Dead Code

Jared Norman
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The software industry has a short memory. It warps good ideas, quickly obfuscating their context and intent. Dead Code seeks to extract the good ideas from the chaos of modern software development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 27 ENE

    Zero Specificity (with Stephen Margheim)

    Jared talks with Stephen Margheim about a “missing” middle layer in modern design systems: reusable CSS affordances that sit between Tailwind utilities and full components. Stephen shares how building a no-JavaScript half-star rating input (radio buttons + labels + SVG + careful hover/layout CSS) reinforced his bias toward solving problems with the smallest toolset to avoid incidental complexity and to make solutions portable across frameworks. That philosophy leads to his critique that components are a poor vehicle for purely visual styles because they bundle structure, behavior, and aesthetics in ways that are hard to reuse—so instead, teams should name and standardize visual signals like “button” as composable classes that can apply to many semantic HTML elements. He explains how Tailwind can support this via custom utilities (@utility), tree-shaking, autocomplete, variants, and low-specificity defaults using :where(), and argues a four-layer approach—tokens → utilities → affordances → components—helps teams maintain design systems and progressively drop JavaScript as the web platform adds more native UI primitives (dialog, popover, details/name, etc.). Links: fractaledmind.com Web Awesome Font Awesome Tailwind: Introducing Catalyst Catalyst docs shadcn/ui daisyUI Tailwind docs: Functions & directives MDN: :where() selector MDN: Popover API MDN: CSS anchor positioning MDN: element MDN: Invoker Commands API MDN blog: Exclusive accordions with web.dev: Interop 2026 proposals Ruby on Rails SQLite Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    49 min

  2. 13 ENE

    IDE-cide (with Samir Talwar)

    In this episode, Jared is joined by Samir Talwar to talk about why “programming peaked” and how the developer experience has arguably regressed over the last 15 years—from losing powerful IDE refactoring workflows to the ways pull requests can turn into delayed integration. They dig into what teams lost when testing became “everyone’s job,” why reviews often get stuck in surface-level diff commentary, and how pairing (with rotation) can restore earlier feedback and shared context. They also get into infrastructure trade-offs: containers and Let’s Encrypt are huge wins, but Kubernetes and other “Google-scale defaults” can add heavyweight complexity for teams that don’t actually need it. Links: Samir Talwar (site) “Programming Peaked” (Samir’s post) Language Server Protocol (LSP) Visual Studio Code Vim Continuous integration (Martin Fowler) Extreme Programming (XP) Pull requests (GitHub docs) Kubernetes Docker Let’s Encrypt Mastodon Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    47 min

  3. 30/12/2025

    Death From Algorithm W 1978 (with Sabine Schmaltz)

    Jared talks with Sabine Schmaltz, an OCaml Developer Advocate at Tarides, about how she went from learning Standard ML in a demanding university course to getting hired for an OCaml role despite only having written “Hello, World,” and what she’s building now: FeedMansion, a tool to improve multi-account social posting and make OCaml community content more engaging with better summaries/teasers. Sabine explains her pragmatic stack—an OCaml backend using the minimalist Dream framework, a SolidJS frontend, and OCaml-based static site generation with MLX (a JSX-like approach that gives type-checked HTML)—and notes that OCaml’s syntax can feel foreign, which is part of why projects like Reason/ReScript help. They dig into where the real friction is today: not OCaml itself, but managing LLM-assisted coding responsibly, dealing with tooling/documentation transitions (like keeping agents on Dune instead of older opam-first guidance), and handling cases where LLMs stumble—such as complex typed database queries—where she used OCaml’s PPX system to generate safer code. The conversation widens to community building via FUN OCaml (Berlin 2024, Warsaw 2025, planning 2026), what’s new in OCaml (multicore support and effect handlers), the value and risk of AI-generated open source contributions, and Sabine’s advice for introducing OCaml at work: start small, choose problems where OCaml shines (DSLs/codegen, reliable services), and help the ecosystem by open-sourcing missing building blocks like API clients. Links: Hindley–Milner type system Standard ML OCaml ReScript ReasonML / Reason Tarides X/Twitter: @sabine_s_ GitHub: @Sabine Bluesky: @sabine.sh Dream (OCaml web framework) SolidJS MLX (.mlx / JSX for OCaml) TyXML Opam FUN OCaml ICFP (International Conference on Functional Programming) OCaml Workshop 2025 Semgrep Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    39 min

  4. 16/12/2025

    Deferred Conflict (with Steve Klabnik)

    Jared interviews Steve Klabnik (Rust author and longtime OSS contributor) about JJ (Jujutsu), a newer version control system that can operate on Git repos via pluggable backends so you can adopt it locally without forcing teammates to switch, while getting a simpler, more flexible workflow. Steve explains JJ’s core shift: no staging/index—your working copy is effectively a mutable commit you shape as you work, making it easier to split, squash, and rewrite history without juggling Git’s extra layers and flags, and even “stash” becomes just more visible commits. He highlights JJ’s stable change IDs (so you can refer to work even as hashes change), its conflict model where rebases complete immediately and mark conflicted commits for later resolution (great for many parallel branches), and features like jj absorb (auto-placing review fixes into the right earlier commits) and jj undo (a full operation history that makes experimentation feel safe). Steve also teases work on a JJ-native collaboration/review product inspired by Gerrit-style patch workflows. Links: Jujutsu (jj) on GitHub Jujutsu docs Steve’s Jujutsu tutorial “I see a future in jj” (Steve Klabnik) East River Source Control (ERSC) jj CLI reference jj absorb jj undo Working with Gerrit (jj docs) Git commit “trailers” / metadata Git hooks Git LFS Perforce Helix Core Sapling SCM Mercurial GitButler The Rust Programming Language (“The Book”) Steve Klabnik’s site why the lucky stiff (Wikipedia) Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    43 min

