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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...
Firefox DevTools WebConsole 2018 retrospective
21.1.2019
Here’s a wonderful post by Nicolas Chevobbe on what the Firefox DevTools team was up to last year. What strikes me is how many improvements they shipped — from big visual design improvements to tiny usability fixes that help us make sure our code works as we expect it to in the console....
How I’ve Been Using Notion Personally and Professionally
16.1.2019
I use Notion quite a bit, both personally and professionally.
In a sense, it's just an app for keeping documents in one place: little notes, to-do lists, basic spreadsheets, etc. I like the native macOS Notes app just fine. It's quick and easy, it's desktop and mobile, it syncs... but there...
JavaScript Labels
15.1.2019
No matter how long you’ve been a JavaScript developer, there will always be language features that you didn’t know about until you saw them in a fringe piece of code. Your reaction generally is a bit like: One of those features I see developers quizically trying to figure out...
Super Simple GraphQL with Node
14.1.2019
GraphQL is a specification and therefore language agnostic. When it comes GraphQL development with node, there are various options available ranging from
Design v17
14.1.2019
We rolled out a new site design on January 1! This is the 17th version of CSS-Tricks if you can believe that. The versions tend to evolve a decent amount beyond the initial launch, but we archive screenshots on this design history page. Like I said in our 2018 thank you post:
This is easily...
The Ethics of Web Performance
14.1.2019
Tim Kadlec on the issues surrounding poor web performance and why it’s so important for us to care about making our sites as fast as possible:
Poor performance can, and does, lead to exclusion. This point is extremely well documented by now, but warrants repeating. Sites that use an excess...
Re: Pleasing Color Palettes
11.1.2019
There are so many tools out there to help you pick colors. I totally get it! It's hard! When colors are done well, it's like magic. It adds a level of polish to a design that can really set it apart.
Let's look at some, then talk about this idea some more.
Here's one I just saw called Color...
Piecing Together Approaches for a CSS Masonry Layout
11.1.2019
Masonry layout, on the web, is when items of an uneven size are laid out such that there aren't uneven gaps. I would guess the term was coined (or at least popularized) for the web by David DeSandro because of his popular Masonry JavaScript library, which has been around since 2010.
JavaScript...
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...
Building Responsive WordPress Forms
10.1.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Within the arsenal of every WordPress developer exists a toolbox of plugins used to implement key features on a website. Forms, up until now, have been a point of contention for most developers, given that no form plugins have offered seamless integration with existing...
Building Responsive WordPress Forms
10.1.2019
Within the arsenal of every WordPress developer exists a toolbox of plugins used to implement key features on a website. Forms, up until now, have been a point of contention for most developers, given that no form plugins have offered seamless integration with existing website code. Therefore...
6 Popular CSS Frameworks to Use in 2019
7.1.2019
Creating consistent, concise, and effective CSS can be quite a lot of work. There are so many things to consider like responsiveness, accessibility, and structure. This is exactly why CSS Framework
WordCamp US 2018
4.1.2019
I recently attended and had the chance to speak at WordCamp US 2018 in Nashville. I had a great time. I love conferences that bring people together around a tight theme because it's very likely you'll have something to talk about with every person there. Plus, I rather like WordPress and...
Quicklink
3.1.2019
We're in the future now so, of course, we're working on ways to speed up the web with fancy new tactics above and beyond the typical make-pages-slimmer-and-cached-like-crazy techniques.
One tactic, from years ago, was InstantClick:
Before visitors click on a link, they hover over that link. Between...
Storing and Using the Last Known Route in Vue
2.1.2019
There are situations where keeping a reference to the last route a user visited can come in handy. For example, let’s say we’re working with a multi-step form and the user proceeds from one step to the next. It would be ideal to have the route of that previous step in hand so we know where the user...
How to Change the WordPress Admin Login Logo
2.1.2019
There are numerous content management systems that thrive these days but none are as prolific as WordPress. Every client wants the ability to change their website at a moment’s notice and they want to do it themselves, and again, WordPress is the best fit for that. You fit the client with...
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...
A Quick CSS Audit and General Notes About Design Systems
31.12.2018
I’ve been auditing a ton of CSS lately and thought it would be neat to jot down how I’m going about doing that. I’m sure there are a million different ways to do this depending on the size and scale of your app and how your CSS works under the hood, so please take all this with a grain of salt....
Gradient Borders in CSS
28.12.2018
Let's say you need a gradient border around an element. My mind goes like this:
There is no simple obvious CSS API for this.
I'll just make a wrapper element with a linear-gradient background, then an inner element will block out most of that background, except a thin line of padding around...