You love building web apps with Python, and HTMX got you excited about the hypermedia approach -- let the server drive the HTML, skip the JavaScript build step, keep things simple. But then you hit that last 10%: You need Alpine.js for interactivity, your state gets out of sync, and suddenly you're juggling two unrelated libraries that weren't designed to work together.

What if there was a single 11-kilobyte framework that gave you everything HTMX and Alpine do, and more, with real-time updates, multiplayer collaboration out of the box, and performance so fast you're actually bottlenecked by the monitor's refresh rate? That's Datastar.

On this episode, I sit down with its creator Delaney Gillilan, core maintainer Ben Croker, and Datastar convert Chris May to explore how this backend-driven, server-sent-events-first framework is changing the way full-stack developers think about the modern web.

Episode sponsors

Sentry Error Monitoring, Code talkpython26
Command Book
Talk Python Courses

Links from the show

Guests
Delaney Gillilan: linkedin.com
Ben Croker: x.com
Chris May: everydaysuperpowers.dev

Datastar: data-star.dev
HTMX: htmx.org
AlpineJS: alpinejs.dev
Core Attribute Tour: data-star.dev
data-star.dev/examples: data-star.dev
github.com/starfederation/datastar-python: github.com
VSCode: marketplace.visualstudio.com
OpenVSX: open-vsx.org
PyCharm/Intellij plugin: plugins.jetbrains.com
data-star.dev/datastar_pro: data-star.dev
gg: discord.gg
HTML-ivating your Django web app's experience with HTMX, AlpineJS, and streaming HTML - Chris May: www.youtube.com
Senior Engineer tries Vibe Coding: www.youtube.com
1 Billion Checkboxes: checkboxes.andersmurphy.com
Game of life example: example.andersmurphy.com

Watch this episode on YouTube: youtube.com
Episode #537 deep-dive: talkpython.fm/537
Episode transcripts: talkpython.fm

Theme Song: Developer Rap
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#537: Datastar: Modern web dev, simplified