Podcast Summary
A fun and user-friendly alternative to GitHub Gists and AWS Lambda: Val Town is a social coding platform aimed at providing a more enjoyable experience for both hobbyists and professionals, with a long-term goal of competing with more established platforms.
Val Town is a social website that allows users to write and run code in a browser-based IDE and runtime. It caters to both hobby projects and demo use cases, as well as more advanced production applications. Val Town aims to provide a fun and user-friendly alternative to platforms like GitHub Gists and AWS Lambda. While it currently lacks the scalability and reliability of more established code execution platforms, the long-term goal is to compete in this space. Steve Krause, the founder, shares a passion for teaching programming and reducing confusion and frustration for developers. His background includes 20 years of programming experience, starting with an after-school program that inspired him to create his own company, The Coding Space, which taught kids to code. Val Town is an extension of this mission to make programming more accessible and enjoyable for all.
A new platform for quick and easy coding and sharing of serverless functions inspired by Twitter: Val Town allows users to create, edit, and share serverless functions, called Vals, with 0-deployment time and the ability to import npm packages and interact with others' Vals, revolutionizing the coding experience.
Val Town is a new platform aiming to make coding and sharing code snippets quick and easy, inspired by Twitter's instant publishing feature. Users can create and edit serverless functions, called "Vals," which can be shared and used by others. Val Town's goal is to make Vals function as web primitives, accessible via a URL, with the ability to import npm packages and interact with other users' Vals. The platform's 0-deployment time and social coding aspects make it a unique and innovative solution in the development world. Twitter served as a significant inspiration, with its simple and instant publishing nature, allowing anyone to share content and interact with it on a global scale. The ability to access and use others' code snippets adds a new dimension to the social coding experience, making Val Town a potential game-changer in the world of programming.
From kids' tools to adult dev tools: the speaker's journey: The speaker's research into programming languages and global namespaces led him to discover Unison and apply its futuristic ideas to Val Town, creating a coding environment that captures the ease of use and influence of spreadsheets.
The speaker's journey in building dev tools evolved from focusing on creating tools for kids to building adult dev tools, inspired by his extensive research into programming languages and the concept of a global namespace. This research led him to discover Unison, a distributed programming language with unique features like hash-based identification of code and mutable state. The speaker was drawn to these futuristic ideas and applied them to an existing language, Val Town, instead of creating a new one. The speaker's experience reminds him of the early web, where everyone built their own things and shared them easily, with a low barrier to entry. The speaker started with a focus on no-code or low-code solutions but ultimately found that coding still offers great potential. A key influence was the idea that syntax isn't as difficult to learn as often believed, as demonstrated by the popularity of spreadsheets. Val Town aims to capture the ease of use and influence of spreadsheets in a coding environment.
Coding-first platform with isolated error handling and unique features: Val Town is a coding-first platform that offers a spreadsheet-like experience, focuses on error handling, and includes unique features like every value being one thing and globally available variables. It inspires users through demos and tutorials and is exploring changes like modules and explicit imports/exports.
Val Town is a coding-first platform aiming to provide a spreadsheet-like experience with a focus on isolated error handling. Val Town's creators aim to give users the ability to edit and work on individual cells without affecting the entire system. This coding-first platform also has some unique features, such as every value being one thing, with no import or export, and globally available variables. Val Town offers inspiration to new users through interactive demos and tutorials, acting as a 2-sided marketplace where users inspire each other. The platform is currently exploring changes, such as moving towards modules and explicit exports and imports. Val Town's creators understand the importance of inspiring users and providing early inspiration themselves to kickstart the platform's growth. The primitives, like emailing yourself and scheduling cron jobs, are designed to make Val Town a versatile and continually improving platform.
Val Town's Additional Features for Seamless Developer Experience: Val Town goes beyond its core functionality by offering APIs for evaluating arbitrary code, importing external modules, sending emails, scheduling functions, and importing custom functions. These features simplify common tasks and provide a more intuitive developer experience.
