Woohoo! The nineteenth issue of Weekly Digest is here. Today you can read about (among others of course!) writing a new browser, low code (and lies behind it), some interesting stuff about JavaScript and why subtitles are needed now when watching videos!

Business and (side)project section

1. When “free forever” means “free for the next 4 months”

https://blog.zulip.com/2023/05/04/when-free-forever-is-4-months/

If you provide something for free, mark it as “forever free” and then remove this freebie - for sure you will see unpleasant responses. And also lose customers’ trust. In this short article Zulip, open-source chat software, is describing what they do to maintain trust - simple rules, worth remembering!

2. Low Code Software Development Is A Lie

https://jaylittle.com/post/view/2023/4/low-code-software-development-is-a-lie

Today low code is on the top - you can see multiple solutions that allow you to jump in, do some magic and have working software. You can also see a lot of examples of “I’ll ask AI to write code for me”. The author states that designing the solution is the most vital (and difficult) part of creating software. And low code solutions don’t help in that matter.

3. How we’re building a browser when it’s supposed to be impossible

https://awesomekling.substack.com/p/how-were-building-a-browser-when

At this moment there are two main browsers - Firefox and Chromium-based (Chrome, Brave, Edge and many others). But people behind SerenityOS are building a new one. And thanks to (among others) focusing “vertical slices” of features, team culture, and deffering on performance work they made good progress - more details and explanation inside!

Developer section

4. Monkey patching in JavaScript

https://www.audero.it/blog/2016/12/05/monkey-patching-javascript/

JavaScript’s monkey patching in nutshell - what is it, how to do it and some pros and cons.

5. JavaScript Algorithms and Data Structures

https://github.com/trekhleb/javascript-algorithms

Comprehensive list of algorithms and data structures written in JavaScript.

6. How To Survive Your Project’s First 100,000 Lines

https://verdagon.dev/blog/first-100k-lines

Notes from building a project with a lot of code lines - and what authors have done to make sure that it will not blow up and be maintainable. Worth applying even if your project is a small one!

https://www.nitrokey.com/news/2023/smartphones-popular-qualcomm-chip-secretly-share-private-information-us-chip-maker

Did you know that your phone can send some data about you without your knowledge? And this is not tied to the operating system (normal or deGoogled Android) but to the chip maker!

8. Why we all need subtitles now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VYJtb2YXae8

Do you have a problem with the understanding voices in TV and movies? That’s not you, the dialogue is now harder to hear. This video explains why.