Three Rubyists having conversations and interviewing others about Ruby and web development.
We're A JavaScript Podcast Now
Even though we’re missing Andrew today, Chris and Jason keep things lively, kicking off with a fun chat about candies, and unusual dislikes. Then, they dive into the professional world where Jason shares insights from his Job Boardly project and talks about the challenges and tools he found useful, such as Imperavi’s, Article. Chris and Jason have a discussion on various text editors, focusing on Basecamp’s Trix, we hear the difference between Redactor X and Article, and the Revolvapp, which is Imperavi’s email templates editor. Chris and Jason go deeper into the world of JavaScript development, and they discuss their struggles with customizing elements using CSS and Tailwind. They also share their thoughts reminding developers to view themselves as Ruby developers, recognizing the broader capabilities of Ruby beyond what Rails offers. Stay tuned for a fun episode and hit download now to hear more!
[00:00:31] Chris and Jason discuss the absence of Andrew and have a conversation about specific candies and personal preferences.
[00:02:22] The conversation shifts to Jason’s project, Job Boardly, where he’s been actively working on giving users more control over their job board’s appearance, and he shares all the secrets and talks about Imperavi, a website editor, and Article.
[00:07:03] Jason acknowledges the potential pitfalls of storing HTML but praises the user experience offered by the editor, enabling users to directly see the impact of their edits.
[00:07:56] Chris and Jason debate the complexity of using Trix, and comment on the lack of progress seen in public updates.
[00:09:50] What’s the difference between Redactor X and Article? Jason explains Redactor X is a pure WYSIWIG editor, while Article incorporates both text editing and content layout functionalities.
[00:11:35] Jason talks about the Revolvapp, discussing its advantages, including having all the functionality from a single source and it’s not a subscription.
[00:13:00] Chris discusses using the EL transition library for Tailwind CSS stimulus components, noting the library’s simplicity but highlighting some complications when animations overlap due to quick mouse movement.
[00:18:21] Chris talks about simplifying his codebase and moving away from certain older features. He discussed his decision to discard bundle and compile using the esbuild for modern imports and CommonJS, and he mentions Adam Wathan’s keynote at Tailwind Connect with Sam Selikoff showing off some amazing stuff.
[00:25:55] Jason and Chris converse about their struggles with customizing the look and feel of elements using CSS and Tailwind. They talk about the benefits and challenges of using Tailwind with Rails, particularly as it relates to component-based projects.
[00:30:42] Chris discusses the implementation of getters and setters in a single method. He points out that if additional functionality such as sidecar or JavaScript isn’t necessary, and a lot can be accomplished using pure Ruby.
[00:36:04] Chris and Jason discuss the possibility of using pure forms or creating custom tools instead of relying solely on Rails provided tools.
[00:40:05] They remind developers to view themselves as more than just Rails developers, highlighting the importance of understanding and utilizing the broader capabilities of Ruby beyond just what Rails offers.
[00:41:05] Jason brings up his experience with earlier versions of Laravel that had a form builder which later got phased out. He praises Laravel’s way of handling inline errors. Chris expresses his views about the tendency of developers to over-engineer forms.
[00:44:54] Chris adds his thoughts on “conceptual compression,” discussing he balance between abstracting processes and maintaining the ability to drop a lower level when needed.
[00:46:23] They discuss theirs experience and observations from using Adam’s browser tools and watching his keynote, and they mention how the early days of Tailwind were challenging due to configuration issues.
Panelists:
Jason Charnes
Chris Oliver
Sponsor:
Links:
Tailwind Connect 2023-Keynote (YouTube)