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The Whole Spreadsheets as Databases Thing is Pretty Cool
18.3.2019
A spreadsheet has always been a strong (if fairly literal) analogy for a database. A database has tables, which is like a single spreadsheet. Imagine a spreadsheet for tracking RSVPs for a wedding. Across the top, column titles like First Name, Last Name, Address, and Attending?. Those titles...
People Digging into Grid Sizing and Layout Possibilities
15.3.2019
Jen Simmons has been coining the term intrinsic design, referring to a new era in web layout where the sizing of content has gone beyond fluid columns and media query breakpoints and into, I dunno, something a bit more exotic. For example, columns that are sized more by content and guidelines than...
Perfect Image Optimization for Mobile with Optimole
14.3.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
In 2015 there were 24,000 different Android devices, and each of them was capable of downloading images. And this was just the beginning. The mobile era is starting to gather pace with mobile visitors starting to eclipse desktop. One thing is certain, building...
Downsides of Smooth Scrolling
11.3.2019
Smooth scrolling has gotten a lot easier. If you want it all the time on your page, and you are happy letting the browser deal with the duration for you, it's a single line of CSS:
html {
scroll-behavior: smooth;
}
I tried this on version 17 of this site, and it was the second most-hated thing...
console.log() Faster with Turbo Console Log
11.3.2019
I've recently been live-coding on Twitch and the thing that I've loved about it is all the users in the chat that are helping me out by giving me the
Extracting Text from Content Using HTML Slot, HTML Template and Shadow DOM
6.3.2019
Chapter names in books, quotes from a speech, keywords in an article, stats on a report — these are all types of content that could be helpful to isolate and turn into a high-level summary of what's important.
For example, have you seen the way Business Insider provides an article's key points...
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()...
Welcome to My New Office
19.2.2019
My first professional web development was at a small print shop where I sat in a windowless cubical all day. I suffered that boxed in environment for almost five years before I was able to find a remote job where I worked from home. The first thing I told myself when leaving that first...
Getting to Grips with the Airtable API
14.2.2019
The Airtable web app is pretty neat. You can use it like a spreadsheet but it’s useful for all sorts of other things too. The neatest thing about it for me is that it has an API so that you can treat it like a database.
I’ve been thinking about making weekly notes for the different teams I work...
“the closest thing web standards have to a golden rule”
14.2.2019
The internet's own Mat Marquis plucks this choice quote from the HTML Design Principals spec:
In case of conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over theoretical purity.
And then he applies the idea to putting images on websites in 2019.
Direct Link to Article...
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the JavaScript
12.2.2019
Around this time last year, I wrote an article about the JavaScript learning landscape. Within that article, you’ll find my grand plans to learn JavaScript — complete with a link to a CodePen Collection I started for tracking my progress, and it even got dozens of comments cheering me on.
Like most...
The Great Divide
21.1.2019
Let’s say there is a divide happening in front-end development. I feel it, but it's not just in my bones. Based on an awful lot of written developer sentiment, interviews Dave Rupert and I have done on ShopTalk, and in-person discussion, it’s, as they say... a thing.
The divide is between people...
How I Built a GPS-Powered Weather Clock With My Old iPhone 4
17.1.2019
My first smartphone was an iPhone 4s. I remember the excitement of exploring its capabilities at a time when it was the coolest thing around. Eventually, of course, I replaced it with a newer model and the old iPhone, still in mint condition, gathered dust for two years. What a waste!
But was...
Slice and Dice a Disc with CSS
13.1.2019
I recently came across an interesting sliced disc design. The disc had a diagonal gradient and was split into horizontal slices, offset a bit from left to right. Naturally, I started to think what would the most efficient way of doing it with CSS be.
Sliced gradient disc.
The first thought...
Why we need CSS subgrid
11.1.2019
I’m a huge fan of CSS Grid and I use it on pretty much every project these days. However, there’s one part of it that makes things much more complicated than they really ought to be: the lack of subgrids. And in this post on the matter, Ken Bellows explains why they’d be so gosh darn useful:
But...
How to Change the WordPress Media Upload Directory
2.1.2019
One thing I’ve always missed about the “old” way of web development was the simplicity of FTP. No deploy scripts, no fuss: simple drag and drop of files and the files are there. I’ve used FTP for assets on this blog for over a decade but I’m finally ready to be lazy...
An Initial Implementation of clip-path: path();
24.12.2018
One thing that has long surprised (and saddened) me is that the clip-path property, as awesome as it is, only takes a few values. The circle() and ellipse() functions are nice, but hiding overflows and rounding with border-radius generally helps there already. Perhaps the most useful value...
Ease-y Breezy: A Primer on Easing Functions
18.12.2018
During the past few months, I’ve been actively teaching myself how to draw and animate SVG shapes. I’ve been using CSS transitions, as well as tools like D3.js, react-motion and GSAP, to create my animations.
One thing about animations in general and the documentation these and other animation...
Making SVG icon libraries for React apps
14.12.2018
Nicolas Gallagher:
At Twitter I used the approach described here to publish the company’s SVG icon library in several different formats: optimized SVGs, plain JavaScript modules, React DOM components, and React Native components.
There is no One True Way© to make an SVG icon system. The only...
What makes someone a good front-end developer?
11.12.2018
We recently covered this exact same thing, but from the perspective of a bunch of developers.
Chris Ferdinandi weighs in:
The least important skills for a front-end developer to have are technical ones.
The nuances of JavaScript. How to use a particular library, framework, or build tool. How...