Antonin Januska

Having a ton of fun writing an ORM for V2 of Case Kit. Typescript has such an incredible type system. I have autocompletion for column names, the ability to include relations, relations of relations, etc etc etc... all returning properly typed data (no classes in sight). It's been really satisfying seeing it coming together, and it's been great getting my hands dirty with some (relatively) complex generics. And to head off the obvious question… why aren’t I just using Prisma? Well there’s a couple of things I’m doing differently that I think are marginally better: there’s no code generation involved here, it’s just types (inspired by Drizzle); there’s no Rust binary you need to deploy, and it hews much closer to Postgres behaviour and syntax (the aim here is not to abstract away which database you’re using). But the real blocker to me using Prisma was that its extensions don’t support modifying queries of nested relations - a hard requirement for me due to the way I have multitenancy and soft deletes set up. It’s not shown in the video but the Case Kit ORM lets you write simple middleware that will be applied to every level of a nested query. Perfect for setting timestamps or adding clauses on tenant id or things like that.

21

I can’t find it now but our team not long ago had a good laugh at a cartoon panel about a software engineer so exasperated at some syntax heavy quasi-code (Terraform, Webpack, Redux?), they quit and took up wood carving. It was our little joke in the Slacks for a minute. Now that the universe has blessed us with an opportunity for reflection (mass lay-offs), we might revisit that theme a bit more seriously. What does a set of wood chisels cost, anyway? I have been consistently surprised, over a couple decades of interviewing software engineering candidates, at how many are unable to demonstrate real interest in the field. Oh sure, there are platitudes; there’s the performative stuff that is the lifeblood of LinkedIn. But there’s less evidence of internally motivated, quiet, continuous self-improvement. What (software engineering things) did you do in the months since you left your last job? What new things are you currently exploring in the field? If the answer is “nothing,” congratulations, you sound like a normal person. But maybe it also means this is an opportunity to realign if not pivot to find what does spark curiosity for you, what you would love exploring. Maybe more UX programming; or more algorithmic. Few things will make your next job more enjoyable than having enthusiasm for the work.

19

3 Comments

Developer downtime: don’t overwork your devs. It’s memorial weekend and I’m lazily sitting on my porch. My kids keep coming in and out of the house, but get stuck because the sliding door keeps coming off the rails and won’t open. Well, since I’ve got nothing else scheduled for the afternoon I investigate the issue. Turns out sliding doors have a bunch of adjustment screws. I adjust them till the door slides smooth. Left in the broken state my kids learned to hit top left side of the door before opening it. Bringing this back to work, I know customer success teams that have a cheat sheet of these maneuvers. Give devs space to observe, we naturally fix these issues.

15

1 Comment

I am 💯 onboard with Nick Chapsas opinion of Clean Code, OOP, and TDD in this video. Yeah, these things are good to know. But a working product that produces value trumps all. What about your teams? Do they use TDD? Do they strictly follow OOP or Clean Code patterns?

1

As a senior software dev, you’re terrible at attracting clients. Your self-doubt skyrockets after this mistake: 👇🏼 Your dev job frustrated you. Then you had the courage. You handed in your notice. You broke free from the 9-5 grind. Your excitement was at 100%. Now you need your first client. You post: “Hey everyone, I started my software agency. I’m officially open to software projects. Please share for support.” The next day. You jump out of bed. You check your LinkedIn. Wow! So many people congratulated! But wait… You scroll down. You check your inbox. And… There are zero client requests. Not. A. Single. One. What? Why? Your self-doubt skyrockets. Your fear of financial ruin spikes. This mistake is very common for sr. engineers. Here’s what you missed: 👉 Your clients don’t care about you. 👈 Or your courage. Or your software agency. They care about themselves. To actually get clients, write 1) Personal posts 2) Expertise posts 3) Showcase posts Your clients will see  1) Who you are 2) What you can do for them 3) What you have done for others Do this for 4 months and… Your dream clients will reach out. Your past self-doubts will make for excellent story material. Highlighting your success even more. What are your tips and tricks?

31

8 Comments

I find interesting the hype about counting downloads for a given tool as a metric for success. I guess it helps to show how popular something is, but I would love it if people also considered other aspects, such as project governance and project activity. Anyway, let's follow the trend (evidence in the comments): - Selenium Java downloads: 98.5M in May 2024 - Selenium active users in the last 30 days: 2.6M. Happy automation!

54

9 Comments

So I hear goblin.tools is doing amazingly well with users and near the top of the Apple Store charts? A few thoughts 💭 after reading Maggie Appleton's Home-Cooked Software and Barefoot Developers article. https://lnkd.in/eYPf3Bfh It would seem this disruptive #AI todo list product checks the local-first data box, less from a community aspect though. That said, I think this project could highlight her Barefoot Developer points. This image below really caught my attention because I’ve been thinking a lot about Business Process Automation after I did my deep dive into Apple & Microsoft’s #AI ecosystems and SLMs (local) impact. https://lnkd.in/eKeQyDxD Makes me wonder if the "financial planning wonks producing extensive spreadsheets" and much much much more are coming? Or will there be a new normal and the same % splits stick around? Either way, I still feel certain you need to build this... if you do not Barefoot Developers will!

