Just a Spec Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/just-a-spec A podcast about the protocols, the projects, and the people who make the open platform of the Internet possible. © 2025 Just a Spec 8095efaf-1667-50f9-9917-fe1c2b4189de no en-us Wed, 23 Jul 2025 07:36:30 -0700 Tue, 02 Dec 2025 23:12:13 -0800 https://justaspec.transistor.fm/ https://img.transistor.fm/lmEQeODejfdPUj8gSvEfEzGhL16EIvkTYmZ2XSYPJgQ/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS8xMTYw/OTAzYmRiNjZmOGZh/OGJjODQ0ZTFhYzc3/ZmYxOS5qcGVn.jpg Just a Spec https://justaspec.transistor.fm/ episodic Jared White & Ayush Newatia A podcast about the protocols, the projects, and the people who make the open platform of the Internet possible. A podcast about the protocols, the projects, and the people who make the open platform of the Internet possible.. Jared White & Ayush Newatia No No Deploying Your Web App…What Could Go Wrong? 25 25 Deploying Your Web App…What Could Go Wrong? full Buzzsprout-15856742 https://share.transistor.fm/s/30eb479b Congratulations! You’ve got yourself a nice little World-Wide Web site. Now it’s time to deploy it for everyone to enjoy through their World-Wide Web browser. Easy, right? WRONG! Deploying web apps today is the portal to madness and pain, with many levels of misery awaiting as you descend into the depths of Hades. Or…if you play it right, it’s little more than the press of a button. Let’s talk about that in this our Season 2 finale of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Congratulations! You’ve got yourself a nice little World-Wide Web site. Now it’s time to deploy it for everyone to enjoy through their World-Wide Web browser. Easy, right? WRONG! Deploying web apps today is the portal to madness and pain, with many levels of misery awaiting as you descend into the depths of Hades. Or…if you play it right, it’s little more than the press of a button. Let’s talk about that in this our Season 2 finale of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 02 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3197 Deploying web apps today is the portal to madness and pain, with many levels of misery awaiting as you descend into the depths of Hades. Or…if you play it right, it’s little more than the press of a button. Deploying web apps today is the portal to madness and pain, with many levels of misery awaiting as you descend into the depths of Hades. Or…if you play it right, it’s little more than the press of a button. No Your Static Just Zapped Me 24 24 Your Static Just Zapped Me full Buzzsprout-15736551 https://share.transistor.fm/s/281a6799 It's time for some acronym soup: SSG SSR CSR SPA MPA…MEAN? SSI?? PERL??? (Officially not an acronym…) If you're coming down with a headache already, trust us, you're not alone. It's…a lot. Thankfully, Ayush and Jared are here to break it all down for you, as well as talk about some of the history behind the many different rendering modes to be found on the web and when you might reach for one or the other…or on so many projects these days, both!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> It's time for some acronym soup: SSG SSR CSR SPA MPA…MEAN? SSI?? PERL??? (Officially not an acronym…) If you're coming down with a headache already, trust us, you're not alone. It's…a lot. Thankfully, Ayush and Jared are here to break it all down for you, as well as talk about some of the history behind the many different rendering modes to be found on the web and when you might reach for one or the other…or on so many projects these days, both!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 11 Sep 2024 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2816 It's time for some acronym soup: SSG SSR CSR SPA MPA…MEAN? SSI?? PERL??? (Officially not an acronym…) If you're coming down with a headache already, trust us, you're not alone. It's…a lot. Thankfully, Ayush and Jared are here to break it all down for you, as well as talk about some of the history behind the many different rendering modes to be found on the web and when you might reach for one or the other…or on so many projects these days, both! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced... It's time for some acronym soup: SSG SSR CSR SPA MPA…MEAN? SSI?? PERL??? (Officially not an acronym…) If you're coming down with a headache already, trust us, you're not alone. It's…a lot. Thankfully, Ayush and Jared are here to break it all down for you, No Action Web Components for Full-Stack Magic 23 23 Action Web Components for Full-Stack Magic full Buzzsprout-15658335 https://share.transistor.fm/s/eb156cbc What if your backend could drive reactive UI changes on your frontend? Without dependencies? Without relying on any particular framework? What if your HTML could gain full-stack programming superpowers?

Introducing Action Web Components—inspired by clever Ajax techniques of the past & present and ready to march boldly into the future.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> What if your backend could drive reactive UI changes on your frontend? Without dependencies? Without relying on any particular framework? What if your HTML could gain full-stack programming superpowers?

