April 29, 2021
The creator of Node.js, Ryan Dahl, released a new shiny runtime for Javascript and TypeScript in 2018 called Deno. Release 1.0 finally came out in 2020, and eager developers flocked to use Deno in production. Or did they?
In this TechWeeklies talk, Minna briefly introduces the features and design aims of Deno. Then she addresses the obligatory question "how does it compare to Node?". The talk also includes a live coding demo to showcase how easy it is to use Deno for your daily ad-hoc scripting needs.
Presenter: Minna Niemi
April 29, 2021
The creator of Node.js, Ryan Dahl, released a new shiny runtime for Javascript and TypeScript in 2018 called Deno. Release 1.0 finally came out in 2020, and eager developers flocked to use Deno in production. Or did they?
In this TechWeeklies talk, Minna briefly introduces the features and design aims of Deno. Then she addresses the obligatory question "how does it compare to Node?". The talk also includes a live coding demo to showcase how easy it is to use Deno for your daily ad-hoc scripting needs.
Presenter: Minna Niemi
![A brief tour of next-gen JavaScript build tools]()
April 22, 2021
Getting a modern JS project from git to running in a terminal takes ages. There is the installation of dependencies, running the server, running the bundler, maybe a type-checker, the CSS pipeline. There are watchers watching watchers, and the whole thing makes both my head and your computer's fans spin. The setup is yet more complex once you start adding multiple projects in one codebase, when you think of Server-Side Rendering and so on.
This delay has a real impact on people being able to contribute to the codebase, especially when it comes to iterative UI work. Trying to make things faster in the current (by some definition) model hits diminishing returns, and takes active time and budget to do right. For example, over three years Fotis has reworked his current project's pipeline four times, and while it was faster each time, it still can be a challenge!
In this talk, Fotis tries a different approach. He will give you a brief tour of modern tools that rethink how dependencies are bundled in development, and the very real gains that they offer.
Presenter: Fotis Papadogeorgopoulos
![A brief tour of next-gen JavaScript build tools (Audio Only)]()
April 22, 2021
Getting a modern JS project from git to running in a terminal takes ages. There is the installation of dependencies, running the server, running the bundler, maybe a type-checker, the CSS pipeline. There are watchers watching watchers, and the whole thing makes both my head and your computer's fans spin. The setup is yet more complex once you start adding multiple projects in one codebase, when you think of Server-Side Rendering and so on.
This delay has a real impact on people being able to contribute to the codebase, especially when it comes to iterative UI work. Trying to make things faster in the current (by some definition) model hits diminishing returns, and takes active time and budget to do right. For example, over three years Fotis has reworked his current project's pipeline four times, and while it was faster each time, it still can be a challenge!
In this talk, Fotis tries a different approach. He will give you a brief tour of modern tools that rethink how dependencies are bundled in development, and the very real gains that they offer.
Presenter: Fotis Papadogeorgopoulos
April 16, 2021
Some people suffer physically when they encounter something like parallax scrolling or horizontally scrolling text. It can cause them nausea, dizziness, or other symptoms that can last for hours. These people can turn the "reduce motion" settings ON from the system level. As a developer, you have tools to respect that setting.
In this talk, Eevis discusses why motion can trigger the symptoms mentioned above and what kind of animations can be problematic (this can be surprising for some!). She also shows you how to respect the user’s settings with the prefers-reduced-motion media feature.
Presenter: Eeva-Jonna Panula
April 16, 2021
Some people suffer physically when they encounter something like parallax scrolling or horizontally scrolling text. It can cause them nausea, dizziness, or other symptoms that can last for hours. These people can turn the "reduce motion" settings ON from the system level. As a developer, you have tools to respect that setting.
In this talk, Eevis discusses why motion can trigger the symptoms mentioned above and what kind of animations can be problematic (this can be surprising for some!). She also shows you how to respect the user’s settings with the prefers-reduced-motion media feature.
Presenter: Eeva-Jonna Panula
April 9, 2021
Error Boundary is a React component that catches JavaScript errors anywhere in their child component tree, which enables graceful handling of runtime errors and offers a way to recover from them. The way it is used makes it important to have it well-tested.
In this talk, Layla talks about what error boundaries are and why they are a valuable tool in your React toolbox. She also builds you an example of how to test those error boundaries with React Testing Library using Test-Driven Development.
Presenter: Layla Ouyang
April 9, 2021
Error Boundary is a React component that catches JavaScript errors anywhere in their child component tree, which enables graceful handling of runtime errors and offers a way to recover from them. The way it is used makes it important to have it well-tested.
In this talk, Layla talks about what error boundaries are and why they are a valuable tool in your React toolbox. She also builds you an example of how to test those error boundaries with React Testing Library using Test-Driven Development.
