"Could not find a type declaration for kretes"

[rowild]

Hi, Zaiste!

I am eager to get into Typescript and follow along your latest courses on Youtube. Unfortunately the entry barrier is quite a bit high.

The first thing that must be done is installing postgresql and create a db of the same name as the project, right? That does not seem to be mentioned anywhere, at least not in the right place (haven't read through the whole docu yet, but it is certainly not in the "quickstart" chapter).

After that starting the project with the VScode commands provided by your extension works. But the routes file is full with errors, the first one is the error mentioned in the title. No idea how to solve that. What am I doing wrong?

Also, separate commands for "Client" and "Server" are not available...

(I have kretes installed locally and globally (globally causes a lot of warnings in the console!).)

[zaiste]

Hi @rowild thanks for considering my course! Let's go over everything together. My docs are, indeed, far from perfect and there are a few rough edges. Hopefully the eventual closing of this issue will lower the bar for everyone.

Regarding your points:

1. Yes, you are absolutely right. It's a bad omission on my side. I'll correct it now.
2. Could you tell me the Kretes version you're using ? I've changed few things recently in order to (funny enough) simplify the process. I apologize for the trouble.

[zaiste]

@rowild I've improved a bit the docs regarding the database setup. It's here. Could you take a look at let me know if it's better ?

[rowild]

@zaiste Thank you for your feedback! Please - pleasepleaseplease - do not apologize!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so grateful for your tutorials! And I know that kretes is still in alpha, so breaking changes are to be expected.

Thank you for the extended docu! I read through it and here is my feedback:

1. The table of folders is actually longer, there is also
   config/loaders
config/graphql
config/css..config.js // interesting
   config/tailwind.config.js
stylesheets
.gitignore
.info.sh // interesting
   .npmrc

I know that it is probably useless to mention everything (even though I would find it useful to have a remark on the role of .info.sh). But I thought I mention it for the sake of completeness.

(Question: Do you intend to add purgecss?)

2. Before talking about postgres, it probably would be good to mention that a npm install is necessary. Otherwise the "Output" is filled with statements about Javascript standard library not installed etc. (I did click through some of the following pages, but I think this step is actually not covered - or am I missing something? Well, yes, I did. But – since you address beginners as well as intermediate developers (according to your Youtube video) – maybe it would be a good hint at this point to say that npm install will be taken care of in a later step. (Otherwise maybe more people like me try to do it now, since there are warnings in the output panel...)

3. After the sentence I'll perform both these action using the command-line a dot is missing.

4. A link to an installation postgresql process that enable the postgres command on the timeline would be quite useful to make the next part of your docu work flawlessly. (My installation ended up providing me a psql command.)
   Maybe a sentence along the line of: I followed / recommend this postgres installation process: <link> wold suffice?
   (I have a very strong opinion on this topic, because I believe that people, who will follow your TypeScript tutorial, will most likely be frontend developers and therefore not be too familiar with postgres setup... IMO... so support for the "alien" in the setup would be most appreciated by beginners, I assume.)

(I wonder, if your statement about the need of a database is really true in times of headless (CMS)? :-) ... personally, I am really glad to see a project with PostgreSQL, even though this complicates things when going live. Or will you have a recommendation for a postgres hoster, too?)

Other things:
The font-size in the Terminal is increased. For me that's too large. Is there a way to have personal settings?

To answer your question from before: I use the latest kretes, 0.65. But I need to fire up the project again with the new knowledge, which I will do tomorrow (too late now).

Thank you very, very much!

[zaiste]

Thanks for your understanding. The Internet is a strange place sometimes. I know that many people starting their programming adventure would prefer to have clear answers, but I don't want to oversell too much. I appreciate your words of support in this journey. We'll get there!

Ad 1. This is a low hanging fruit. I've had various ideas what should be included and what not. I'm still experimenting with few of them. That's the reason I didn't describe those additional files. Now, I think maybe it'd be better to describe them as-is and then simply change it.

For the context, I like Tailwind CSS more and more. The only problem is its speed. I don't want it's taken negatively, but the tooling could be much better there, and in CSS in general. The slowness is one of my biggest complains. I had a plan to rewrite it in Rust, but then I don't want to spread my time thin on too many projects. My goal for Kretes is to be instant whenever it's TypeScript recompilation or CSS updates or even purging or minifing, so that the users don't have to see it as a burden in the process.

Ad 2. I need to review this process, indeed. I missed the npm install as in previous version it was automatic (i.e. performed during the app generation). When using the VS Code plugin it is difficult (impossible?) to check when an external process finished. Being practical I disabled that part. Generally speaking the fact that npm install takes so long, I'm looking for an alternative here. I'd be happy for any suggestions how we could improve it. Last night I played with the idea of rewriting the core using Deno instead of Node.js. It's not only faster, but conceptually simpler as Deno includes many things out of the box. The API is relatively close, so this would be a rather straightforward rewrite.

Ad 3. Fixed!

Ad 4. OK! I'm adding this. I agree with 100% about the people I target with those tutorials.

Regarding PostgreSQL, there are indeed many possible scenarios and approaches, but one of my core intents is to provide a solid educational value to users / readers / viewers of my content. I'd prefer people have the fundamentals well understood before deviating from this traditional approach. The idea is to have enough general knowledge in order to specialize and not the inverse. Specifically, in order to be a good front-end programmer, first one needs to understand the whole picture, not necessarily be good at it, but have a grasp how it all works together. That's my intent ;), somehow analogous how doctors learn: understand the human body as a interconnected, complex system, and only then specialize in a particular section of it wherever it's cardiology, neurology or immunology.

I have few ideas how to simplify the hosting/deployment process, including PostgreSQL. I hope to present a part of it in the video tutorials.

For the font, I'll revert it. I've been playing with it to increase readability.

Thanks again for checking Kretes and your ideas. Your feedback is motivating. Let me know if you had additional questions. Feel free to share you (strong) opinions and to speak your mind. I like friendly disagreements a lot! :)

[rowild]

Jakub - sorry that I didn't write in such a long time! I had to change the "battlefield" and will not be able to follow along with your fantastic courses for a while. But I keep bookmarking and as soon as I am finished with the other projects I'll be back!

[zaiste]

@rowild No worries! Good luck with everything! I'll keep this issue open for a while and at some point close it when the docs are good enough. :)