Introducing Action Web Components—inspired by clever Ajax techniques of the past & present and ready to march boldly into the future.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 28 Aug 2024 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2701 What if your backend could drive reactive UI changes on your frontend? Without dependencies? Without relying on any particular framework? What if your HTML could gain full-stack programming superpowers? Introducing Action Web Components—inspired by clever Ajax techniques of the past & present and ready to march boldly into the future. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future Links & Show Notes: Follow Just a Spec on MastodonThe Spicy Web & That HTML Bl... What if your backend could drive reactive UI changes on your frontend? Without dependencies? Without relying on any particular framework? What if your HTML could gain full-stack programming superpowers? Introducing Action Web Components—inspired by cleve No And Lo, There Was ARPANET (Baby Internet!) 22 22 And Lo, There Was ARPANET (Baby Internet!) full Buzzsprout-15589860 https://share.transistor.fm/s/7c80f262 How did the Internet first begin? Why was it developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency? Where was it initially launched at the end of the 1960s? Is it pronounced r-OO-ter or r-OW-ter?? These and other hard-hitting questions are answered as Jared & Ayush take a deep dive into the birth of humanity’s global computer network…with a dash of 90s nostalgia thrown in for good measure.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> How did the Internet first begin? Why was it developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency? Where was it initially launched at the end of the 1960s? Is it pronounced r-OO-ter or r-OW-ter?? These and other hard-hitting questions are answered as Jared & Ayush take a deep dive into the birth of humanity’s global computer network…with a dash of 90s nostalgia thrown in for good measure.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Thu, 15 Aug 2024 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2345 How did the Internet first begin? Why was it developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency? Where was it initially launched at the end of the 1960s? Is it pronounced r-OO-ter or r-OW-ter?? These and other hard-hitting questions are answered as Jared & Ayush take a deep dive into the birth of humanity’s global computer network…with a dash of 90s nostalgia thrown in for good measure. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future Links & Show Notes: Follow Jus... How did the Internet first begin? Why was it developed at the Advanced Research Projects Agency? Where was it initially launched at the end of the 1960s? Is it pronounced r-OO-ter or r-OW-ter?? These and other hard-hitting questions are answered as Jared No The Browser Wars & an Uneasy Peace 21 21 The Browser Wars & an Uneasy Peace full Buzzsprout-15468655 https://share.transistor.fm/s/adb30796 It’s been a wild, wild ride getting from the anything goes origin story of the mainstream web—anyone still remember “Netscape Navigator” and “Trumpet Winsock”?—to today’s carefully-curated experience in the age of Interop and using GitHub to achieve spec consensus.

But the relative calm we enjoy today when it comes to progress and feature parity across browser engines perhaps doesn’t quite tell the whole story…there are still threats to an open web which works well for all, protects our privacy, and guards us from bad actors.

In this episode, we look back at the history of the web browser—touching on such memorable moments as the & tags, DHTML with the launch of JavaScript, and the arrival of responsive design for mobile as well as desktop—while attempting to learn from history so that we’re not doomed to repeat it.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> It’s been a wild, wild ride getting from the anything goes origin story of the mainstream web—anyone still remember “Netscape Navigator” and “Trumpet Winsock”?—to today’s carefully-curated experience in the age of Interop and using GitHub to achieve spec consensus.

But the relative calm we enjoy today when it comes to progress and feature parity across browser engines perhaps doesn’t quite tell the whole story…there are still threats to an open web which works well for all, protects our privacy, and guards us from bad actors.

In this episode, we look back at the history of the web browser—touching on such memorable moments as the & tags, DHTML with the launch of JavaScript, and the arrival of responsive design for mobile as well as desktop—while attempting to learn from history so that we’re not doomed to repeat it.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 24 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2990 It’s been a wild, wild ride getting from the anything goes origin story of the mainstream web—anyone still remember “Netscape Navigator” and “Trumpet Winsock”?—to today’s carefully-curated experience in the age of Interop and using GitHub to achieve spec consensus. But the relative calm we enjoy today when it comes to progress and feature parity across browser engines perhaps doesn’t quite tell the whole story…there are still threats to an open web which works well for all, protects our priv... It’s been a wild, wild ride getting from the anything goes origin story of the mainstream web—anyone still remember “Netscape Navigator” and “Trumpet Winsock”?—to today’s carefully-curated experience in the age of Interop and using GitHub to achieve spec No Pendulum Swings & 2023’s State of JS 20 20 Pendulum Swings & 2023’s State of JS full Buzzsprout-15392956 https://share.transistor.fm/s/efcce500 Whoa, there was one more “State of” survey from 2023 to mine for content! Who knew? Yes, the results are in, and we talk about them…but more broadly, our feelings about the state of web frameworks in our industry and the much-ballyhooed pendulum swing back to server-side rendering and HTML-first techniques (though the rate of change is perhaps not what we might wish for).

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Whoa, there was one more “State of” survey from 2023 to mine for content! Who knew? Yes, the results are in, and we talk about them…but more broadly, our feelings about the state of web frameworks in our industry and the much-ballyhooed pendulum swing back to server-side rendering and HTML-first techniques (though the rate of change is perhaps not what we might wish for).

