Super-fast backend development is here

Two new product launches have arrived to speed up backend development.

Yesterday, Sourcery debuted its tool that essentially works as a Grammarly for code tool. In other words, it analyzes your code, finds problems, and suggests changes for making it easier to read.



One commenter seeking information on how Sourcery makes accurate code edits got this reply from maker Nick Thapen.

“Firstly bucketloads of internal testing around each suggestion, secondly lots of detailed static analysis of the code, and as a backstop we run all of our suggestions over lots of open-source libraries then check that their tests are still green...”

Sourcery can be installed into PyCharm, VS Code, or your GitHub repos, and it works fully locally so your code is always private.

If you’re starting a new project, you might first look at today’s beta launch of Napkin, a production-ready, browser-based, backend development tool.

Developers spend countless hours setting up their backend infrastructure. Napkin works to remove all of that tedious and repetitive work. Napkin’s maker, Thomas Wang, explained his and his cofounders’ vision is to make the power of computing available for everyone, without having to become a professional software developer.

Online IDEs (integrated development environments) like Repl.it do provide some conveniences to devs, but Wang explained Napkin’s next-generation approach.

“Our goal was to differentiate early, to fit in neatly with all the modern API's, libraries, and frontend frameworks/clients. We don't want to replace, we want to complement.”

And early adopters are taking note.

“This would've made the learning process for a younger me so much less intimidating… I think we'll see an explosion of ideas manifest on Napkin… 🥳: - Jonathan Xu

“I have 0 backend experience but I've already managed to make a discord bot, slack app… and it was super simple!!” - Isamu Naets

We recently covered Paragon Connect, a low-code Zapier-like tool for speeding up integrations. We’re thinking of Napkin as a relative to the blossoming low and no-code space — another wave of making development less cumbersome and more accessible.

Spotify is dipping its toes into hardware. Yesterday it debuted Car Thing, a smart player for your car.



Last week astute users and the media picked up that Spotify had quietly added an in-app voice assistant—it just has to be turned on before you can make requests with “Hey Spotify.” Now we know why!