Svelte 5 is coming and with it the addition of Svelte 5 Runes, a replacement for the let, =, export, and $: that we use in Svelte today. Runes replaces this old syntax with function syntax to achieve the same old things and more. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss a brief history of Svelte before diving into what was shown off so far about Svelte 5 Runes. The duo then discuss the learning experience for those studying Svelte 4 and whether they should stop and wait for Svelte 5. This leads to a debate about keeping websites up and running with maintenance, and how updates like Svelte 5 can help or hurt a site in production.
SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is how websites prepare and portray themselves to search engines like Google and Bing. The goal of SEO is to generate as much traffic (ideally organic traffic) as possible from the right people - namely prospective customers. The problem with SEO is that many industries and specific keywords are very competitive and require a lot of effort by someone that knows what the search engines want. In order for them to operate effectively they'll need to work with a developer and/or CMS to ensure good technical SEO and be given control over at least some of the website's content (ie blog posts) so that they can try and rank in as many relevant keywords as possible. For small businesses, having someone do their SEO for them seems like a massive gamble, so its a hard sell. If the small business tries to do their own SEO, they may find that their efforts aren't yielding any leads because SEO is not only time consuming, but can also get complex. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss how to deliver the best possible SEO service to a small business that is on a tight budget, with minimal free time to dedicate to content and keyword research.
Authentication is a critical part of modern websites and web apps. Everything from ecommerce stores through membership sites will almost always have some form of authentication for their users. As a web developer, creating an authentication system can seem daunting because of the security that's involved in storing people's passwords and sensitive account data. It's difficult to keep up with all the security threats out there when you're juggling a DIY authentication system, maintenance, and developing new features. Luckily, there is tooling available for web developers that can help them authenticate their users with minimal effort. Products such as Firebase, Lucia, and NextAuth.js all provide ways to help offload authentication from your developer to-do list. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss why you would (or would not) roll your own auth, and your available options if you don't want to make your own.
It can be difficult to choose the right tech stack for your website or web app because there are so many to choose from. There are more traditional stacks like LAMP, MERN, and MEAN...as well as new serverless stacks that use Vercel/Netlify, Next.js, and Planetscale (MySQL). Furthermore, if you're working for a client in an agency or freelance, a single tech stack might not cut it. It's not uncommon for a client to bring you in to work on their website, setup their newsletter, and code up a new web app. Projects like this might use LAMP w/ WordPress for the website, serverless technologies for the web app, and Constant Contact for the newsletter. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss choosing your tech stack based on its pros and cons, the project's requirements, and how to avoid personal bias that could cost you money.
Project planning sounds like it's the job of a project manager, but the truth is that a web developer interacts with so many parts of an online project that project management skills are crucial. When working as a freelancer, or for a small business, there might not even be a project manager on staff, leaving the web developer to manage their own team, time, and communications. Sprints/scrum and agile seem to dominate the project management space and have helped a lot of teams be successful, but as a project manager its important that you use what's right for your team. You might only be working with a few developers and a Kanban board (ie Trello) board, and if that works? Then why change it? In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss project management from the perspective of a web developer - covering how to manage stakeholders, communication channels, and organizational techniques.
Side hustles are a popular choice when looking to make additional money on top of your primary income. There are seemingly countless ways to make a little money on the side and many of them are done online. With that said, web developers, whose job it is to create online experiences, should arguably have an upper hand in this space with their technical knowhow and exposure to online marketing. This week, Matt and Mike discussed whether a web developer should start a side hustle. They covered the pros and cons of side hustles, the difference between side projects & side hustles, and whether junior developers have enough time between their job applications & learning to have a side hustle at all.
Finding a job as a web developer is difficult right now. We're hot off the heels of the crazy hiring spree during the COVID-19 pandemic, and now companies are tightening their belts. We see tech companies constantly laying people off, and we've been hearing about a recession for the past year or so. The good news is that finding a job as a web developer isn't impossible, as there are still a lot of companies looking for web developers. Many of these companies are outside tech, however, instead they can be found in finance, retailers, logistics, etc. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the current job market, why it's the way it is, and how to navigate it.
Choosing the right web host is crucial for your project's success. Web hosting should be seen as the foundation in which your website or web app is built upon. It doesn't matter if you make your app with this framework, that plugin, or have the best content in the business - if the hosting goes down, your project goes down. The problem here is that as a web developer and especially a junior developer, you've spent the majority of your time building and learning on your local machine. Hosting projects locally is fantastic for building, but it doesn't reflect the real-world demands of a website being used by the public. Once deployed your project must withstand varying amounts of traffic while remaining performant, both of these things rest largely on the web host's shoulders - having the right server configuration with the proper networking infrastructure supporting it is crucial. In this episode, Matt takes a look at various web hosting types including shared, dedicated, WordPress, reseller, and nodeJS. Each of these unique hosting types have their own pros and cons ranging from how powerful they are, what their scalability looks like, and how much they cost. The focus of this episode is on what is commonly called "traditional web hosting" or "traditional web hosts" provided by companies such as HostGator, Hostinger, BlueHost, and more.