1

Hey #DevTool Companies! Is your developer community a ghost town? 👻 You've invested millions into creating awesome spaces for developers on #Slack / #Discord, or forums like #Discourse / #Khoros. But... crickets. 🦗 No one's talking, no one's sharing, and your ROI? 🗣️ Let's just say it's not looking great. 😓 We feel your pain. It's tough keeping a community buzzing with fresh, engaging content every single day. 👩‍👩‍👦‍👦 And when nobody's responding, your leadership team starts to wonder if it's all worth it.🤔 But what if I told you there's a way to turn things around?💡 What if your community could create its own content, building a knowledge base that's truly helpful AND boosts engagement? 🧞‍♀️ Introducing Doc-E.ai – your secret weapon for turning quiet communities into thriving hubs of activity! 🚀 Here's the magic: 1. Doc-E.ai learns from your community:  🧠 It listens to conversations, questions, and answers to understand what your developers need. 2. It creates awesome content: 📝 It transforms those conversations into easy-to-read articles, tutorials, and FAQs that everyone can benefit from. 3. It empowers your community: 💪🏼 Give your developers Doc-E.ai bots so they can help themselves and each other. The result? A self-sustaining community that creates its knowledge base, reduces support burden and drives organic growth. 👍🏽 Plus, you get to show your leadership team the real ROI of your community investment. 🤑 Ready to reimagine developer community engagement?  🤝 Let Doc-E.ai do the heavy lifting for you. Try Doc-E.ai's Slackbot or Discordbot for free and watch your community come alive! 🎉 #DevRel #DevTools #DeveloperCommunity #AI #CommunityBuilding #NoMoreGhostTown https://lnkd.in/gm-xrWD6

5

Good dev culture vs bad dev culture. ✅ Clear and informative documented code and processes. ❌ Poor documentation and resources. Onboarding new developers is painful. ✅ Everyone has a voice. Everyone can contribute and add value. ❌ You’re ignored or told to stay in your lane. Same old bunch of devs making decisions without taking on board other peoples ideas. ✅ Peer reviews are enforced and feedback is encouraged. Work must have a level of quality and be supported with tests. ❌ Code isn’t properly reviewed. Code without tests or general level of performance / quality is pushed to production. LGTM. ✅ Access to online learning platforms, training budgets, allocates time for conference visits. ❌ No budget or time for learning. Expects developer to learn on their own time without support. ✅ Hackathons, innovation days and time for personal projects. ❌ Sole focus on immediate deliveries. Can you think of anymore? 🤔

69

32 Comments

Rebuilding Trust in Tech: Why Your Dev Partner Should Be Your Ally As someone deeply embedded in the tech world, I've had countless conversations with CEOs, CTOs and Founders sharing frustrating developer experiences – poorly coded projects, missed deadlines, and even ghosting by dev teams. This constant struggle to find reliable tech partners saddens me because it breeds distrust in the developer community. One of the core reasons we're successful at Wizard Dev House is because we prioritize upfront honesty and genuine partnership. We believe in building your business alongside you, not just building ours off of you. Have you ever felt like... - You poured money into a project that ended up unusable or unscalable? - You were overcharged for work that fell short of expectations? - Your dev team simply vanished in the middle of development? We need to change this narrative. I urge developers to raise the bar and truly prioritize client success. But to those who've been burned by bad experiences, I want to extend a helping hand. Let's rebuild trust in tech, together. Reach out and share your story. I'm here to listen and offer solutions to get your projects back on track. #baddev #techtrust #developmentpartner #developers P.S. I'm passionate about building success with tech . Let's connect and discuss how I can help your business thrive!

2

A controversial Motorola VP once said, "Quality is: suitability for use by the customer." It cut against the grain of Motorola's Six-Sigma quality initiative, daring to suggest that neither the highest possible quality, nor any predefined SLO, was best for customers. I agreed with him, and worked for years as a Six-Sigma heretic. The key to successfully executing "just good enough" is to get everyone on the same page re "just good enough for what?" Often in an Agile shop the answer is "just good enough for us to figure out whether to throw it away or not" - an answer that hurts developers' souls but with which they must get comfortable. Leaders must remember that software developed to be "just good enough for us to figure out whether to throw it away or not," is almost certainly not "just good enough to ship to customers" or "just good enough to maintain in production for two years." Do, indeed, work on getting the highest priority tasks to a "just good enough" quality bar. Then, reevaluate your tasks. Is the new highest priority task to improve the quality of the previous thing, or to get something else to "just good enough?" It's a fair question, and one that only you and your team can answer in a real business environment.

