Rodney Lab Newsletter — December 2023Rodney Lab Newsletter — December 2023
🚀 Astro 4.0, ❤️ SvelteKit 2 & 🔥 Vite 5 #
I’m amazed at the rate of front end and full stack web app development this year, with Astro, Leptos, Remix and SvelteKit advancing in leaps and bounds on already marvellous products. Astro 4 is now out, and not too far behind Astro 3! The reasoning behind the quickened cadence is to integrate the latest Vite version, Vite 5. There is more to Astro 4 than Vite 5, though! Astro 4 brings a new dev toolbar, which floats at the bottom of your browser window (only when running Astro in development mode).
SvelteKit is also being updated to use Vite 5. SvelteKit 2 will bring new routing enhancements and has internationalization in the pipeline.
See these docs for switching to the latest versions:
🧑🏽💻 Follower Feedback — Organization #
I sometimes get asked about how I organize my workflow and stay efficient. I am always trying new apps and techniques, but here is what I am using right now.
Outlining
I find outlining useful, when diving into a new field; making full use of apps like Obsidian or Roam Research, with subject graphs. I love Obsidian, and use it daily, though I have been trying Logseq for outlining. Logseq is open-source, and ergonomic, letting you drop images and videos into your notes. It gives you a journal page for each day, where I dump everything (adding links to pages). This proves invaluable for later, finding content, as I might forget a term, but typically do remember (roughly) when I worked on something.
Another productivity app I like is AppFlowy, which I mentioned in last month’s newsletter. The Kanban and calendar features are handy for maintaining a content pipeline.
Bullet Journaling
In terms of organization, I like the Bullet Journal strategy. Each month, you list items you want to get through. Daily, you maintain a journal with one-line summaries of each task you worked on. At the end of the month, it is time to create a new to-do list, starting by transferring non-completed tasks from the previous month. This is the most useful part, where I can mindfully filter out stalled projects, clearing time for new interests.
Workflowy is another app, which you can use for outlining, creating a bullet journal (though the recommended approach is to use a physical, paper notebook) and other techniques. Although I do not use the app, the Workflowy blog is a great resource for researching the techniques mentioned above, and others.
📢 Fun Finds #
- Services Shuttle — This service is amazing — it lets you quickly spin up a Rust service, without having to set up Docker containers yourself. You just build your app locally, then run the deploy command, through their CLI app. They support Axum and other Rust web frameworks. It is a lot more flexible than using Rust WASM through Cloudflare Workers, Deno deploy etc., with access to the file system and more. I’m building an image API using Axum.
- Tooling — SFML: C++ game tooling, which lets you spin up a game in no time. Although not officially a game engine (you have to add your own collision logic, etc.), it takes you a long way to getting your game running quickly. I created an Arkanoid arcade game clone based on an old YouTube tutorial.
- Productivity Tailspin — A lightning fast log highlighter, written in Rust. With automatic highlights for dates, keywords, paths and more, it will help you debug issues in quick sticks!
👋🏽 Until next time! #
I wish you every success in 2024, and hope you are able to further the gains already made this year!
Hope there was something valuable in here for you. As always, reach out with feedback. Here are some links to recent content, which I hope you will find useful: