r/webdev

I have recently decided to tackle unfinished business in building with Java. Now I am relearning Java - which includes unlearning the old ways of doing things and writing the shortest possible code. In all of this I have been writing code by hand without AI generated code. Although I ask Claude for syntax clarifications and benefits and downsides of using certain methods…

Writing code by hand again gives me the right level of satisfaction after several weeks of AI-dependent development at work. Not only have I rediscovered my passion at home, but I am also working towards evolving my mental model beyond the JS/TS (I am a frontend developer at heart) ecosystem.

I believe programming and development as a hobby - like it used to be pre-industrial-scale-AI-adoption - is one of the few ways we could protect our sanity and continually exercise muscle memory. In the end I would like this to lead me to doing backend web dev in Java as well. Let’s see.

I'm an artist and sometimes I think about how I wanna throw instagram into garbage if it wasn't the only way I get in contact with my clients. Also, I don't wanna depend on algorithms, I just want people who want to look at my art. I'm very basic to webdev, only html, css and javascript, I've made a full stack course last year but it was pretty shit, so I didn't learn much. Any recommendations on how I could start developing a website like this? Picture a gallery like instagram, some announcements tab, maybe a portfolio tab. The only thing that stops me a bit is how to post new drawings and announcements easily without getting into the code, 'cause if it's too difficult then I would not use it

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Over the weekend I built a technical proof of concept showing an LLM running client-side in a browser using Llama.cpp compiled to WASM with WebGPU.

i have been working with spring boot and angular for a few years now and every api i have built or inherited is stateless. jwt in the header, no server session, done. nobody ever questioned it on any project i was on.

but i realized i never really asked myself why we do this by default. i know the usual answers like it scales easily and any instance can handle any request. but it feels like the state just moves somewhere else, to the token, to redis, to the database. so what are we really gaining ?

I've known about Zod, a JavaScript/TypeScript schema validation library, for a while, but I underestimated the size of its ecosystem. After using it for some form validation in React, I thought I'd see how well it integrated with Express. Sure enough, there were several middleware libraries for Zod + Express, so I decided to give one a try. I went with express-zod-safe because it fit my existing setup with very little effort.

Boom, that let me remove roughly 150 lines of custom validation and typing code. For context, the template created by express-generator-typescript is a simple CRUD app with four API endpoints. I hadn't realized how much boilerplate I'd written just to validate objects in the route handlers, including validator functions and some custom request/response types. I also replaced my environment variable validation code with Zod.

Express has been around for a while, but I still find it useful for small projects and demos. If you'd like a quick way to spin up an Express + TypeScript project, check out express-generator-typescript.

I have a website right now that's built in Angular. It's largely static, so I figure an SSG is a good thing to finally try out if I wanted to rebuild it, as I enjoy Angular but it's a bit overkill for the site situation I have.

That said, I do have a few spots where I have lightly interactive elements, such as some pages with tables on them that have a text input for search functionality. Type in some text and it filters the table to that text as you type.

I'm trying to decide which SSG to learn, and for a basic site such as this, would you recommend going with 11ty or Astro, and why?

TL;DR: I usually bill this client $20/hr. They're a company based in Ontario. I quoted $3.5k / $5.2k / $7.4k for a stats dashboard that I also have to host on their server, wire into their messy setup, and make reachable remotely over a VPN. He said too high and that he's shopping around. Was it overpriced, or did I just pitch it badly?

I do small jobs for a lab that tracks production stats, at about $20/hr. I'm in a cheaper country, the client isn't. They asked for a fixed price to replace a Grafana board that only shows today's files, plus some PHP cron reports that fail without anyone noticing.

Their infra is a mess:

• exports land in a shared folder
• old scripts and cron jobs nobody really owns
• reports to management that break silently
• no backups
• no docs on how any of it fits together

I'd be installing and hosting it on their own machine, not my own server. On top of that I'd set up remote viewing and a VPN on their side so a few people can open it from outside the building and I can support it remotely.

What I quoted:

• $3,500: 3 desktop pages, with history, date ranges, compare to the previous period, filters, live reading of their export folder, and a nightly backup.
• $5,200: the above, plus phone and TV layouts, exports, and saved views.
• $7,400: the above, plus logins and roles, admin screens, an activity log, and the remote access and VPN.

Email reports and alerts were optional on top.

His reply: "very high to my understanding, getting a couple of other quotes."

Questions:

1. What would you charge for the 3-page version, given that hosting and setup are on their server?
2. Does being in a cheaper country matter, or do you price for the client's market?
3. Do I send a smaller, cheaper quote before his other quotes come in, or does that make my first quote look made up?

You can apparently use the decimal integer number on browsers to navigate to IP addresses. For instance: http://192.168.1.1 which is the typical address for your router, can be written as: http://3232235777. Of course if you know your own website IP, you could navigate to it through it's decimal form.

Here is the basic calculation, in case you are wondering: 192 × 256³ + 168 × 256² + 1 × 256 + 1 = 3232235777

Edit: You know the popular internet T-Shirts: "There is no place like 127.0.0.1". Here is a freebie someone should make: There is no place like 2130706433".

Have a great rest of your weekend!

In December this year, CSS turns 30 🥳. But after 30 years, we still can’t agree on something as fundamental as how to add it to a website. Should you use CSS modules, Tailwind, CSS-in-JS, or just plain old CSS files?

I really like the idea of an ultrawide monitor, but I’ve never used one before, so I’m not sure if I actually need one. A lot of people who use ultrawides say they can’t go back to a normal monitor, though.

The monitor will be connected to a Dell XPS 15 9510, so I also want to make sure it’s compatible with the laptop. Would I need a docking station for this?

Also, would you recommend an ultrawide, two monitors, three monitors, or maybe one ultrawide + another monitor? etc.

OLED is probably a no-go because of burn-in, right? I know newer OLEDs have improved a lot, but I’m still not sure how much of an issue it is. I’ll barely be watching YouTube, mostly just work-related stuff, and I’m not into gaming. My main concerns are text clarity and easy navigation.

Text clarity is very important for me .

And what about 32:9 vs 21:9 ultrawide? Which one would be better for work/coding?

I’ll definitely test the monitors in-store, but I wanted to do some research here first.

My budget is around 1000-1300 CAD. I could go higher if the better/top-end monitor is actually worth it and something I could keep for many years.

Hey everyone!
I’ve been working as a software developer for a few years, mostly in established companies, and lately I’ve been thinking about exploring freelancing on the side — especially web apps and Shopify/e-commerce development.

I’m pretty comfortable on the technical side, but the business side is completely new territory for me. I don’t really have a freelance portfolio yet since most of my experience comes from company projects, so I’m curious how much of a barrier that actually is when trying to land the first few clients.

I’d love to hear from people who made a similar transition. How did you get your first clients, and at what point did freelancing start becoming meaningful income for you?

I’m also curious about Shopify specifically. It seems like an interesting niche, but I’m still trying to understand what kind of development work businesses actually pay freelancers for and whether it’s a good space to specialize in.

Not necessarily looking to quit my job tomorrow — mostly trying to understand what this path realistically looks like from people who are already doing it.

Would love to hear your experiences!