Presenter: Layla Ouyang
April 1, 2021
User-defined stylesheets allow users to make customizations to websites with CSS to better accommodate their needs and preferences. For example, users can add back removed focus styles or redefine how sticky elements behave on different zoom levels to help make sites more accessible, when they are otherwise less so.
In this talk, Fotis walks you through how to create and use user-styles and showcases an example of his own user-styles written for Duolingo's website.
Presenter: Fotis Papadogeorgopoulos
April 1, 2021
User-defined stylesheets allow users to make customizations to websites with CSS to better accommodate their needs and preferences. For example, users can add back removed focus styles or redefine how sticky elements behave on different zoom levels to help make sites more accessible, when they are otherwise less so.
In this talk, Fotis walks you through how to create and use user-styles and showcases an example of his own user-styles written for Duolingo's website.
Presenter: Fotis Papadogeorgopoulos
March 26, 2021
Observablehq.com is where you can create, collaborate, and learn with data — all in the browser. Observable increases data exploration and visualization by opening up the toolset, the skills, and the access to empower a diverse user community.
Tom is an Observable Ambassador and will give a whirlwind tour of the platform, including what features are useful for non-dataviz applications. Observablehq is built from the ground up around reactivity and thus offers the tightest development loop in the business. Furthermore, it pushes literate programming to the next level with the addition of interactivity. All-in-all, it's a new development paradigm with potential for significant productivity boosts.
Presenter: Tom Larkworthy
March 26, 2021
Observablehq.com is where you can create, collaborate, and learn with data — all in the browser. Observable increases data exploration and visualization by opening up the toolset, the skills, and the access to empower a diverse user community.
Tom is an Observable Ambassador and will give a whirlwind tour of the platform, including what features are useful for non-dataviz applications. Observablehq is built from the ground up around reactivity and thus offers the tightest development loop in the business. Furthermore, it pushes literate programming to the next level with the addition of interactivity. All-in-all, it's a new development paradigm with potential for significant productivity boosts.
Presenter: Tom Larkworthy
March 19, 2021
Progressive Web Apps or PWAs are web applications that offer native-like functionality for mobile devices. Coined in 2015, PWAs share a few traits with modern web development like responsiveness, linkable and safe but add their own unique aspects with connectivity independence and re-engageability.
In this talk, Graham walks you through what PWAs are and how they are made. He also talks about the pros and cons you can weigh when you're making a decision between a native app and a PWA.
Presenter: Graham Daw
March 19, 2021
Progressive Web Apps or PWAs are web applications that offer native-like functionality for mobile devices. Coined in 2015, PWAs share a few traits with modern web development like responsiveness, linkable and safe but add their own unique aspects with connectivity independence and re-engageability.
In this talk, Graham walks you through what PWAs are and how they are made. He also talks about the pros and cons you can weigh when you're making a decision between a native app and a PWA.
Presenter: Graham Daw
February 19, 2021
When Juhis started blogging in 2013, he used to look up to other bloggers as authorities and definite experts on their fields. This led to a lot of "I don't know enough to write about this", "Someone has written this better already" and "I don't have anything to say" thoughts that self-censored a lot of his potential blog posts.
More recently, he's taken a different approach with blogs and talks: learning in public. By documenting his own learning journey and experimentations and sharing what he has learned about software development, he has ended up in a lot of great discussions with fellow developers. These discussions have further helped him become better at writing software.
In this talk, Juhis highlights how he approaches learning in public, shares inspirational moments of improvement with community and hopes to inspire you to start learning in public.
Presenter: Juha-Matti Santala (Juhis)
February 5, 2021
"Hey Alexa, when does the tram 3 to Meilahti leave?"
Kha Nguyen built an application combining Amazon Alexa's voice assistant with Helsinki Regional Transport Authority's (HSL) data API to build functionality to know when specific buses and trams leave from near his home.
As you know, Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant that can be programmed to make your life easier. Kha explains how Alexa works behind the scenes and how to use its interfaces to run custom Javascript code based on different voice commands and intents.
After this talk, you'll know the basics of building custom Alexa commands.
February 5, 2021
"Hey Alexa, when does the tram 3 to Meilahti leave?"
Kha Nguyen built an application combining Amazon Alexa's voice assistant with Helsinki Regional Transport Authority's (HSL) data API to build functionality to know when specific buses and trams leave from near his home.
As you know, Amazon Alexa is a virtual assistant that can be programmed to make your life easier. Kha explains how Alexa works behind the scenes and how to use its interfaces to run custom Javascript code based on different voice commands and intents.
After this talk, you'll know the basics of building custom Alexa commands.
