Panel:

• Charles Max Wood
• Aimee Knight
• Chris Ferdinandi
• AJ O’Neal

Special Guest: Andy Bell

In this episode, the panel talks with Andy Bell who is an independent designer and developer who uses React, Vue, and Node. Today, the panelists and the guest talk about the power of progressive enhancements. Check it out!

Show Topics:

0:00 – Advertisement: KENDO UI

0:34 – Chuck: Hi! Our panel is AJ, Aimee, Chris, myself and my new show is coming out in a few weeks, which is called the DevRev! It helps you with developer’s freedom! I am super excited. Our guest is Andy Bell. Introduce yourself, please.

2:00 – Guest: I am an independent designer and developer out in the U.K.

2:17 – Chuck: You wrote things about Vanilla.js. I am foreshadowing a few things and let’s talk about the power and progressive enhancement.

2:43 – The guest gives us definitions of power and progressive enhancements. He describes how it works.

3:10 – Chuck: I’ve heard that people would turn off JavaScript b/c it was security concern and then your progressive enhancement would make it work w/o JavaScript. I am sure there’s more than that?

3:28 – The guest talks about JavaScript, dependencies, among other things.

4:40 – Chuck: Your post did make that very clear I think. I am thinking I don’t even know where to start with this. Are people using the 6^th version? How far back or what are we talking about here?

5:09 – Guest: You can go really far back and make it work w/o CSS.

5:49 – Chris: I am a big advocate of progressive enhancement – the pushback I get these days is that there is a divide; between the broadband era and AOL dialup. Are there compelling reasons why progressive enhancements even matter?

6:48 – Guest.

8:05 – Panel: My family lives out in the boonies. I am aware of 50% of American don’t have fast Internet. People don’t have access to fast browsers but I don’t think they are key metric users.

8:47 – Guest: It totally depends on what you need it for. It doesn’t matter if these people are paying or not.

9:31 – Chris: Assuming I have a commute on the trail and it goes through a spotty section. In a scenario that it’s dependent on the JS...are we talking about 2 different things here?

10:14 – Panelist chimes-in.

10:36 – Chris: I can take advantage of it even if I cannot afford a new machine.

10:55 – Panel: Where would this really matter to you?

11:05 – Chris: I do have a nice new laptop.

11:12 – Chuck: I had to hike up to the hill (near the house) to make a call and the connection was really poor (in OK). It’s not the norm but it can happen.

11:37 – Chris: Or how about the All Trails app when I am on the trail.

11:52 – Guest.

12:40 – Chris: I can remember at the time that the desktop sites it was popular to have...

Chris: Most of those sites were inaccessible to me.

13:17 – Guest.

13:51 – Chuck: First-world countries will have a good connection and it’s not a big deal. If you are thinking though about your customers and where they live? Is that fair? I am thinking that my customers need to be able to access the podcast – what would you suggest? What are the things that you’d make sure is accessible to them.

14:31 – Guest: I like to pick on the minimum viable experience? I think to read the transcript is important than the audio (MP3).

15:47 – Chuck.

15:52 – Guest: It’s a lot easier with Vue b/c you don’t’ have to set aside rendering.

17:13 – AJ: I am thinking: that there is a way to start developing progressively and probably cheaper and easier to the person who is developing. If it saves us a buck and helps then we take action.

17:49 – Guest: It’s much easier if you start that way and if you enhance the feature itself.

18:38 – AJ: Let me ask: what are the situations where I wouldn’t / shouldn’t worry about progressive enhancements?

18:57 – Guest answers the question.

19:42 – AJ: I want people to feel motivated in a place WHERE to start. Something like a blog needs Java for comments.

Hamburger menu is mentioned, too.

20:20 – Guest.

21:05 – Chris: Can we talk about code?

21:16 – Aimee: This is the direction I wanted to go. What do you mean by that – building your applications progressively?

Aimee refers to his blog.

21:44 – Guest.

22:13 – Chuck: I use stock overflow!

22:20 – Guest.

22:24 – Chuck: I mean that’s what Chris uses!

22:33 – Guest (continues).

23:42 – Aimee.

23:54 – Chris.

24:09 – Chris

24:16 – Chris: Andy what do you think about that?

24:22 – Guest: Yes, that’s good.

