Scott and Wes sit down with Vjeux from Meta to dive deep into the origins and evolution of Prettier, the widely-used code formatter. They discuss the challenges faced, the decision-making process behind its features, and what the future holds for this indispensable tool in the developer’s toolkit.
Show Notes
- 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
- 01:45 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
- 02:19 New swag!
- 03:25 Who is Vjeux?
- 06:56 Is management the key to successful projects?
- 08:50 The genesis of Prettier.
- 12:08 Why other JS formatters didn’t work.
- 16:56 Focusing on edge-cases.
- 17:41 The goal for Prettier.
- 18:31 Next step, integrations.
- 19:37 Should you run Prettier on save or commit?
- 21:34 Does Prettier’s limitations lead to higher adoption?
- 25:01 What was the most controversial default setting?
- 28:14 Does Facebook use semicolons?
- 29:18 Getting approval to devote 6 months to Prettier.
- 31:42 Working with Mark Zuckerberg.
- 32:43 Was there ever consideration to augment ESLint instead?
- 35:34 What are your thoughts on the Rust-based alternatives?
- 36:44 Prettier’s $10,000 bounty.
- 39:32 What is the future of Prettier?
- 44:54 Prettier is available in almost every language.
- 47:59 Advice for other open-source maintainers.
- 53:26 Sick Picks & Shameless Plugs.
Sick Picks
Shameless Plugs
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