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Writing elegant code is one thing, but communicating how it works to the wider world is another. This is where technical writers come into the mix and today on the show, we have one in the hot seat! Ben is a technical writer for a company that specializes in remote team collaboration software and he joins us to talk about how he got into the profession, what his workflow looks like, and the kind of value that people like him bring to teams. We hear about Ben’s technical background and how he decided to switch from a troubleshooting role into something more creative and fulfilling. He talks about his favorite tools for note-taking, image editing, writing, and refining his work. We also hear about how he relates with tech teams to learn about a particular product, and what his iterative process of research and writing involves. And if that was not enough, Ben dishes out some great tips for how programmers and technical writers can collaborate more effectively. Today’s conversation also meanders into many other subjects aside from technical writing, so expect to hear the panel’s thoughts on image processing gadgets, Apple versus Staedtler styluses, game programming using Bash, and a whole lot more!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“I decided I would maybe not like to troubleshoot things and that it might be fun to teach about technical things, translate technical speak into something that was more digestible.” — @blipsandbleeps [0:04:49]

“I do a lot of writing on gut, at least for first drafts. You know, what sounds correct to say, and then I’ll use a tool to help me make sure that it’s the right sentence structure.” — @blipsandbleeps [0:34:55]

“It’s a fun part of the job to learn about how a thing works. We very much enjoy working with developers and learning about products from their point of view.” — @blipsandbleeps [0:41:42]

“Not everybody needs a technical writer but if you are trying to convey information to as wide an audience as possible it is good to hire somebody who is good with words.” — @blipsandbleeps [0:49:20]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Resources:

Find Ben Goddard online:

Picks:

Ben Goddard

Alex

Tessa

Special Guest: Ben Goddard.

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The ongoing professional journey that many of us in the world of tech and developing find ourselves on can be exciting and daunting. Here to talk us through her experience on the hunt for a new job at a company that is more suited to her particular needs, is Jenny Lee. Jenny is currently employed as a Senior Software Engineer at Google and is also looking to improve her situation by finding a workplace in which she can engage with a more connected team, and utilize opportunities for monitorship. In our chat with Jenny, we get to hear all about the lessons she has learned along the way, why relationships and mentorship are such priorities for her, and how her approach to and ideas about her dream job have changed over time. We also discuss gauging company culture, different conceptions of management, and how to develop your strategy for job interviews. Jenny has some insightful reflections on the process, and as someone who is highly intentional about where she will next work. We think she is a great touchpoint for anyone with similar aspirations! Tune in to hear it all!

Key Points From This Episode:

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Resources:

Jenny Lee:

David Ashe:

Special Guests: David Ashe and Jenny Lee.

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The focus of today's show is the divisive topic of CSS. There are many different opinions on the strengths, weaknesses, and value of CSS, and to explore this in some detail, we are lucky enough to have Josh Comeau join us on our extended panel! One of the strongest messages that comes through from our discussion is the amount of time and effort that CSS requires you to invest, to reap its benefits. And while not every developer will agree to this exchange, it is hard to argue that certain parts of CSS can make this a worthwhile endeavor. We talk about the ever-increasing complexity of CSS and how this has occurred over time as the language has been added to. We also get into our favorite parts and features, looking at variables, current color, and a whole lot more. So, to hear it all from our team and our great guest, Josh Comeau, be sure to listen in with us today, on Enjoy the Vue!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“I started trying to really understand CSS. I really, really enjoy the language now. It's become probably my favorite part of doing web development.” — @JoshWComeau [0:05:55]

“I do think that right now is an incredibly exciting time to be a CSS person because so many amazing things are right on the horizon." — @JoshWComeau [0:11:30]

“That's what leads to that feeling that CSS is unpredictable and inconsistent. It's not. It's just that if you only have one of the puzzle pieces, of course, it's not going to seem consistent.” — @JoshWComeau [0:40:29]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guests: Jenell Pizarro and Josh Comeau.

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With the release of Vue 3, developers now have access to the Composition API, a new way to write Vue components. This API allows features to be grouped together logically, rather than having to organize single-file components by function. Using the Composition API can lead to more readable code, and gives developers more flexibility and scalability when developing their applications, which signals a bright future for Vue. At least, this is what today’s guest believes! Today, we speak with Oscar Spencer, developer at Tidelift and co-author of the Grain programming language, about Vue’s Composition API and why he believes it represents great things for Vue. We touch on Options API, our opinions of a template-first approach, and why Composition API is infinitely better than Mixins, as well as how JavaScript can prepare developers for Options API and what to watch out for when you first start working with Composition API in Vue. All this plus this week’s picks and so much more when you tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“When I look at the Composition API, I see a very bright future for Vue.” — @oscar_spen [0:02:22]

“The Composition API just gets rid of a whole host of issues that you have with Mixins. In fact, Mixins were my only complaint in Vue 2.” — @oscar_spen [0:24:05]

“Don’t be too scared of the [Composition API]. It was definitely designed with composition in mind. It was designed for you to have your composables consuming composables and not blowing up the world – [while] being fairly easy to follow as well.” — @oscar_spen [0:27:34]

“Regular JavaScript modules only get you so far because, fundamentally, what these regular JavaScript modules are missing is the reactivity. What the Composition API is letting us do is compose things that are reactive.” — @oscar_spen [0:41:44]

“By far the biggest gotcha with the Composition API is not understanding Vue's reactivity. That’s going to be the biggest gotcha that you can possibly run into. I highly recommend, instead of trying to wing it, just go look at a tutorial.” — @oscar_spen [0:57:02]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Oscar Spencer.