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 10 Jul 2024 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2495 Whoa, there was one more “State of” survey from 2023 to mine for content! Who knew? Yes, the results are in, and we talk about them…but more broadly, our feelings about the state of web frameworks in our industry and the much-ballyhooed pendulum swing back to server-side rendering and HTML-first techniques (though the rate of change is perhaps not what we might wish for). Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future Links & Show Notes: Follow Just a Spec on Mastodon... Whoa, there was one more “State of” survey from 2023 to mine for content! Who knew? Yes, the results are in, and we talk about them…but more broadly, our feelings about the state of web frameworks in our industry and the much-ballyhooed pendulum swing bac No How Many Books Could ePub Pub if ePub Could Pub Books 19 19 How Many Books Could ePub Pub if ePub Could Pub Books full Buzzsprout-15316893 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8df403eb What if you could take HTML & CSS, package them up in a file, and publish that file as a singular artifact? That's essentially what ePub is. (ePUB? EPUB?) With Ayush's real-world experience publishing e-books, we are guided through understanding more about this important (and sometimes overlooked) spec. Alas, the devil's in the details, and we get into many of those details here on today's episode of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> What if you could take HTML & CSS, package them up in a file, and publish that file as a singular artifact? That's essentially what ePub is. (ePUB? EPUB?) With Ayush's real-world experience publishing e-books, we are guided through understanding more about this important (and sometimes overlooked) spec. Alas, the devil's in the details, and we get into many of those details here on today's episode of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 26 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2159 What if you could take HTML & CSS, package them up in a file, and publish that file as a singular artifact? That's essentially what ePub is. (ePUB? EPUB?) With Ayush's real-world experience publishing e-books, we are guided through understanding more about this important (and sometimes overlooked) spec. Alas, the devil's in the details, and we get into many of those details here on today's episode of Just a Spec. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future Links &... What if you could take HTML & CSS, package them up in a file, and publish that file as a singular artifact? That's essentially what ePub is. (ePUB? EPUB?) With Ayush's real-world experience publishing e-books, we are guided through understanding more No From Frameworks to Using the Platform with Elise Shaffer 18 18 From Frameworks to Using the Platform with Elise Shaffer full Buzzsprout-15238784 https://share.transistor.fm/s/f7b42e8c When you've spent a good portion of your career as a web developer utilizing CSS processors & frameworks, what would lead you to embrace vanilla techniques and modern CSS features? This is the question in the air as we welcome our first ever guest to the show, Elise Shaffer. Elise walks us through her journey learning full-stack development via frameworks like Rails and Tailwind, and then more recently enjoying the freedom and simplicity of web platform features on the frontend. It's a celebration of doing more with less with Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> When you've spent a good portion of your career as a web developer utilizing CSS processors & frameworks, what would lead you to embrace vanilla techniques and modern CSS features? This is the question in the air as we welcome our first ever guest to the show, Elise Shaffer. Elise walks us through her journey learning full-stack development via frameworks like Rails and Tailwind, and then more recently enjoying the freedom and simplicity of web platform features on the frontend. It's a celebration of doing more with less with Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 12 Jun 2024 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2909 When you've spent a good portion of your career as a web developer utilizing CSS processors & frameworks, what would lead you to embrace vanilla techniques and modern CSS features? This is the question in the air as we welcome our first ever guest to the show, Elise Shaffer. Elise walks us through her journey learning full-stack development via frameworks like Rails and Tailwind, and then more recently enjoying the freedom and simplicity of web platform features on the frontend. It's a ce... When you've spent a good portion of your career as a web developer utilizing CSS processors & frameworks, what would lead you to embrace vanilla techniques and modern CSS features? This is the question in the air as we welcome our first ever guest to No HTML Finally Gets the Respect It Deserves 17 17 HTML Finally Gets the Respect It Deserves full Buzzsprout-15158533 https://share.transistor.fm/s/09e2b2d8 The results of the State of HTML 2023 survey are in! It’s an exciting time for HTML which has seen a lot of growth and expansion of capability in a welcome break with the past (when typically CSS and especially JavaScript would leapfrog the rate of change of the Web’s foundational markup language). Still, some might say we need a lot more progress on this front, which is why these survey results—while exhibiting some pressing issues around diversity and broad industry awareness—offer vital insight into the needs of today’s Web developers. Let’s break it all down right here on Just a Spec!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> The results of the State of HTML 2023 survey are in! It’s an exciting time for HTML which has seen a lot of growth and expansion of capability in a welcome break with the past (when typically CSS and especially JavaScript would leapfrog the rate of change of the Web’s foundational markup language). Still, some might say we need a lot more progress on this front, which is why these survey results—while exhibiting some pressing issues around diversity and broad industry awareness—offer vital insight into the needs of today’s Web developers. Let’s break it all down right here on Just a Spec!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 29 May 2024 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2663 The results of the State of HTML 2023 survey are in! It’s an exciting time for HTML which has seen a lot of growth and expansion of capability in a welcome break with the past (when typically CSS and especially JavaScript would leapfrog the rate of change of the Web’s foundational markup language). Still, some might say we need a lot more progress on this front, which is why these survey results—while exhibiting some pressing issues around diversity and broad industry awareness—offer vital in... The results of the State of HTML 2023 survey are in! It’s an exciting time for HTML which has seen a lot of growth and expansion of capability in a welcome break with the past (when typically CSS and especially JavaScript would leapfrog the rate of change No This State of Affairs 16 16 This State of Affairs full Buzzsprout-15074787 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8bdc7234 Where data lives, how to retrieve data, how to change data, how to track updates to data and provide feedback accordingly to the user…in other words, state. Web application development can necessitate a wide range of possible options for how you manage state, and in this episode we look at many of the ways this may work from the server to the client and back again. You may be surprised at some of the “old-school” techniques we end up cheering on in our conversation. Also…how the blazes do you pronounce JWT?! 😂
 
 Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Where data lives, how to retrieve data, how to change data, how to track updates to data and provide feedback accordingly to the user…in other words, state. Web application development can necessitate a wide range of possible options for how you manage state, and in this episode we look at many of the ways this may work from the server to the client and back again. You may be surprised at some of the “old-school” techniques we end up cheering on in our conversation. Also…how the blazes do you pronounce JWT?! 😂
 
 Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 15 May 2024 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 4624 Where data lives, how to retrieve data, how to change data, how to track updates to data and provide feedback accordingly to the user…in other words, state. Web application development can necessitate a wide range of possible options for how you manage state, and in this episode we look at many of the ways this may work from the server to the client and back again. You may be surprised at some of the “old-school” techniques we end up cheering on in our conversation. Also…how the blazes do you... Where data lives, how to retrieve data, how to change data, how to track updates to data and provide feedback accordingly to the user…in other words, state. Web application development can necessitate a wide range of possible options for how you manage st No The Plumbing That Makes the Web Move 15 15 The Plumbing That Makes the Web Move full Buzzsprout-14984809 https://share.transistor.fm/s/f7984b44 Join us for a meaty conversation all about the various levels of specifications and conventions which make the World-Wide Web go: from TCP/IP to HTTP to WebSockets and beyond. We also talk about conventions in various languages and frameworks to enable building web applications servers in a straightforward and portable manner, as well as building a personal knowledge base wiki out of Markdown files and an SSG (Static-Site Generator). Let’s fly!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

Internet Specs:

]]> Join us for a meaty conversation all about the various levels of specifications and conventions which make the World-Wide Web go: from TCP/IP to HTTP to WebSockets and beyond. We also talk about conventions in various languages and frameworks to enable building web applications servers in a straightforward and portable manner, as well as building a personal knowledge base wiki out of Markdown files and an SSG (Static-Site Generator). Let’s fly!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

Internet Specs:

]]> Tue, 30 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3987 Join us for a meaty conversation all about the various levels of specifications and conventions which make the World-Wide Web go: from TCP/IP to HTTP to WebSockets and beyond. We also talk about conventions in various languages and frameworks to enable building web applications servers in a straightforward and portable manner, as well as building a personal knowledge base wiki out of Markdown files and an SSG (Static-Site Generator). Let’s fly! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced ... Join us for a meaty conversation all about the various levels of specifications and conventions which make the World-Wide Web go: from TCP/IP to HTTP to WebSockets and beyond. We also talk about conventions in various languages and frameworks to enable bu No Interop 2024 and the State of the Industry 14 14 Interop 2024 and the State of the Industry full Buzzsprout-14900683 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4bbe0626 Oh yes, we’re back! In this first Just a Spec episode of the year, the lads speculate on the grand conspiracy behind the results publication delay of State of HTML 2023 (not really!), catch up on personal news from during the podcast’s year-end hiatus, and run through a very entertaining list of all the goodies being worked on by browser vendors as part of Interop 2024. And is the complexity of the web platform just too damn high? (At least for anyone wanting to author a new browser engine?) Let’s discuss!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

Interop 2024:

]]> Oh yes, we’re back! In this first Just a Spec episode of the year, the lads speculate on the grand conspiracy behind the results publication delay of State of HTML 2023 (not really!), catch up on personal news from during the podcast’s year-end hiatus, and run through a very entertaining list of all the goodies being worked on by browser vendors as part of Interop 2024. And is the complexity of the web platform just too damn high? (At least for anyone wanting to author a new browser engine?) Let’s discuss!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive Future

Links & Show Notes:

Interop 2024:

]]> Tue, 16 Apr 2024 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3797 Oh yes, we’re back! In this first Just a Spec episode of the year, the lads speculate on the grand conspiracy behind the results publication delay of State of HTML 2023 (not really!), catch up on personal news from during the podcast’s year-end hiatus, and run through a very entertaining list of all the goodies being worked on by browser vendors as part of Interop 2024. And is the complexity of the web platform just too damn high? (At least for anyone wanting to author a new browser engine?) ... Oh yes, we’re back! In this first Just a Spec episode of the year, the lads speculate on the grand conspiracy behind the results publication delay of State of HTML 2023 (not really!), catch up on personal news from during the podcast’s year-end hiatus, an No Thankful for the Modern Web (and a CSS Course!) 13 13 Thankful for the Modern Web (and a CSS Course!) full Buzzsprout-13979129 https://share.transistor.fm/s/c4bbf654 Thanksgiving’s coming up here in the U.S. and we thought it’d be fun to talk about of our favorite aspects of the modern web (and how it compares to the “dark days” of old). In addition, Jared’s launched a brand-new course platform over at The Spicy Web with the first offering being a deep-dive into crafting vanilla CSS architectures and formulating design systems. We talk about that and a bunch of the technical details of the underlying DIY platform. Enjoy this special edition of Just a Spec!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links & Show Notes

Follow Just a Spec on Mastodon

Ayush’s thankful for:

  • Modern web hosting like Render.com
  • The fetch and pushState APIs
  • CSS Flexbox & Grid
  • A brief history of web layout
    • Old-school framesets/frames — they still work! 🤯

Jared’s thankful for:

  • Mobile touchscreens, HTML5 (bye Flash!), and Responsive/Intrinsic Design
  • CSS3 (rounded corners! gradients! shadows! animations!)