24:35 – Chris: Where it falls apart is the resistance to progressive enhancements that it means that your approach has to be boring?

25:03 – Guest answers the question.

The guest mentions modern CSS and modern JavaScript are mentioned along with tooling.

25:50 – Chuck: My issue is that when we talk about this (progressive enhancement) lowest common denominator and some user at some level (slow network) and then they can access it. Then the next level (better access) can access it. I start at the bottom and then go up. Then when they say progressive enhancement I get lost. Should I scrap it and then start over or what?

26:57 – Guest: If it’s feasible do it and then set a timeline up.

27:42 – Chuck: You are saying yes do it a layer at a time – but my question is HOW? What parts can I pair back? Are there guidelines to say: do this first and then how to test?

28:18 – Advertisement – Sentry.io

29:20 – Guest: Think about the user flow. What does the user want to do at THIS point? Do you need to work out the actual dependencies?

30:31 – Chuck: Is there a list of those capabilities somewhere? So these users can use it this way and these users can use it that way?

30:50 – Guest answers the question.

31:03 – Guest: You can pick out the big things.

31:30 – Chuck: I am using this feature in the browser...

31:41 – Guest.

31:46 – Chris: I think this differently than you Andy – I’ve stopped caring if a browser supports something new. I am fine using CSS grid and if your browser doesn’t support it then I don’t have a problem with that. I get hung up on, though if this fails can they still get the content? If they have no access to these – what should they be able to do?

Note: “Cutting the Mustard Test” is mentioned.

33:37 – Guest.

33:44 – Chuck: Knowing your users and if it becomes a problem then I will figure it out.

34:00 – Chris: I couldn’t spare the time to make it happen right now b/c I am a one-man shop.

34:20 – Chuck and Chris go back-and-forth.

34:36 –Chris: Check out links below for my product.

34:54 – AJ: A lot of these things are in the name: progressive.

36:20 – Guest.

38:51 – Chris: Say that they haven’t looked at it all before. Do you mind talking about these things and what the heck is a web component?

39:14 – The guest gives us his definition of what a web component is.

40:02 – Chuck: Most recent episode in Angular about web components, but that was a few years ago. See links below for that episode.

40:25 – Aimee.

40:31 – Guest: Yes, it’s a lot like working in Vue and web components. The concepts are very similar.

41:22 – Chris: Can someone please give us an example? A literal slideshow example?

41:45 – Guest answers the question.

45:07 – Chris.

45:12 – Guest: It’s a framework that just happens to use web components and stuff to help.

45:54 – Chuck: Yeah they make it easier (Palmer). Yeah there is a crossover with Palmer team and other teams. I can say that b/c I have talked with people from both teams. Anything else?

46:39 – Chuck: Where do they go to learn more?

46:49 – Guest: Check out the Club! And my Twitter! (See links below.)

47:33 – Chuck: I want to shout-out about DevLifts that has $19 a month to help you with physical goals. Or you can get the premium slot! It’s terrific stuff. Sign-up with DEVCHAT code but there is a limited number of slots and there is a deadline, too. Just try it! They have a podcast, too!

49:16 – Aimee: Yeah, I’m on their podcast soon!

49:30 – Chuck: Picks!

END – Advertisement: CacheFly!

Links:

• JavaScript
• React
• Elixir
• Ember.js
• Vue
• GO
• jQuery
• Node.js
• Puppeteer
• Cypress
• Past episode: AiA 115
• Past episode: JSJ 120
• Vue.js – Slots
• Using templates and slots – Article
• Web Components Club
• GitHub: Pwa – Starter – Kit
• Progressively Enhanced Toggle Panel
• Time Ago in under 50 lines of JavaScript
• GitHub: ebook-boilerplate
• Chris Ferdinandi’s Go Make Things Site
• Game Chops
• CNBC – Trump Article
• New in Node v10.12
• Quotes Archive
• My Amazon Interview Horror Story
• DevPal.io
• Honest Work
• Relative Paths
• DevLifts
• Andy Bell’s Twitter
• Andy’s Website

Sponsors:

• DevLifts
• Kendo UI
• Sentry
• CacheFly

Picks:

Aimee

• Hacker News  -  Programming Quotes
• My Amazon Interview Horror Story

Chris

• Time Ago in Under 50 Lines of JavaScript
• E-Book Boiler Plate
• JSJABBER at gomakethings.com