Val Town, a programming platform, offers a variety of features beyond its core functionality, including APIs for evaluating arbitrary code, importing Val modules, and even sending emails. These added features aim to simplify common development tasks, such as importing external Val modules and sending emails, which can often be complex and time-consuming. The email functionality, in particular, is notable for its ease of use, as it allows users to send emails to themselves directly from the console without the need for external services or complex setup processes. The platform also allows for the importing of Val modules using an "@" symbol followed by the module name, creating a magical and intuitive developer experience. However, the platform is considering moving towards more web standard JavaScript imports under the hood for future updates. Other built-in primitives include the ability to schedule functions with cron and importing your own Val functions. The email functionality is currently limited to self-use to prevent abuse, and the platform is considering adding console.sms for text messaging as well. The platform is also debating whether to integrate databases like Upstash and Redis directly for easier use or to simply play well with existing services. Overall, Val Town's additional features aim to streamline common development tasks and provide a more seamless developer experience.
Val Town's Limitations and Future Plans: Val Town, though great for hobbyists and quick scripting, has limitations in handling larger, more complex data use cases due to JSON data format and size limits. The team plans to address these issues and improve the user experience, including exploring JSX support and improving the UI story.
Val Town, while an excellent tool for hobbyists and quick scripting, faces limitations when it comes to handling larger, more serious data use cases. Currently, data is persisted in JSON format, which restricts the use of complex data structures like maps and sets. Additionally, there are size limits. Val Town's long-term vision includes addressing these limitations and scaling for real-world use cases, as the company and its users grow. The UI story for Val Town is not a primary focus, but the team is exploring ways to improve the user experience, such as supporting JSX for rendering components. However, they are being cautious to avoid getting bogged down in the complexities of web standards and various frameworks. For now, users can return and render HTML in Val Town via the express endpoint, but it involves constructing HTML via strings.
Building a platform with Express, Deno, and Remix React: The team is using Express for their API server, Deno for their evaluation server, and Remix React for the front end due to specific features, security, and compatibility reasons. They also plan to use CodeMirror 6 for their front-end editor and Copilot for improved coding experience, and are excited about new web standards like the response API.
The team is currently building a platform using a combination of technologies, including Express for their API server, Deno for their evaluation server, and Remix React for the front end. They chose these specific tools for various reasons, such as the lack of certain features in web standards, the desire for better security, and the compatibility with their existing tech stack. They also discussed the benefits of using CodeMirror 6 for their front-end editor and their plans to integrate Copilot for improved coding experience. The team is excited about the potential of new web standards like the response API and plans to incorporate them as they become available. They also shared their positive experiences with using CodeMirror, Remix, and Deno in their current project. Despite some minor bugs and limitations, they are overall satisfied with their tech stack and look forward to continuing to build and improve their platform.
Team runs Deno evaluation servers on Render: Team uses Render for entire stack, including Deno servers, prioritizes server proximity to database, and calculates CPU time as an aspirational limit.
The team behind a specific project is currently self-hosting their Deno evaluation servers, as they haven't found a suitable alternative platform that offers the required flexibility and fast evaluation times for their use case. They are using Render for their entire stack, including front-end, API server, and Deno evaluation servers. The team stores Vowel text in a Render Postgres database and pulls it out to pass to eval. Render's pricing is based on both wall time and CPU time. Wall time refers to the total hours running, including long-running API requests, while CPU time is the actual time spent computing on the platform's CPUs. The team emphasized that they are making extensive use of Render. Despite the trend towards serverless, they are running their servers rather than relying on external platforms for their specific needs. The team is open to using other platforms in the future if they can meet their requirements. They currently calculate CPU time as an aspirational limit. The project's front-end server runs on two boxes on Render, and they prioritize having their servers near their database over their users.
A versatile tool for developers, especially for IoT projects and plug-in ecosystems: Valetai is a free service that offers Cron Jobs and is useful for hosting code, JSON data, and running jobs for IoT projects, plug-in ecosystems, and data transfer between services.
Valetai, a new service, is currently free for users, but there are plans to introduce paid features in the future. The service is particularly useful for Internet of Things (IoT) projects, as one user's high usage of the service in this area has been identified. Valetai is also a good fit for hosting code for plug-in ecosystems, such as Send Beam, and for hosting dynamic JSON data for custom iPhone widgets. The service is also ideal for running poll jobs or webhook jobs that shuttle data between services and send notifications based on specific triggers. Before the introduction of Cron Jobs on Vercel, there were numerous startups focused on this functionality. Valetai offers this feature for free, making it an attractive alternative. A new user, building an open-source ray cast alternative called Sunbeam, has expressed interest in using Valetai as a co-host for his project's extensions. Overall, Valetai is a versatile and valuable tool for developers, particularly those working on IoT projects and in plug-in ecosystems.