Your first week as a junior developer can be nerve wracking and anxiety inducing. Not only are you meeting a team of new people, but you're starting a new job as a newbie to coding. This week Matt and Mike discuss how to make the most of your first week of the job, making a great first impression on your team members, and hopefully letting you absorb as much knowledge as you can. By handling social situations with grace, asking valuable questions, and being honest about your capabilities; you'll be well on your way to becoming a valuable development team member.
Web development hackathons can be a fun way to do some friendly competitive programming. The result is often a few great portfolio pieces for those involved and a cool prize for those that come out on top. For Paolo Ricciut and Antonio Sarcevic they not only won the Best Ecosystem Integration award at the SvelteHack Hackathon, but they created a project that could help push the Svelte/Kit industry forward with the creation of SvelteLab. SvelteLab is an in-browser code editor that quickly sets up SvelteKit environments where you can test and share your projects easily.
Learning JavaScript from scratch can be as much about syntax as it is programming concepts, especially when it's your first language. Concepts like knowing how and why you need a place to store bits of data (variables), re-using code snippets instead of writing them repeatedly (functions), making decisions (conditional statements), and working with collections of data (arrays and looping) are all second nature to experienced developers. These concepts are the foundational building blocks that let you solve problems by thinking like a computer (sometimes this is called programmatic logic). In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss these key JavaScript basics including variables, functions, conditional statements, arrays, and looping.
Failure is a hard pill to swallow, but it's failure that allows us to grow as developers. When you're learning a language like JavaScript, there are a lot of concepts to take in, and even more ways to accomplish the same task. Sometimes, you'll choose a method that works...only to find out later that it's the "wrong" way to do it because of security, or efficiency. When that happens, many JavaScript developers will take the failure hard and let imposter syndrome take hold. In reality, these things will happen to you, and they should seen as a steppingstone as you work your way through junior developer all the way up to senior developer and beyond.
Next.js is a popular React framework that recently made some controversial changes with its 13.4 update. App router was moved to stable in this release bringing React server components, nested routers & layouts, simplified data fetching, streaming & suspense, and built-in SEO support. Unfortunately, some web developers are not excited for this release, with a few questioning if these changes align with what React initially aimed to solve. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the Next.js 13.4 update, covering the difference between client and server components, and the community drama that stemmed from these changes.
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are foundational web development technologies that Matt and Mike recommend web developers learn before trying out a framework (ie React, Svelte). Out of these three pillars, JavaScript is the most difficult to learn, especially for people that have never been exposed to programming before. Learning how to think and solve problems like a computer (programmatic logic) coupled with writing and understanding a brand-new syntax is no easy feat. These difficulties have sparked several guides, courses, and bootcamps all aimed at teaching people JavaScript and other web technologies using unique combinations of theory and project-based learning. Some people, however, will skip taking in any theory at all and go straight for project-based learning, referring to documentation and other written material only when they're really stuck. With such a difficult learning curve for junior developers, can they learn JavaScript through only project-based learning?
Full-stack development is one of the most difficult web development positions as it covers both the frontend and backend of a website. The frontend is responsible for the user interface, including any logic that powers that interface (ie animations, show/hide elements). The backend is responsible for features working from a server, typically handling security-heavy functions (ie credit card usage), and data manipulation (ie saving your profile changes). Luckily the combination of Svelte on the frontend and SvelteKit on the backend can make full-stack development easier than you might think with a fast development server, easy-to-follow file structure, and syntax that is easily picked up if you're coming from another JavaScript framework. This week Matt and Mike discussed how Svelte and SvelteKit can help you develop full-stack websites and apps faster than some of the other tools out there.
The tech world moves quickly, and web development is no exception...except that it seems like web development keeps re-inventing the wheel. Us web developers can make a blog in WordPress, Svelte + SvelteKit, React, Webflow, and many more. It seems like we spend most of our time arguing and creating new tools to develop the exact same end products, when we could be innovating and creating the next best thing. For our non-techie customers, they see no difference and form no opinion on whether their blog should be created using Svelte or React - yet we waste tons of hours learning different technologies that can pump out the same projects, with little difference. While the rest of the tech world looks to Apple for what they're calling "spatial computing" with the Vision Pro, and Meta for their affordable AR/VR experiences...websites remain large the same as they were a number of years ago. Does this mean that websites are being left behind, are they old news?
