Overview

Programming is not just about creating enterprise-level apps but can be put to work to help people express themselves creatively in many different ways. This is just one of a few profound takeaways from today’s show, where we got a chance to sit down with Pine Wu, former Visual Studio Code developer at Microsoft who built Vetur, a language server that enhances the Vue editing experience. We talk to Pine about Vetur’s background and functionality, his current nomadic pursuits, and his approach to programming as an art or a means to art more than anything else. On the subject of Vetur, Pine explains the context behind the name, and what led him to build the project in the first place. He speaks about how he built out early versions of Vetur by leveraging open source code from other platforms, how the project blew up overnight, its current abilities, and what the future holds. From there, we move on to discuss Pine’s thoughts about what coding means to him. We touch on ideas about the value of exploring content outside of one's discipline, the line between learning and building, and how the tools we create and use structure the way we think about what we work on as well as what we build. Pine also shares a bunch of cool resources today – creative projects using Vue and other frameworks, as well as key texts and talks that have influenced his ideas about art, perception, tools, and computer science. For a wide-reaching conversation about creativity, learning, and writing software that is useful to the world outside of corporations, be sure to tune in!

Key Points From This Episode:

The human languages and programming languages Pine is fluent in. Matthew Butterick’s work with Racket and why Pine wants to learn this language next.
The line between learning and building; recent projects Pine did and what they taught him.
Pine’s approach to learning programming as a means of achieving his creative ends.
The added perceptive abilities you get from learning things outside of your field.
Why ‘computer science’ is a misnomer, describing an art more than a science; how Pine got into programming.
New features in Vue 3 and the changes Pine has to make to Vetur to support them.
The online channels that Pine is most active on; where to find him if you’d like to get in touch.
All the great picks from our hosts and guest from today’s episode.

Tweetables:

“I learn while I’m doing so I try to start new projects that help me learn.” — @octref [0:04:04]
“I would rather sign up for a course in sociology or philosophy or design rather than sign up for a course in programming. That’s how I learn and try to improve my ways of thinking.” — @octref [0:05:58]
“Other than learning to innovate on new ideas, I also want to learn to be able to see certain things that people of other disciplines can’t. That’s one of the reasons I am learning to draw with color.” — @octref [0:08:32]

Picks of the week:

Pine's picks:
Tessa's picks:
- Moft Z 5-in-1 Sit-Stand Desk
- The Dance of Anger, Harriet Lerner Ph.D., read by Barbara Caruso
- Chilling outside in cars
- https://parametric.press/issue-01/unraveling-the-jpeg
- Pine's photography
Ben's picks:
- Sponsor Pine on GitHub
Ari's picks:
- Renpure Rosemary Mint Cleansing Conditioner

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

Special Guest: Pine Wu.

Episode 43: What Can Games Teach Us About UI Design? With Felix Park (Part 2)