  5. 02/12/2025

    Poison Pills (with Joel Hawksley)

    In this episode, GitHub engineer Joel Hawksley breaks down the evolution of GitHub’s UI architecture—from Rails views to ViewComponent to React—and the tradeoffs behind each step. ViewComponent emerged as a practical, backwards-compatible way to eliminate duplicated UI logic in GitHub’s massive Rails monolith, ultimately supporting thousands of components and becoming a key driver of consistency and accessibility. Joel explains how hard UI correctness is compared to backend systems, how keyboard-only tests surfaced real accessibility regressions, and why ViewComponent v4 streamlines the project as it enters a stable, long-term support phase. He also discusses why GitHub increasingly leans on React for complex, app-like behavior: developer enthusiasm, design-system tooling, CSS encapsulation, and the need to manage frontend–backend sync at scale. The conversation closes with reflections on the realities of open-source maintenance and the importance of stability as ViewComponent’s future. Links: Joel Hawksley’s Website ViewComponent Website ViewComponent GitHub Repo Primer ViewComponents Primer ViewComponents Repo Phlex Website Phlex GitHub Repo Herb GitHub Repo ReActionView GitHub Repo WCAG Accessibility Standards Rails Strict Locals Documentation Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    54 min

  6. 18/11/2025

    Ground Zero-Cost Bindings (with Josh Vlk)

    In this Dead Code episode, Jared and ReScript contributor Josh Vlk explain why ReScript is a strongly typed, sound language for web development that compiles to JavaScript, offers first-class React support, and favors a “one right way” approach (built-in formatter, no linters) over TypeScript’s configurable sprawl. They trace its evolution from Reason/BuckleScript to today’s standalone ReScript, with v12 shedding legacy OCaml baggage, adding a rewritten Rust compiler for major speed, native monorepo support, zero-cost JS bindings, and automated upgrade fixes. The pair highlight how variant types and exhaustive pattern matching naturally model complex business logic and make refactors safe and fast, often resulting in less code and fewer bugs. Adoption can be incremental—drop a rescript.json, compile alongside TS/JS, and start with a small component or state reducer. Jared closes by urging developers to try it, noting ReScript’s consistency may also make it especially friendly for AI-assisted coding. Links: ReScript TypeScript ReasonML BuckleScript OCaml Rust “ReScript Has Come a Long Way — Maybe It’s Time to Switch from TypeScript” by Josh Vlk “Domain Driven Design Made Functional” by Scott Wlaschin (F# / functional programming concepts) ReScript Forums ReScript Docs ReScript Packages on npm – Community bindings and libraries Josh Vlk on Bluesky Josh’s website Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    1 h 10 min

  7. 04/11/2025

    Brut-al Death (with David Bryant Copeland)

    In this episode, Dave Copeland discusses Brut, his Ruby web framework built atop Sinatra that prioritizes “simple over easy” design principles. Brut replaces traditional MVC with pages, forms, and handlers, uses Flex for HTML generation, Sequel for database access, and lightweight tools like BrutCSS and BrutJS for styling and interactivity, emphasizing direct alignment with web standards. It eliminates free-form parameter hashes by injecting structured objects, mirrors HTML for form validations, and defaults to a strict, Postgres-only setup with non-nullable fields, required foreign keys, and built-in observability through OpenTelemetry and a strict Content Security Policy. Dave and Jared also discuss modern browser-based CSRF protections, the philosophy behind Brut’s defaults, and how Dave aims to refine it toward a 1.0 release with real-world apps and clear migration paths for Rails developers, positioning Brut as a lightweight, standards-aligned alternative within the Ruby ecosystem. Links: Brut Sinatra Hanami Sequel Tachyons Tailwind CSS OpenTelemetry PostgreSQL MDN Web Docs Elektron Digitakt Ableton Live ActiveRecord CoffeeScript Content Security Policy (CSP) Rich Hickey – “Simple Made Easy” talk Burg.rb Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    49 min

  8. 21/10/2025

    God Class Funeral (with Adam Tornhill)

    Jared talks with Adam Tornhill, founder of CodeScene, about the psychology of programming and how understanding human cognitive limits leads to better software. Adam explains that since working memory can only juggle a few items at once, developers must rely on chunking and good abstractions to manage complexity. His Code Health metric, based on detecting “ugliness” like long functions and low cohesion, shows that healthy code enables teams to deliver features up to ten times faster with far fewer defects. They discuss how God classes become coordination bottlenecks, how behavioral code analysis reveals hotspots where improvement matters most, and why learning different programming paradigms sharpens thinking. Adam emphasizes that writing readable, well-named, modular code benefits both humans and AI tools—because clarity, consistency, and thoughtful naming make code easier to understand, maintain, and extend. Links: CodeScene Your Code as a Crime Scene Working Memory God Class / God Object Domain-Specific Languages (DSLs) Dead Code Podcast Links: Mastodon X Jared’s Links: Mastodon X twitch.tv/jardonamron Jared’s Newsletter & Website Episode Transcript Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    35 min
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Tráiler

Información

The software industry has a short memory. It warps good ideas, quickly obfuscating their context and intent. Dead Code seeks to extract the good ideas from the chaos of modern software development. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ficha técnica

  • Creado por
    Jared Norman
  • Años en activo
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodios
    63
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Derechos de autor
    © Jared Norman
  • Sitio web del podcast
    Dead Code

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