Published in The Startup·Apr 25, 2020Writing a Babel Plugin with GrandmaHow to Write a Custom Babel Plugin 👵📚 — I wrote a custom Babel plugin that lets you write React with emoji. It was not a productive use of time. How To Write a Babel Plugin In this post I’m going to walk you through how to make a Babel plugin, so you can make your own custom…JavaScript4 min readJavaScript4 min read
Jan 7, 2020In Defence of the ArbitraryThe Art of Getting Things Done with Deadlines — There are few philosophers today who have a truly profound grasp of the universe. Individuals with such inherent wisdom, that to ignore their advice is an exercise in folly. So, when I heard the Aristotle of the 21st century say these words: “This is a new year. A new beginning…Goals3 min readGoals3 min read
Published in Onfido Product and Tech·Jul 24, 2018Animations with React RouterWhen used correctly, animations can greatly improve the user experience. But animating on a page transition which is handled by React Router can be a huge pain — one that we’ve recently had to deal with at Onfido. This post is further to a talk I gave at JS Monthly…React7 min readReact7 min read
Published in codeburst·Apr 16, 2018🏎 Mario Kart: CSS 🏁Interactive Mario Kart with Only CSS — People say JavaScript is a bad language. No built-in types, a fatiguing ecosystem, and demanding you to constantly explain, “no, no, JavaScript” to anyone even vaguely non-technical. That’s why for my new Mario Kart knock-off game, I’ve logically decided against using JavaScript at all. To be clear, this is 100%…CSS4 min readCSS4 min read
Published in Onfido Product and Tech·Mar 28, 2018🔥 Speeding up webpackSeven 3 second changes to reduce build time by 77% — It’s only so often you can wait 5 whole seconds for your build to apply your color: blue; to color: red; change… At Onfido, we use webpack as our module bundler. …Webpack5 min readWebpack5 min read
Published in codeburst·Feb 26, 2018⏱ Announcing SMP: Speeding Up webpack With TimersMeasure the speed of your webpack loaders and plugins — Measuring may not be the sexiest part of going fast, but it’s an important one. That’s why I’m excited to announce the Speed Measure Plugin for webpack, that I’ve been working on. …JavaScript3 min readJavaScript3 min read
Published in Onfido Product and Tech·Jan 8, 2018A Chip off The MonolithThis post is about how we at Onfido recently chipped out a React SPA from a Rails/Ember monolith, with no feature/code-freeze. Most companies have monoliths that they regret. We all know the pattern: code is added to one repo at crunch-time because it’s easier. Splitting out a separate pipeline would…React6 min readReact6 min read