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This Episode is sponsored by Cloudflare Workers

Join us today as we talk to Ash Ryan Arnwine (developer experience leader for DataStax) about Getting Started Guides. Ash takes us through his experience with Vue, and how the guides in Vue 1 were the North Star for him when he was working with Adobe Creative Cloud. We discuss the challenges in migrating from different versions, and the downsides to Getting Started videos in place of text. Find out how keeping Ash's four-year-old daughter from sleeping is the highest praise the Vue team has received, and what each of the team feels is better: prescriptive or flexible guides. From picking the correct level to pitch your instructions at, to the different types of people defined as “developers”, you don’t want to miss out on this information-packed episode!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“For a long time, I think Vue sort of became, in some ways, a North star for me personally, when thinking about documentation, and how do you orient somebody into a completely new technology.” — @ashryan_io [0:02:12]

“One thing that I've learned over time with just in leading developer relations and developer experience is that oftentimes, it's the sample code that turns into the most popular resource.” — @ashryan_io [0:25:41]

“Oftentimes, I think that the imperative is just like help people get started, help people get started, and we don't get a chance to step back and think, 'Okay, who are the people? What are they getting started doing?” — @ashryan_io [0:29:59]

“Developers are not a monolith.” — @ashryan_io [0:33:44]

"I think that when pondering developer experience, broadly, one of the things that is important to get to and be able to offer, but often isn't there at the very beginning is some sort of insight into the future, in terms of where things are going.” — @ashryan_io [0:46:19]

“Today, there's like so many awesome resources to learn. It's almost too much, right?” — @ashryan_io [0:55:34]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Ash Ryan Arwine.

Sponsored By:

• Cloudflare Workers

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This episode is sponsored by Clouflare Pages!

This week, The Enjoy the Vue panel digs into the topic of asynchronous event loops: how it can save you time, but also how it can trip you up. Asynchronous update queues are an efficient way for platforms like Vue to save time and energy by recognizing a group of similar commands and doing a batch run at the same point in time. We get into event loops, how the term ‘next tick’ came about, and how synchronous stacking can cause a Stack Overflow Error. You’ll also hear some of our favorite terminal commands, including a special tidbit on how to say ‘please’ to your computer! Lastly, we share our picks of the week that will add joy, intrigue, and deliciousness to your life, so make sure you tune in to hear it all!

“When you make a change to your data in Vue, it doesn't happen right away because that would potentially be inefficient. What it does is it groups all the changes together and then batch runs through them at a set point in time. That's the queue that they all get added to.” — @EnjoyTheVueCast [0:02:04]

“Basically, it's like doing your math without showing the work. That's what Vue does. Teachers love it.” — @EnjoytheVueCast [0:03:20?]

“My understanding is that blocking doesn't mean it never happens. It's just like I'm going to save all of these user interactions until the next time that the queue is free. Then, I'm going to jam all of them in there. You're going to get all 500 clicks in one second.” — @EnjoytheVueCast [0:18:25]

“There is this nebulous event that may or may not happen. When it happens, that click, that event doesn't necessarily fire immediately. It gets put on the end of the event queue, the event loop queue.” — @EnjoytheVueCast [0:19:16]

Sponsored By:

• Cloudflare Pages

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This week's episode is sponsored by Cloudflare Workers!

Have you ever wished that Vue was smaller? We know we have. Petite-Vue is an astonishing 5.5KB, which is so small, it’s almost invisible. Dave Rupert, a developer at Paravel, joins us today to discuss all things Petite-Vue. We hear how this smaller version was released, and Dave shares what his experience of using it has been like. Often, when a framework is more compact, there are tradeoffs or sacrifices users have to make, but this does not seem to be the case with Petite-Vue. We talk about Alpine, how Petite-Vue is different, and we also get stuck into the use cases for Petite-Vue. Dave shares one of his totally wild ideas, which, naturally, Alex is all over. Our wide-ranging conversation also touches on interviews and what needs to change with them, templates and styles, and as usual, we wrap up with everyone’s picks for the week. Tune in to hear it all!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“I think five kilobytes is the perfect stealth technology, like Alex is talking about that you can kind of sneak it into a project and no one’s going to go, ‘Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on now? I didn’t approve this.’” — @davatron5000 [0:02:54]

“I was kind of a late bloomer I guess for Vue but I just was like, you know, I think the more I’ve used Vue, the more it has all the features I like.” — @davatron5000 [0:37:36]

“I’m just saying if you drop the opening curly brace on a four loop, you’re a monster.” — @davatron5000 [0:47:58]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Dave Rupert.