Introducing CSS Nouveau: a vanilla CSS architecture course Jared has published on The Spicy Web

]]> Thanksgiving’s coming up here in the U.S. and we thought it’d be fun to talk about of our favorite aspects of the modern web (and how it compares to the “dark days” of old). In addition, Jared’s launched a brand-new course platform over at The Spicy Web with the first offering being a deep-dive into crafting vanilla CSS architectures and formulating design systems. We talk about that and a bunch of the technical details of the underlying DIY platform. Enjoy this special edition of Just a Spec!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links & Show Notes

Follow Just a Spec on Mastodon

Ayush’s thankful for:

  • Modern web hosting like Render.com
  • The fetch and pushState APIs
  • CSS Flexbox & Grid
  • A brief history of web layout
    • Old-school framesets/frames — they still work! 🤯

Jared’s thankful for:

  • Mobile touchscreens, HTML5 (bye Flash!), and Responsive/Intrinsic Design
  • CSS3 (rounded corners! gradients! shadows! animations!)

Introducing CSS Nouveau: a vanilla CSS architecture course Jared has published on The Spicy Web

]]> Wed, 15 Nov 2023 10:00:00 -0800 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3120 Thanksgiving’s coming up here in the U.S. and we thought it’d be fun to talk about of our favorite aspects of the modern web (and how it compares to the “dark days” of old). In addition, Jared’s launched a brand-new course platform over at The Spicy Web with the first offering being a deep-dive into crafting vanilla CSS architectures and formulating design systems. We talk about that and a bunch of the technical details of the underlying DIY platform. Enjoy this special edition of Just a Spec... Thanksgiving’s coming up here in the U.S. and we thought it’d be fun to talk about of our favorite aspects of the modern web (and how it compares to the “dark days” of old). In addition, Jared’s launched a brand-new course platform over at The Spicy Web w No Naming Things 12 12 Naming Things full Buzzsprout-13760471 https://share.transistor.fm/s/aa3bc005 Ah yes, that notorious hard problem in computer science. Time to name some things as we talk abut the philosophy undergirding software development, why “naming things” is hard but also a core aspect of the job, the sometimes reluctance to name things in as disciplined a fashion on the frontend as on the backend, how to communicate across teams and stakeholders via Ubiquitous Language, the importance of embracing modern HTML & CSS semantics when naming things, and so much more.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Ah yes, that notorious hard problem in computer science. Time to name some things as we talk abut the philosophy undergirding software development, why “naming things” is hard but also a core aspect of the job, the sometimes reluctance to name things in as disciplined a fashion on the frontend as on the backend, how to communicate across teams and stakeholders via Ubiquitous Language, the importance of embracing modern HTML & CSS semantics when naming things, and so much more.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Wed, 11 Oct 2023 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3135 Ah yes, that notorious hard problem in computer science. Time to name some things as we talk abut the philosophy undergirding software development, why “naming things” is hard but also a core aspect of the job, the sometimes reluctance to name things in as disciplined a fashion on the frontend as on the backend, how to communicate across teams and stakeholders via Ubiquitous Language, the importance of embracing modern HTML & CSS semantics when naming things, and so much more. Hosted by ... Ah yes, that notorious hard problem in computer science. Time to name some things as we talk abut the philosophy undergirding software development, why “naming things” is hard but also a core aspect of the job, the sometimes reluctance to name things in a No Fast Frontend Testing, Storage, Observers, Fetch, & More 11 11 Fast Frontend Testing, Storage, Observers, Fetch, & More full Buzzsprout-13680822 https://share.transistor.fm/s/8f3db1f5 A whole grab bag of topics today! We talk about some of the well-known storage APIs like localStorage and sessionStorage, as well as the newer IndexedDB API which pairs well with Service Workers. We also talk about the three Observer APIs to help with reacting to DOM mutations, scrolling, and size changes. Apparently fetch DID happen (!), and testing against three headless browsers at once in a fast and reliable manner is easier than ever. All that and more in today’s episode of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> A whole grab bag of topics today! We talk about some of the well-known storage APIs like localStorage and sessionStorage, as well as the newer IndexedDB API which pairs well with Service Workers. We also talk about the three Observer APIs to help with reacting to DOM mutations, scrolling, and size changes. Apparently fetch DID happen (!), and testing against three headless browsers at once in a fast and reliable manner is easier than ever. All that and more in today’s episode of Just a Spec.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Thu, 28 Sep 2023 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3413 A whole grab bag of topics today! We talk about some of the well-known storage APIs like localStorage and sessionStorage, as well as the newer IndexedDB API which pairs well with Service Workers. We also talk about the three Observer APIs to help with reacting to DOM mutations, scrolling, and size changes. Apparently fetch DID happen (!), and testing against three headless browsers at once in a fast and reliable manner is easier than ever. All that and more in today’s episode of Just a Spec. ... A whole grab bag of topics today! We talk about some of the well-known storage APIs like localStorage and sessionStorage, as well as the newer IndexedDB API which pairs well with Service Workers. We also talk about the three Observer APIs to help with rea No A State of CSS 10 10 A State of CSS full Buzzsprout-13585566 https://share.transistor.fm/s/e4fa7dc6 The results of the 2023 State of CSS survey are in, and we're here to break it all down and uncover the most interesting nuggets and opportunities as we look ahead to the future of CSS and the web platform. But not before some spicy meta chat on open source governance and how frequent contributors are treated in light of the recent Hotwire Turbo / TypeScript debacle.