commit 560439300dc6aa489f2bc33f539d61933bcb9f8e
parent de7b67bc5316d6d82580df4512ee02307ebdecf1
Author: David Eisinger <[email protected]>
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2023 10:22:09 -0400
keep your stack short
Diffstat:
2 files changed, 178 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md b/content/notes/first-it-must-work/index.md
@@ -43,6 +43,10 @@ references:
url: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/no-one-actually-wants-simplicity/
date: 2023-09-09T02:23:06Z
file: lukeplant-me-uk-ms1b6l.txt
+- title: "Keep your stack short | Aaron Bushnell"
+ url: https://aaronmbushnell.com/keep-your-stack-short/
+ date: 2023-10-25T14:21:17Z
+ file: aaronmbushnell-com-x5e6nn.txt
---
### Thoughts on priorities in software development
@@ -66,6 +70,7 @@ references:
* [Choose Boring Technology][8]
* [There's still no silver bullet][9]
* [No one actually wants simplicity][10]
+* [Keep your stack short][11]
[3]: https://grugbrain.dev/
[4]: https://world.hey.com/dhh/even-amazon-can-t-make-sense-of-serverless-or-microservices-59625580
@@ -74,4 +79,5 @@ references:
[7]: https://techxplore.com/news/2023-06-problems.html
[8]: https://mcfunley.com/choose-boring-technology
[9]: https://changelog.com/posts/still-no-silver-bullet
-[10]: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/no-one-actually-wants-simplicity/
-\ No newline at end of file
+[10]: https://lukeplant.me.uk/blog/posts/no-one-actually-wants-simplicity/
+[11]: https://aaronmbushnell.com/keep-your-stack-short/
+\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/static/archive/aaronmbushnell-com-x5e6nn.txt b/static/archive/aaronmbushnell-com-x5e6nn.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+ #[1]home [2]RSS
+
+ [3]Aaron Bushnell
+ (BUTTON)
+
+ Hi, I'm Aaron!
+
+ Born and raised in the midwest and notorious [4]golden retriever
+ hoarder.
+ * Featherhour
+ * Mastodon
+ * GitHub
+ * Twitch
+ * Spotify
+ * Twitter
+
+ You are beautiful. ❤️
+
+ [5]Aaron Bushnell
+
+ Hi, I'm Aaron!
+
+ Born and raised in the midwest and notorious [6]golden retriever
+ hoarder.
+ * Featherhour
+ * Mastodon
+ * GitHub
+ * Twitch
+ * Spotify
+ * Twitter
+
+ You are beautiful. ❤️
+
+ [7]← View all posts
+ August 28, 2023
+
+Keep your stack short
+
+ Not long ago [8]I wrote about using Gatsby.js on a Craft CMS project.
+ If you want to learn more about that particular pairing you may want to
+ read that post. But, for the sake of this one, I'll briefly summarize
+ the tech stack:
+
+ [9]Craft CMS handles the backend (content). [10]Gatsby.js, [11]GraphQL,
+ and [12]React handles frontend. The on-paper benefits sound like a
+ great approach for building a website:
+ * Craft CMS: The best CMS out there (in my opinion)
+ * React: One templating language for static-generated content and
+ client-side interactivity
+ * GraphQL: A centralized dataset accessible from a single API
+ * Performance: Serving a compiled, static version of the site is
+ extremely fast
+
+ If this were a web framework's website you'd see a column of ✅s next to
+ another framework's pitiful column of ❌s.
+
+But, there's always a catch
+
+ There's no such thing as a free lunch and that goes double for
+ programming.
+
+ If you've ever set up a system like this it's tempting to think
+ that—once it's established—the hardest part is over. But, it's not.
+
+ The hardest part isn't setting it up. It's coming back to it a year
+ later.
