Tony Sullivan

MCP is the wrong answer to a problem solved decades ago

We are reinventing the self-describing web with MCP. Here is why we should have stuck with REST, XML, and XSLT instead of bolting on new protocols.

What exactly does a software engineer do when he takes a break from the keyboard?

Nearly a year later and I’m (mostly) caught up on farm projects and ready to dust off the old MoErgo Glove 80.

I have a few blog posts in the works, and stay tuned for an update on my new gig!

🎯 2024 prediction

Web development is going to see a big push towards no-build libraries and frameworks (probably an overcorrection?)

Unless https://nodejs.org can add built-in support for https://www.typescriptlang.org, that might be the start of a real shift towards https://deno.land

The hidden costs of JS metaframeworks

There are some really important implications of building your web product with a metaframework. These don't get talked about enough.

If “fullstack dev” wasn’t a thing, would tools like Tailwind and NextJS still be popular?

If a new hire dev needs to manage everything from the database to CSS, of course they’ll reach for magic solutions that promise to do everything.

I can’t help but think these tools were reactions to the industry abandoning specialization.

Web 3.0 is officially here

And no, it isn't git masquerading as a monetary policy. The web is moving from an ad platform to an AI training platform.

JSON APIs are a code smell 🌶️

HTMX is so compelling because it actually writes sane frontends for once.

The backend is the final say in state, authorization, and error handling. Expecting the frontend to optimistically duplicate all this logic is an impossible task.

Using the latest frameworks & libraries can absolutely help you ship faster

Once it’s shipped though, you have much less tech debt if you stuck with “boring” tech

I’ve got a hunch there’s a strong correlation between # of dependencies and faith in the product-market fit

To the end, if love to see a “feature complete” flag similar to deprecation warnings

Would be handy to know a dependency is still actively maintained and the API won’t break on me later

It sure looks like Russia and Belarus have their eyes on the Suwalki Gap. I hope I’m wrong.

The existential risk of AI isn’t bad actors, it’s our own arrogance.

Assuming that intent matters depends on being able to first predict the outcome.

We still can’t even say how or why existing AI do what they do, we definitely can’t predict the outcome of new changes.

It’s interesting to see the media largely label this song as right-wing populism.

The lyrics absolutely are populist, but there’s nothing left/right about it.

If anything this is a protest song that should bring us all together, shining a light on how far we’ve slid away from governments that work for the people rather than control them.

Just use the platform.

The whole MPA vs. SPA debate in web development really was poorly named, obscuring the main point. Here's why.

Is the Fed to blame for the collapse of SVB?

Plenty has been said about the risk of investments SVB held - were they playing a game the Fed designed?

We’re back to quantitative easing while inflation is still high and interest rate hikes are still planned

I don’t even know what to make of that. Hitting the gas and brake pedals at the same time is only a good idea if you’re making a Tokyo Drift sequel

astro-webfinger 2.0

Introducing support for multiple accounts and server-side rendering

Frameworks come and go, HTML is forever.

Getting started in web development? Do yourself a favor and learn HTML, CSS, and JS first.

You’ll need those skills whether you end up in a WordPress project or building web apps with NextJS + react + Tailwind + …

The idea of a JS framework based on Finite State Machines got me thinking

Its really interesting to see JS frameworks shift back towards server rendering.

What if we leaning into web components and treating the DOM as our state?

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Interactivity is managed by custom element attributes.

Site logic might boil down to really thin event handlers that querySelect()s a node and toggles an attribute.

This would leave a lot of state logic we’re used to today without a home…

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Have state that doesn’t make sense in the DOM? It belongs on the server.

HTML partials would be really interesting here. Leave complex business logic on the server, only asking the browser for enough resources to handle basic user interactivity

What I look for in an SSR router

Routing in an SSR framework is complicated - here's my must-have list for a request routing API.