AJ

• Experimental Drugs Bill
• My Browers FYI
• New In Node,10.12
• Arcade Attack

Charles

• Getacoderjob.com
• Self-Publishing School
• MF CEO podcast

Andy

• Devpay.io
• Honest.work
• Relativepath.uk

Sponsors

• Sentryuse the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan
• Clubhouse
• CacheFly 

Host: Charles Max Wood

Special Guest: Shashank Shekhar

Episode Summary

In this episode of My JavaScript Story, Charles Max Wood hosts Shashank Shekhar, a product developer at Localtrip from India.

Shashank was introduced to programming when he was in school with Logo language. He then attended freeCodeCamp and learned JavaScript. Shashank talks about his journey as a developer and the projects he is working on now at Localtrip.

Links

• Shashank's LinkedIN
• freeCodeCamp
• https://devchat.tv/my-javascript-story/

Picks

Shashank Shekhar:

• Do what you love

Charles Max Wood:

• Dev Rev

Sponsors

• Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry small plan
• CacheFly

Host: Charles Max Wood

Special Guest: Ethan Brown

Summary

Ethan Brown shares his story starting with his homeschooling days and getting into programming. He started selling commercial software through his dad’s company at age 16. At age 17 he was recruited for a programming job and moved to New Jersey. Ethan and Charles discuss getting university degrees, whether or not to get them and share their experiences at university. Ethan talks about getting into javascript, what he has done in the Javascript community, and his experience giving talks at conferences. They discuss what the stack looks like for Ethan's company, Value Management Strategies, and what Ethan is currently working on. Ethan ends the episode by talking about one turning point in his career.

Links

• Web Development with Node and Express: Leveraging the JavaScript Stack by Ethan Brown
• https://vms-inc.com/
• http://automerge.com/
• https://ant.design/
• https://twitter.com/EthanRBrown

Picks

Charles Max Wood:

• https://andyfrisella.com/products/the-power-list-daily-planner/
• Audiograms
• https://wavve.co/
• https://snappa.com/

Ethan Brown

• https://cooperpress.com/
• https://regexcrossword.com/

Jonathan Lee Martin is an instructor and developer. He got his start in teaching at Big Nerd Ranch doing 1-2 week trainings for mid to senior developers, and then transitioned to 16 week courses for career switchers. He also worked for Digital Crafts for a year, and then wanted to focus on building out his own personal teaching brand. One of his first steps toward building his own brand was to publish his book, Functional Design Patterns for Express.js.The inspiration for Jonathan’s book came from his experience teaching career switchers. He wanted to experiment in the classroom with teaching functional programming in a way that would be very approachable and applicable and dispel some of the magic around backend programming, and that became the template for the book. 

Jonathan loves the minimalist nature of Express.js and talks about its many uses. He believes that it knowing design patterns can take you pretty far in programming, and this view is related to his background in Rails. When he was working in Rails taming huge middleware stacks, he discovered that applying design patterns made builds take less time. He talks about other situations where knowing design patterns has helped. Express.js leans towards object oriented style over functional programming, and so it takes to these patterns well. Express.js has its shortcomings, and that’s where Jonathan’s favorite library Koa comes into play. 

The conversation switches back to Jonathan’s book, which is a good way to start learning these higher level concepts. He purposely made it appealing to mid and senior level programmers, but at the same time it does not require a lot of background knowledge. Jonathan talks about his teaching methods that give people a proper appreciation for the tool. Jonathan talks more about why he likes to use Express.js and chose to use it for his book. He cautions that his book is not a book of monads, but rather about being influenced by the idea of composition over inheritance. He talks about the role of middleware in programming. 

The panel asks about Jonathan’s toolchain and approach to writing books, and he explains how his books are set up to show code. They discuss the different forms required when publishing a book such as epub, MOBI, and PDF. Jonathan found it difficult to distribute his book through Amazon, so he talks about how he built his own server. Charles notes that your method of distributing your book will depend on your goal. If you want to make the most money possible, make your own site. If you want to get it into as many hands as possible, get it on Amazon.

