Solving Advent of Code with only TypeScript types
Advent of Code 2022 Day 1, solved entirely in TypeScript's type system. The input goes into a type alias and the answer appears in a hover tooltip.
Brian Simon
Senior Software Engineer at Vanta
I work on frontend observability, deployment engineering, and the platform and frameworks that web apps are built on.
Most of my time goes into the platform side of frontend work. When the build is slow or a workflow makes people wait, that's mine to fix. So are the team-wide problems that don't have an obvious owner.
Really it's about making other people faster. The work is unglamorous, and the better I do it the less anyone notices, but it's what decides how quickly everyone around me can ship.
Programming Blog
Typing util.format() with TypeScript template literal types
Node's util.format() accepts any arguments silently. Build a version that validates format specifiers and argument types at compile time.
Virtual rendering for massive lists
Build a virtual scroller in Vue from scratch. Fixed heights first, then variable heights and the edge cases that come with them.
Off the clock
There are two dogs. Leo is a seven-year-old German Shepherd who treats every waking minute as playtime. Timber is an eighteen-month-old hound mix we adopted on a whim at a brewery, which tells you most of what you need to know about us. He mainly cuddles, and he has been going to training classes.
My fiancée and I play a lot of board games, mostly Star Realms, with a lot of Allplay titles in the rotation lately. Breweries are the other constant: local spots when we're home, and the first thing we look up when we travel. We plan trips around breweries.
I have been brewing all-grain since 2022. Lately that means water profiles, and I am writing a tool that works out how much of each salt to add to hit the target chemistry for a given style.
Cooking has turned into a lunch break habit. I find a recipe online, go get the ingredients, and make it that night. Mostly it's meat: steak, smoked pork, chicken, and salmon.
Three years into teaching myself piano. I find something on YouTube that sounds good, buy the sheet music, and work through it. Right now that is most of the Lion King soundtrack.
Elsewhere
Got a brewery recommendation? Want to argue about TypeScript? Reach me at me@brianesimon.com, or on LinkedIn. Code is on GitHub.