Today I Learned

Okay, I know what you’re thinking. Another today I learned about Raycast 😅. But hear me out, this YouTube video that I’m about to link you to is bonkers. Like I said before, this is the tool that our Macs should have shipped with because finder just can’t compare!

There are over a hundred cool things you can do with Raycast… and I’ve just scratched the surface because, oof, there’s so much cool stuff and so little time 😂.

TIL about Threadreader, a tool that helps you read Twitter threads way more easily. Oh sorry, it’s not Twitter anymore, it’s X. Whatever, Elon.

Whatever the hell it’s called now, Threadreader will unroll the tweet storm into a single, cohesive, consumable chunk of content.

Check it out

TIL about ts-reset - it’s like CSS resets but for TypeScript! Shout out to Matt Pocock (and the team) for this!

Here’s an example of one of the rules:

import '@total-typescript/ts-reset/array-includes'

const users = ['matt', 'sofia', 'waqas'] as const

// .includes now takes a string as the first parameter
// BEFORE, it would have complained about the type of the first parameter
users.includes('bryan')

There are way more rules so I encourage you to give it a read and maybe incorporate it into your project!

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TIL that you can utilize npx react-router routes to see all the routes in your app!

For my site, here’s what I get:

<Routes>
  <Route file="root.tsx">
    <Route path="newsletter/rss.xml" file="routes/_extras.newsletter.rss[.xml].tsx" />
    <Route path="action/old-refresh-cache" file="routes/action.old-refresh-cache.tsx" />
    <Route path="blog/rss.xml" file="routes/_extras.blog.rss[.xml].tsx" />
    <Route path="til/rss.xml" file="routes/_extras.til.rss[.xml].tsx" />
    <Route path="action/theme-switcher" file="routes/action.theme-switcher.tsx" />
    <Route path="action/refresh-cache" file="routes/action.refresh-cache.tsx" />
    <Route path="action/newsletter" file="routes/action.newsletter.tsx" />
    <Route path="blog" index file="routes/blog._index/route.tsx" />
    <Route path="tags" index file="routes/tags._index.tsx" />
    <Route path="blog/:slug" file="routes/blog.$slug/route.tsx" />
    <Route path="tags/:slug" file="routes/tags.$slug.tsx" />
    <Route path="inngest" file="routes/inngest.ts" />
    <Route index file="routes/_index.tsx" />
    <Route path="health" file="routes/health.tsx" />
    <Route path=":page" file="routes/$page.tsx" />
    <Route path="about" file="routes/about/route.tsx" />
    <Route path="til" file="routes/til/route.tsx" />
    <Route path="*" file="routes/$.tsx" />
  </Route>
</Routes>

TIL about headless ui - a library from tailwindlabs that gives you access to unstyled ui components that integrate beautifully with tailwind. If you’re wondering how I found out about this, Wapplyzer revelead it to me 😆!

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TIL about c15t, a new consent management framework with some awesome React support! You can even self-host it (which is a major win for nerds like me)

Check it out

TIL about a role based access control (RBAC) library in JavaScript. CASL is a library that allows us to declaratively restrict access to resources based on roles and permissions.

import { createContext } from 'react'
import { createContextualCan } from '@casl/react'

export const AbilityContext = createContext()
export const Can = createContextualCan(AbilityContext.Consumer)

export default () => {
	const createTodo = () => {
		/* logic to show new todo form */
	}
	const ability = useContext(AbilityContext)

	return (
		<div>
			{ability.can('create', 'Todo') && (
				<button onClick={createTodo}>Create Todo</button>
			)}
		</div>
	)
}

TIL, it’s pretty easy to stack elements in CSS, without having to use positioning! It’s a litle bit more verbose to do it in tailwind, but it’s the same idea.

.parent {
  display: grid;
}

.child {
  grid-area 1 / 1
}

TIL about feed, an npm package that allows you to quickly generate an RSS feed for your website!

I used it to generate an RSS feed for my blog and my TIL feeds! It’s pretty simple and super easy to plug into your existing project.

