A home for my story
For the first time, I carried thoughts that had nowhere to land. The search for a home for my articles led me not just to yet another platform, but to the idea of my own blog - built on top of the AT Protocol.
Facets as a Formatting Engine
Formatting is an important tool for emphasizing your point. We use it to highlight key parts of our work every day, including when developing services. One interesting example is Facets - a formatting approach in atproto.
Open Social Software. npmx
We’ve just celebrated reaching 3,000 stars, made a number of major releases, and the team gave a really great presentation at atmosphereconf... But it seems I still hadn’t actually answered so many questions - just teased at the end of the previous article. I think it’s time to formulate the answers and finally gather them all in one place.
The month. npmx
npmx - a fast, modern browser for the npm registry. You've definitely heard about this project, and it’s probably got you just as excited as it has me. We've had a month of exciting and invaluable experience, and we've got some crazy plans ahead. I'm Alex, a project maintainer and one of the many who have been lucky enough to witness the formation of npmx from the front lines. This is an article reflecting on the project, warm stories, wonderful people, and, of course, a look into the future. I hope I can convey this marvelous experience and give you the opportunity to feel it with me.
Next.js v15 — What’s new under the hood
Hello! This is another article about next.js. And finally, about the new version! Each release is a set of new, interesting, and controversial features. This version will be no exception. However, new version is interesting not so much for its new functionality, but for the change in priorities and organization in next.js. And yes, as you may have guessed from the title, a significant part of this release is valuable for reflecting on previous mistakes.
Website Performance. Big Basic Checklist
A fast website is something very obvious and simple: the site loads quickly and does not freeze. “If you make people wait 3 seconds, you start losing users” is a rule that probably every web developer has heard. But this rule is only the tip of the iceberg, both when it comes to the reasons customers are lost and when it comes to real outcomes. This article is a comprehensive collection of information about performance: from the history of the first analysis tools and the reasons they appeared, to modern problems and universal ways to improve a website.
Vercel Edge — what is it and how is it
Edge runtime. One of the main functionality of Vercel — the company that developed and maintains next.js. However, its influence on the edge runtime has gone far beyond its frameworks and utilities. The edge runtime works in the recently acquired by Vercel Svelte, in nuxt, and in more than 30 other frontend frameworks. This article will focus on the edge runtime — what it is, how it is used in Vercel, what features it adds to next.js, expected changes and what solutions I made to expand these features.
Measure twice and release once. A/B tests of static sites
A release starts with an idea. When that perfect idea comes in the brainstorming, the idea that will appeal to all users and attract new customers. The idea is presented to a team of managers, marketers and is unconditionally supported by everyone.
React Conf 2024. React v19 RC
The first day of React.js Conf just concluded. This much-anticipated conference took place almost 3 years after the previous one. The React updates were just as eagerly awaited. The conference began with these updates and this article will be dedicated to them. And yes, as you saw from the preview — version 19 has moved into the release candidate status. The full release is promised within two weeks.
Caching in next.js. Gift or Curse
The App Router significantly expands the functionality of next.js — partial pre-rendering, templates, parallel and interceptable routes, server components, and much more. However, despite all these improvements, not everyone has decided to switch to the App Router. And there are reasons for that.
History of Vercel 2020-Present (7/7). Zeit is now Vercel
In April 2020, tech company Zeit announced a major rebranding. This new turn allowed Guillermo Rauch to return to big business, but at the same time, it became the most controversial decision in the eyes of the community.
History of Vercel 2015–2020 (6/7). Zeit and Next.js
After leaving Automattic in 2015, Guillermo founded a new company — Zeit. Co-founders were Tony Kovanen and Naoyuki Kanezawa.
History of Vercel 2013–2015 (5/7). Automattic
Automattic. A company that played a massive role in shaping the modern internet and deserves a separate series of articles. However, it will only be touched on superficially here.
More libraries to the library god or how I remade i18n [next.js v14]
There are dozens of amazing libraries made for internationalization, such as i18n, react-intl, next-intl. They all do an excellent job of adding translations to an application or website. Most of them are tested, debugged, and consistently supported.
History of Vercel (4/7). 2013. Cloudup. Drag. Drop. Stream.
Cloudup is a clear and fast file-sharing service for files, videos, links, music, documents, code, text, and so on, which is both user-friendly and recipient-friendly. Drag. Drop. Stream.
History of Vercel (3/7). 2009–2013. LearnBoost. Team that has become a leader in open source
…one of the most technologically advanced companies… socket, stylus, mongoose, n, express… Nathan Rajlich, Aaron Heckmann, TJ…
Next.js App Router. Experience of use. Path to the future or wrong turn
Two years ago, the Next.js team introduced a new approach to routing, which was supposed to replace the so-called Pages Router and added a range of fundamentally new functionality.
History of Vercel (2/7). LearnBoost. A leading tech company
The first startup, investments, developments. An educational platform that became a leading tech company of its time.
History of Vercel (1/7). 1990–2009. Guillermo Rauch. Childhood and first steps in programming.
He was born in a small town in Argentina, did not finish school, went to work in Switzerland at the age of 17, and emigrated to the US at 18 to start implementing his ideas as an entrepreneur.
Compression of css classes. Next.js. Let’s make the web Even faster.
For many years, there have been debates about how best to name classes — according to BEM, by objectives, by components or however you like, but with the addition of a hash. And this is indeed an important question, which method will be comfortable in the development of a large and evolving project. But, what do these methods mean for the user, does he need these classes and how are they related to his experience?
Next.js v13: What's New and What's Coming
Next.js is the largest framework for web application development. It was created six years ago, on October 25, 2016. Since then, 12 major releases have been issued, making the web faster and faster. Despite the framework’s complexity, the size of each subsequent release did not decrease, though the pace of updates did slow down.
Next.js Layout RFC: Changing Everything to Make the Web Faster
In May of this year, Next.js unexpectedly published an RFC (request for comments) on its blog. It primarily discusses a new abstraction - layouts - as well as a host of related changes aimed at speeding up development, improving DX, and standardizing through the creation of new conventions. This working proposal definitely deserves attention, both because of its complexity for the framework and because it literally describes what it will look like in the future.
Theming, Part 3: Themeizer - A Young Companion to Styles
It’s time to acknowledge that theming isn’t about imposing a soulless black-and-white world or catering to personal whims; it’s a crucial step in ensuring service accessibility and maximizing conversion rates
Theming. Part 2. New Browser APIs. Theming with SSR. Choosing Between SPA, SSR, and SSG.
According to data collected by Android Authority (2,514 respondents) and an analysis by Thomas Steiner, over 80% of users use a dark theme. Of course, it’s hard to call this sample entirely representative, since the surveys were conducted on technical forums, but overall, we can say that a good half of the internet uses a dark theme.
Next.js 12 Release
Who would have thought that just four months later, these ideas would resurface and take on even greater significance?
Next.js: Where is it going, where did it come from, and what does Google have to do with it?
It’s been almost two weeks since the Next 11 presentation. Today, I'd like to talk about which technologies soon received comprehensive support, understand who helped implement them, and what goals the company was pursuing.
Thematization: History, Causes, and Implementation
A dark theme for nighttime use isn’t the only reason for adding theming to a website. Another important goal is service accessibility. Worldwide, there are 285 million people with total or partial vision loss; in Russia, there are 218,000, and up to 2.2 billion with various visual impairments