Off The Main Thread

Latest Episodes:

Canvas-based Web Apps Mar 25, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Surma talks about web apps that (partly) abandon the DOM and use canvas instead, to take rendering matters into their own hands. Figma is one popular app that uses this approach, while Flutter is an entire app platform that went with this technique to provide portability. Jake and Surma discuss the tradeoffs of building apps this way.

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The Apple PWA Ban Mar 01, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Jake chats about the latest EU ruling that requires Apple to allow other browser engines on iOS, and how Apple is reacting to it.

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TC39 Roundup and Bevy's ECS Jan 24, 2024

Show notes

In this episode, Surma shares what he learned while getting started with the Bevy Game engine, Entity Component Systems and why they might be useful for the Web. Jake rounds up the newest JavaScript language features that landed in TC39's Stage 3.

Resources:

Bevy Game Engine
Bevy Rendering Pipeline
Buffer-backed Objects, a library by Surma to store objects in ArrayBuffer
Surma built Boids with Bevy: Tweet 1, Tweet 2
When should your alarm go off when daylight savings time kicks in?
TC39 Stage 3 Proposals
ShadowRealm style API on workers
Our previous episode which covers JSON imports.
The JSON spec.
Pushing up the daisies.

The Big Build Bool Bonanaza II Dec 27, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Jake investigates whether the existence of build tools is a symptom of the web being underpowered, or if they are part of the solution to make the web better. Surma shares his experience of learning about Bazel and how it can be used to build web projects.

Resources:

Touching cloth.
Emirates silly class.
Yes, we have done "The big build tool bonanza" before.
Jake: Although "Terry's ringpull museum" isn't a real thing, the closest thing that comes to mind is a site I still use every time I buy a new pair of shoes, it's Ian's Shoelace Site.
Jake's 10 year old blog posts on progressive enhancement.
NextJS server actions.
Rollup's docs.
Jake and Surma's talk on writing custom Rollup plugins.
Vite.
Some of the issues with HTTP/2 push.
HTTP 203 episode on importing JSON.
Using import attributes with build tools.
Improving TypeScript types for import attributes.
Silly view transition demo.
Jason Lengstorf video: 4 Web Devs, 1 App Idea.
Bazel.
Aspect's Bazel rules for JavaScript.
Bazel Remote Caching.

WebGPU and Browser Ideologies Nov 29, 2023

Show notes

In this episode, Surma talks about the "GPU" in "WebGPU" and how this new web standard makes programming for the GPU more accessible. Jake talks about how different browsers approach standards and their perceived ideologies around what they prioritize.

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