🎯 2024 prediction

Google announces that JavaScript execution will be disabled again for search crawlers

Routing on the web is complicated - our routers should be simple

URLs are a fundamental part of the web, and a surprisingly complicated problem. Routing in JavaScript frameworks keeps getting more complex — it's about time we standardize on a simple, universal spec.

Great read that’s been making the rounds recently, especially the history of how we ended up with so much client-side rendering

https://dev.to/oxharris/rethinking-the-modern-web-5cn1

Also highlights what brought me to Astro in the first, [HTML, CSS, JS] > Build_Step > [HTML, CSS, ...JS?]

Opinions aside, I keep running into two fundamental blockers with Tailwind CSS … not quite sure what to do about these yet

👇 🧵

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Logical properties like padding-inline or block-size fundamentally won’t work

i.e. it only really works with left-to-right (LTR) languages

That’s fine for a smaller project, but a show stopper for a properly translated site like Astro’s docs

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Code splitting seems to be a real challenge regardless of framework

Utility classes used on any page often bleed out to every page on the site

Call it a bundler challenge or even an optimization for page transitions, but I don’t want complex /admin styles on my landing page

Great to see partial support for logical properties coming to Tailwind CSS soon! https://github.com/tailwindlabs/tailwindcss/pull/10166

The naming collision issues here really highlight the risk of leaning on class names vs CSS variables

Open Props avoids that whole headache

Still not sure about the future of Mastodon, but I really appreciate that it makes no bones about being federated

I always hated that bitcoin was described as decentralized, ignoring that having more than one head says nothing for privacy or security

The web needs more indie

The web wasn't designed to be dominated by a handful of companies - it's about time we take it back.

Had some fun this weekend testing out Astro content collections with schemas published to NPM

Why publish schemas to NPM?

Content should be portable (see Markdown), if we can standardize schemas our content can be used in different sites and themes 🤔

Introducing astro-fathom

Easily add and debug Fathom Analytics on your Astro sites.

Introducing astro-webfinger

Integrating Mastodon profiles with Astro.

Still not sold on Mastodon as the answer to social media but that won’t stop me from trying to self-hosted it!

🦣 [email protected]

“Would you like a straw?”

Translation: “Do you know how to use a glass?”

Introducing The Astro Showcase

Explore beautiful community websites built with Astro.

Astro Themes & Integrations

Introducing: a growing catalog of themes, components, and integrations to jumpstart your next Astro project.

How to use Web Components in Astro

Building custom elements in plain old JavaScript + trying out the new Astro.resolve() API!

The power of simplicity

easy to get swept up in the latest libraries and platforms, but don't underestimate the time savings of "boring" tech.

Astro + Foresty CMS Revisited

Static sites powered by Forestry's git-based CMS, made even easier.

Converting our site to Astro

Spoiler - you probably don't need a kitchen sink framework.

Animated page transitions in Astro with Swup

Static doesn't mean boring! Easily add client routing and page transition animations with swup.js

Astro + Snipcart

Scalable e-commerce made easy with the Jamstack.

Astro + Foresty CMS

Static sites powered by Forestry's git-based CMS, made easy.

Class properties in Svelte

A handy trick to make your Svelte components feel even more like plain old HTML.

Astro + Netlify CMS

Static sites powered by a git-based CMS, made easy.

Keeping it simple with Astro

Do you really need all that JavaScript?

The power of Svelte actions

When you should `use:` actions in Svelte.

Introducing chisel.css

A (work-in-progress) minimalist CSS framework.

Including json+ld structured data in Svelte

Easily add json+ld structured data to pages build in Svelte, with TypeScript type checking!

Web Accessibility: Hidden links make all the difference

For visitors that use a keyboard or screen reader to navigate websites, hidden quick links can make a site much more enjoyable.

Progressively enhancing Svelte with JavaScript

That's right! Your site built with a JS framework with client-side code can still support users with JS disabled.

Jamstack 2.0

The Jamstack is evolving. Where did it start, and what does it look like in 2021?

Introducing svelte-entity-store

A (work-in-progress) generic entity store for Svelte projects.