#061 - Forget SQL, use Typescript feat. Thomas Ballinger

What this episode covers

Today we bring Thomas Ballinger, a developer at Convex, an open-source backend for application builders. We will be discussing mainly databases, and why at Convex they use Rust and Typescript. We'll also talk about systems scalability, infrastructure and go over different practices regarding abstractions Learn back-end development - https://www.boot.dev Listen on your favorite podcast player: https://www.backendbanter.fm Convex: https://www.convex.dev/ Thomas' X/Twitter: https://x.com/ballingt Thomas' Website: https://ballingt.com/ Timestamps: 00:00 Intro 00:33 Thomas' background 02:29 Convex - what it is and why should you use it? 03:16 What are query planners? 06:32 SQL is a very high level language 07:43 The primary differentiator of Convex 10:49 Who are Convex's biggest competitors? 14:20 How do you build the infrastructure 17:11 What type of database is Convex? 19:18 Why is Convex written in Rust? 23:35 Cheap abstractions 25:47 Productivity suffering from compile times 29:47 The different approaches for a backend developer to build scalable systems 32:28 Backend for Frontend 37:21 You want to be close to your data 42:13 Are there plans to support other languages at Convex? 47:06 Does the schema update the autocompletion in the editor 48:31 Naming and behavior of the queries with Convex 51:06 Why sqlc is great 52:28 Why TypeScript is a great "shortcut" for Convex 59:34 Where to find Thomas

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