Learning JavaScript from scratch can be a real challenge, but once you're through it, your newfound programming knowledge will pay dividends for years into your career. JavaScript is one of the foundational technologies on which the web is built, alongside HTML and CSS. Knowing it gives you insight into how to "think like a computer" and offers a running start when you're ready to learn a JavaScript framework like React, Vue, or Svelte. This week, Matt and Mike discussed how to get started learning JavaScript as an absolute beginner looking to work their way through junior developer and beyond.
Coming back to a web development project after a long hiatus is difficult enough for a senior developer, let alone a junior developer. As a newbie when it comes to Svelte and SvelteKit, Matt tried to return to his passive income app weeks after his last visit, only to find himself stumped on what to work on next, and how everything he already had worked. This led him to question whether he should be restarting from scratch, re-engineering everything with the knowledge he remembered up to that point, or to start up a Udemy course to get situated with Svelte and SvelteKit again. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the course of action that Matt took to get himself unstuck on his coding problem so he could continue programming and learning Svelte and SvelteKit.
On top of the growing collection of "must-know" tools in a web developer's arsenal is the famous (or maybe infamous?) TypeScript - a high-level programming language that adds static typing with optional type annotations to JavaScript. Developed by Microsoft, TypeScript can improve the developer experience by allowing the data that is passed around the code to be typed to something specific (ie Boolean), with TypeScript ready to throw an error if the types don't match appropriately through the program. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss TypeScript at length discussing whether you need to learn TypeScript and how to learn it whether you're a beginner, or veteran coder.
Practice makes perfect, so it makes sense when senior developers tell aspiring juniors to "just code" and it will all work out. The problem with "just code" is that a complete beginner will have no idea where to start, or what to code up. Should they use HTML, React, or PHP? What type of project should they code up? In this episode, Matt and Mike hope to lay out a clear pathway on where to start learning web development for absolute beginners. We hope that the discussion will also help those that are acting as mentors for soon-to-be junior web developers.
The web development community has a collection of hot takes that seem to continuously come up time and time again in social media discussions and podcast debates. Hot takes like the debate of whether or not HTML is a programming language, or if React is good. These, among several other hot takes, are typically rooted in divide among the community as friction points about what tools to use and how to use them spark fierce debate among those that work closely with them. In this week's episode, Matt and Mike discussed and debated a collection of these hot takes, offering their opinions on each one.
No-code platforms are useful tools for those that don't have the expertise to code up a web app, website, or mobile app themselves, but what if we told you that they can be useful for programmers too? No-code tools can save web developers time by offering a quick and easy creation platform that can typically be expanded upon with code (usually JavaScript). This week Matt and Mike discussed the importance of no-code being used alongside code to help teach new developers and assist veteran programmers with their tight deadlines.
Squashing bugs in your code can be as easy as finding a missing semicolon, but sometimes it can be a grueling process filled with torn out hair and console logs. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss the various ways that you can debug your code using methods that span HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. For HTML, the DOM inspector, markup validation, and accessibility checkers can ensure you have a clean structure for the rest of your code to work from. Then in the layout department, CSS debugging methods can include things like using the Computed tab in your dev tools, obvious visual markers (ie red borders on targeted elements), and various Chrome extensions. And finally, JavaScript - the part of your website that is most likely already acquainted with debugging includes methods like using alerts, breakpoints, asking AI to correct errors, and much more.
This episode is for all of you out there that are hesitant to release your website, blog post, or whatever it is you're working on - scared to hand it over to the audience that is supposed to consume it. Instead of releasing what we have on schedule, some of us may hesitate due to perfectionism, burnout, or anxiety over what the users may think. Sometimes a delay is warranted, but often these delays can impair your future decision making on how to update/upgrade your project as you'll have no user feedback to work from. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss working towards a project that is good enough to release, without focusing on all the "what ifs" for release.
With the current job market seemingly handing out nothing by layoffs, it may seem like landing a junior developer job is an impossible task. While we acknowledge that it is more difficult than it was a year or two ago to land a junior developer job, all hope is not lost. There are always people hiring, even during the worst economic downturns and those that keep at it have a higher chance at succeeding. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss how to help a junior developer in your life succeed through mentorship, connections, peer code reviews, and more.
Can an AI chat bot like ChatGPT teach a junior developer web development from scratch? What about an experienced web developer looking to update his skills on a new framework? In this premiere episode of Full-Stack Struggles, Matt documents his experience getting situated with Svelte + SvelteKit. As a beginner, he found himself needing assistance quite often and instead of reaching for a blog post, or some documentation, he instead reached for an AI chat bot - namely Bing AI. With the recent advancements in AI technology (especially chat bots), they've been the talk of the internet with how useful they can be as an alternative to Googling and sifting through countless results. Was chatting with an AI enough to answer all of Matt's questions?
In this interview episode, Matt and Mike sat down with Bob Ziroll the head of education for Scrimba to discuss all things React, escaping your comfort zone, teaching courses, and much more! Bob Ziroll is known for his React courses on both Scrimba and freeCodeCamp, he also anticipates starting a YouTube channel sometime soon.
