TLDR WEB DEV 2023-12-15

HOW I BROUGHT LCP DOWN TO UNDER 350 MS FOR GOOGLE-REFERRED USERS ON MY WEBSITE

This article demonstrates techniques for optimizing LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) on high-traffic websites to under 350ms, even with a lot of images and slow connection. This is done by making Google prefetch HTML and critical resources on the Google Search results page. Google does this for websites that have a high position within Google Search results for a given phrase and have properly implemented Signed Exchanges (SXG). The article focuses on how to add SXG to your web application.

IMPROVING NODE.JS LOADER PERFORMANCE

Node.js supports two types of modules: EcmaScript (ES) modules and CommonJS modules. ES modules are the official standard and are supported by modern browsers, while CommonJS modules are used by Node.js by default, but are not supported by browsers. Node.js determines which module loader to use based on the file extension: .mjs for ES modules, .cjs for CommonJS modules, and .js with package.json settings. This article discusses optimizations made to improve the performance of package.json reading and parsing in Node.js, ultimately resulting in faster applications.

CALL SITE ATTRIBUTION: HOW TO PINPOINT ROGUE SQL QUERIES THROTTLING DATABASE PERFORMANCE

This author explains how they added call site attribution to their Node.js web app to prepare for a potential 10x growth in database traffic. The attribution helped identify the specific location in the source code from which SQL queries were executed, allowing for quick identification and optimization of performance bottlenecks. Initially, they explored solutions like Datadog tracing and monkey patching, but eventually settled on requiring SQL queries to be tagged with a user-defined string indicating the call site.

MAYBE GETTING RID OF YOUR QA TEAM WAS BAD, ACTUALLY.

DevOps initially focused on optimizing delivery pipelines and processes, but the bottleneck in software delivery shifted to testing. This led to a series of actions that devalued and eventually dismantled the role of QA engineers, resulting in low-quality software. However, quality assurance work which includes defect tracking, bug triage, defect investigation, and end-to-end testing, which all end up being long-term obstacles to sustainable software development.

7 CHALLENGES WITH LONG-TERM PROJECTS AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM

When managing long-term projects with large teams, engineers should prioritize hard problems and continually reassess them. They need to anticipate hidden work that may arise during the project, address attrition through redundancy, stage the value by setting intermediate milestones, adapt to changing constraints, maintain project confidence and perception, and avoid making exact completion time commitments.

CAREER LADDERS / PROMOTIONS

How can you tell when you’re ready for the next level as a software engineer? What can you do when you feel stuck at your current level? This post covers the responsibilities of junior-level to staff-level engineers in tech companies and gives 3 tips on how to advance to the next level. The tips include operating at the next level ahead of time, managing up, and spending more time with higher-level engineers.

AUTOANIMATE

AutoAnimate is an animation tool that seamlessly enhances transitions within your web application without requiring any configuration. It can be integrated into various JavaScript applications, such as Vue, React, Solid, and more.

REACT RESPONSIVE PAGINATION

React Responsive Pagination is a React pagination component designed for accessibility and responsiveness. It includes built-in support for Bootstrap 4 and 5, as well as ready-styled themes or the option to use custom CSS. Additionally, it's optimized for tree-shaking to minimize its impact on the bundle size.

INTERVIEWING MY MOTHER, A MAINFRAME COBOL PROGRAMMER

This article discusses an IBM Mainframe COBOL programmer who has worked for one of the largest banks in the EU since 1991. This role is crucial for the bank's operations, and the author highlights the challenges faced by programmers dealing with legacy systems like COBOL and the vast amounts of data that banks must manage. The programmer found her work to be both challenging and rewarding, but she sees the need for modernization in the banking industry.

DELETING 50,000 LINES OF CODE IN 3 DAYS

A developer recently deleted over 50,000 lines of code, approximately 70% of their frontend codebase, and surprisingly, this massive code removal didn't break the application and led to a significant simplification, making the platform feel lighter and more user-friendly. By carefully removing rarely used modules, screens, buttons, and features, they simplified the application, improved performance, and streamlined development.

ASK HN: DAILY PRACTICES FOR BUILDING AI/ML SKILLS? (HACKER NEWS THREAD)

Commenters share tips for building AI/ML skills, such as building small projects like a baby neural network.

WHY DID OLDER COMPUTERS AND OSES USE UPPER CASE INSTEAD OF LOWER CASE?

Latin script is based on upper case and designed around that, so it’s the default. Lower case was added on later to support cursive.

GITHUT 2.0 - GITHUB LANGUAGE STATS

An interactive visualization showing GitHub language stats. Python is the most used language in pull requests, with Java and Golang coming in second and third.

HOW TO TAKE BIGGER, BOLDER PRODUCT BETS — LESSONS FROM SLACK’S CHIEF PRODUCT OFFICER

Slack’s CPO shares his hot take on two popular pieces of product strategy: experimentation and quality decision-making. In this article, he walks through the three-step process he uses to operationalize quality decision-making, which boils down to sharing context, building trust, and factoring in risk.

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