Read JavaScript and TypeScript lessons from production
Learning from tutorials is great! You follow some steps, learn a smol lesson, and feel like you got this. Then you go into an interview, get a question from the boss, or encounter a new situation and o-oh.
Shit, how does this work again? ๐
That's the problem with tutorials. They're not how the world works. Real software is a mess. A best-effort pile of duct tape and chewing gum. You need deep understanding, not recipes.
I took a bet on JavaScript in 2005 when it was known as DHTML. It's been my favorite language ever since. These essays are the good stuff you can't learn from a tutorial.
Leave your email and get the JavaScript Essays series - a series of curated essays and experiments on modern JavaScript. Lessons and insights learned from practice building production software.
Latest JavaScript articles from Swizec
10 articles from 2021 ยท show all
December 2021
pg-mem and jest for smooth integration testing
The cult of TDD leads you down a dark and stormy path towards brittle code with a false sense of security. But there is a better way. A sweet spot between unit and heavy integration.
Why null checks are bad
Every null or undefined check doubles the number of tests you need ๐ฑ
Small choices can wreck your codebase
wanna see the strangest looping construct I've found in production code?
November 2021
Finding unresolved promises in JavaScript
JavaScript is a fantastic server-side language because it's async. That also makes it tricky. ๐ฉ What happens when you swallow errors? Forget to resolve promises? Or run into a number of other anti-patterns
October 2021
How to configure Jest with TypeScript
Using plain Jest on a TypeScript codebase is kinda rough. No types in tests no thanks. Making Jest and TypeScript work together smoothly is something you do just rarely enough to forget the details. Hope this helps you and future me too โ๏ธ
Learn TypeScript in 5 minutes
TypeScript solves many of JavaScript's sharpest edges. You don't need much to get started โ๏ธ
September 2021
Stop SHOUTING = 'shouting'
A hill I will die on ๐ global CONSTANT = 'constant' are bad
June 2021
A surprising feature of JavaScript optional chaining
This blew my mind, thought you'd like it too. You can do more with ?. than you thought.
April 2021
2 quick tips for 250% better Lighthouse scores โ CodeWithSwiz 28
Your site may be fast for users, but Google don't care. Official metrics or bust.
February 2021
A TypeScript trick for reusable hooks
Reusable hooks are all fun and games until TypeScript starts yelling at you about incompatible types.