Get better at software architecture

A newsletter about architecture & design. Focused on JavaScript.

Made with❤️by Alex Kondov

Newsletter Archive

How BlueSky Structure Their App

05/06/2023

In desperate need of inspiration I explored BlueSky's React app

What's been happening lately

24/05/2023

I've shifted my full focus to the front-end ecosystem this year - the UI is the place to be.

Use DBs Without Putting Domain Logic in Them

17/02/2023

The only advice I'd ever dare give about databases - don't write domain logic in them.

I'm Building Something

31/01/2023

This year I wanted to build more and I'm ready to announce my first project.

The Most Important Idea of 2022

30/12/2022

How to translate important programming concepts to front-end development.

Accumulating Unintentional Tech Debt

26/11/2022

How not updating your tools can have catastrophic effects on your systems.

A Half-Hour to Learn JavaScript

31/10/2022

A quick overview of the fundamental JS concepts and an interesting lecture.

We Need Better Tooling

04/10/2022

We don't need faster frameworks, we need a consistent toolchain.

My Book Processing Pipeline

12/09/2022

How I introduced technical debt into my writing and what I did to remove it.

Reading Code: GitHub Hotkey

20/08/2022

Reviewing the library GitHub uses for keyboard shortcuts, written in vanilla JS.

A Testing Philosophy

30/07/2022

I've neglected tests in the past. I no longer make this mistake.

Reading Source Code: React

18/07/2022

Examining React's codebase from the prism of software design.

Why I Like Hexagonal Architecture

24/06/2022

How hexagonal architecture helps to deal with shifting business requirements

Tao of Node is finally out!

31/05/2022

My latest book about building REST APIs with Node.js is now available

Reading Source Code: React-Query

23/05/2022

I'm back to reading open-source projects' code. This time it's React-Query.

The Time I Built a Game

30/04/2022

Working on a game was one of the most enriching experiences in my career.

Functions, Objects and the Principles I Follow

17/04/2022

Each time I find myself coding without known patterns to help me, I rely on fundamental programming principles.

Tings I've Learned About Interviewing People

30/03/2022

A few valuable lessons learned on the other side of the interview table.

Tao of Node

14/03/2022

My long form article with my principles for building Node applications is out.

Ramblings About Clean Code

28/02/2022

I've always considered clean code to be too subjective of a term.

The Hard Things About Front-End Dev

16/02/2022

Front-end development has never been harder than it is today. Here’s why.

The One Time I Needed Computer Science

28/01/2022

The only project I've needed algos and data structures knowledge to deliver

Reading Source Code - Redux

15/01/2022

Reading Redux's source code and reflecting on the decision to use overloading

Best of 2021

28/12/2021

My yearly reflections & the best software engineering resources I found in 2021

How to Understand Large Codebases

13/12/2021

The steps you should take when you're exploring an unfamiliar project

Micro-frontends & Black Friday Sale

25/11/2021

When building large UI applications becomes too hard we must learn how to split them.

Microservices in Patterns

16/10/2021

Thoughts on two microservice-related projects I've worked on in the past.

Writing Good TypeScript and Compiling it Fast

16/10/2021

Let's not forget that TS is its own language with its own learning curve.

Rethinking Design Patterns

30/09/2021

Is it time we put common design patterns under question? Do they help or narrow our design vision?

Functional Architecture

30/08/2021

High-level design using functional programming patterns has never been an easy task.

Functional Programming

26/07/2021

My favourite functional programming resources and why we don't apply it at scale.

Hexagonal Architecture

30/06/2021

The benefits of layered architecture to decouple domain from transport logic.

Tao of React Released

19/05/2021

I just released my first book - Tao of React! A collection of principles when building React apps.

Build. Overcomplicate. Build.

02/04/2021

We start by building, then when we see the software world's real complexity, we start overengineering.

Tao of React Announcement

26/02/2021

I have officially started writing my first book. Lodash library structure review.

Building Resilient Front-End Architecture

19/12/2020

Lessons learned from 2020 and how to architect front-ends so they don't have to be rewritten eveyr two years.

Architecture is More Art than Science

11/12/2020

I'm yet to see a good primer on software architecture - only advice and trade-offs. And that's OK.

Good Tools Solve Problems

05/12/2020

When you're wondering if a technology is worth your attention, consider if it's solving a real problem.

The First Version is Always a Prototype

27/11/2020

Why the first approach to solve a problem is rarely the best one.

Writing Code ≠ Building Software

20/11/2020

There are numerous resources on algorithms and data structures. Few about building non-trivial software.