Newsletter - April 2024

This month, I'm talking about GitHub Copilot Workspaces, React Server Components, Thoughtworks Technology Radar, and more!

GitHub Copilot Workspace

This is the closest thing to the future of software development that I've seen so far. It looks like GitHub may have nailed the balance between letting AI accomplish tasks while still allowing room for human intervention and creativity. GitHub, and by extension Microsoft, is building a powerhouse of developer tools based on AI.

CSS in React Server Components

This article will expand your understanding of RSCs and how current CSS frameworks fit in. Before reading this article, I had heard that existing frameworks like MUI (big fan) would need to do a major overhaul in order to support RSCs, but I didn't really understand why. Now I do! Josh Comeau puts out great content, and this is no different.

Thoughtworks Technology Radar

The Technology Radar by Thoughtworks is a must read in my opinion. It's extremely well organized and thought through. You can use it to quickly get up to speed on the latest techniques and tools in the industry. Not surprisingly, AI and LLMs are the major trends in this issue, but a Hold on "Web components for SSR web apps" also caught my eye. I'm not 100% sure this would include React Server Components since they're not called out by name, but it would seem teams at Thoughtworks are expressing caution here.

Stop Going to the Cloud and Getting Scammed

This article serves as a solid reminder that most apps don't need the infinite web scale offered by AWS and other major cloud providers. You can go very far with a single server.

Effect

This TypeScript library went viral on X for a couple of days last week. There was a fair amount of criticism, but I am eager to try this one out. The core value prop is around explicit error catching, which would be a huge win for most TypeScript projects in my opinion. (Edit: The actual core value prop is to write production grade TypeScript. Explicit error catching is the feature that has most caught my eye) The drawback is the large API surface area that can take over your app and make future breaking changes difficult to manage.