My personal development portfolio. Its primary function is to showcase my abilities to prospective employers. It isn't the prettiest or most flashy, but since I am not a designer, I feel that it performs its function adequately.
View the site here: rrapstine.me
Client: Astro, TypeScript, SCSS
Server: none
Back in the day I used to use Pug for static websites because I like templating. Astro provides this and more. It is built on Vite, so I get realtime browser updates, efficient bundling, tree shaking, and effortless plugin integration, if I decide I need them. Plus, it is lightweight and FAST! Honestly, I don't think I will ever develop another static website without it.
Originally, I was going to build this site using React, purely as a way to showcase to prospective employers that I can use the library. After some reflection and deliberation, however, I decided that I would rather showcase my understanding of web development and how that understanding can, and should, affect the chosen tech stack.
In my personal opinion, far too many developers reach for a frontend library when they simply do not need one. Libraries like React, Vue, Svelte, Angular, Solid...they're tools. Not every problem is a nail requiring the "React Hammer".
In the case of a static site, like rrapstine.me, all that I needed from my tech stack was templating, which is accomplished by Astro AND it only ships the javascript that my page actually needs to function properly. I do not need a full shadow DOM when the only interactivity on my page is an event listener or two.