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> The results of the 2023 State of CSS survey are in, and we're here to break it all down and uncover the most interesting nuggets and opportunities as we look ahead to the future of CSS and the web platform. But not before some spicy meta chat on open source governance and how frequent contributors are treated in light of the recent Hotwire Turbo / TypeScript debacle.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Wed, 13 Sep 2023 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3895 The results of the 2023 State of CSS survey are in, and we're here to break it all down and uncover the most interesting nuggets and opportunities as we look ahead to the future of CSS and the web platform. But not before some spicy meta chat on open source governance and how frequent contributors are treated in light of the recent Hotwire Turbo / TypeScript debacle. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links: That HTML Blog (Jared)Radioactive Toy (Ayush)Turbo:Remove DHH for CoC Violations - I... The results of the 2023 State of CSS survey are in, and we're here to break it all down and uncover the most interesting nuggets and opportunities as we look ahead to the future of CSS and the web platform. But not before some spicy meta chat on open sour No Turbo, Astro, Server Components, and HTML Over the Wire 9 9 Turbo, Astro, Server Components, and HTML Over the Wire full Buzzsprout-13498828 https://share.transistor.fm/s/ba6e10b1 The lads are back with an action-packed episode full of juicy details about “buildless” architecture & “Turbo” architecture, server components, tools & techniques which encourage server-rendered HTML pages and fragments sent over the wire, making websites which work without JavaScript, the huge pendulum shift we see in the industry back to coupled fullstack DX, and so much more. Grab your notepad because there’s a lot of ground to cover!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> The lads are back with an action-packed episode full of juicy details about “buildless” architecture & “Turbo” architecture, server components, tools & techniques which encourage server-rendered HTML pages and fragments sent over the wire, making websites which work without JavaScript, the huge pendulum shift we see in the industry back to coupled fullstack DX, and so much more. Grab your notepad because there’s a lot of ground to cover!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Wed, 30 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2991 The lads are back with an action-packed episode full of juicy details about “buildless” architecture & “Turbo” architecture, server components, tools & techniques which encourage server-rendered HTML pages and fragments sent over the wire, making websites which work without JavaScript, the huge pendulum shift we see in the industry back to coupled fullstack DX, and so much more. Grab your notepad because there’s a lot of ground to cover! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links: That... The lads are back with an action-packed episode full of juicy details about “buildless” architecture & “Turbo” architecture, server components, tools & techniques which encourage server-rendered HTML pages and fragments sent over the wire, making No The Accessibility Tree 8 8 The Accessibility Tree full Buzzsprout-13417685 https://share.transistor.fm/s/1f8690c9 Gather ’round the accessibility tree, dear listeners, and hear a grand tale about roles and attributes, screen readers and DOM inspectors, and how to be a good A11Y. We also touch on why accessibility isn’t something you bolt on after you design a website but is part of the process from the very beginning.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

Additional resources:

]]> Gather ’round the accessibility tree, dear listeners, and hear a grand tale about roles and attributes, screen readers and DOM inspectors, and how to be a good A11Y. We also touch on why accessibility isn’t something you bolt on after you design a website but is part of the process from the very beginning.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

Additional resources:

]]> Wed, 16 Aug 2023 11:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3393 Gather ’round the accessibility tree, dear listeners, and hear a grand tale about roles and attributes, screen readers and DOM inspectors, and how to be a good A11Y. We also touch on why accessibility isn’t something you bolt on after you design a website but is part of the process from the very beginning. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links: Want to keep the discussion going?Join the The Spicy Web Discord ServerFollow @justaspec@intuitivefuture.com on MastodonHTML Design Principles: Pr... Gather ’round the accessibility tree, dear listeners, and hear a grand tale about roles and attributes, screen readers and DOM inspectors, and how to be a good A11Y. We also touch on why accessibility isn’t something you bolt on after you design a website No Email, Gotta Love It 7 7 Email, Gotta Love It full Buzzsprout-13338391 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4cd58e33 We're here to deep dive into the technical underpinnings of everyone's FAVORITE internet technology: email. ;-P

Amaze your nerd friends with all the exciting trivia you will learn in this action-packed episode!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> We're here to deep dive into the technical underpinnings of everyone's FAVORITE internet technology: email. ;-P

Amaze your nerd friends with all the exciting trivia you will learn in this action-packed episode!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links:

