Years ago, Dan Gebhardt was mapping out data needs for an app he was building. In a struggle to make sense of every requirement and apply them to other packages like Ember Data, he hit a wall. At this point, there was no option for adapting Ember Data to the complex specificities of his app’s needs. 
Dan tried to rationalize a solution, deconstructing entire data universes and all aspects of a data library. The end result was Orbit, a framework-agnostic data layer with use cases beyond the obvious. Since its inception, many developers have leaned on Orbit, including those at Ship Shape. 
In this episode, Chuck and Robbie talk with Dan about Orbit’s origin story, the best (and least obvious) ways to use Orbit, why Dan chose platform-agnostic, what he really thinks about Starbeam, his ultimate goal with Orbit, and Dan’s all-time favorite power tool. 

Key Takeaways

[00:45] - A brief intro to Dan. 

[03:02] - A whiskey review - Nikka Single Malt Miyagikyo. 

[11:04] - Why Dan created Orbit. 

[15:47] - Unexpected use cases for Orbit. 

[21:42] - How Orbit flags a conflict. 

[25:33] - Orbit’s use cases outside of JSON:API.

[32:46] - What Dan thinks about Starbeam. 

[35:12] - How Dan escapes his computer. 

[40:32] - Dan’s favorite power tool. 

[42:33] - Dan’s thoughts on New Hampshire (and New Jersey).

[48:46] - Dan’s closing thoughts and his sneak peek at a new release. 


Quotes
[13:28] - “Sometimes building for the hard case first also helps clarify the simple case and I think that Orbit really scales from the very simple to the very complex set of requirements.” ~ @dgeb
[17:47] - “That’s one of my favorite aspects of working with Orbit is using it as simply as possible to just prototype an app really quickly.” ~ @dgeb
[33:32] - “The frameworks have too long been siloed and we are now seeing some really interesting cross framework solutions out there, whether you’re talking about Starbeam or even something like Remix or Astro.” ~ @dgeb

Links

Dan Gebhardt

Ember Core Team Emeritus

JSON:API

Orbit.js

Tilde 

Ruby On Rails

Rust

Yehuda Katz

JSONAPI::Resources

Nikka Single Malt Miyagikyo

Nikka From The Barrel

The Glencairn Whiskey Glass

The Norlan Whiskey Glass

GraphQL

IndexedDB

Ember Data

Swach

Git

Apollo 

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Discovering Ember, Adopting Orbit, and Unlocking Optimization with Chris Thoburn (runspired) 

LinkedIn

ember-m3

Hooks

React

Eric Elliott 

@glimmer/tracking

Starbeam

Astro

Svelte

View

RedwoodJS

Next.js

Acquia

Whiskey Web and Whatnot: Next.js 12, React vs. Svelte, and the Future of Frameworks with Wes Bos


D.C. United 

Audi Field


Connect with our hosts

Robbie Wagner

Chuck Carpenter

Ship Shape


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Whiskey Web and Whatnot


Top-Tier, Full-Stack Software Consultants
This show is brought to you by Ship Shape. Ship Shape’s software consultants solve complex software and app development problems with top-tier coding expertise, superior service, and speed. In a sea of choices, our senior-level development crew rises above the rest by delivering the best solutions for fintech, cybersecurity, and other fast-growing industries. Check us out at shipshape.io.