This MDX Thing Is Fabulous!
Adding content is no longer a hassle, and I have been wanting to have a blog where I can record some of my thoughts for myself and everyone interested. I must admit I don't really know where having a blog could take me, but I like the idea!
For anyone looking at this entry of the blog (the first one), you should know that this is version 3 of my portfolio! I know, perhaps writing a portfolio from scratch for the third time isn't exactly an amazing project. But I do not care as long as I can keep the main entry point to my skills clean and updated. I tend to share my portfolio with many recruiters, and the impact it has is something I can't really grasp, so I'd rather have something polished to share.
What's New?
In v1, I initially had a photos page that I eventually removed in v2. This time, I brought it back because I think it gives more personality to the website. I understand there are a lot of amateur photographers (who also happen to be programmers, an interesting overlap) with the same idea, but like everything in life, execution is what matters.
Back in v2, I used a less uniform layout with some animations. This time, we have the opposite: a very uniform layout for the sake of simplicity and tidiness, and fewer layout animations. I think the animations were okay in the last version, but this time I wanted to tone them down a bit and try different things, like text animations instead of viewport-based ones.
Of course, the addition of this blog is perhaps the greatest addition in this version, thanks to the MDX parser that allows me to publish content in a very simple way.
Things That Didn't Change
I love shadcn/ui even if I only get to use it for one component. Why? It's simple; it's not a monolithic package. And yes, I understand that it installs Radix UI packages, but it is very modular, so your project only includes the UI components/packages you really need. Of course, the customization and speed of setup are things I also value a lot.
Tailwind just got updated to v4.0! And of course, it had to be included here too. For my personal projects, I find Tailwind non-negotiable. The developer ergonomics over vanilla CSS are huge, and the design standards also help a lot with making things look good quickly.
Of course, Next.js is still here, mostly for the ease of deployment. I think it is a heavy-handed approach for a portfolio, but I can't deny it helps you set up many things quickly thanks to its ecosystem.
What's Next? And Conclusions
I can't deny that as of today, I need to move on from this portfolio project ASAP so I can continue to work on other projects that will add more to my resume than just the simplest front-end skills haha. I might come back and fix or tweak some stuff here and there, mostly because I want the portfolio to be more impressive aesthetically, to kick harder so to speak, perhaps with the addition of some animations or small design elements to achieve that. And the last checkbox to mark: make the project section more descriptive and interesting.
That's it for now. Thank you for reading! I hope to make more posts about interesting things, like terminals, new tech, frameworks, and whatnot!