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Posts by Cathal Mac Donnacha

I'd love to see more real world examples. Perhaps that's just something I can search across GitHub, but I'd love official guidance on how to deal with hundreds of handlers with scenarios, how to structure them all, keep them performant (import all handlers at once Vs just the few that are needed).

2 weeks ago 1 0 1 0

I'm going to experiment with migrating to Vitest + browser mode to see if that improves things.

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

If you're still using Jest, you may find this article useful to help speed up your tests.

cathalmacdonnacha.com/fixing-slow-...

#frontend #jest #testing

1 month ago 0 0 1 0

claude --worktree is amazing ๐ŸคŒ

1 month ago 0 0 0 0

What are some ways AI tools have helped you with your frontend projects? Specifically the design side.

#frontend #ai #claude #chatgpt #webdev

7 months ago 1 0 0 0

Hey Artem, curious if you ever get around to this one? If so, how did it go?

7 months ago 3 1 1 0

I tend to use pagination when users need shareable links or to give a sense of how much data is left (e.g. โ€œpage 3 of 10 in blue t-shirtsโ€).

Use virtual scroll for endless browsing (e.g. social feeds).
๐Ÿ“‘ Pagination = easy to share & measure.
๐Ÿ“œ Virtual scroll = easy to scroll.

#frontend #ux #webdev

7 months ago 2 0 0 0

When diving into a new codebase I find that tests serve as the best documentation.

#software #webdev #programming

8 months ago 1 0 0 0
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Screenshot of referrers from a blog (http://cathalmacdonnacha.com/)

Screenshot of referrers from a blog (http://cathalmacdonnacha.com/)

I guess ChatGPT is training itself on my blog now ๐Ÿ˜‚

#blogging #chatgpt #software

9 months ago 1 0 0 0
accessibility view in chrome dev tools elements tab

accessibility view in chrome dev tools elements tab

TIL: Chrome Dev Tools has an accessibility view โ™ฟ๏ธ

#frontend #chrome #webdev

9 months ago 2 0 1 0
The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown | Better Offline
The Truth About Software Development with Carl Brown | Better Offline YouTube video by Better Offline

This is a real level headed take on AI and the perceived notion that it's going to completely take over software engineering roles:

youtu.be/mbEzhI3cmmo?...

10 months ago 1 0 0 0

Google cloud build

10 months ago 0 0 1 0

We find our current jest/JSDOM/testing library setup varies quite considerably. Our fast Macbooks run test quote fast, but can sometimes fail on our CI machine due to timeouts.

10 months ago 1 0 2 0

How do you manage the difference in test times between local and ci? Tests which run fine locally could be slow on ci and timeout/fail. Depends on the resources used on the ci machine I guess.

10 months ago 0 0 1 0

I love the idea, but if I was to try and evangelise this in my team I feel like it would just come across as another thing to maintain. I can't say we've hit a pain point where API field changes have broken things either as we have good communication. Still intrigued though!

10 months ago 1 0 0 0
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React Compiler RC โ€“ React The library for web and native user interfaces

React Compiler RC is now available! We've added support for swc and are working towards a stable release react.dev/blog/2025/04...

11 months ago 108 26 0 3

Before I begin any refactoring, I always have a look at the tests first to make sure they're up to scratch. This way I can be fairly confident that I won't break anything in the process.

Emphasis on "fairly". ๐Ÿ˜‚

#software #programming #frontend

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

For sure. I'm cool to use it if it's in and around the same speed, and of course there's a trade off with gaining confidence with less mocking, but if a test suite takes double the amount of time, that's double the resources on our CI/CD machine, which could be a no-go.

1 year ago 1 0 0 0
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Nice, I think I just need to sign up to the course ๐Ÿ˜

That's the amazing thing, less mocking when not needed.

Have you noticed much of a speed difference between browser mode and running the likes of JSDOM?

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

Yea, mocking "navigate" in jsdom has been a pain for us.

Have you experienced slower test speeds given you're spinning up a browser?

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

I wonder what the reluctance is to move it from experimental to beta? For better or worse, companies I've worked for in the past have had policies to only use production ready libraries. Beta or experimental weren't allowed, no matter how safe they were perceived to be.

1 year ago 1 0 2 0

Nice. I'd be interested to hear about that experience in terms of speed and dx differences. Right now our jest tests often time out. We also often have to mock "window.location" if a button triggers a "navigate" to another URL. Can those scenarios be handled in vitest browser mode?

1 year ago 1 0 1 0

Yea I have been following browser mode in vitest, but it's still in experimental mode right? I don't think I could recommend it to my teams just yet until it's production ready. Do you find it much slower compared to a typical jest test?

1 year ago 1 0 3 0

I have been keeping an eye on that, but as far as I know it's still in experimental mode right? I wouldn't be able to start recommending that to my teams until it's production ready tbh. Looking forward to that though. Is running in browser mode with vitest slower than a typical jest test?

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

Do you still use Jest/Vitest with React Testing Library? I would much prefer testing using a real browser, but have always found these to be much faster to write and easier to maintain.

1 year ago 1 0 2 0
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Cypress vs Playwright: Which is best for E2E testing? Cypress was our go-to end-to-end (E2E) testing tool, and we were pretty happy with it, up until recently that is. Lately, we've run into a couple of testing scenarios where Cypress support has been limited, notably around multiple domains/tabs and iF...

We actually use Playwright as well and I did up an ADR to compare it with Cypress before pulling the trigger. It's outdated, but these were the reasons:

cathalmacdonnacha.com/cypress-vs-p...

1 year ago 1 0 0 0
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"To persuade a few is better than to convince many."

This has always been my approach when introducing any new tools or patterns to wider teams.

#software #programming #frontend

1 year ago 2 0 1 0

The first thing I do when I want to familiarize myself with a new area in a codebase is check out the tests.

Tests are a great form of documentation.

#frontend #software #programming

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

This is really nice for those obvious mistakes, thanks for adding it! My fear though is that junior devs will blindly commit suggestions, even though they may not be correct.

1 year ago 0 0 0 0

๐Ÿ”ฅ Want to improve UX on your frontend? Don't make users think. Keep it simple, intuitive, and effortless. The best UX is invisible - it just works.

#ux #frontend

1 year ago 0 0 0 0