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

Backend Banter

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