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Hi,

Hooray, Svelte by Example is live! It's been a while since I've launched something that was so long in the making, glad to have it out!

Last week I gave my What I Like About Svelte talk at Full Stack Europe and had a blast. As usual, the programming of Full Stack Europe made it stick out above other conferences. It's refreshing to have a mix of architecture, backend, back-of-the-frontend, front-of-the-frontend, and product management on a single track. I'll probably distill my talk it into a blog post at some point.

Choosing a frontend framework

A question I've gotten a few times after my talk or sharing Svelte by Example is which frontend framework I'd choose these days.

Here's the good news: in 2023, you can't really go wrong with any of the major frameworks—at least from a technical perspective. React, Vue, Svelte, Angular… all have incredible teams, contributors & ecosystems backing them. Your frontend framework will not be the limiting factor of your architecture.

Choose a framework based on the non-technical needs of your team. If scaling up your team is important, React might make more sense because of it's popularity on the job market. On the other hand, if your team hates the mental model of React, don't feel pressured to use it regardless of its popularity. Choose your framework based on how it aligns with your team's programming values, not performance needs. (Unless you're building a Bloomberg terminal.)

My preference these days: I'm split between React & Svelte. I like them both because they each have a distinct direction. React is as JavaScript as a JavaScript framework can be, while Svelte stays as close to HTML & the DOM as possible. What they have in common is they've chosen a slice of the stack, and double down on enhancing it. I prefer tools with distinct directions.

On the blog

Not much on the blog the past month, but I wrote things in a bunch in other places.

🕺 Svelte by Example — As shared on here last month, it's done! A succinct introduction to Svelte.

🧒 Empty states with CSS and the :only-child selector — A quick trick with the :only-child selector to display an empty state in a list.

⚡ Building a Subscription Form with Laravel Volt & Mailcoach — Had some fun playing with Volt for the Mailcoach blog.

🔦 Ray as a debugging companion in busy integration tests — How I use Ray when testing.

On the web

Interesting links across the web.

🪚 Go Is a Shop-built Jig — A lovely description of the Go programming language as a no-nonsense tool.

📝 People & Blogs — I've been enjoying this weekly dispatch from Manuel Moreale where he interviews bloggers across the web.

🙅‍♂️ Why Didn't They Say No? — It's easy to critique a team for making bad decisions, but there's often something behind it.

On the couch

Random bits.

👾 I finished book two of the Three Body Problem trilogy: The Dark Forest. It was amazing, taking a short non-fiction break before diving into book three (I like alternating), but curious to find out if it will hold up to two.

🦥 I'm not proud to admin I'm a habitually late person. This video from Van Neistat hit a bit too close to home. I'm working on it!

💽 I've been enjoying this mix from Avalon Emerson.

On the horizon

I'm going to take a break from longer commitments for the rest of the year. There are a few open source packages I haven't touched in a while that would love some attention (first up: spatie/sheets!), and my blog's been a bit too quiet to my liking.

Until the next issue, Seb

Until the next issue,
Seb