Our second episode in the 6-part series from JSConf US 2019 features interviews with Lara Schenck, Adam Giese, and Luke Herrington around the theme of declarative code.

Lara’s talk made the compelling argument that CSS is a domain-specific declarative language where its input is classes and nodes and its output is visual presentation. We talk about how refactoring should be part of your CSS workflow, how a design system is like an API for your UI, and when it’s worth naming things well.

Our chat with Adam explores how functional programming is a great way to transform existing music using clear operations. Adam wishes that the great composers had source control so we could gain insight into their process. One of the special treats of the talk was a tool Adam used to highlight the presented code and animate through the control flow.

Finally, Luke helps us understand the benefits of expressing components declaratively as a way of cleanly separating the tasks of UI creation and its client-side implementation—where multiple front-ends have the ability to interpret these declarations to best suit their environment.