Interviewsioning: GraphQL: why it rules, the barriers to entry
In addition to the interview, Wes was great enough to provide subscribers with an exclusive 25%-off deal on all of his courses. He's got courses on ES6, React, Node, CSS Grid and more! If you'd like to access the deal, and all the rest of the great modern JavaScript content I've curated this month, sign up for a free 14-day trial here (you can cancel any time). What you missed!This month, in addition to the daily email curating essential links from the dev world, I've delved into all aspects of modern JS to curate a guide to the landscape. So far I've covered content like: Frameworks like React, Angular and Vue, Node, state management, GraphQL, Electron, Promises and async. Next week there will be content on functional JS, testing, tooling, and "future" JavaScript (VR, machine learning and other fun stuff. There were free books and interviews and the aforementioned deal. To get access to all of this, sign up for a free trial! Next month's focus will be on Design Systems and Living Styleguides, more on that next week. But for now, let's hear from Wes! Wes Bos is a full stack developer from Canada. He makes free and premium video training courses for developers to get better at building for the web. He lives in a pretty cool city (his words) called Hamilton with his wife, a fashion blogger, his two little girls, and his dog: Snickers. Every week he co-hosts the Syntax podcast where he dishes out tasty web development treats. He spends most of his days tweeting and Instagrammin'. Besides coding, he loves to BBQ - he's got two Big Green Egg smokers that he use at least a few times per week. Which dev/tech idea or trend excites you the most at the moment, and why?I'd say it's GraphQL - specifically when used with React and Apollo - it's totally going to change the game. It requires a little bit of up-front investment in tech and re-learning but is well worth it in the long run! Why is GraphQL so exciting?While I believe the upfront work in setting up GraphQL requires a bit more work and time investment, it's going to make building maintainable and flexible applications a breeze. Having a single endpoint to fetch just the data you need, effortless relationships between data, and easy mutations are some of my favourite parts. Front-end tools like Apollo make working with caching, loading and error states a dream to work with. What are the primary barriers to entry, and how did you overcome them (ie how should others overcome them)?GraphQL requires buy-in from both the client and the server. While you can put GraphQL in front of an existing REST API, I'd suggest starting a smaller project and going all in on GraphQL. Another barrier is just thinking in GraphQL - it's similar to when many of us switched from jQuery to React - it required a re-thinking of how many things work and forgetting the "way you have also done it" For a little more help, Wes has a repo of React+GraphQL examples [github/wesbos] you can learn from. Describe (or link to!) something cool you built, designed or produced recently. Why is it cool, why are you proud of it?Any of my course sites! LearnNode.com, CSSGrid.com, ReactForBeginners.com, JavaScript30.com. I always do a new design, look and feel for each course I do - it's really fun to come up with new feels each time! How do you build them?I usually mock up the colours, textures, fonts and overall layout in Sketch - it's usually pretty rough but it lets me move and iterate really quickly. Once I have the look, feel and layout somewhat downpat, I move to HTML and CSS to continue building it. The best tech thing you read, heard or watched recently? Why?I really enjoy the CodePen Radio podcast - it goes into different parts of running a business and the tech involved. It often helps me understand how larger infrastructure and micro services are built. What was the most funny or interesting off-topic link you've sent to a friend recently?Mattias Wandel is an engineer, software developer, wood worker and all-around genius. His YouTube channel is an amazing source of interesting contraptions and out-of-the-box problem solving. Love everything he puts out. Any favorite memes or internet trends?Oddly-specific Starter Packs always make me laugh. An oddly-specific choice, but I guess requesting just the specific stuff you need is a kind of GraphQL thing to do! Thanks Wes, and I hope to see y'all tomorrow!      |
Adam here, once again, to share with you the interview I ran with full stack developer and instructor Wes Bos today, as well as to outline what the subscribers have been learning. But before that, I thought I'd also let you know of an exciting new benefit for subscribers: 
No comments:
Post a Comment