Wes and Scott talk with Chad Whitacre, the newest member of the Syntax team, about all things open source—licenses, controversies, economics, and ethics. Chad breaks down what most people misunderstand, and how companies can support sustainable software development the right way. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:39 Meet Chad Whitacre 03:39 Chad’s retro headphones Retrospekt 05:00 Chad’s role at Syntax https://syntax.fm/oss Open Path 09:41 What do people get wrong about open source? 11:11 Why is open source so divisive? 13:01 The evolution of open source and free software 17:55 Single vendor vs. community open source 20:22 How do people build businesses off of a GPL license? 24:40 What’s the most pure version of open source? 26:55 Fair source licensing explained 30:30 Brought to you by Sentry.io 33:09 Should you be concerned about dependencies in your app in relation to licensing? Fair Source 35:16 What’s the most interesting/unusual open source license? Beerware License 40:00 What is Open Source Pledge? Open Source Pledge 45:41 Choosing the right open source license 48:31 Wes’ most popular open source project wait 49:39 Interesting open source projects Mercedes-Benz embraces Open Source Porsche Open Source Platform 51:33 Licensing for educational content 53:46 The beauty of open source Plausible 56:12 Scott’s various open source projects 56:44 The importance of contributing to open source projects 59:16 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Chad: Save The Cat! Shameless Plugs Chad: Coming soon Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Wes and Scott talk about the origins of Syntax, sharing how a friendly course name conflict led to a mastermind group, then a podcast, and eventually a full-blown media brand. They also reflect on key milestones, from early episodes and sponsorships to joining Sentry, expanding the team, and what’s next. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:51 How Wes and Scott met Scott Tolinski & The Origins of LevelUpTuts LevelUpTutorials WesBos.com 09:31 How Syntax got its name Episode 001: React Tools 15:30 Getting sponsors Delicious Brains FreshBooks 18:53 Hasty Treats and expanding the show 22:36 Adding interviews to Syntax SVGs with Sara Soueidan 23:38 Syntax’s first live show Live at JAMstack_conf 27:58 Brought to you by Sentry.io 28:34 Acquisition by Sentry 600th Episode! Major Announcement and Swag Giveaway! 33:56 Hiring a producer Randy Rektor 36:39 Transitioning to video and growing the team Rating and ROASTING Coding Desk Setups CJ Reynolds Kaitlin Bloom 41:47 Launching the merch store Sentry.shop 46:01 The future of Syntax 47:23 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Scott: Crucial X10 Pro 4TB Portable SSD Wes: MONVICT Cordless Glue Gun Shameless Plugs Syntax YouTube Channel Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Light mode? Dark mode? Scott and Wes break down the best ways to implement theme switching in CSS, from prefers-color-scheme to manual overrides. Plus, tips on handling shadows, icons, and the dreaded flash of dark mode! Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:05 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:06 Light and dark mode, things to consider. 02:31 Light and dark mode from scratch. drop-in.css. 04:41 Calculations vs assigned color. 05:32 color-mix and relative color. 08:15 Foreground and background variables. –tint-or-shade: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 95%); –tint-or-shade-harder: color-mix(in oklab, var(–fg), transparent 90%); 09:13 Setting color scheme. 12:38 light-dark function in CSS. 15:48 Manually setting dark mode. 18:43 The challenges with shared caching. 19:33 Tailwind CSS implementation. Tailwind dark-mode. 19:52 Shoehorning in dark mode. 22:25 Other things to consider. 22:28 Color contrast. Lea Verou contrast-color. 24:39 Logos. 25:22 Icons and images. 26:20 Accessibility. Polypane. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes talk about the planning process for a major redesign of the Syntax.fm website. They share their thoughts on organizing tasks, choosing tech, handling styling, and the debates that come with deciding what to keep and what to change. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:36 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 02:48 Why we need version 3.0 of Syntax.fm. Level Up Tutorials, Travis Neilson. 04:41 Project planning and organization. 05:53 The codebase. 09:50 The CSS changes. Episode 770: Design Systems With Brad Frost. 12:27 Tooling. 15:54 Development process. 16:38 Mobile and responsiveness. 18:37 Saving VS Code extension into the repo. 19:56 Using a dev container. 20:53 AI agent rules. 21:35 Code styles. 23:42 Canadian podcast. 24:33 Content storage. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Is Vibe Coding the future of software development or just a fun way to experiment? Scott and Wes talk about coding with AI, the risks of ignoring the details, and the cool (and sometimes cursed) projects they’ve Vibe Coded. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:31 “Personal Software”. 01:30 What exactly is Vibe Coding. 02:46 The challenges of coding with AI. Levelsio Airplane Game. 04:49 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 05:39 Vibe coding quality concerns. 