CSS animations are somewhat of an advanced CSS topic that many people skip out on when they're developing their site's MVP, or first few versions. Further into its life though, CSS animations (and transitions for that matter) add a level of polish to a website that can subtly bring about a premium feel for its UI/UX. It's quite easy, however, to go overboard with animations and transitions to the point where they feel out of place, sometimes looking like they're just being done for the sake of another animation instead of complimenting the content on the page. This week, Matt and Mike discussed CSS animations and CSS transitions, discussing the good, bad, and the ugly when it comes to using them on your next project.
The advanced technical nature of web development coupled with what seems like a completely new dictionary to memorize can easily overwhelm junior developers before they've completed their learning journey. There is a lot of technical jargon and technical terms that must be understood to read documentation and hold a conversation with developer colleagues. These terms include things like data structures, algorithms, syntax, and much more. This week, Matt and Mike try and help simplify these terms into easy-to-understand definitions, so you don't get bogged down in memorization.
CSS is a crucial skill for frontend developers to learn and eventually master, but it's flanked by other tools that many employers demand skills in. Bootstrap, TailwindCSS, and SASS are all tools that assist in the development of user interfaces, by augmenting and expanding what vanilla CSS already offers. With this in mind, it's easy for a junior developer to start questioning when to move their learning journey on from vanilla CSS to something that an employer may have interest in. Many times this question can result in analysis paralysis and over a long period of time, may result in CSS tutorial hell. This week, Matt and Mike discuss this transition from learning vanilla CSS to learning the next step that applies to your goals.
Do you know enough JavaScript to move onto something else like React, or Svelte? How do you know if you'll be ready? This week, Matt and Mike discuss the vanilla JavaScript fundamentals you need to know before learning new tooling like React, or Svelte. We hope that this episode helps clear the air for any junior developers wondering if they should start the next step of their JavaScript learning journey, or if they still have more vanilla JS to learn.
The popularity of WordPress partly comes from its ability to transform into virtually any website creation tool you need. From a membership site managing tool, to an inventory control system with ecommerce, the WordPress plugin offerings seem to be able to make anything happen - with low, to no-code. This is, however, as long as everything keeps working the way it should. With critical errors like the WordPress white screen of death threatening websites at almost every turn, we discuss why knowing how to code (or at least manage hosting files) is a critical skill that many WordPress users don't realize they need...until it's too late.
Tech layoffs are in full swing right now, with companies shrinking their teams for a variety of reasons. This is a stark contrast to the hiring spree that we experienced and grew used to during the chaos that was the COVID-19 pandemic. Does this mean that junior developers should pack up and find work elsewhere? Should people that are still learning web development leave the field entirely?
The most popular social media & video sharing websites out there now support (or are centered around) vertical video in the form of short-form content that commonly comes in under a minute in length. As the popularity of these short-form videos has taken off in recent years, we've seen this form factor escape smartphones, arriving on desktop computers and TVs. Unfortunately, this presents designers with a perplexing problem as vertical video (portrait aspect ratio) is not ideal for screens that are almost always landscape (widescreen). In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss the rise of vertical video (short-form content), discussing & debating on how it is shaping our user interfaces, and how it could even start shaping the hardware we use in the home.
CSS attribute selectors are a lot more powerful than I thought! I wasn't aware that they could not only select elements based on the presence of an attribute, or the presence of an attribute with a specific value, but that they could also "filter" through that attribute value by placing specific parameters on them using just CSS. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss these "advanced attribute selectors" and cap the episode off by discussing another powerful CSS feature - custom attributes, done the right way!
We all have holes in our knowledge that lurk...just around the corner...lying in wait to pounce and completely destroy our confidence and workflow! This scary truth falls into virtually every corner of web development from WordPress devs that have zero experience with PHP, to frontend developers that have no idea what a web server is. This week Matt and Mike discuss some of the web dev technologies that can scare even the most seasoned developer.
There are a lot of ways to write CSS either directly or indirectly. By using tools like SASS, Bootstrap, TailwindCSS, and many more - you're largely avoiding vanilla CSS, replacing it with a new syntax, or maybe a website building library to make your workflow more efficient. But where does this leave vanilla CSS? Does anyone write just vanilla CSS anymore? And if so....why?
Full-stack development demands both frontend and backend development skills, meaning one individual can spin up a website from the hosting, through the database management, and even the user interface. Recently, some people in the developer community have voiced their observations on how complex both frontend and backend development are on their own, stating that it's not really possible to be a full-stack developer if you want to maintain a high level of skill in all the technologies involved. In this episode, Mike breaks down a stack that he has recently started using that should allow him to provide a full-stack's worth of work through 2023.