Sponsored By:

• Cloudflare Workers

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This week's episode is sponsored by Cloudflare Pages!

Laurie Barth, or Laurie on Tech as she is well-known in the dev industry, is a software engineer who started as a mathematician, currently working as a Senior Software Engineer at Netflix. Additionally, Laurie is a content creator and technical educator across various mediums. She is also a frequent conference speaker, speaking at events across the globe, and a technical blogger contributing to publications such as CSS Tricks, Smashing Magazine, and A List Apart, as well as an active member of the TC39 Educator's committee and a Google Developer Expert. In today’s episode, we share some of our more memorable job interview experiences, both good and bad, but mostly terrible, and we dive into how those experiences could be improved upon, starting with the company setting realistic expectations for potential candidates from the beginning. We also touch on unnecessary and unfair technical demonstrations, the value of affording candidates the option to show themselves in their best light, and the inherent biases that exist when interview panels aren’t diverse, and Laurie highlights the power that candidates actually have given the shortage of engineers making this appeal to listeners: take some of that power back! Tune in today for all this and so much more, including, of course, our weekly picks.

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“People can't read your mind. You need to preface, you need to set your expectations at the beginning [of the interview].” — @laurieontech [0:07:45]

“I want to work with people who are smarter than I am, but here's the trip: everyone is smarter than I am. It depends what the measuring stick is and what category we're talking about.” — @laurieontech [0:26:51]

“The goal of an interview, in my mind, should be for people to show you what they know instead of what they don't know. If you're giving people options, you are giving them the opportunity to present themselves in their absolute [best light].” — @laurieontech [0:29:59]

“Right now, in this moment in time, unless you are an entry level candidate, the candidates have all the power. There's such a shortage of engineers. I would like to see people taking that power back a little bit.” — @laurieontech [0:38:41]

“Interviews, pretty much no matter what you do, will always somewhat cater to people who are extroverted and outgoing and talkative. The only way I challenge that is I think people who can't communicate about their code at all are probably not great engineers.” — @laurieontech [0:48:47]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Laurie Barth.

Sponsored By:

• Cloudflare Pages

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Imagine working on projects that last for two weeks or less. This is what today’s guest, Jason Etcovich, gets to do all the time! Jason is a Senior Software Engineer at GitHub, where he is part of the Special Projects team. He is also involved in the Paper Cuts project, which works directly with the community to fix small to medium workflow problems. In this episode, Jason sheds light on how he became a software engineer having come from a design background. While this may sound like a drastic shift, it was gradual, which made the transition smoother. We talk about some of the exciting happenings at GitHub, like GitHub Pilot, Paper Cut, and Codespaces, and what these projects will offer the community. Our conversation also touches on automation and where it goes right and wrong, how to use software to make our lives better, and as usual, we get into some classic developer debates. Tune in to hear it all.

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“Part of learning that design mindset is understanding like, how does a person approach this thing? What are the various touch points that they have to consider?” — @JasonEtco [0:10:03]

“How do you say like, ‘Oh, yes. This is important,” If you don't have the data to back it up.” How do you get the data to back it up, if you don't prioritize that project? Where in that loop does it fit to get all of that data?” — @JasonEtco [0:19:57]

“If you build your automation tool in an inflexible way, you'll really regret it later.” — @JasonEtco [0:27:13]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Jason Etcovitch.

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The increasing volume of the societal discussion on mental health is blooming into a variety of results. One of the interesting aspects of these developments are apps aimed at helping users with their self-care and mental health management and, today, we have a conversation about a new mobile app called Whimser, which is doing exactly that! We are joined by their founder and CTO, Rahat Chowdhury, who speaks to us about the startup, its roots in CBT or cognitive behavioral therapy, and how they approach using journaling to combat negative thought patterns and cognitive distortions. Rahat explains how the application is not designed as a replacement for therapy but rather as a tool to enhance practices that users already have in place, offering continuity and opportunities for further reflection. Rahat also explains a little bit about how the company is currently being run and the leadership philosophies that ground what they do. He strongly believes in bringing a human element into the work, and shares the interesting decision to bring in junior developers from the get-go and the motivations behind this. For this fascinating conversation with an inspiring young founder and developer doing important and conscientious work, make sure to tune in!

Key Points From This Episode:

Tweetables:

“We do stuff like having some natural language processing in the background that helps you categorize your thoughts into what could be potential cognitive distortions to help you set yourself up to figure out how to combat those thoughts.” — @Rahatcodes [0:02:14]

“Trying to create a better atmosphere or a better community around tech will definitely help out in fighting imposter syndrome.” — @Rahatcodes [0:06:37]

“Whimser started from when I started taking better care of my own mental health. I started going to therapy and treating my depression, and a few other things.” — @Rahatcodes [0:09:46]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Rahat Chowdhury.

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