Will Devin AI replace developers? 😱 Maybe 🤷🏻‍♂️ To me personally, Devin is a development tool and not a replacement...YET 🌚 I am not denying that Devin can code really well if all the claims are accurate. Eventually, it may replace developers. But developers don’t code just to code. We build products ✅ We build solutions ✅ And these happen to be made of code. Can companies ditch all developers today and expect products to still get built and maintained to the same standard as an enterprise-level solution? Nope 🙅🏻‍♂️ The quality of a product refers to how well it solves user problems. And those gaps between code, user, and solution? That’s where good developers provide values 👨🏻‍💻✨

1

One of our long-term clients is a known 9-figure SaaS design and development platform. They came to us when their co-founder and CTO needed high-quality React engineers fast. There were a few challenges for them (and us): They didn't want just anyone. They needed to staff up for a high-priority project but the current team was already overloaded. They didn't want to commit to an FTE. Ideal engagement: 3-6 months. The client wanted someone deeply rooted in the Javascript community. Someone who needed little onboarding and had a deep understanding of their tech stack (heavily React-focused back then). Sounds like a piece of cake, right? It wasn't, but we delivered: We significantly reduced their hiring time from months to 1 week. We provided them with 3 solid candidates to choose from. We offered recorded interviews that allowed their CTO to gauge communication skills and tech proficiency. They quickly chose a candidate and we onboarded them the next week. This is a process we honed over time, enabling us to help many companies fast-track their hiring when they're in a rush. They interview on Wednesday. Developer onboards next week. Their rush and challenge to expand quickly = our expertise. Our client didn't want to engage with large consultancies or staffing agencies. Those are often slow and expensive. They want quality, urgency, and agility. Tech leads: if your engineering team struggles with tech debt and you have a backlog to burn down, DM me to match you with talent on-demand within 1 week.

26

3 Comments

Why and how we use Typescript and React (with our own custom wrapper) We use headless because it allows separation of concerns, omni-channel delivery, a wonderfully fast UX, lighter server loads, and more security. This said, the JavaScript and frontend ecosystem sucks badly. The community has the attention span of a drunken pigeon that really likes to reinvent the wheel very badly and is terrified of doing it properly by, I dunno, cracking open a book on software design to not remake the mistakes of the past three generations. Evidence of this is the fact that every half a year a new, backwards incompatible, promise-to-fix-everything framework, library, or whatever comes out and takes the community by storm, leaving behind the same feeling of a drunken frat party and a very long walk of shame maintaining terrible legacy code. Typescript and React were a Godsend. About a decade or so ago, Microsoft and Facebook decided to fix this properly, and produced a good language to work according to normal standards of quality (Typescript) and a good framework based on OCaML and Haskell that would allow compositional, algebraic, functional programming interfaces (React). The two tools managed to devour the market. All other crappy alternatives died off miserably as they deserved, and the web has been much better for it. And the best part? All the idiotic reinventing the wheel just disappeared as practitioners found out an inspiration to do things decently!!! JK :( The idiotic reinventing the wheel moved down to React libraries and packages which, every few months, die off miserably because they were crappy, while new libraries and packages (equally as crappy, but in a new way) take their place for the next few months. Case in point? React Router, where every major release is backwards incompatible and requires a major rewrite, Flux (died), Redux (dying), Zustand, context-api, etc. Enter........the widget library!!!! We built a wrapper/abstraction layer on top of this idiotic dance because we cannot go to every client every few months and tell them that the frontend needs to be half-rebuilt. The widget library introduces the annoying pain of learning actual functional reactive programming (hard, but proven for I dunno, 40 years?) but saves us from the much bigger pain of pointlessly rewriting everything all the time chasing who knows what. It works. It ain’t perfect. The alternative is much worse. Cheers.

2

2 Comments

Harry Ronchetti has just shipped a complete do-over of Vizzly's Theme API docs! 👏 Documentation plays such an important role in building a first class developer experience, and it's deceptively hard to do! I'm excited to see what beautiful, custom-themed dashboards this update will help to create! https://lnkd.in/eKVCuqPd #docs #dashboard #customize

12

1 Comment

When I saw this AND there was going to be a video... I am not going to lie. I was expecting FUD. Well done to Filip Hric and Jonathan Canales on keeping it a little sane which is not what I expect when I hear people talking about Cypress.io vs anything. I spend a lot of time looking at ALL frameworks out there to make sure the web is a better place tomorrow than it is today. It's why I enjoyed working at Mozilla and enjoy working at BrowserStack. One of the key things that I liked from both presenters was the fact they expected moving to a new framework from Selenium would make things better but over time it went back to being as flaky as it was with Selenium. Filip even admitted he, as an ambassador, never mentioned that part as it wouldn't look good on blog posts. Even Jonathan mentioned that people moving frameworks if they were to rewrite things using their existing framework with modernised patterns would lead to less flaky tests. Pick the tool that fits your needs, not the shiny one. Being able to break down web apps for testing is a superpower, not what tool you use. I wrote about this before on my newsletter https://lnkd.in/eE2kM5bY? Anyway, Kudos to Jonathan and Filip for not allowing the FUD to creep in!

42

4 Comments