838: Productivity Tools for Web Developers

Scott and Wes continue to share hair-raising developer horror stories submitted by listeners. From accidentally severing access to crucial databases to a limitless coupon code that cost millions, these tales will have you on the edge of your seat. Tune in for more wild mishaps, close calls, and hard-learned lessons from the dark side of coding. You won’t want to miss this second round of spooky web dev stories! Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:49 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:32 ‘Monkey Business’ 03:21 ‘Spooky Integration Bug’ 06:25 ‘Worst Case Wake Up’ 08:57 ‘Severed Trunk and Missing Backups’ 11:21 ‘Brute Force Too Brutal’ 12:30 ‘A Dorm Room Bee Movie’ 15:46 ‘No Goats’ 16:45 ‘Pokémon Problems’ 18:08 ‘Late Night’ 22:21 ‘Bootcamp Bungle’ 26:19 ‘Film School F*** Up’ 30:26 ‘AWS Clusterf***’ 31:26 ‘Limitless Coupon Disaster’ Episode #451, Episode #609. 33:55 ‘Ruined Vacation’ 35:47 ‘Console.swear’ 37:28 ‘Another Coupon Disaster’ 40:46 ‘The Doctor’ Wes’ Burner List. 43:01 ‘Marketing Nightmare’ 45:10 What did we learn this year? 45:12 You need processes. 48:42 Ask for help. 49:44 Dry-run queries + soft delete. 51:14 Code reviews. Episode #830. 52:11 Version control. 53:58 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: Nobody Wants This. Wes: Truffle Hot Sauce. Shameless Plugs Scott: syntax.fm. Wes: syntax.fm/spooky. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes unpack the spookiest web dev stories submitted by listeners in this episode. From forgotten MX records to infinite loops, these real-life coding horrors will have you double-checking your WHERE clauses and git backups. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:39 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 00:48 What is Spooky Stories? Submit a story. 02:45 ‘Needs a Coffee’ 04:43 ‘Deleting Github’ Defunkt X Post. 07:42 ‘Rejected’ 09:08 ‘Infinite Loop’ 09:26 ‘MySqueeel Horror’ 11:02 ‘Pet Company’ 12:09 ‘Git Corrupted’ 12:57 ‘Circular Horror’ 14:25 ‘The Haunting of the Forgotten MX Records’ Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes talk with Søren Bramer Schmidt, Founder and CEO of Prisma, about database best practices, including the latest developments in serverless, local-first, and typed SQL solutions. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 02:55 Søren’s thoughts on GraphQL 03:53 Brought to you by Sentry.io 06:57 Common database mistakes 08:52 Prisma’s stability and user experience 10:42 Typed SQL and advanced querying Announcing TypedSQL: Make your raw SQL queries type-safe with Prisma ORM Prisma Optimize 20:47 Serverless challenges and solutions Prisma Accelerate 27:11 Cloudflare’s potential to dethrone AWS 29:13 Prisma and local-first development Prisma & Expo: A Better Path to Local-First Apps | App.js Conf 2024 35:30 Making local-first development mainstream 40:10 Challenges with async 42:43 Søren’s thoughts on Drizzle 43:41 Søren’s favorite database 47:21 The read your writes problem 48:58 Prisma hosted Postgres 51:44 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Søren: Cursor Shameless Plugs Søren: 1: Prisma Optimize 2: Prisma Postgres (coming soon) Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Get your productivity game on point! Scott and Wes serve up the best tools for web developers, covering everything from password managers and to-do apps to mind-mapping tools and little scripts that make life easier. Plus, find out what snippet managers they swear by and how they keep their email under control. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 03:01 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:44 Syntax meetup San Francisco. 04:26 Breakdancing update. Kid Cruz Instagram. 05:18 Password management. 1Password. 08:30 Apple stomping on apps. 09:50 To-do applications. Things. Getting Things Done. Tweek. 18:18 To-do in code. Todo Tree. Better Comments. 20:21 Snippets. 25:55 Mind-mapping. MindNode. FigJam. 29:01 Note-taking. Obsidian. Stashpad. ObservableHQ. Jupyter. 36:34 Little scripts. Script Kit. 39:50 Email. Superhuman. 48:11 Some honorable mentions. Habitpath.io. Focus. 52:10 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: The Legend of SwordQuest. Wes: The Economics of Everyday Things. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

