Console #113 -- Interview with Sonny of Workbench
Console #113 -- Interview with Sonny of Workbench
Featuring PocketBase, massCode, and Workbench
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🏗️ Projects
PocketBase
Open Source backend for your next SaaS and Mobile app in 1 file. PocketBase is a Go backend consisting of an embedded database (SQLite) with real-time subscriptions, built-in files and user management, convenient Admin dashboard UI, and a simple REST-ish API.
language: Go, stars: 2159, issues: 6, last commit: July 09, 2022
repo: github.com/pocketbase/pocketbase
site: pocketbase.io
massCode
massCode is a free and open-source code snippets manager for developers. It helps you create and organize your own personal snippets collection and have quick access to it.
language: TypeScript, stars: 1958, issues: 1, last commit: July 10, 2022
repo: github.com/massCodeIO/massCode
site: masscode.io
Workbench
Learn and prototype with GNOME technologies 🛠️ no matter if you’re tinkering for the first time or building and testing a GTK user interface. Workbench comes with real-time GTK/CSS preview, JS and Vala support, autosave, and console logs.
language: JavaScript, stars: 212, issues: 35, last commit: July 10, 2022
repo: github.com/sonnyp/Workbench
flathub: beta.flathub.org/apps/details/re.sonny.Workbench
🎤 Interview With Sonny of Workbench
Hey Sonny! Thanks for joining us! Let us start with your background. Where have you worked in the past, where are you from, how did you learn to program, and what languages or frameworks do you like?
I was born in 1989 in Bretagne France, where the village of Asterix and Obelix is on the map.
I got into computers and the Internet at a young age then involved in Mozilla/Firefox and XMPP, went directly from high school to an internship at Mozilla Europe in Paris. Since then, I worked as an engineer for more than 15 years with a focus on building products and teams.
I worked with more than 10 organizations and lived in France, Belgium, Spain, Norway, and Germany. A couple of years ago, I got involved, as a volunteer, in GNOME, a community of people and software dedicated to building the best computing experience for all.
Who or what are your biggest influences as a developer?
I encourage everyone who wants to become a better developer and person; to widen their area of interests and curiosity beyond tech or what’s in the news to learn lots about complementary concepts, methods, and practices from science, history, psychology, philosophy, sociology and so on.
Find a way to formulate things so that they make sense to you, learn to reason for and by yourself, and finally learn to formulate things so that they make sense to others.
Thankfully there is a wide range of quality content available as podcasts, on YouTube, or articles.
Here are some of my favorites YouTube channels
English: Nerdwriter1, Be Smart, Wisecrack, Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell, VSauce, Animalogic, Not Just Bikes
French: ÉLUCID, Thinkerview, DirtyBiology, Balade Mentale, Bolchegeek, Linguisticae
If you could teach every 12-year-old in the world one thing, what would it be and why?
Find a way to formulate things so that they make sense to you, learn to reason for and by yourself, and finally learn to formulate things so that they make sense to others.
What have you been listening to lately?
somafm.com is awesome listener-supported, commercial free underground/alternative radio.
My favorites stations are: Groove Salad when I need to activate, Space Station when I want to chill, Deep Space One or Mission Control when I need to deeply focus.
How do you separate good project ideas from bad ones?
Depends on what your objectives are. If you just want to have fun – then it’s enough for the project to be fun.
If you want to do something that has an impact – make sure to talk to the target audience. Interview, iterate, repeat.
If you want to make money, solve a problem (no matter how small) that enough people are willing to spend on and advertise.
Try to combine, but it’s not always possible.
Why was Workbench started?
When I was involved at Mozilla – I was pretty convinced for a while that the Web was the definitive open and respectful platform for personal computing. Many things happened and changed my mind.
I found in GNOME an even better platform that still share the ideals of the Open Web:
Open – all GNOME Software is FLOSS
Accessible – accessibility, localization, ease of use and discovery, …
Decentralized – GNOME is made by a vast community of volunteers, companies, and non-profits
On the development side – GNOME has a system of “bindings” where the libraries for UI, audio, network and so on can be used from various programming languages.
I started using the JavaScript binding and making apps using it to see if I could get the Web/JavaScript development community interested in GNOME.
One area I found where GNOME as a platform was lacking compared to Web development is developer experience, so I started Workbench.
The goals are to teach people how to develop for GNOME and to let users quickly prototype.
Who, or what was the biggest inspiration for Workbench?
Firefox and Chrome DevTools, jsfiddle.net, and the modern Web framework developer experience.
Are there any competitors or projects similar to Workbench? If so, what were they lacking that made you consider building something new?
GNOME Builder is great, but my target audience, the Web/JavaScript development crowd, already has their favorite code editor, so I preferred building a standalone app. In addition, when getting started, GNOME Development can be taunting as it involves many new concepts and terminology – Workbench ease them in.
How do you balance your work on open-source with your day job and other responsibilities?
Building software and more generally building impactful things is a marathon, not a sprint.
You’ll achieve more by spending 4 hours a week over a year than 4 hours a day over a week.
What is the best way for a new developer to contribute to Workbench?
Make demos and examples for others to learn from https://github.com/sonnyp/Workbench/issues/69
It’s also the best to learn about GNOME development. Learning by doing is what Workbench is about.
If you plan to continue developing Workbench, where do you see the project heading next?
Include more demos and libraries to learn/extend from.
Fully implement the language server protocol for inline hints, suggestions, and errors.
Implement a custom and simpler UI inspector.
What motivates you to continue contributing to Workbench?
Feedback and reading about people using Workbench to make cool stuff.
Are there any other projects besides Workbench that you’re working on?
I make other apps for GNOME: Tangram, Junction, Commit, OhMySVG, Playhouse
and a universal JavaScript library for XMPP https://github.com/xmppjs/xmpp.js/
Do you have any other project ideas that you haven’t started?
A simplified, beginner-friendly, familiar, and batteries included framework for building apps. Think create-react-app but for GNOME.
A GNOME “demo scene” app where users can submit their demos and vote for each others. Think Chrome experiments but for GNOME.
It’s quite vague at the moment, so I’m still gathering feedback and thoughts.
Do you have any suggestions for someone trying to make their first contribution to an open-source project?
Don’t take it personally.
What is one question you would like to ask another open-source developer that I didn’t ask you?
Follow up links/read more on the topic
https://floss.social/web/@sonny
https://twitter.com/sonnypiers
Workbench: https://github.com/sonnyp/Workbench
GNOME development: developer.gnome.org/
GNOME JavaScript: gjs.guide
A five parts series about GNOME community and power
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/06/11/community-power-1
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/06/15/community-power-2
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/06/23/community-power-3
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/07/13/community-power-4
https://blogs.gnome.org/tbernard/2021/08/06/community-power-5/
Want to join the conversation about one of the projects featured this week? Drop a comment, or see what others are saying!
Interested in sponsoring the newsletter or know of any cool projects or interesting developers you want us to interview? Reach out at console.substack@gmail.com or mention us @ConsoleWeekly!