Browsers and web development tools are constantly evolving their support for new features. This forever changing landscape of our industry can lead many developers to ask whether they can use whatever they're using in production websites, or if they should stick to older methods that are more tried and true. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed how to choose production-ready technologies based on the type of project you're working on.
Svelte and React are two frontend JavaScript frameworks that, through their immense popularity, draw a lot of debate and questions from the web development community. For established developers, the question looms as to which one you should use and for what reason. Junior developers are left asking what the differences are and which one they should learn first, or if they even need to learn both at all. Today on the podcast, Matt and Mike discuss the differences between Svelte and React, pitting them against each other to debate their usefulness, best features, and which one you might want to use for your latest project.
CSS selectors are a fundamental piece of CSS that allow it to select HTML elements based on a collection of parameters that the developer has set. CSS selectors can be used to select elements by type, class, ID, and can be written in a more complex way with the use of combinators. This week we discuss CSS selectors in great detail, covering their syntax, popular use cases, and clearing up (hopefully) some confusing bits that junior developers may struggle with.
This week Mike discussed his experimentation with ChatGPT and other AI services, like GitHub Copilot. ChatGPT, Lensa, and other AI have been taking the internet by storm recently, whether it be through cool looking profile pictures, or the controversial ways they operate. In this episode we discussed things like how fast AI has advanced in such a short period of time, the opportunities innovators have to make their mark on the industry, and whether or not something like Copilot will take away your programming job.
Deadlines can be difficult for developers to hit due to the complexity and scope creep that happens to most modern web development projects. We've experienced our fair share of quickly approaching deadlines over the years and have learned a collection of time saving methods that we'll be discussing in this episode. Methods like not oversharing with your client - so they don't constantly contact you about every little thing, and doing projects with the tool that makes the most sense - to avoid pigeonholing your toolset based on preference, and more!
Developer relations (aka DevRel, dev rel) is a newer position that many companies are starting to add to their teams. It's a popular topic among the tech Twitter community and can be a little confusing for those that aren't fully in the loop. So we brought on an expert on the topic, Raza (@razacodes) to explain exactly what a developer relations role is and how you could try your hand at it yourself.
CSS variables are a powerful vanilla CSS feature that you need to start using on your next project. You don't need any frameworks, plugins, or other tooling to get started. When used correctly, they can be a huge boost to your project's organizing and productivity - helping keep things readable and easily maintained. This week Matt & Mike discussed what CSS variables are and how to get started using them in your next project.
This week we sat down with Chris Ferdinandi to discuss why he thinks the web is in a state of transition, moving away from bloated frameworks and other tooling, towards the use of more "vanilla" or "native" platform features. This less bloated web is where Chris believes we are already transitioning towards, with the hopes that it makes websites and web apps more efficient.
Web development has a lot of dos and donts, so today we decided to focus on what NOT to do in web development. Things that all of us have done, like pushing confidential credentials to a public git repo, through client interactions like undervaluing your work. And don't forget, the classic "don't deploy on Friday" which Matt thinks Mike should do anyway, for his upcoming film.
Your first job as a junior developer can be nerve wracking. Not only are you new to coding, but you're also new to the organizational systems that your office has. This week we try and alleviate some of that anxiety by discussing the onboarding process commonly used for junior developers, including the difference between working solo versus a team, as well as a day in the life of a developer.
Raising your prices as a freelancer, or web dev agency can be a challenging process. You have to weigh the possibility that some of your existing customers may leave for cheaper options, while trying to convince new customers that your pricing is worth it. This week we discuss how to raise your prices and how to justify them with the value your customer will receive from all the work you do.
Are you a good developer? It's a question that all of us have asked ourselves countless times during our career. It usually happens when we're at our lowest, when a site runs into trouble, and you have no idea what's going on. Sometimes when you're trying to learn something new, and you just can't figure it out. If you were a better developer, would you have these problems? Are you a good developer?
Dynamic content on a website is content that changes over time, based on the user's preferences, or other parameters. One of the most common examples of dynamic content is a blog, where the content changes all the time as writers submit new articles and ad banners flip through new ads based on your unique browsing history. Powered by various CMS, these dynamic websites are something that almost every web developer will work with and create in their career.
CSS pseudo-classes expand its capabilities into a tool that can style web pages using advanced sets of parameters, without the need for JavaScript. In this episode, we'll be looking into the :has(), :is(), and :not() pseudo-classes. We'll explore interesting use cases, using them together, how they work, and whether they're ready to be used in a production project.
Hacktoberfest 2022 is upon us, the annual open-source centric event that rewards those that contribute during the month of October. This year coders, bloggers, video producers, podcasters, and more can contribute their works to participating repos on GitHub and GitLab. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss what Hacktoberfest is, and why you should contribute if you can.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week Mike and Matt discussed the many use cases for JavaScript. Over the past several years, JavaScript has been steadily exploding in popularity, with an appropriate number of frameworks and tooling being released alongside all the interest. With that though, is there anything that JavaScript can't do? What about what it excels at?