+
+ A year later you're more likely to be mired in:
+ * Time-consuming training and documentation for team members
+ * Out-of-date dependencies
+ * Updates that cause breaking changes across your stack
+ * Workflows that make trivial updates time-consuming
+
+ You wind up with a great deal of complexity that prevents you from
+ adding the features your client needs ASAP. While your stack is
+ conceptually well-separated and tidy, the separation itself becomes
+ your greatest liability to be productive.
+
+Low abstraction trends
+
+ Maybe you've heard, but [13]there's a post or two about [14]Tailwind
+ and its controversial approach.
+
+ I'm not going to proselytize a framework or tool. But there's an
+ obvious influx in tools like Tailwind that aim to reduce overhead and
+ abstractions.
+
+ Tailwind does this by encouraging you to style your components directly
+ in your templates:
+<!-- High Abstraction -->
+<div class="card"></div>
+
+<!-- Low Abstraction (Tailwind) -->
+<div class="bg-white rounded-lg p-4"></div>
+
+ React (by way of JSX) allows you to put your structure and interactions
+ into a single file. (And, if you inline your styles, you can collocate
+ everything).
+<button onClick={() => alert('I think you are great!')}>
+ What do you think about me?
+</button>
+
+ Developers find value in these types of low-overhead tools because:
+ 1. They can collocate a component's structure, functionality, and
+ styling into a single file
+ 2. Detecting "leakage" can be easier because changes to structure,
+ functionality, and styling can occur in this single file
+
+Shortening the stack
+
+ Revisiting our Gatsby.js example, there's a similarly large distance
+ between the content being stored and the views being presented. It's
+ separated by tools, by protocol, and even by language. All of these
+ bridges require connectors—any of which can fail for any number of
+ reasons and require intervention.
+
+ But, if we were to reduce the stack from Craft CMS, Gatsby.js, GraphQL,
+ and React to just Craft CMS and [15]Twig (Craft's templating language)
+ it eliminates a massive set of complexity and overhead.
+
+ Not only does it reduce a large number of dependencies, but it
+ eliminates all of the connecting protocols and an entirely different
+ language to keep the stack working. It means fewer bridges to cross,
+ fewer competing dependencies, and a dramatically simpler stack to
+ revisit a year later.
+
+Wrapping up
+
+ I do want to be clear in stating that this isn't an indictment against
+ Gatsby.js, Craft, or a pairing between the two. Rather, I hope it
+ causes you to consider all technical challenges not as something that
+ needs to be solved once, but sustained indefinitely.
+
+ When you're building something it's not quite appropriate to ask "will
+ this be hard to set up?". You're smart and I believe you can set it up!
+
+ Instead, ask yourself: "Will this be harder a year later?"
+
+References
+
+ Visible links:
+ 1. https://aaronmbushnell.com/
+ 2. https://aaronmbushnell.com/feed.xml
+ 3. file:///
+ 4. file:///images/goldens.png
+ 5. file:///
+ 6. file:///images/goldens.png
+ 7. file:///
+ 8. file:///running-gatsby-js-sites-with-craft-cms
+ 9. https://craftcms.com/
+ 10. https://www.gatsbyjs.com/
+ 11. https://graphql.org/
+ 12. https://react.dev/
+ 13. https://www.google.com/search?q=site:medium.com+tailwind
+ 14. https://tailwindcss.com/
+ 15. https://twig.symfony.com/
+
+ Hidden links:
+ 17. https://featherhour.com/
+ 18. https://mastodon.social/@aaronbushnell
+ 19. https://github.com/aaronbushnell
+ 20. https://www.twitch.tv/aaronbushnell
+ 21. https://open.spotify.com/user/aaronmbushnell
+ 22. https://twitter.com/aaronbushnell
+ 23. https://featherhour.com/
+ 24. https://mastodon.social/@aaronbushnell
+ 25. https://github.com/aaronbushnell
+ 26. https://www.twitch.tv/aaronbushnell
+ 27. https://open.spotify.com/user/aaronmbushnell
+ 28. https://twitter.com/aaronbushnell