]]> Wed, 02 Aug 2023 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3041 We're here to deep dive into the technical underpinnings of everyone's FAVORITE internet technology: email. ;-P Amaze your nerd friends with all the exciting trivia you will learn in this action-packed episode! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links: From Ayush:ScattergunThe Rails and Hotwire CodexScary weather 😟 Rhodes wildfires - Andy BellHistory of email - WikipediaCompuServe - WikipediaThe Unknown Story of How Hotmail Grew to 12 Million Users in 1.5 YearsDo all email clients use "In-R... We're here to deep dive into the technical underpinnings of everyone's FAVORITE internet technology: email. ;-P Amaze your nerd friends with all the exciting trivia you will learn in this action-packed episode! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links: No TIL About gTLDs, FTW! 6 6 TIL About gTLDs, FTW! full Buzzsprout-13252632 https://share.transistor.fm/s/a3b2e8c3 It’s hard to imagine in this current world of any dot-something you could possibly imagine when looking to register a domain name, but there was once a past era of the internet when all we had was .com, .net, and .org. A dark time. A sad time. How did we get there in the first place? And how did we eventually arrive here at today’s promised land? Join us for this rousing episode all about: gTLDs! (and IANA, and ICANN, and IETF, and…)

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links

]]> It’s hard to imagine in this current world of any dot-something you could possibly imagine when looking to register a domain name, but there was once a past era of the internet when all we had was .com, .net, and .org. A dark time. A sad time. How did we get there in the first place? And how did we eventually arrive here at today’s promised land? Join us for this rousing episode all about: gTLDs! (and IANA, and ICANN, and IETF, and…)

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Links

]]> Wed, 19 Jul 2023 09:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 1782 It’s hard to imagine in this current world of any dot-something you could possibly imagine when looking to register a domain name, but there was once a past era of the internet when all we had was .com, .net, and .org. A dark time. A sad time. How did we get there in the first place? And how did we eventually arrive here at today’s promised land? Join us for this rousing episode all about: gTLDs! (and IANA, and ICANN, and IETF, and…) Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Links ICANN Archives: T... It’s hard to imagine in this current world of any dot-something you could possibly imagine when looking to register a domain name, but there was once a past era of the internet when all we had was .com, .net, and .org. A dark time. A sad time. How did we No Our Top Obscure (but Awesome) HTML Tags 5 5 Our Top Obscure (but Awesome) HTML Tags full Buzzsprout-13166260 https://share.transistor.fm/s/4245a280 Web developers and content authors have a rich array of tags to chose from as they build experiences using HTML. Learn about some of our favorites young and old which may pique your curiosity, as well as enjoy a spirited refresher on the importance of writing semantic and accessible HTML.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

]]> Web developers and content authors have a rich array of tags to chose from as they build experiences using HTML. Learn about some of our favorites young and old which may pique your curiosity, as well as enjoy a spirited refresher on the importance of writing semantic and accessible HTML.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

]]> Wed, 05 Jul 2023 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2829 Web developers and content authors have a rich array of tags to chose from as they build experiences using HTML. Learn about some of our favorites young and old which may pique your curiosity, as well as enjoy a spirited refresher on the importance of writing semantic and accessible HTML. Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Web developers and content authors have a rich array of tags to chose from as they build experiences using HTML. Learn about some of our favorites young and old which may pique your curiosity, as well as enjoy a spirited refresher on the importance of wri No ActivityPub, the Fediverse, and You 4 4 ActivityPub, the Fediverse, and You full Buzzsprout-13082534 https://share.transistor.fm/s/9e3e55e7 Witness the rise of the Fediverse! In this episode we talk about early attempts at building decentralized social networking protocols for the web, the modern effort to craft a true W3C-published standard, challenges at scale with building out ActivityPub-based services, some of the new companies and infrastructure adopting ActivityPub, and what Meta’s upcoming entry to the Fediverse could mean for the future of decentralized social media. Note: we recorded this episode prior to the meltdown of Reddit, so we will not be covering the sudden rise of the "Threadiverse" with software such as Kbin and Lemmy. A topic for another day!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> Witness the rise of the Fediverse! In this episode we talk about early attempts at building decentralized social networking protocols for the web, the modern effort to craft a true W3C-published standard, challenges at scale with building out ActivityPub-based services, some of the new companies and infrastructure adopting ActivityPub, and what Meta’s upcoming entry to the Fediverse could mean for the future of decentralized social media. Note: we recorded this episode prior to the meltdown of Reddit, so we will not be covering the sudden rise of the "Threadiverse" with software such as Kbin and Lemmy. A topic for another day!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 21 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2665 Witness the rise of the Fediverse! In this episode we talk about early attempts at building decentralized social networking protocols for the web, the modern effort to craft a true W3C-published standard, challenges at scale with building out ActivityPub-based services, some of the new companies and infrastructure adopting ActivityPub, and what Meta’s upcoming entry to the Fediverse could mean for the future of decentralized social media. Note: we recorded this episode prior to the meltdown o... Witness the rise of the Fediverse! In this episode we talk about early attempts at building decentralized social networking protocols for the web, the modern effort to craft a true W3C-published standard, challenges at scale with building out ActivityPub- No I Just Wanna Write CSS 3 3 I Just Wanna Write CSS full Buzzsprout-12996379 https://share.transistor.fm/s/6f23219e A whirlwind tour through the history of CSS, where it's landed today, and the myriad of goodies we can expect in the very near future. And do we still need pre/post-processors in this day and age, or can we just, like, y'know, write vanilla CSS?! Also, shockingly, Roy Kent makes an appearance on the show with an epic rant about Tailwind CSS. You're not gonna want to miss this!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> A whirlwind tour through the history of CSS, where it's landed today, and the myriad of goodies we can expect in the very near future. And do we still need pre/post-processors in this day and age, or can we just, like, y'know, write vanilla CSS?! Also, shockingly, Roy Kent makes an appearance on the show with an epic rant about Tailwind CSS. You're not gonna want to miss this!