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week Mike and Matt discussed workplace communications including the importance of communication, some tips on being a better communicator, and of course some funny communication stories from past workplace experiences.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt discussed how to deal with customer budgets that didn't quite reach the amount you were hoping for. Maintaining a fair deal for both the developer and client is important and if implemented correctly there are a few methods in which you can stretch the customer's budget without needing to undervalue your work. These methods include various types of negotiation, breaking a project into separate phases, and cutting superfluous features. As a final note, Matt also discusses avoiding financial abuse from customers that would take advantage of you, and how to ensure you get paid what you're worth.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed the difficult decision on whether you should use a no-code platform or code up a custom solution. The duo go over the differences between custom code and no-code, comparing project types and where they'd create these projects.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed the importance of version control focusing on one of the most popular (if not most popular) version control systems, Git. The duo debated when to learn version control in your coding journey and discussed how difficult it is to learn in comparison to the coding language of your choice.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed different ways to learn web development including traditional school (college, university), online courses (free & paid), and the "tackle method." The guys discuss who is best suited for these different methods and debate the importance of project-based learning for absolute beginners.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed whether vanilla JavaScript is viable on modern projects. Vanilla JavaScript is of course the language that the browser understands, but with the increasing complexity in many of today's web development projects, frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte have seemingly taken over as the tools of choice for web developers. Should you use a framework, or should you use vanilla JavaScript?
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed different ways to start a new web development project covering the differences between starting a completely new project with no prior version to worry about, versus updating/upgrading an old project with a variable amount of technical debt.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike answered a collection of questions regarding web design and web developers. If you're a developer, you might experience some imposter syndrome, or skill gaps, when you try and complete an entire project yourself (or with a small team). Often, the issues come from a lack of design skills, or a lack of confidence in your design ability.
This week we're doing our first-ever feed swap with LogRocket's podcast, PodRocket. This episode features a conversation with Jenn Creighton, a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix and podcast host of the show single-threaded: a software developer podcast. Topics explored in this episode include debugging, error handling, and Jenn's recent conference talk at React Miami.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed the importance (or lack thereof) of website performance. We all know that Google PageSpeed Insights are used frequently across the industry, but are all those changes necessary? Should you spend time optimizing things that only change your load time by a second or two?
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed the very real possibility that we all face, which is of course the dreaded layoff. Even if the market is doing well, you can be laid off suddenly due to business issues, which means you should prepare yourself even if your employment is going well.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed using code to enhance your no-code projects. There are a lot of people out there that use no-code tools to run a side hustle, providing clients with websites built on tools like WordPress and Webflow. Sometimes these clients want more than what a no-code tool can provide, leaving you mostly out of luck, unless you learn some coding.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed what starting a new job in tech is like. Since many tech jobs deal with large teams and complex projects, there is a lot of onboarding that needs to happen to get you set up as a new team member. This includes things like getting access to git repos, your email address, and more. In addition to project management to-dos like understanding the team's organizational structure like SCRUM, when they do their standups, how sprints are scheduled, and so on.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed the state of the web development industry with a focus on how no-code is influencing the industry at large. No-code tools are getting more complex by the day, to the point where web developers cannot ignore them anymore. The duo believes that web developers should be using no-code platforms as a tool in their arsenal to help deliver websites and web apps to customers at the right price, as quickly as possible.
Matt's Note: This is our 200th episode, so I'd like to thank everyone for listening for these past few years. We hope to hit many more milestones like this in the future!
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed how to think like a programmer. When you're learning to code you may think that syntax is the most important thing since it is so hard to memorize. The problem with memorizing syntax is that if you ever need to move on to a new programming language, you'll have to start memorizing all over again. Instead, Matt and Mike believe that learning programming concepts is more important than syntax, as they allow you to apply that conceptual knowledge across any language you come across - it lets you problem solve as a programmer.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed serverless technology and how it challenges server-based hosting that has been the standard for years. Mike believes that this has revolutionized the backend developer and hosting game, while Matt is new to serverless and is still stuck configuring his servers the way he always has.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed developer burnout, how it starts, and how to prevent it. Developer burnout can affect anyone and manifest itself in a variety of ways. It is not limited to those of us that frequently work long hours or have significant daily stress (although those are potential causes), it can affect those of us that simply dislike our jobs or have been doing the same tasks for too long.
Welcome back to the HTML All The Things Podcast your web development, web design, and small business headquarters. This week, Matt and Mike discussed sharing information with clients diving into how much you should share and how much you should keep secret to keep the project on track. It's easy to overshare with a client, overwhelming them with too many details and technical intricacies, but on the other hand, it's also easy to give them too little information, risking them misunderstanding what it is they ordered from you.
