🤖 OpenAIs new Coding Agent

Hey there.

Welcome to Full Stack Focus.

Here’s everything you need to know this week in the world of full-stack development.

Programming

🤖 OpenAIs new Coding Agent
OpenAI has released Codex, a cloud-based software engineering agent that can write features, fix bugs, and suggest pull requests, all inside secure, isolated environments. Powered by codex-1, it’s now available to ChatGPT Pro, Team, and Enterprise users, with access for Plus users coming soon.

🧠 Experts have it easy
Experts move fast because they see the real problem, novices get lost in the maze they built themselves. This piece explores how novices often drown in their own complexity while experts glide by, making invisible decisions with invisible tools. From missed choices to misunderstood advice, unpacking what really separates the seasoned from junior devs.

☢️ Untested AI-generated code is a crisis waiting to happen
AI coding tools are speeding up releases, but at what cost? A new survey shows nearly 2 in 3 dev teams skip full testing to meet deadlines, even as trust in AI skyrockets. Leaders love the speed, but admit outages are coming. Code is shipping faster, but with less oversight, and the risks are quietly stacking up.

📰 Writing that changed how I think about Programming Languages
Max Bernstein shares a collection of game-changing posts on programming languages and compilers, the kind that reshape your thinking so deeply, you forget what your old views even were. From papers to blog posts, these reads left a lasting mark.

💻️ Lessons from 2 years as a software engineer
Two years into the industry, this dev learned that clean, clever code isn’t enough. Real growth comes from navigating trade-offs, handling legacy systems, and working within business and operational constraints. Writing the “right” code matters less than solving the actual problem within time and resource limits. Some of the best lessons came from mistakes & mentors.

Front-End

🔌 Javascript Generators
Alex McArthur dives into iterators, iterables, and especially generator functions, giving them a more deliberate second look. Though often overlooked since ES2015, generators offer surprising ergonomics and a unique mental model that’s growing on him. Turns out, there's more to them than meets the eye.

🥇 Which useEffect runs first?
useEffect can behave unexpectedly when nested components are involved, often running in an order that surprises even seasoned React devs. This happens because of how React renders vs commits effects, and it all ties back to the inner workings of the React Fiber architecture. This blog breaks down what’s really going on behind the scenes.

🌡️ Build a Weather App with Agent Mode
Rob Lourens demos new Agent Mode features in VS Code and builds a weather app live in this Agent Mode Day clip.

AI

🏄️ Windsurf releases own frontier models for engineering

🧠 OpenAI engineers share how the launch of ChatGPT Images spiraled into 100M users and 700M images in a week

More Tools & Stories

🤔 How do QR Codes work?

🧑‍🎨 All of the shadcn/ui magic, none of the React

🗄️ TanStack DB: Supercharged Reactivity for Blazing Fast Apps

Have a great week, see you the same time next week!

- Full Stack Focus team :)