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> Wed, 07 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2932 A whirlwind tour through the history of CSS, where it's landed today, and the myriad of goodies we can expect in the very near future. And do we still need pre/post-processors in this day and age, or can we just, like, y'know, write vanilla CSS?! Also, shockingly, Roy Kent makes an appearance on the show with an epic rant about Tailwind CSS. You're not gonna want to miss this! Hosted by Jared White & Ayush Show Notes: Zach Leatherman: Pay HTML/CSS devs what they deserveA Brief History o... A whirlwind tour through the history of CSS, where it's landed today, and the myriad of goodies we can expect in the very near future. And do we still need pre/post-processors in this day and age, or can we just, like, y'know, write vanilla CSS?! Also, sh No In The Shadow, In The Light: DSD is Here 2 2 In The Shadow, In The Light: DSD is Here full Buzzsprout-12904434 https://share.transistor.fm/s/857f996a Not just a great Enigma song, shadow and light is the theme today as we dive deep into an exciting new frontend web specification: Declarative Shadow DOM (DSD). Having just landed in Safari as well as Chrome (crossing our fingers for Firefox support soon!), DSD has the potential to transform how we build UI for the web. We also take the opportunity in this episode to wish the World-Wide Web a happy birthday, which was gifted to the public 30 years ago, and to touch on some of the highlights as well as the perils of having a global information network.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> Not just a great Enigma song, shadow and light is the theme today as we dive deep into an exciting new frontend web specification: Declarative Shadow DOM (DSD). Having just landed in Safari as well as Chrome (crossing our fingers for Firefox support soon!), DSD has the potential to transform how we build UI for the web. We also take the opportunity in this episode to wish the World-Wide Web a happy birthday, which was gifted to the public 30 years ago, and to touch on some of the highlights as well as the perils of having a global information network.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Show Notes:

]]> Tue, 23 May 2023 10:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 3051 Not just a great Enigma song, shadow and light is the theme today as we dive deep into an exciting new frontend web specification: Declarative Shadow DOM (DSD). Having just landed in Safari as well as Chrome (crossing our fingers for Firefox support soon!), DSD has the potential to transform how we build UI for the web. We also take the opportunity in this episode to wish the World-Wide Web a happy birthday, which was gifted to the public 30 years ago, and to touch on some of the highlights a... Not just a great Enigma song, shadow and light is the theme today as we dive deep into an exciting new frontend web specification: Declarative Shadow DOM (DSD). Having just landed in Safari as well as Chrome (crossing our fingers for Firefox support soon! No The Past, Present, and Future of the Form Tag 1 1 The Past, Present, and Future of the Form Tag full Buzzsprout-12820185 https://share.transistor.fm/s/b7f06f7e In our kickoff episode of Just a Spec, we take a look back at the early use of forms on the web to facilitate messaging and payments, the introduction of XMLHttpRequest which started the Ajax revolution, how JSON-based API calls began to veer away from the spirit of progressive enhancement, modern page update techniques which still take advantage of form mechanics and HTML transport, and promising new specs like FormData and ElementInternals which propel "vanilla" form technology into the future.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

]]> In our kickoff episode of Just a Spec, we take a look back at the early use of forms on the web to facilitate messaging and payments, the introduction of XMLHttpRequest which started the Ajax revolution, how JSON-based API calls began to veer away from the spirit of progressive enhancement, modern page update techniques which still take advantage of form mechanics and HTML transport, and promising new specs like FormData and ElementInternals which propel "vanilla" form technology into the future.

Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

]]> Tue, 09 May 2023 22:00:00 -0700 Jared White & Ayush Newatia Jared White & Ayush Newatia 2929 In our kickoff episode of Just a Spec, we take a look back at the early use of forms on the web to facilitate messaging and payments, the introduction of XMLHttpRequest which started the Ajax revolution, how JSON-based API calls began to veer away from the spirit of progressive enhancement, modern page update techniques which still take advantage of form mechanics and HTML transport, and promising new specs like FormData and ElementInternals which propel "vanilla" form technology into the fut... In our kickoff episode of Just a Spec, we take a look back at the early use of forms on the web to facilitate messaging and payments, the introduction of XMLHttpRequest which started the Ajax revolution, how JSON-based API calls began to veer away from th No