Many of the JavaScript Jabber panelists have had experience publishing books, and Jonathan shares that you can reach out to a publisher after you’ve self-published a book and they can get it distributed. Jonathan believes that If he had gone straight to a publisher, he would have gotten overwhelmed and given up on the book, but the step by step process of self-publishing kept things manageable. The panelists discuss difficulties encountered when publishing and editing books, especially with Markdown. Jonathan compares the perks of self-editing to traditional editing. Though he does not plan to opensource his entire editing pipeline, he may make some parts available. The show concludes with the panelists discussing the clout that comes with being a published author. 

Panelists

• Charles Max Wood

• Christopher Buecheler 

• J.C. Hyatt

With special guest: Jonathan Lee Martin

Sponsors

• Adventures in Blockchain

• Sentry use the code “devchat” for 2 months free on Sentry’s small plan

• The Freelancers’ Show

Links

• Big Nerd Ranch

• Digital Crafts

• JSJ 070: Book Club JavaScript Allonge with Reginald Braithwaite

• JavaScript Allonge by Reginald Braithwaite

• Functional Design Patterns for Express JS by Jonathan Lee Martin

• Node.js

• Express.js

• Koa

• Minjs 

• Sinatra

• Http.createserver

• Monads

• Middleware 

• Markdown

• Pandoc

• Diff-match-path library

• Epub

• MOBI

• LaTeX 

• Stripe Checkout

• Fstoppers

• Softcover

• Bookseller API 

Follow DevChatTV on Facebook and Twitter

Picks

Christopher Buecheler:

• Cluisbrace.com newsletter

J.C. Hyatt:

• Corsair wireless charging mouse pad

Charles Max Wood:

• Magnetic whiteboard baskets

• Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books

Jonathan Lee Martin:

• Eric Elliot JS

• YellowScale

• Follow Jonathan and find his book at jonathanleemartin.com

My JavaScript Story this week welcomes Jonathan Lee Martin. Jonathan is an educator, speaker, and author. He has been a developer since high school and he started out by teaching at Big Nerd Ranch and currently has his own teaching brand. He teaches career switchers and senior developers and also has written a book "Functional Design Patterns for Express.js". Teaching career switchers has led him to adopt a pedagogy approach to teaching where he focuses on getting people to absorb relevant information faster. Some of the lessons he has learned when working with career switchers is the role of failure in the classroom. He noticed when something did not work in their code career switchers tended to want to start out again instead of debugging what was wrong with the code. Jonathan had to show that most of developing is turning failure into success and getting code that doesn't work bu debugging and asking for help.

Host: Charles Max Wood

Joined By Special Guest: Jonathan Martin

Sponsors

• G2i

• CacheFly

______________________________________

"The MaxCoders Guide to Finding Your Dream Developer Job" by Charles Max Wood is now available on Amazon. Get Your Copy Today!

______________________________________

Links

• JSJ 396: Publishing Your Book with Jonathan Lee Martin

• Jonathan's LinkedIn

• Jonathan's Twitter

• https://jonathanleemartin.com/

• Functional Design Patterns for Express.js

Picks

Charles Max Wood:

• Pomodoro Timer

• Amazon Fire tv stick

Jonathan Martin:

• WebXR Device API

• Innergie USB C Charger

Hudley, Cynthia

Henry, Margaret, 1931-

Livingstone, Sonia M

Hanioğlu, M. Şükrü

Young, Vershawn Ashanti

Levy, Jared, 1976-

Blumenthal, Noah, 1972-

Lahire, Nathalie

International Research Conference on Adolescence, Oshkosh, Wis., 1973

Pruitt, Lesley J

Krupnik, Igor

Hall, Joseph M

Khan, Shahnaz

Rotenstreich, Nathan, 1914-1993

With the arrest of Tehsin Akhtar, thought to be Indian Mujahideen (IM) commander of India operations, security agencies have netted another big fish in the fight against terror.

This week marks the centenary of a key attempt at defining and delimiting the India-China boundary in the eastern sector. The ‘McMahon Line’ was born on March 24, 1914.

Beaugrand, Grégory

Weyler, Rex, 1947-

Cornish, Vaughan, 1862-1948

Roy-Barman, Matthieu, author

Hansen, Shirley J., 1928- author

Nielsen, Larry A., 1948- author

Brönmark, Christer, author

Australia. Parliament. Senate. Environment and Communications References Committee