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Get Started with Node: An Introduction to APIs, HTTP and ES6+ JavaScript
11.3.2019
Jamie Corkhill has written this wonderful post about Node and I think it’s perhaps one of the best technical articles I’ve ever read. Not only is it jam-packed with information for folks like me who aren't writing JavaScript everyday, it is also incredibly deliberate as Jamie slowly walks through...
The Dark Side of the Grid
10.3.2019
Manuel Matuzovic makes the point that in order to use CSS grid in some fairly simple markup scenarios, we might be tempted to flatten our HTML to make sure all the elements we need to can participate on the grid. What we need is subgrid and non-buggy display: contents;, so I'd like to think in...
Styling Based on Scroll Position
7.3.2019
Rik Schennink documents a system for being able to write CSS selectors that style a page when it has scrolled to a certain point. If you're like me, you're already on the lookout for document.addEventListener('scroll' ... and being terrified about performance. Rik gets to that right away by both...
8 Little Videos About the Firefox Shape Path Editor
7.3.2019
It sometimes takes a quick 35 seconds for a concept to really sink in. Mikael Ainalem delivers that here, in the case that you haven't quite grokked the concepts behind path-based CSS properties like clip-path and shape-outside.
Here are two of my favorites. The first demonstrates animating text...
The Client/Server Rendering Spectrum
6.3.2019
I've definitely been guilty of thinking about rendering on the web as a two-horse race. There is Server-Side Rendering (SSR, like this WordPress site is doing) and Client-Side Rendering (CSR, like a typical React app). Both are full of advantages and disadvantages. But, of course, the conversation...
CSS Triangles, Multiple Ways
5.3.2019
I like Adam Laki's Quick Tip: CSS Triangles because it covers that ubiquitous fact about front-end techniques: there are always many ways to do the same thing. In this case, drawing a triangle can be done:
with border and a collapsed element
with clip-path: polygon()
with transform: rotate()...
Do CSS Custom Properties Beat Sass Loops?
2.3.2019
I reckon that a lot of our uses of Sass maps can be replaced with CSS Custom properties – but hear me out for a sec.
When designing components we often need to use the same structure of a component but change its background or text color based on a theme. For example, in an alert, we might need...
Why CSS Needs its Own Survey
1.3.2019
2016 was only three years ago, but that’s almost a whole other era in web development terms. The JavaScript landscape was in turmoil, with up-and-comer React — as well as a little-known framework called Vue — fighting to dethrone Angular.
Like many other developers, I felt lost. I needed some...
Did you know that CSS Custom Properties can handle images too?
27.2.2019
So you might be aware of CSS Custom Properties that let you set a variable, such as a theme color, and then apply it to multiple classes like this:
:root {
--theme: #777;
}
.alert {
background: var(—-theme);
}
.button {
background: var(—-theme);
}
Well, I had seen this pattern so often...
Text Wrapping & Inline Pseudo Elements
27.2.2019
I love posts like this. It's just about adding a little icon to the end of certain links, but it ends up touching on a million things along the way. I think this is an example of why some people find front-end fun and some people rather dislike it.
Things involved:
Cool [attribute] selectors that...
Typography for Developers
27.2.2019
This is intended as a practical guide for developers to learn web typography. We’ll cover a range of practical and useful topics, like how to choose and use custom fonts on the web, but more importantly, how to lay text out to create a pleasant user experience. We’ll go over the principles...
Moving a Self-Hosted WordPress Site to WordPress.com
26.2.2019
I have a habit of getting some hosting when I need a new WordPress site. That is, a self-installed, self-hosted WordPress.org site. That's served me well over the years. I like my control. But along with that control comes a certain level of extra responsibility that sometimes just isn't worth...
iconsvg.xyz
25.2.2019
There is a lot to like about Gaddafi Rusli's ICONSVG.
It provides inline <svg>, which is the most generically useful way to deliver them, and probably how they should be used anyway. Each icon is a tiny amount of SVG and I'd bet they were all hand-golfed.
They are all stroke-based, so they...
Dealing with overflow and position: sticky;
25.2.2019
Any overflow value other than visible and no height is the enemy of child elements with position: sticky;. It's like that element is ready to stick when the parent scrolls, but it never does because the height is unconstrained. Adding a fixed height can solve the issue, but that's not always...
ERC20 & ERC721: How do they work?
25.2.2019
Learn more about the technical details of how ERC20 and ERC721 tokens work in a simplified explanation. From the CMC Editorial Desk: You’ve heard about ERC20 and ERC721 “token standards” – but what do they look like under the hood? […]
The post ERC20 & ERC721: How...
Using CSS Grid the right way
22.2.2019
Violet Peña has shared her recommendations for using CSS Grid. They basically boil down to these high-level points:
Use names instead of numbers for setting up our grid columns.
fr should be our flexible unit of choice.
We don’t really need a grid system anymore.
Although this is all great advice...
Blobs!
21.2.2019
I was recently a guest editor for an issue of Bizarro Devs. It's a great newsletter! Go sign up! I put in a bunch of links around blobs. Like those weird squishy random shapes that are so "in" right now. Here are those links as well. I'm always a fan of publishing stuff I write ;)
Blobs! Blobs...
Colorful Typographic Experiments
21.2.2019
There have been some interesting, boundary-pushing typography-related experiments lately. I was trying to think of a joke like "somethings in the descenders" but I just can't find something that will stand on its own leg without being easy to counter.
Codrin Pavel created a fascinating multi-color...
Diana Smith’s Top 5 CSS Properties She Uses to Produce CSS Art
20.2.2019
Have you seen Diana Smith's CSS drawings? Stunning. These far transcend the CSS drawings that sort of crudely replicate a flat SVG scene, like I might attempt. We were lucky enough for her to post some of her CSS drawing techniques here last year.
Well, Diana has also listed the top five...
How @supports Works
18.2.2019
CSS has a neat feature that allows us to test if the browser supports a particular property or property:value combination before applying a block of styles — like how a @media query matches when, say, the width of the browser window is narrower than some specified size and then the CSS within...