07:25 Vibe Coding as a learning tool. 10:11 Things we’ve Vibe Coded. Scott’s Piano UI on X. Episode 876: MIDI & Music In the Browser. Wes’ Roomba on X. Wes’ Roomba on YouTube. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes dig into the wild world of CSS fonts—covering fallbacks, variable fonts, and new tricks like text-box-trim. They also break down font-display, font kits, and how to avoid layout shifts when loading custom type. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:06 Brought to you by Sentry.io. Damnit Sans. 02:53 @font-face. 03:27 Font Display. 07:40 Avoiding layout shift. Fallbacks. 10:45 Variable fonts. Fontaine. font-kit Wakamai Fondue. Syntax Ep. 782. Font Variation Settings. 16:23 Variable font sizing. 17:46 v-fonts. 19:10 text-box-trim & text-box-edge. text-box-trim examples. 21:28 Browser support. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Wes and Scott talk with Anders Hejlsberg and Daniel Rosenwasser about TypeScript’s leap to native code. They discuss the challenges, trade-offs, and the decision to port TypeScript to Go, unlocking faster compilation, better concurrency, and new possibilities for AI-assisted development. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:38 TypeScript compiler goes native 05:24 Challenges in rebuilding TypeScript 08:49 How long has this been in development? 10:32 What does porting TypeScript to native entail? 16:36 Why choose Go? 26:48 The porting process 35:02 Brought to you by Sentry.io 35:27 Type checking and parallel compilation 42:36 Fixing TypeScript’s performance bottlenecks 49:09 Large TypeScript codebases 54:11 What’s the timeline for the new compiler? 58:39 Optimization and AI 01:00:32 New features? 01:04:15 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Daniel: pprof-it Anders: USB Hand Warmers Shameless Plugs TypeScript Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

What are Web Vitals, and why should you care? Scott and Wes break down metrics like LCP, FCP, CLS, and INP, explaining what they measure, how they impact your site’s performance, and how to track them yourself. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 03:26 What each web vital means. Web Vitals Playground. 03:38 LCP - Largest Contentful Paint. 05:04 FCP - First Contentful Paint. 06:07 CLS - Cumulative Layout Shift. 10:58 INP - Interaction to Next Paint. 13:43 Measuring the impact. 14:22 TTFB - Time to First Byte 15:27 How to track this on your own. 17:42 Checking the performance of Syntax.fm. 21:07 Brought to you by Sentry.io. Sentry Web Vitals. 21:49 Checking the performance of Wes’ site. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Wes and Scott talk with Aaron Francis about Fusion for Laravel, a new way to seamlessly integrate PHP into JavaScript. They discuss how Fusion expands on Inertia, its potential for React support, and how it simplifies full-stack development. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 01:22 Aaron’s background in PHP Yii Laravel 02:27 What is Fusion for Laravel? Fusion for Laravel 09:14 How Fusion works 13:57 The benefits of Laravel 19:18 Invalidation and caching 25:20 Brought to you by Sentry.io 25:32 Optimistic UI 28:28 React integration? 31:44 Fusion’s original name (and the naming process) 33:30 Laravel’s approach to frontend frameworks Livewire 37:32 Databases and scaling 41:27 Postgres extensibility and hosting options Crunchy Data Xata 47:44 The vision for Fusion 48:31 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs Sick Picks Aaron: Better Display CLI Shameless Plugs Aaron: High Performance SQLite Mastering Postgres Screencasting.com Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads

Scott and Wes answer your listener questions! They debate Axios vs. Fetch, discuss whether Next.js is overkill without a backend, talk htmx and Alpine, dive into tech career transitions, and tackle everything from podcast ads to password hashing myths. Show Notes 00:00 Welcome to Syntax! 00:55 Scott’s health update. 04:11 Submit your questions. 04:26 Is Axios still worth using over Fetch? shiki. xior. ky. 10:17 Does Alpine.js solve HTMX’s client-side limitations? Syntax Ep. 868: The State of JavaScript. Server Driven Web Apps With HTMX. Syntax Ep. 568: Supper Club × Caleb Porzio. Alpine.js. Inertia.js. 16:47 How should I host my database for a local-first app? Neon Tech 22:50 Brought to you by Sentry.io. 24:14 Should I use Next.js if I want a separate backend? Create Vite Extra. 32:08 Are ad networks like BuySellAds worth it for podcasts? 36:36 Can I transition from airline pilot to senior software developer? 41:23 Is Base64 encoding a valid alternative to password hashing? 45:43 How do I use unexported functions from a third-party package? 48:09 How do you stay on top of package and browser updates? Syntax Ep. 425: Updating Project Dependencies. npm-check-update. 52:38 Why are Chrome and Firefox’s mobile presets outdated? 57:20 Should I give feedback on bad UX/UI designs from agencies? 01:01:53 Sick Picks + Shameless Plugs. Sick Picks Scott: Nothing Ear (a). Wes: SmallRig Phone Cage. Shameless Plugs Wes: Syntax on YouTube. Hit us up on Socials! Syntax: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Wes: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Scott: X Instagram Tiktok LinkedIn Threads Randy: X Instagram YouTube Threads