Web Developer Monthly Newsletter 💻🚀

53rd issue! If you missed them, you can read the previous issues of our Web Developer Monthly newsletter here.

If it’s your first time here… (otherwise, skip this part)

Being a web developer is a fantastic career option. You have many job opportunities, you can work around the world, and you get to solve hard problems.

One hard thing, however, is staying up-to-date with the constantly evolving ecosystem. You want to be a top-performing web developer, coder, programmer, software developer, but you don’t have time to select from hundreds of articles, videos and podcasts each day.

This monthly web development newsletter is focused on keeping you up-to-date with the industry, without wasting your valuable time. I curate and share the most important articles, news, resources, podcasts and videos of the month.

Think Tim Ferriss and the Pareto Principle (80/20 rule) meeting the Software Development world. What’s the 20% that will get you 80% of the results?

Let's dive in. Here's what you missed in November 2022 as a Web Developer…

JavaScript Generator Functions 🎡

Generators are an odd part of the JavaScript language. And some people find them a bit of a puzzle. You might be a successful developer for decades and never feel the need to reach for them.

Which raises the question, if you can go so long without ever needing them, what are they good for?

This is a great read that explores this topic.

React News 💎

Mostly everyone's favourite frontend library. What crazy things have they been up to?

• Remix got acquired by Shopify. It seems like the framework battle in the React land will be between Remix and NextJS, the two front runners. Keep your eyes on this space. Shopify is working on their new version of Hydrogen which is powered by Remix.

• Build a React App Using DALL-E API: Use DALL·E OpenAI and React to create unique images. Super cool idea.

• It's hard to overstate the impact React has had since its release in 2013. Sometimes we forget how revolutionary React was when it first came out. A lot of young developers might wonder why React has become such a powerhouse. Well, read this to learn about some of the original benefits that made it take off.

• Is React impacted by Meta layoff? This is an interesting discussion.

• The magical world of Particles with React Three Fiber and Shaders.

Flutter vs. React Native 🎭

Yes, this is a web developer newsletter but it's still in the same neighbourhood especially because both Flutter and React Native offer cross platform development including the web.

They are the 2 front runners, so which one should you choose for your cross platform app needs?

Read this to find out.

State Of JS 🏆

The annual state of JS survey is out. It's one of the most popular surveys in the Web Development world.

Now that ZTM is officially a "big" school, I think it's time we leave our mark on this survey.

Take the survey here (you dont need to signup) and feel free to add:

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In the RESOURCES category (2nd last section):

Blogs & Magazines Which blogs/magazines/etc. do you read?

👉 Web Developer Monthly

Sites & Courses Which sites/courses/etc. do you consult?

👉 zerotomastery.io

Video Creators Creators you follow on video-centric platforms such as YouTube, Twitch, TikTok, etc.

👉 Aldo from Zero To Mastery - https://www.youtube.com/c/ZeroToMastery

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Anybody that does this gets good karma for life and will really make our day... seriously 🙂

TypeScript Just Got Faster 🤺

TL;DR: The TypeScript compiler is now implemented internally with modules, not namespaces. The compiler is now 10-25% faster. tsc is now 30% faster to start. The npm package is now 43% smaller. You can check out the PR that made these improvements here.

Vite vs Turbopack Beef 🏎

Think of this as drama between your aunt Sally and cousin Bob. Nobody actually cares about the drama and the details. You just want them to figure it all out on their own and let us know when it's all settled so we can enjoy our family gatherings. Turbopack came on the scene recently to try and "replace" Webpack. Vite is trying to do the same.

Vite founder called out the performance benefits of Turbopack.

Learn Elixir 📡

This is a collection of guided code walk-throughs introducing the functional, concurrent programming language, Elixir.

Elixir is based on another really cool language called Erlang. If you have never programmed in the functional paradigm or explicitly created and managed processes then learning Elixir should be a fascinating introduction into these topics.

