laravel Origins: The Documentary by OfferZen
Featuring Laravel creator Taylor Otwell and many others who’ve contributed to making Laravel the technology and community that it is today, Laravel Origins tells the story of why Laravel came to be, how it’s grown over the last 10 years and what the future may hold for Taylor and the wider Laravel community.
A Hairy PostgreSQL Incident by Jeremy Schneider
It was 5:17pm today, just as I was wrapping up work for the day, and my manager pinged me with the following chat: