Ledger/ journal

Field notes · issue 014

Hello, I'mAda Kessel

A software engineer who writes down the systems she ships, the type she argues with, and the slow parts of the week.

Read the latest post Browse the reading list

14 posts · 3 min read · updated this week

A programmer's desk at night with an open notebook, keyboard and mug under low warm light
A writing desk in a shared studio, Thursday, 22:40.

Stars on ledger-core

1,284stars

The forked copy of the journal theme, forked by readers and shared back.

Forks of ledger-core

47forks

Every fork is a reader who kept the layout and changed the content.

Weekly digest

30 minread

One post a week, written on a Thursday and sent on the following Monday.

A dim study at night with a monitor glowing softly over a desk of printed pages
The desk at 02:00, where most of the type is written. The monitor is the only light source.

Latest posts

Three from the last week. Each one ships with a code block you can read end to end.

3 posts · 12 min total

Type · 4 min

A slow reader's type scale

Line-height, measure and the two fonts I keep falling back on when a project runs out of time.

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// a type scale that holds at 17px and 19px
export const scale = {
  body: "1rem / 1.7",
  h3: "1.25rem / 1.35",
  h1: "2.1rem / 1.15"
}

Engineering · 5 min

Caching the error response

A 404 cache is the cheapest thing you can put behind a gateway, and it pays for itself in the first week.

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// the cache key, no request id
const key = new URLSearchParams({ "path": req.path })
    .toString()
    .split("?"[0])
    .pop()

if (cache.has(key)) return cache.get(key)

Reading list

Shorter posts, longer ones stay in the archive.

  • 01

    The 404 cache, explained in one diagram

    Engineering 4 min
  • 02

    Why I moved the build to a single runner

    Engineering 7 min
  • 03

    Reading a log file without a pager

    Type 3 min
  • 04

    Two fonts that survived four re-themes

    Type 5 min
  • 05

    What I stopped doing in my first year of shipping

    Reflection 6 min