#537: Datastar: Modern web dev, simplified
You love building web apps with Python, and HTMX got you excited about the hypermedia approach -- let the server drive the HTML, skip the JavaScript build step, keep things simple. But then you hit that last 10%: You need Alpine.js for interactivity, your state gets out of sync, and suddenly you're juggling two unrelated libraries that weren't designed to work together. What if there was a single 11-kilobyte framework that gave you everything HTMX and Alpine do, and more, with real-time updates, multiplayer collaboration out of the box, and performance so fast you're actually bottlenecked by the monitor's refresh rate? That's Datastar. On this episode, I sit down with its creator Delaney Gillilan, core maintainer Ben Croker, and Datastar convert Chris May to explore how this backend-driven, server-sent-events-first framework is changing the way full-stack developers think about the modern web. Episode sponsors Sentry Error Monitoring, Code talkpython26 Command Book Talk Python Courses Links from the show Guests Delaney Gillilan: linkedin.com Ben Croker: x.com Chris May: everydaysuperpowers.dev Datastar: data-star.dev HTMX: htmx.org AlpineJS: alpinejs.dev Core Attribute Tour: data-star.dev data-star.dev/examples: data-star.dev github.com/starfederation/datastar-python: github.com VSCode: marketplace.visualstudio.com OpenVSX: open-vsx.org PyCharm/Intellij plugin: plugins.jetbrains.com data-star.dev/datastar_pro: data-star.dev gg: discord.gg HTML-ivating your Django web app's experience with HTMX, AlpineJS, and streaming HTML - Chris May: www.youtube.com Senior Engineer tries Vibe Coding: www.youtube.com 1 Billion Checkboxes: checkboxes.andersmurphy.com Game of life example: example.andersmurphy.com Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com Episode #537 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/537 Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm Theme Song: Developer Rap 🥁 Served in a Flask 🎸: talkpython.fm/flasksong ---== Don't be a stranger ==--- YouTube: youtube.com/@talkpython Bluesky: @talkpython.fm Mastodon: @talkpython@fosstodon.org X.com: @talkpython Michael on Bluesky: @mkennedy.codes Michael on Mastodon: @mkennedy@fosstodon.org Michael on X.com: @mkennedy