Newsletter • June 2025

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newsletter

  • Javascript is 30 years old, deno is presenting a nice timeline of the language on a Brief History of JavaScript.

  • Obsidian Bases add databases (like notion) on Obsidian. A long awaited feature. Coupled with the web clipper plugin I think Obsidian will definitively become my read it later app. I still have to find a way to handle links that I open on my phone.
    There is even a tool to convert dataviews to bases.

  • Learn more about TDD with this statistics & Studies: The Benefits Of Test Driven Development. TDD initially increases development time by 15–35% but can reduce pre-release defects by 40–90%. In the long term, delivery is faster and with fewer bugs.
    Also, TDD results in simpler, more maintainable code, though many find adopting the mindset challenging at first.
    Over time, experienced practitioners report coding faster and with greater confidence due to comprehensive test coverage. Its benefits grow as teams gain experience and proficiency.

  • With refactoring Gone Wild: Avoiding code smells and cleaning up the mess, we learn about bad code practices and how to make our code cleaner. How some patterns can improve readability and maintainability. Incremental improvements in refactoring lead to a healthier, more robust codebase and a happier development team

  • Learn more about testing in production with Production tests: a guidebook for better systems and more sleep.

  • Google is updating its Material Design system with Material 3 Expressive Design. This new direction focuses on emotional and expressive user experiences, moving beyond the previous Material Design principles. It emphasizes bold colors, dynamic layouts, and a more human-centric approach to design.

  • How Node.js Works Behind the Scenes - Ever wondered how Node.js handles tons of requests on a single thread? Dive into this article to uncover the secrets of the Node.js event loop, its unique multi-phase design, and how it powers lightning-fast, non-blocking server applications. Take also a look at how JavaScript Works Behind the Scenes and how React Works Behind the Scenes.

  • How Halo on Xbox Scaled to 10+ Million Players using the Saga Pattern - Halo’s engineering team overcame massive scale challenges-processing stats for over 11.6 million players-by shifting from a single SQL database to a distributed, cloud-based architecture powered by the Saga pattern. Discover how this innovative approach enabled Halo 4 to deliver reliable, real-time multiplayer experiences at scale.

  • RATatouille: A Malicious Recipe Hidden in rand-user-agent (Supply Chain Compromise) - A widely used npm package was secretly turned into a stealthy Remote Access Trojan, exposing developers. Discover how this supply chain attack unfolded and what it means for software security.

  • How Riot Games is fighting the war against video game hackers - Riot Games is waging a high-tech battle against video game cheaters. Learn more about how their anti-cheat system, Vanguard, works to detect and prevent cheating in games like League of Legends and Valorant. They are mixing advanced technical measures—like leveraging Windows security features, hardware fingerprinting, and blocking kernel exploits—with undercover operations that infiltrate cheat communities and discredit cheat developers

  • Mobile Bridge: Making WebViews Feel Native - Learn how Shopify “ “tackled the main issues of traditional WebViews—performance, appearance, and integration”. They created Mobile Bridge, a framework that allows developers to build native-like experiences in WebViews. It provides a set of tools and APIs to enhance the performance and appearance of WebViews, making them feel more like native applications.

Devoxx

Devoxx conference replays are available on YouTube, with multiple playlists:

News

Architecture

React

Following the React Paris conference, we made some blog posts about the talks that we enjoyed the most (the choice was difficult).

Other blogs posts:

AI

Coding agents:

You want to understand how be build a RAG ? Look at this attempt to build cursor’s @codebase feature - RAG on codebases - part 1/2

By Octo

Tools

Books

Vrac