He's creating a Val Town API and Versus Code plugin: He's developing tools to make Val Town more accessible and easier to use, including an API and a plugin for Versus Code.
The community member, He, has developed a Val Town Chrome extension and is working on a more comprehensive API to enhance the Val Town experience. This includes features like reading, listing, and getting a Vowel by version number. He aims to create a Versus Code plugin, allowing users to write and save Vals directly in Versus Code. Seymour Papert, a mathematician and educational researcher, is considered the grandfather of teaching kids to code. He created the Logo programming language, which influenced the development of Scratch, a popular block-based programming language for children. Scratch's design makes it easier for kids to learn programming by using blocks that fit together like Legos and having shapes that hint at their functions. This approach not only helps children learn coding but also develops essential skills like mathematical thinking, debugging, and precise problem-solving.
Transitioning from Scratch to advanced programming languages: Start with Scratch to build a strong foundation, gradually transition to Woof.js for one-to-one mapping of Scratch blocks to JavaScript commands, and focus on syntax to confidently move on to complex projects.
Making the transition from learning the basics of programming with tools like Scratch to more advanced programming languages like JavaScript can be a challenging process for children. To help with this, the speaker recommends starting with Scratch to build a strong foundation in programming concepts, and then gradually transitioning to more advanced tools like Woof.js, which offers a one-to-one mapping of Scratch blocks to JavaScript commands. This allows children to focus on learning syntax without having to grapple with new concepts or APIs all at once. The speaker's ultimate goal is to create a clear progression for children to build upon their foundational knowledge and confidently move on to more complex programming projects. The speaker also mentioned having a deep interest in programming history and recommended checking out Brett Victor, a UI researcher known for his iconic talks and essays on the subject.
Exploring the world of DevTools, programming languages, and their history: Explore resources like Future of Coding podcast, Seymour Papert's books, and 'Dream Machines' for a deeper understanding of coding and education.
For those interested in the world of DevTools, programming languages, and their history, the Future of Coding podcast and community are great resources. Brett Victor, a key figure in this field, inspired the speaker to delve deep into this topic for several years. He also recommended Seymour Papert's books for those passionate about teaching kids to code or learning about education and mathematics. For a comprehensive computer history, the speaker suggested "Dream Machines" by Stripe Press. If starting from scratch, the speaker emphasizes the importance of personalized education and getting specific about one's goals before choosing a coding path. For a general beginner, Scratch is a recommended starting point.
JavaScript for high school game development and animation: JavaScript is a versatile and widely-used first programming language for high school students starting game development and animations, with platforms like Codecademy and Replit supporting its learning.
JavaScript is a recommended first programming language for high school students starting with video game development and animations, as it's more versatile and widely used compared to Scratch or Python. The speaker shares his experience with the evolution of programming language preferences and the success of platforms like Codecademy and Replit. Additionally, he introduces a new discovery in his life, SwitchBot, a product that allows unlocking doors with a button press, providing a convenient solution for apartment dwellers. Lastly, he encourages listeners to sign up for Val Town, a platform for creating and sharing Val animations, and engage in their community.
A conversation about debugging code and the importance of community in Val Town: The Syntax team emphasizes the importance of community and collaboration in overcoming coding challenges and are dedicated to helping developers debug their code and improve their skills.
The Syntax team is dedicated to helping developers debug their code and get it working. They enjoy diving deep into the technical aspects of programming and are always excited to learn and share their knowledge. During this conversation, they discussed various topics related to Val Town, a hypothetical place where developers go to work on their projects. They emphasized the importance of community and collaboration in overcoming coding challenges. The Syntax team is passionate about what they do and are always looking for ways to improve and innovate. They believe that debugging code is an essential part of the development process and are committed to helping others through it. They value the learning experience and the opportunity to engage with the developer community. As the conversation came to a close, the team expressed their gratitude for having been a part of it and looked forward to future discussions. They encouraged listeners to check out their full archive of shows on Syntax.fm and to subscribe or leave a review if they enjoyed the content. Overall, the conversation highlighted the team's enthusiasm for programming, their dedication to helping others, and their commitment to the developer community.