CJ joins Scott and Wes to dive into why he’s all-in on Hono, a fast and lightweight web framework for every JavaScript runtime. From familiar route creation to type-safe middleware, find out how Hono keeps things simple, powerful, and ready to use inside Next.js. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:46 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:11 What is Hono? Watch CJ’s Video Here 03:21 Syntax Meetup San Francisco. 04:02 Why I like Hono, and why you should try it. 04:08 Familiar route creation. Connect: an extensible HTTP server framework for node. 05:45 Supports every JS Runtime. 07:00 How a service worker works. 08:48 Helpers. 09:16 Middleware. 10:40 Sentry middleware. 10:55 JSX support. 13:21 Organizing route handlers while keeping Types. 14:24 Type safety. hono-open-api-starter. zod-openapi. 15:46 Defining base type. Pinojs 17:36 Validation. 18:52 Hono RPC client. 22:09 Hono inside of Next.js. 23:30 Testing. 25:22 The community. 27:34 Type support. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Do you really need a framework? Scott and Wes bring on CJ to break down when frameworks like Vue, Svelte, and Astro are worth it—and when they might just add complexity. They dive into everything from rendering strategies to auth solutions, deployment options, and how to choose the right tool for the job. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:32 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:17 What is a framework? Syntax Meetup San Francisco. 08:21 Examples of frameworks for Vue, Svelte and Angular. 12:39 What questions do you need to answer? 12:44 What or where do you need to ship? 14:12 How do you render it? 18:22 Where are you deploying it? 24:03 How do you store data? 24:09 Existing API. 26:03 Integrated server. 26:22 Database. Supabase. 26:59 Does it have RPC or server actions? 34:27 Do you need authentication? 38:45 Auth packages. LuciaJS. Lucia announcement. Lucia preview. NPM Arctic Oauth. Auth utilities. Better-Auth. Scott’s Drop-In Auth. 42:10 Does it include email? 42:52 What does the TypeScript story look like? 43:32 How does it handle images? 44:35 How do we work with CSS? 46:02 How long has it been around? 47:37 How mature is the ecosystem? 48:35 Is there community support? 50:21 Portability. 51:18 Hiring. 52:17 Sick Pick + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks CJ: Infinite Health. Scott: USB A to C adapters. Wes: Citric Acid. Shameless Plugs Scott: Syntax on YouTube Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes serve up ways developers can use AI tools like Claude, GitHub Copilot, and more to boost productivity. From error tracing to refactoring code and automating mundane tasks, they break down how AI can handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on the fun stuff! Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:23 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 01:43 Using AI tools effectively. 05:29 Stack trace reading and error finding. 08:37 San Francisco Syntax Meetup! 09:19 Research and validation. 12:19 Completing mundane tasks. 14:10 Refactoring. 18:56 Simple typescript. 20:29 Summarizing docs and source code. 23:56 Quick hits. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes talk with Tanner Linsley, creator of TanStack, about the React ecosystem, and the evolution and futue of TanStack’s suite of tools, including TanStack Router and TanStack Start. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 02:59 What is TanStack Start? UnJS Nitro Vinxi 06:17 What is the Vite Environment API? 07:21 Was it always the plan to use Vite? 08:02 TanStack Router and client-side vs server-side 16:18 How TanStack Start will work 27:26 Moving from Create React App to TanStack 30:42 Brought to you by Sentry.io 31:15 Will TanStack Router ever support other frameworks? 33:54 How will TanStack Start handle forms? 36:13 TanStack Virtual 39:41 What is the future of TanStack? Convex 42:49 How Tanner writes documentation 47:55 Server functions and middleware 54:41 When will TanStack Start be in beta? 57:00 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Tanner: LG C4 Ultra Slim Fit TV Wall Mount Shameless Plugs Tanner: TanStack Blog @TKDodo Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes answer your burning questions! They cover everything from moving off create-react-app and the benefits of Next.js, to transitioning from junior to senior dev, working with QA teams, and even dive into game development with Godot. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:31 DenverScript. 03:14 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 03:54 Question 1: Moving off create-react-app. Proposal: TC39 Import Attributes. HTML iframe srcdoc Attribute. 09:10 Question 2: Working together with QA teams. 13:46 Question 3: Benefits of React with Next.js Framework. Svelte Turnstile. Next.js Pages Router vs Next.js App Router. 17:38 Question 4: What are your real names? 19:22 Question 5: Thoughts on RTO and WFH. 27:50 Question 6: Where can I find you Sick Picks? Sick Picks. Sick Picks Scraper. 29:34 Question 7: From JR developer to SR developer. 31:41 Question 8: Godot and game development. Godot Engine. GDScript. Phind. 39:37 Question 9: Inherent advantage between Callbacks and Events. 44:44 Question 10: Transitioning to freelance with corporate experience. 49:44 Question 11: Dealing with negative feedback. 57:05 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: audiobookshelf, Plappa App. Wes: New Syntax Swag. Shameless Plugs Scott: Syntax on YouTube. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads