R. Mark Volkmann - Svelte and Sapper in Action

R. Mark Volkmann

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ISBN: 9781617297946

I have been a professional software developer for 37 years and a web developer for around 10 years. My projects have used many technologies and frameworks, including raw DOM manipulation, jQuery, Ruby, Angular 1, React, Polymer, Angular 2+, Vue, Svelte, and probably some I have forgotten.

I place a high value on developer productivity. Unnecessary complexity really works against this. While I find many things to love about Svelte and Sapper, the main driver for me is their simplicity compared to other web development approaches. I know from my experience of using other frameworks that I am far more productive when using Svelte and Sapper.

My first exposure to Svelte came from watching a talk titled Rethinking Reactivity by the creator of Svelte, Rich Harris. It is a very compelling talk and definitely appealed to my desire to reduce the complexity of web development. That led me to dig in further, write a long article about Svelte, give talks at user groups, and expand to giving talks at conferences. The next logical step was to write this book!

The book covers nearly every topic related to Svelte and Sapper, and some that are only tangentially related. After reading this, you should be well-poised to use these tools in your next web development project.

Many authors thank their spouses for the patience they showed during the writing process. The experience of writing this book has made clear to me the sacrifices involved. My wife Tami generously gave me lots of encouragement and time to complete this project. Thank you so much Tami for helping me to achieve the goal of finally writing a book!

Thanks to my Manning development editor, Jennifer Stout, who provided just the right amount of corrections, suggestions, encouragement, and compliments to keep me going. Seeing comments like I love this! mixed in with comments like You need to explain why someone would want to do this made the writing process so much more bearable.

Thanks to Manning technical editor Alain Couniot who continually pointed out when I wasnt being clear or was short on providing compelling examples. He also made sure I mentioned TypeScript wherever possible. The book is much better because of his feedback!

Thanks to Manning technical reviewer Erik Vullings. He tried many things in the example code that never crossed my mind to try and suggested many improvements in the text. His thoroughness was greatly appreciated!

Thanks to Peer Reynders, a volunteer MEAP reviewer who went through all the code examples with a fine-tooth comb and pointed out many ways I could improve it.

Thanks to reviewers who added their own takes on ways to improve the book: Adail Retamal, Amit Lamba, Clive Harber, Damian Esteban, David Cabrero Souto, David Paccoud, Dennis Reil, Gerd Klevesaat, Gustavo Filipe Ramos Gomes, Jonathan Cook, Kelum Senanayake, Konstantinos Leimonis, Matteo Gildone, Potito Coluccelli, Robert Walsh, Rodney Weis, Sander Zegveld, Sergio Arbeo, and Tanya Wilke. More eyes and more opinions definitely helped!

Thanks to Charles Sharp of Object Computing, Inc. He has been the most frequent editor of all my previous writings. Charles donated large amounts of time over past 10 plus years to making me a better writer... Oxford comma and all!

Thanks to Eldon Ahrold of Object Computing, Inc. for reviewing the chapter on Svelte Native. Eldon is a very experienced mobile and web developer, and Im lucky to be able to bounce ideas off of him.

Finally, thanks to Dr. Ebrahim Moshiri who hired me into Object Computing, Inc. 24 years ago. He provided me with an environment that encourages continual learning and Ive never stopped. I most likely would not have been in a position to write this book if it wasnt for the career he gave me.

Svelte and Sapper in Action is for web developers who want to increase their productivity. Maybe you have a nagging suspicion that there must be an easier way to develop web applications. Good news--there is, and you will learn about it here!

Through numerous code examples, you will learn how to use Svelte and Sapper to implement many common features of web applications.

The book assumes that readers have a basic familiarity with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript:

• On the topic of HTML, readers should be familiar with elements like html, head, link, style, script, body, div, span, p, ol, ul, li, input, textarea, and select.

• On the topic of CSS, readers should understand the syntax of CSS rules, the CSS meaning of cascade, basic CSS selectors (including element names, class names, ids, descendants, and children), commonly used CSS properties (including color, font-family, font-size, font-style, and font-weight), and the CSS box model (content, padding, border, and margin).

• On the topic of JavaScript, readers should know about variables, strings, arrays, objects, functions, classes, Promises, destructuring, the spread operator, exports, and imports.