Check it out

TIL about coolors.co — a superfast color palette generator. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably use it whenever you need to generate a color palette for your side projects, you know, those side projects that you’re totally working on and not abandoning for a while.

Check it out

I learned this hard lesson today. Optional chaining is for uncertain values — not uncertain existence.

If I’m not sure if a global object exists, I can’t rely on optional chaining to access it. I have to check for existence first.

// 👇 this is a valid expression in node
// we check to see if window exists
if (typeof window !== 'undefined') {
	window.localStorage.setItem('key', 'value')
}

// 👇 this is not a valid expression in node
// window is undefined (its existence is uncertain)
window?.localStorage.setItem('key', 'value')

TIL about the node-modules-inspector — a package that allows you to visualize your node_modules folder, inspect your dependencies, and so much more 🤯! I’m a big fan of the visualizations, since I’m more of a visual kinda person. You can use it in your own project with this simple command: npx node-modules-inspector.

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TypeScript’s compiler is being reimagined. Currently at version 5.8, TypeScript is still written in TypeScript itself, but there are plans to port it to Go for version 7.

This change promises to improve compilation times—by up to 10 times faster! True, the speed boost is something we probably won’t see for a few months or years, but I’m super excited to see Go get some much needed love and attention, since you know, it’s my secondary language of choice.

TIL about Magnesium Glycinate, a supplement that helps promote better sleep! I’ve been having a tough time falling asleep lately, especially after a tough Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practice, or an intense workout. One of my friends recommended Magnesium Glycinate as a way to help me sleep better. Let’s see how it works… I just ordered some today 😆!

TIL about Fontsource, a free Vercel resource that provides you with information on how to easily install and self-host web fonts. They support all Google Fonts, as well as open source ones!

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TIL: Tanner Linsley, the creator of TanStack Query, Router, and Start, just dropped TanStack Form!

True to form, it’s framework-agnostic, headless, and has zero dependencies. It also handles deeply nested objects out of the box, making it a powerful alternative to traditional form libraries.

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TIL about a growing movement on the web where people are choosing to use system fonts instead of loading custom fonts. Over the years, the default system fonts included with operating systems have become quite robust and visually appealing. If you’re concerned about performance or don’t require a fancy web font, this could be a great solution for you.

Check it out

This one’s pretty sweet and I’ve been reaching for it a lot lately at work! Rather than having multiple className conditions, you can use a data-attribute to manage your state.

This is not only a great way to keep your component clean but also allows you to target any state pertinent to your component without JavaScript! Mind you, I’m assuming you’re using something like Tailwind for your styling.

// no reliance on utility functions like `twMerge`
<div
	data-state-can-scroll={canScroll}
	className="data-[state-can-scroll=false]:hidden"
>
	Hidden when canScroll is false!
</div>

TIL about wxt! It’s like Nuxt but for web extensions.

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TIL about a local first tool for image compression called sqoosh. No more sending images to random servers just to compress them! 😆.

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TIL about bolt.new, an AI-powered web agent that lets you deploy apps via Stackblitz. It’s a pretty sick way to throw up a demo of a new app to illustrate a concept.

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TIL about the following…

    /* top, left, right, button, are all set to to the same value */
    .box {
      inset: 0;
    }

1. The inset property is a shorthand for top, right, bottom, and left properties.
2. Absolute elements can only be contained by other elements using Positioned layout.
3. Positioned elements will always render on top of non-positioned ones
4. Stacking context is the stacking order of elements that are positioned.
   • We can create a stacking context by combining a non-static position with a z-index. So position absolute and z-index will create a stacking context.
   • We can also create one by setting opacity to less than 1.
   • Check out the link above for more info.
5. The isolation property allows you to create a stacking context. We can add this to a parent element and then we can forget about having to add a position: relative and z-index to the children. It is the lightest weight way to create a stacking context.
6. The z-index property can be used in a flexbox the same way as it can be used with a positioned element.

TIL about the stacking context inspector. It’s a tool that allows you to inspect the stacking context of an element.

