TLDR WEB DEV 2023-09-19

HOW PAYPAL SCALED KAFKA TO 1.3 TRILLION MESSAGES A DAY

Apache Kafka is used to move messages between backend components. Paypal’s Kafka fleet consists of over 85 clusters that process over 100 billion messages per day. This article goes over how Paypal introduced Kafka-specific client libraries, config services, and more, in order to scale Kafka to such a large number of clusters. Furthermore, its Kafka clusters are able to handle peaks in usage smoothly, with Black Friday bringing in 1.3 trillion messages a day.

REVEALING IMAGES WITH CSS MASK ANIMATIONS

Complex hover animations can be created with just an `img` tag using CSS mask animations. This tutorial provides visual code examples of various animated effects achieved using solely mask effects. Some of the examples include a circle reveal, a diagonal reveal, and a zig-zag reveal.

CHATGPT ISN’T COMING FOR YOUR CODING JOB

ChatGPT isn’t going to replace programmers, but it will probably create greater expectations for productivity once AI developer tools get better. However, ChatGPT does bring improvements to the developer experience, like removing the boring work of creating boilerplate or writing documentation. It allows developers to move faster and work on more interesting parts of software engineering.

I’M NOT A GREAT PROGRAMMER

While skill mastery and technology expertise are vital, being a good developer doesn’t automatically mean you’re efficient. There are other key traits and habits that signify an efficient software engineer, such as planning software design ahead of time, making proper tradeoffs, and more.

HYPERDX

HyperDX helps engineers figure out why production is broken faster by centralizing and correlating logs, metrics, traces, exceptions, and session replays in one place. It is an open source alternative to Datadog and has a focus on developer experience.

SUPERFLOWS

Superflows makes it simple for developers to add an AI assistant to their software product. This allows users to chat with the product naturally, while Superflows makes calls to the software’s API to answer questions and perform actions for users.

One programmer’s elbow injury gave her an insight into the degree to which software engineering caters mainly to non-disabled people. For example, for those who are visually impaired, it can be hard to write code or look up documentation on the Internet, where accessibility isn’t always consistent. There are also disadvantages for those who don’t speak English, as most programming documentation is English-first. As a result, there is work to be done in the software engineering field to make it more accessible to everyone.

HOW LEADERS SHOULD APPROACH DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS WITH EMPLOYEES

One of the most challenging parts of being a boss—whether you have one direct report or hundreds—is having difficult conversations. Whatever the issue is, direct and clear communication is essential, even when that can be challenging. Whether you need to talk about compensation or deliver a not-so-stellar performance review, this post shows you how to proceed.

JETBRAINS PREVIEWS RUSTROVER IDE FOR RUST DEVELOPMENT

RustRover combines coding assistance and a built-in toolchain for testing, running, debugging, and analyzing Rust code.

WHY JAVA INTRODUCED THE LIST.OF() METHOD

The List.of() method in Java 9 was inspired by languages like Haskell which promoted immutability.

THE JOYS OF MAINTENANCE PROGRAMMING

Maintenance programming is the act of maintaining old code that’s already running. Doing so can help you get better at debugging, optimizing code, and more.