This week, Mike and Matt sat down to discuss how good habits can make developers more productive. The duo go over how habits are not a one size fits all situation, but instead should be tailored to each individual that is looking to boost their productivity - whether that's simply setting up a meal plan, choosing to cut off your work hours at a certain time, or just getting to bed the same time each day - we are all different, and so not every habit is best suited for our unique needs.
This week Matt and Mike tackle the questions "What is iconography" and "What does iconography mean" in a packed episode that covers the basics through the UX of icons. The duo also covers a variety of iconography examples and when text should be used instead of icons, or when text & icons should be used together and why.
Thanks to FlyCode for sponsoring this episode, our listeners get a free trial via flycode.com/htmlall
Tech interviews can be good, bad, or...really bad. Some of them take multiple interviews to complete, others involve hours of homework, and the worst of them include all the above. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss tech interviews and how to make them better. The duo cover the good, the bad, and the ugly via a collection of horror stories, followed by some good practices for both the interviewer and interviewee.
Thanks to FlyCode for sponsoring this episode, our listeners get a free trial via flycode.com/htmlall
Some developers see no-code as a threat to their jobs, they treat it as a form of automation, which will eventually replace them. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss why they don't think no-code is coming for developers' jobs. Instead, the duo sees no-code as a mostly positive influence, bringing new and exciting opportunities to the expanding web development industry.
SEO or Search Engine Optimization is a crucial, yet exceedingly difficult to learn skill. Many people think it makes a page appear on the first page of Google search results and by doing it right you'll always be at the top, but it's not that easy at all. There's the competing aspect of paid search results versus free, then there's the competition between websites where other sites can steal your spot at any time. In this episode, we discuss all things SEO with Nat Miletic, an SEO and WordPress expert.
Learning APIs is a crucial skill for web developers to learn. They're commonly used to deliver content to websites from remote and local resources. They can empower entire platforms with vast databases of knowledge or be as simple as a connection to a CMS. This week Matt and Mike sat down with Pratham to discuss everything APIs including his new job at RapidAPI.
Full-stack web developers can work on all aspects of websites from the user interface to the database that drives the content. Combining the frontend developer and backend developer positions, full-stack developers boast a full set of skills that many recruiters find useful. With the ever-increasing number of features that are packed into websites and web apps, are full-stack development positions sustainable? Is it possible to know all the skills needed well enough to do your job on all parts of the stack?
Learning new skills is crucial for web developers. Junior developers need to learn all the time to expand their capabilities. Senior developers need to learn throughout their career to update their knowledge. Learning these skills is not easy, however, with so many different frameworks and tools available to learn, alongside the difficult decision on how to learn them - college, university, coding bootcamps, etc. In this episode Matt and Mike discuss how to cut through the noise, identify how you learn, and decide how to learn.
There is a lot of web tech that isn't talked about in social media or making headlines. Instead, these pieces of tech sit in the background, silently forming the foundation of what we call the internet. Thousands of sites powered by WordPress, web apps built in PHP, jQuery as a dependency, and much more. In this episode Matt and Mike discuss these pieces of tech, what they are, and why they're so important.
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, and Web 3.0 represent different eras of how people used the internet. Web1 mostly offered users the ability to read and research, with hardly any way to interact with what they were reading. Web2 got people involved with interactivity and connectivity as ever more power web apps and social media platforms changed how we worked and socialized online. Web3 is the third iteration of the internet that is not quite in full swing yet, but is bringing with it the likes of crypto currencies, artificial intelligence, the metaverse, NFTs, and much more.
In this episode Matt and Mike tackle some of your Twitter questions including topics such as Web2 versus Web3, when to learn TypeScript, how to tell when you should change your framework, and why influencers speak about new tech so much.
You can find the questions from this episode here.
Web development has a lot of love, hate, and everything in between. In this week's episode, Matt and Mike try and focus on the love and talk about all the things they love about web development...for the most part - sometimes some of the other sides and realities of web development hijack the conversation, but tangents should be no stranger to listeners of this show.
In this episode Matt and Mike jump into part two of "Where Frontend Ends and Backend Begins" an almost entirely example-based episode, going over a basic web page and what parts should/could be frontend, or backend. This example site includes a CMS, slider, static text, calling from an API, authentication, form validation, and much more.
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with the host of the Scrimba podcast, Alex Booker for a conversation on junior developers, social media, and much more. Alex is a self-taught developer that transitioned into developer advocacy where he helps junior developers break into the industry for the first time. Additionally with that group the guys discuss using social media and feeling at odds with posting, or promoting, yourself.
