Local-First From Scratch

I'm writing on a book about local-first software. Instead of doing a survey of all the libraries available, I'm taking a first principles approach. That means doing a lot of explaining CRDTs, syncing, and the like, but I'm having a ton of fun with it so far.

As of March 2025, I have the introduction and first chapter done, and I'm working on the implementation that will end up being built up throughout the book.

I already had one false start where I made a time tracker. This turned out to not cover enough ground to be useful, though: when I tried to make a usergroup presentation on CRDTs using what I had done already, I found pretty big gaps. That means a shift in approach. If you're interested in where I got, you can get the WIP software at bytes-zone/beeps on GitHub.

Despite the false start, I hope to be at the place where beta readers can look at the book in mid-2025!

Updates

2025

a dilemma, or is it a conundrum? Maybe it's a dilendrum!, February 27, 2025

some time tracking results, January 29, 2025

early thoughts on using beeps, January 7, 2025

2024

LFFS: Simplicity vs Efficiency, December 26, 2024

Local-First From Scratch, part 1, December 17, 2024