Check it out

More of a public service announcement and a reminder to myself (especially for my personal projects), to leave comments on any funky things you’re doing in code. I wasted an hour battling a bug in my blog because I didn’t leave a comment regarding a @ts-ignore directive.

Leave. Comments. Please.

Kent showed me a great way to have a stable id for my react components, between server and client renders.

Ideally, you would be reaching for useId from react but if you’re using an older version of react, like 17 or 16, then you can use auto-id from reach.tech instead.

Check it out

Til about zoxide which is a faster and more robust cd alternative; it lets you navigate your filesystem faster and more reliably.

 z ~/Documents/new-blog
 z ~/Documents/rehype-code-titles

# Go back to the last directory (new-blog)
z -

# Go to the `new-blog` directory
z rehype-code-titles

# Go back to your home directory
z

# open a fzf menu of possible entries that begin with `re`
zi re<SPACE><TAB>

Check it out

TIL about the Standard Schema! It’s an effort to standardize the interface of TypeScript validation libraries.

To pull directly from the docs, The goal is to make it easier for ecosystem tools to accept user-defined type validators, without needing to write custom logic or adapters for each supported library.

TIL that you can edit the whole document with document.designMode = 'on'!

Toggle document.designMode

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Happiness = results - expecations-unknown

Today I learned about the with method on the Array.prototype object. This method is used to create a shallow copy of an array but with one element replaced at a given index.

const arr = [1, 2, 3]
const newArr = arr.with(0, 5)

console.log(arr) // [1, 2, 3]
console.log(newArr) // [5, 2, 3]

This is useful when you want to replace elements in an array without mutating the original array.

Check it out

So it’s even easier now to add a documentation website to your project! While looking over the Zod github repo, I saw that they were using docsify to house their documentation. It’s pretty slick and I intend to use it for my own projects… well at least the work ones 😆.

Check it out

If you’re not using a meta framework like Next.js or Remix, I’d high suggest you check out react-error-boundary.

Seriously, Taran, use this at work.

TIL about how one can use satisfies in typescript, without satisfy at all!

// taken right from Kent's blog
type OperationFn = (left: number, right: number) => number

// this is a restriction on the operations object
// but with satisfies, I leave myself room to add more operations and don't need to manage another type
const operations = {
	'+': (left, right) => left + right,
	'-': (left, right) => left - right,
	'*': (left, right) => left * right,
	'/': (left, right) => left / right,
} satisfies Record<string, OperationFn>

Check it out

TIL there’s a tool that can help you find out if your types are wrong for your library!

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Til about raycast! The productivity tool that our macs should have shipped with ❤️

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Struggling to choose the right license for your project? There’s a great tool for that!

Check it out

TIL about wave app! I’m using it to track my expenses and the invoices for my company! It’s pretty cool.

Check it out

Sick of seeing truncated Objects in Node? I got you bro (well Matt Pocock has got you).

let deepNesting = {
	level1: {
		level2: {
			level3: {
				level4: {
					level5: {
						name: 'Moderately Nested Object',
						value: 42,
						attributes: {
							created: '2023-10-01',
							modified: '2023-10-15',
							tags: ['demo', 'test', 'nested'],
							metadata: {
								author: 'Jane Doe',
								version: '1.0',
								license: 'MIT',
							},
						},
						items: [
							{
								id: 1,
								description: 'First item',
								status: 'active',
							},
							{
								id: 2,
								description: 'Second item',
								status: 'inactive',
							},
						],
					},
				},
			},
		},
	},
}

// logs: { level1: { level2: { level3: [Object] } } }
console.log(deepNesting)

// You get the whole object!
console.dir(deepNesting, { depth: Infinity })

Matt is the man!

TIL there’s a useful github repo for bulletproof react!

It gives you a bunch of useufl tips and explanantions on how to make your react code bulletproof.

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TIL that you can use console.log with color!

console.log(
	'This is %cMy stylish message',
	'color: yellow; font-style: italic; background-color: blue;padding: 2px',
)

Check it out