Frontend versus backend development can be very confusing to a beginner. It's difficult enough to understand all the syntax and rules of thumb that you must follow, let alone be confused by the difference between client-side and server-side programming. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss the difference between frontend and backend development, covering what client versus server-side is, and how the lines between the two roles blur more than you may think.
Customer support can be one of the hidden "costs" of doing web development for clients. Without a dedicated support team, the IT support role often falls to the developer or freelancer that created the project. This great investment of time can often be overlooked by web developers that are looking to create more than they are to support. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss some tips and tricks in 5 different areas of customer support including dealing with angry clients, ensuring that you're caring for yourself during all the stress, and ensuring that you know when to walk away.
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss Svelte, a framework that Mike has recently switched almost entirely to from Vue. The duo discuss what features of Svelte they enjoy using, some recent milestones in the world of Svelte, and go over some interesting community projects.
Doing business during the pandemic has been great for some, horrible for others, and just plain weird for most everyone else. With Web3 technologies being shoved in everyone's faces, to lockdowns every few months for some parts of the world - the market has changed drastically for everyone in it. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss how they made it through 2021, and plan on making the most out of 2022.
Time management is a challenging part of any developers' day. Between the coding work that needs to be done alongside planning, and support requests - getting ahead may seem impossible. For junior developers, the added challenge is that they're actively learning, while balancing all the things that come with job searching, working, and even traditional school. In this episode, Matt and Mike cover some time management tips and tricks for developers - with some specific ones in there for junior developers and their crazy schedules.
Mentors are key to a junior developer's success. They can help you learn skills a lot faster, can guide you to which skills to learn in the first place, or can even help in avoiding common pitfalls like tutorial hell. Just like teaching, mentoring can be done in a variety of ways - some better suited for certain type of learners than others. In this episode, Matt and Mike discuss all the ins and outs of mentoring, including giving code reviews, various teaching types, and much more.
Like all jobs, web development has its dark side - the side where things aren't so pleasant but are a stark reality for the developers that work in the field. In today's episode, Matt and Mike explore that dark side of web development discussing things like if developers should show pride in their work - even if it's for a client, slogging through slow or outdated software, and dealing with thankless customers despite putting forth your best effort.
Thank you to this episode's sponsors - Shortcut (Free Trial) & Scrimba (JavaScriptmas 2021)
Junior developers have their fair share of struggles, being so new to web development. Whether they're lacking confidence about their skills, they've been thrown into the fire at work, or struggling to land a position despite multiple applications and interviews. Where some struggles never go away, even for senior developers, many junior developer struggles can hopefully be mitigated, or avoided altogether with the unsolicited advice we're giving this week.
Thank you to this episode's sponsors - Shortcut (Free Trial) & Scrimba (JavaScriptmas 2021)
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with Theo Browne to discuss his journey from working at Twitch, to starting his own thing making creator tools. The guys have a conversation around choosing the right technology for the job and what to do when the wrong one is chosen (even if you've already started!). They also discuss the transition from employee to entrepreneur, and how difficult it can be to be coding all alone with no feedback - even if you're a senior developer.
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss the differences between the entrepreneur and employee mindsets, and how getting stuck in the employee mindset as a business owner can spell disaster for your business. The duo also discuss the related topic of blowing things out of proportion, specifically making small decisions into "big decisions" and hesitating when making them for way too long - wasting everyone's time. Then finally they discuss the what work they bring mobile, how they use their mobile devices to bring their work with them - or if they leave all that for their workstation/desk setup.
Thank you to this episode's sponsor - Shortcut (Free Trial)
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with Jason Docton to discuss how his web development journey led him to help thousands of people with their mental health. Starting out in World of Warcraft, Jason helped fellow players find the help they needed with their mental health struggles. He started working alongside more people in-game, forming a guild of players willing to help. Fast forward to today, Jason is running RAD (Rise Above the Disorder) a website that has helped 38, 000 people in 133 countries so far.
In this episode Matt and Mike discuss front-end development, covering a roadmap of skills that can be used as a sort of guide through the many front-end technologies. The duo go over a list of topics that you can use to learn front-end development starting at vanilla HTML + CSS, and working into more complex topics like frameworks, JavaScript, some backend tech, and much more.
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with João Rosa, host of the Software Crafts Podcast, to discuss his unique career in the development industry. João fulfills interim positions, such as CTO, at various companies as apart of his consultancy practice. He advises on strategic technology implementation and has also worked as a coordinator, software engineer, technical team lead, and more. He also has a passion for heuristics, which is uses alongside other design problems to challenge guests in his own podcast.
In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with Richie Lokay to discuss marketing, design, and more. Richie is currently the VP of Product Design and Services at Wunderkind a Marketing Cloud that works in the new field of Performance Design. The guys try and simplify many aspects of marketing, decoding the word soup that can confuse non-marketers and then discuss a little bit about 3D printing and how Richie got into the printing game.
