Weekly Digest - Issue #17

The 17th issue of Weekly Digest is out! Today you can read about Postgres triggers to make your backend simple, Java Garbage Collector, how some guy powers his webpage (and office) with solar panels and some nice UX case studies!

Business and (side)project section

1. That won’t scale! Or present cost vs. future value.

https://codesolo.substack.com/p/that-wont-scale-or-present-cost-vs

This a quick write-up about developers who tend to pick more sophisticated solutions - to make sure the future will be “handled better”. But it is needed? In many cases changing from “not scalable” to a “scalable” solution is not as hard as it seems. And starting with something simpler is faster!

2. Two important lessons I learned rolling out a new platform feature

https://jaywhy13.hashnode.dev/two-important-lessons-i-learned-rolling-out-a-new-platform-feature

What you can learn during rolling out a new feature in your app? This guy’s team rollouts a multi-factor authentication feature for customers. Read (or listen, there is a player on the top!) about how rollout goes and what lessons were learned (confirming risks and building end-to-end).

Developer section

3. How Postgres Triggers Can Simplify Your Backend Development

https://themythicalengineer.com/how-postgres-triggers-can-simplify-your-backend-development.html

We write a lot of code today (eg. Java, C#, JavaScript/TypeScript and so on), especially if it comes to saving and reading data from the database. Sometimes we can simplify backend code by relying on database features - like triggers. But we must be aware that it has both pros and cons - so choose wisely!

4. Z Garbage Collector: The Next Generation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnodHoNYE1Y

ZGC is the new (ok, the initial version was released with JDK11!) garbage collector for JVM. The presentation reviews its design goals, architecture and some general guidance on selecting GC. Worth watching if you had some problems with the garbage collector in the past!

5. What Should I Know About Garbage Collection as a Java Developer?

https://www.azul.com/blog/what-should-i-know-about-garbage-collection-as-a-java-developer/

Continuing garbage collector topic in Java - a summary of what is GC, how it works and some other important pieces of information.