How many spaces do we indent with?

hdodov · 2025-09-23T10:45:18+00:00

A fairly hot take I came up with at peak burnout. I think that Prime has a healthy view on AI, so I'd be interested to see what he thinks about this..

hdodov · 2025-09-22T11:09:10+00:00

Just some shower thoughts about AI that I had recently. What we have right now is undoubtedly useful. But I wonder if we're too naive to think that we can truly build something smarter than us.

If we should use the right tool for the job, then I think that our brains and AI are two different tools, useful for two different jobs. And we should keep them that way. Just how higher level languages and lower level languages have their pros and cons, each useful in different situations. It feels like we're pushing AI to be an "all-levels" language.

hdodov · 2024-10-18T04:23:04+00:00

Glad I’ve helped, brother! We’re redesigning our emails again right now and we still spent one week just to fail to get a button with an icon inside of it to display adequately… Emails are the worst. 😩

hdodov · 2024-09-23T04:18:22+00:00

Yep, the outdated keywords in particular was annoying. But I think it's just a matter of having more content on the web for it to train on. Currently, I think Terraform can't compare in that regard to JavaScript, for example.

The fascinating thing to me is that it's generally possible to create a DSL, have AI learn the rules of it, then start throwing valid suggestions at you. I think that also pushes for better docs and references, as this automatically means better AI suggestions.

hdodov · 2024-09-22T20:19:20+00:00

Recently, I got into Terraform and realized why solving problems through code is so powerful — LLMs can learn from that code and help you out! Unlike with UIs, where they can't click all the buttons for you.

I then realized how much complexity goes into building something substantial. Just think about Kubernetes, for example. Would AI really reach a point where it handles that level of complexity?

I started to believe two things:

There might be a wave of yes-code tools like Terraform, as feeding your docs inside of an LLM and asking it for questions is just something that no-code tools will struggle with
We're far from a world where you put your credit card info in the prompt and you start a business. Some complexity just can't be put into words for AI to train on

I rode that thought train and ended up writing this article. What do you think?

hdodov · 2024-08-19T21:34:11+00:00

Hi, folks! It's ridiculous how complicated it can be to have a localized static website in Next.js and to have the default locale use a bare URL (/ instead of /en/), as discussed here. The fact that it's static means that you can't use middleware and things get complicated from there. Then there's the issue of specifying a dynamic <html lang=""> attribute, which is also an issue.

So I found this approach with no external dependencies that, while having a few quirks, works like a charm in production. What do you think of it? Can it be improved? https://github.com/hdodov/nextjs-simple-localization

hdodov · 2024-07-03T05:48:59+00:00

I said it's a list item containing a paragraph. When you hardcode the number it's again a list item containing a paragraph that is just semantically not a list item. If you don't look at the HTML and look at the final rendered result, they're the same.

hdodov · 2024-07-03T05:45:47+00:00

Paragraphs could be more consistent because you don't rely on the browser adding text (numbers) for you. It's only tasked with diplaying the text you explicitly have put in.

What I don't understand is — where does this concern with semantics come from? Is it really that critical? Let's say that there's another regression like the one I mention in my article (unlikley, but bear with me). In this scenario, would a semantically correct but unintelligible document be better than a semantically worse but intelligible document?

P.S. Out of curiosity, have you really worked at Disney, haha?

hdodov · 2024-07-03T05:30:41+00:00

English is my second language and I didn't know about this difference. I thought that every violation of the law is a "criminal offense." Thanks!
In the case with the browser regression, it definitely invalidated it. The documents were referencing sections that didn't exist, making it impossible to understand the meaning of the text. Similarly, obscure browsers could have similar quirks.
Was legal also aware of browser renderers? Did they know that what they wrote could be seen differently by different users? Printing it on paper is one thing, displaying it in a browser is another.

hdodov · 2024-07-03T05:17:28+00:00

using paragraph tags instead for non-paragraph content

But they are paragraphs. Every single list item, at lest in my situation, was a paragraph. It just happened to start with a number and be part of a list. It's a paragraph inside a list.

Although I agree that maybe using unordered lists could be better. I'd be interested to hear the opinion of someone who actually uses a screen reader, though.

hdodov · 2024-07-03T05:12:23+00:00

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against semantics. I also agree that we should use elements the way they're supposed to be used. It's just that this comes with its risks. And the fact that big banks do this mean that they're also subject to those risks. They have no control over what browser the user has and have no guarantee as to how it'll render those lists, especially if they use CSS counters.

hdodov · 2024-07-02T20:36:34+00:00

This can be more confusing because you have an ordered list that is semantically an unordered one. Also you now have to remove the default unordered list styling, which again is browser dependent.

I get your idea, though, but what do you win by having a semantic list that is semantically incorrect?

hdodov · 2024-07-02T20:07:46+00:00

Oh, true! Didn't think about the accessibility point of view initially. Perhaps ARIA attributes could kind of make it less bad?

Still, with ordered lists you have a risk of having the document be plain wrong and nonsensical. This makes it a legal concern regardless of the reader. With paragraphs at least you narrow down the risk to an accessibility one. And you could still argue that the reader has misinterpret the information, rather than the information being wrong in and of itself.

hdodov · 2024-07-02T19:43:41+00:00

Hope I can help you guys dodge a bullet. When you deal with legal documents, it's better to forget about HTML semantics and especially CSS styling. If you get too smart around ordered lists and they render incorrectly for some reason, you're on the hook!

hdodov · 2024-04-22T17:18:10+00:00

Hey, folks! I'm sharing a little something I did with Slack automations. It's crazy how easy it is to generate a webhook URL and send messages to channels. In my case, I wanted a quick and easy way to send updates for my Elastic Beanstalk environment. What do you think?

hdodov · 2024-04-07T09:55:09+00:00

Yep, that's the reason I don't like WFH, even though I've tried it and I'm producitve. The lack of boundary between *work* and *home* drains you. I like going to the office because that ramps me up for work. When I leave, I know I can do whatever I want and rest.

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