Check out the guide here.

ntfy Wonder 🪀

Can't believe I only learned about this now. Instead of using a paid product like Twilio, you can use the open source nfty to send push notifications to your phone or desktop via PUT/POST. There are so many cool applications you can build with this.

The best part? Works entirely without signup, cost or setup.

Code With Your Voice 🎤

Github just launched Hey Github.

Difficulty typing? Use your voice to code without spelling things out by talking with GitHub Copilot. A cool concept that I'm sure is going to evolve over the years.

Better Code Reviews? 📝

I can't believe that this is coming from a Meta blog post, but it's actually quite interesting so give it a chance.

If you are working at a company with a team of developers, you know how inefficient code reviews can be. Meta suggests improving this process with this technique.

What do you think?

Angular is Getting Older 👨‍🏫

Over the past year the team removed Angular’s legacy compiler and rendering pipeline which enabled the development of a series of developer experience improvements in the past couple of months.

Angular v15 is the culmination of this with dozens of refinements which lead to better developer experience and performance.

Read about all the improvements here.

P.S. Here are the top 10 Angular Projects For Beginners And Beyond

Cracking The Coding Game 🥚

So you learned to code and are excited to start working for a big tech company and then you got stuck… Why?

Well, probably because applying for a job at a software company is pretty different from any other job application you’ve ever done before.

Sure you might know a guy who knows a guy and can get your foot in the door, but it’s rarely as simple as a phone call and then starting Monday. Even if you have a connection, there's still a series of tasks that you might need to complete.

Like some bizarre game show from the 90s, there are usually set stages of applications featuring a behavioral assessment, puzzles, a quiz, homework, and possibly even a whiteboard section… erm what!?

Lucky for you, we just wrote a massive post breaking it all down: The Ultimate Guide To Cracking The Coding Interview

New Libraries and Tools 🗿

There are a ton of shiny new libraries and tools every month which is why I have this dedicated section for them...

• Gatsby 5 is out with all new performance enhancements!

• Rome v10 is here. Its first stable release since the start of the Rust rewrite. Rome is an ambitious project aiming to unify the dozens of frontend language tools into a single easy-to-use tool built from scratch.

• Meta just open sourced Sapling: Source control that’s user-friendly and scalable.

• TypeScript 4.9 is out!

• Deno 1.28: Featuring 1.3 Million New Modules.

• Nuxt 3.0 released!

News Around the World 🗺

• You can't go anywhere this month without hearing about the FTX collapse. It's a disaster, and it's actually a lot worse than you think. Watch The FTX Disaster is Deeper Than you Think.

Big Tech News 🏢

• The news this month were the big tech layoffs from most of the big tech companies. Stripe lays of 14% of employees, Meta 11,000, plus many more big companies have frozen their hiring. Should you be worried about all of these tech layoffs? Keep an eye out on our blog, we have a post coming out soon about this and what you can do.

• The sale of Twitter has seen some bumps and drama. It's entertaining to follow, but don't worry, Twitter isn't going anywhere. Although I do recommend this interesting read... despite 80% of the workforce being gone, Why Twitter Didn’t Go Down: From a Real Twitter SRE

Completely useless to your career but still great 🙃

• Pathfinder visualizer using different algorithms. So cool.

• The Algorithm That Transformed The World.

• Do you like playing with bubbles? I got you covered.

Best Resource of the Month ✅

How can you not be romantic about programming?

What a beautiful article this is. A reminder that you have two ways of viewing your work as a programmer: Art or Chore. Be an artist, and enjoy the beauty of it... I bet you will be much happier this way.

Trick of the Month 🌗

I've shared this before, but it is too good not to share it again. Sure coding is fun, but you know what's even more fun?

Coding with virtual pets in your code editor!

Thanks for reading! Don't be shy now... Share this newsletter with your friends. See you next month! ❤️

By the way, I teach people how to code and get hired in the most efficient way possible as the Lead Instructor of Zero To Mastery Academy. You can see a few of my courses below or see all ZTM courses here.