Posts I wrote with intent. Sometimes long, sometimes not, but the ones I like to point at.
I’m currently working on adding an OAuth/OIDC authorization server at work. Claude told me twice, on different occasions, to just implement the OAuth provider from scratch. No library, just raw-dog OAuth and OIDC completely from scratch. It said it would be worth it, because it’s only ~500 LOC.
Read moreMy favorite process in software engineering, whether I’m building something new or working on an existing feature, is to first focus purely on the functionality and completely ignore the design. Once everything works, I shift my full attention to making it look and feel great.
I learned this process over a decade ago, and I’ve been recommending it ever since to anyone who’s struggling while building something: struggling with refactors, with design collaboration, with pressure from planning and management, or simply with finding creative direction for the UI.
Read moreDo I really need to write an introduction to button components? We all know them. Buttons are one of the most commonly used components in our user interfaces, and are also some of the messiest components, with crappy interfaces and complex implementations for something as simple as a freaking button, and they only get worse as your codebase ages.
In this post, I’ll briefly explain why button components are a classic problem in software engineering, how composition can solve this problem, and how I implement complex buttons with simple code these days.
Read moreFor a long time, across different projects throughout my career, I’ve seen database migrations happen during application startup. These migrations usually run as part of a post-deployment hook, just before the new deployment receives any production traffic. But… what’s happening in this short (or sometimes longer) timeframe after the migration is done and before the new app boots, while the old app is still active?
Read moreWhenever the topic of authorization in our Next.js apps came up at Gigs, I had a very strict opinion and rule: we don’t use the middleware for authorization. We can use the middleware for some optimistic UI patterns, like an early redirect when a user is logged out, but never as a means to grant a user access to some data. I’m not saying this because I hate the middleware, or because it’s an easily predictable vulnerability, but because of the way the Next.js middleware sits in an application.
Read moreWhen adding dark and light mode to your site, a common approach is to store the theme in localStorage and reading it on the next visit. But our JavaScript usually runs after the page loads, so reading it in JavaScript can cause a flash of the wrong theme—like flashbanging dark mode users with light mode. We can fix this with a small script in the <head>. But wait—isn’t that a blocking script? Aren’t those bad? Let’s take a quick look at why that’s not always true.
I have many thoughts about this topic but I’ll try to keep it short: I don’t like this thought leadership in engineering, where it’s mostly about being an influencer and less about having a good influence.
It rubs me the wrong way. You could just say that it annoys me and I should ignore those parts of the internet. But it actually worries me because it feels like small cult-like groups in which engineers won’t grow: They’re caught in an echo chamber, which makes them feel like they’re growing, but instead of growing as a person and engineer, only a single opinion grows within them.
Read moreI think some apps I use every day, like Spotify for Desktop or YouTube TV, are being way too careless with seemingly small UI changes. It starts to annoy me a lot, so I put together some examples of sloppy and irresponsible UI changes that I noticed in Spotify and YouTube TV to make you think twice before making such careless changes in your apps.
Read moreI don’t know if it’s just me, but trash bags lately suck. Something very strange must be happening in the trash bag industry. So strange that I find myself constantly thinking about trash bags to the point where buying them gives me anxiety.
Read moreThere’s a Christmas song on YouTube that has a special place in my heart. I’ve been listening to it every holiday season since its release in 2011. Music has a way of taking us back to memories, and whenever I hear this song, I’m transported back in time. I used to take for granted that it would always be available to me on YouTube, but that all changed in Christmas 2021.
All of a sudden, the song was nowhere to be found.
Read moreDo you remember when I told you the story how I developed this blog using Next.js, getStaticProps and Incremental Static Regeneration? Well, we’ve got some new features in Next.js, which we’ll explore here. This is the story of migrating to a new very much still experimental feature.
.gitignore (and what doesn’t)There’s a high chance that your .gitignore file includes a bunch of stuff which doesn’t belong in there. In my opinion, it should only include paths which belong to your software project. For example build artifacts, 3rd party packages, and specifics to the language or runtime of your software.
A few months ago, an email from my good friend Gerrit showed up in my inbox. Gerrit made a new “Pottoriginale” movie, and he needed a website for his film tour. I knew that it will only take me an evening to do, I had the feeling that I’d enjoy the challenge, and I knew that I have some time in the coming week. And a few days later, pottoriginale.de was live.
Read moregit rebase --ontogit rebase --onto is one of my absolute favorite git features. I don’t use it every day, but when I use it, it’s super helpful. For all those situations where you branched off a branch before it got merged, and then you need to rebase your branch onto main without handling dozens of conflicts.
In my last post I covered my decision to use GitHub Discussions as CMS for my posts. I’m going to build it using Next.js, because that’s what I already use a lot, and it has some features which will become quite useful. Let’s get cracking!
Read moreWhen I was a teen, I learned how to build WordPress themes. During holidays or when school was out, I vividly remember how I sometimes sat in front of my computer for a few days and nights, and created new themes for my blog. Of course I had no blog, but having one was a cool thought. But this stuck to me, and I was really never happy with how my blogs work. Until now!
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