EP04: End-Programmer Programming with Steve Krouse of Val Town

Val Town is a social website for writing and running code. Vals are small JavaScript or Typescript snippets that can be used to build APIs, schedule functions, and persist small pieces of data from their browsers. Created by Steve Krouse, the goal is to make programming as easy as editing a spreadsheet so that everyone, even non-coders, can eventually use it.

EP04: End-Programmer Programming with Steve Krouse of Val Town0:00/61:33

In this episode, you'll hear:

• How Val Town created a standards-based and open social website
• Why and how Vals were designed to be composable and interoperable
• How focusing on end-programmer programming will pave the way for Steve's vision of teaching users to code incrementally and customize their experiences with third-party software

Here's a glance at the episode...

• [3:00] Steve shares his background on teaching kids to code, running the Future of Coding Podcast, and starting Val Town
• [16:00] Steve explains his adoption plan: start with the hobbyists and making a delightful product, then create features that work for businesses
• [18:00] We discuss how Val Town took a note from Twitter and prioritized small composable snippets of code in the browser
• [24:30] We explore the pros and cons of utilizing the mighty @ sign and JSON in Val Town
• [30:30] Steve describes Val Town as a social website. In this age of centralized social media and its pitfalls, Val Town is a way to make your experience on the web more interoperable and shareable.
• [34:20] Val Town's goal is to be what GitHub is to Git
• [40:00] Steve shares what's new in ValTown v3
• [47:25] Steve explains who his current users are (programmers) and his vision to make Val Town a place where people can incrementally learn to code over time
• [58:00] We learn the plans for Val Town post v3

Listen to the podcast embedded above, or head to our podcast landing page to subscribe to the podcast on your preferred platform.

Val Town v3 comes out on Monday, October 23rd, 2023!

Episode Links and Shoutouts:

Co-Host: Boris Mann - CEO and Co-Founder of Fission, Organizer of Causal Islands

Co-Host: Zeeshan Lakhani - Staff Research Engineer at Fission, Member of Causal Islands Programming Committee

Causal Islands Theme Song by depatchedmode

Editing by Becky Vazquez

Guests: Steve Krouse of Val Town

Additional Links:

• Val Town
• Future of Coding Podcast
• End-Programmer Programming Essay