Simplify, Then Add Lightness

In the talk titled "Simplify, Then Add Lightness", speaker Piotr Szotkowski discusses the evolution of web development, particularly focusing on the Ruby ecosystem and the importance of simplifying tech stacks in modern development.

Key Points:

Returning to Conferences: Szotkowski shares his excitement to return to the conference scene after five years and reflects on past experiences of audience engagement.
Historical Context: He begins with historical references from the 2010 EuroRuby conference, highlighting key advancements in the Ruby and Rails community, particularly around tools like Bundler and ActiveRecord.
Current Trends in Web Development: Szotkowski introduces a noticeable shift towards a simpler web development reality, emphasizing:
- The need for smaller teams to deliver lean solutions post-ZIRP (Zero Interest Rate Policy).
- The popularity of microservices and the complexity that arises from separating frontend and backend stacks.
Modern Backend and Frontend Technologies: He explains the rise of two separate realms for frontend (e.g., React, Vue) and backend (e.g., Rails, Python) development, introducing concepts like:
- Backend for Frontend and Backend Driven UI, indicating that these approaches can complicate development.
LightStack and SQLite: Szotkowski advocates for frameworks like LiteStack that utilize SQLite instead of traditional heavy databases, arguing that SQLite can now handle more significant roles in applications, including job queues and caching solutions.
Emphasizing Performance and Simplicity: He argues for keeping dependencies current and the critical need for developers to continuously upgrade to benefit from performance improvements in Ruby and frameworks like Rails 6.
Case Studies and Tools: The discussion includes experiences from his work at Shopify, illustrating how they maintain large codebases and utilize modern practices like continuous deployment and monitoring upgrades with tools such as Pandabot.
Concluding Thoughts on Trade-offs: Szotkowski concludes by highlighting that while simplifying can lead to better performance and flexibility, developers must acknowledge the trade-offs associated with any solution or tool they choose to use.

Simplify, Then Add Lightness
Piotr Szotkowski • Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina • Talk

Date: September 11, 2024
Published: January 13, 2025
Announced: unknown

With ZIRP behind us smaller teams often need to deliver leaner solutions – and projects like LiteStack are there to help. Meanwhile even the smallest dependencies keep getting new features (and Ruby keeps getting significantly more performant) – so let's see how to keep the stack simple and cutting-edge.

Let's take a look at how simple modern stacks can be – from sending HTML snippets over WebSocket to operating job queues in SQLite. Full-stack development in Ruby means quicker turn-around and simpler deploys – and paired with a well-thought-out approach to keeping all the dependencies fresh, the maintenance part of our life can be both much easier and actually enjoyable.

This talk covers the current shift in web development reality and the trend towards a (most welcome) simplification of the tools we work with. The experience with running multiple codebases (including the biggest Ruby monolith) on the most recent version of Ruby and Rails' main branch shows this, too, is actually doable.

EuRuKo 2024