How Modern JavaScript Is Ruining the Web w/ Chris Ferdinandi

What is HTML All The Things

HTML All The Things is a web development podcast and discord community which was started by Matt and Mike, developers based in Ontario, Canada.

The podcast speaks to web development topics as well as running a small business, self-employment and time management. You can join them for both their successes and their struggles as they try to manage expanding their Web Development business without stretching themselves too thin.

What's This One About?

In this episode Matt and Mike sit down with Chris Ferdinandi to discuss the current state of JavaScript and more specifically why Chris thinks that it's ruining the web as we know it. JavaScript has exploded in popularity over the past few years and with that a rush of new developer talent has adopted the likes of JavaScript frameworks (ie React, Vue) to spin up projects quickly and easily, even if they're not that big (ie a landing page). In addition to this conversation, the trio discuss the importance of documentation, accessibility, and more!

Guest Introduction

Chris helps people learn vanilla JavaScript through his daily blog posts and courses. He runs learnvanillajs.com where you can find all the resources, you’ll need to make yourself into a better, more efficient web developer. We talked to him about modern JavaScript trends, his views and techniques for accessibility as well as what’s wrong with the web today.

Go Make Things - Daily Newsletter
Chris's Twitter

Show Notes

4:15 - How would you define the ‘Modern Web’ today?

8:15 - Using too much tech to build really simple things.

11:20 - Are JavaScript frameworks all bad, or can you see a use case to some of them?

17:35 - Is using frameworks a sign of a paradigm shift in the web?
How do modern trends affect accessibility on the web? (negatively and positively?)

24:00 - Do web components allow you to bring in accessibility to named html tags?

27:50 - What's your advice to new developers just starting their journey through HTML, CSS and JavaScript?

33:20 - When to jump into project-based learning?

45:15 - Where do you see the future of web development heading?

Key Takeaways

• Use less JavaScript. Easier said than done but when you go into a project with this mentality it can make the code you write cleaner.
• Picking the smallest tool for the job is a good mentality but it's sometimes not possible.
• React is starting to take accessibility seriously.
• Frameworks like Svelte and Vue offer great features and some of these could be built into native JavaScript/web technologies.
• Learner inertia is more important than the path you take. Whatever helps to keep learning, do that!
• Documentation can make learning and using something easy if it's written well
• Server-side rendering is making a resurgence in the form of multiple different frameworks. (next, nuxt, gatsby, gridsome, sveltekit)

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