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No-Comma Color Functions in CSS
4.5.2020
There have been a couple of viral tweets about this lately, one from Adam Argyle and one from Mathias Bynes. This is a nice change that makes CSS a bit more clear. Before, every single color function actually needs two functions, one for transparency and one without, this eliminates that need...
How to Redirect a Search Form to a Site-Scoped Google Search
29.4.2020
This is just a tiny little trick that might be helpful on a site where you don’t have the time or desire to build out a really good on-site search solution. Google.com itself can perform searches scoped to one particular site. The trick is getting people there using that special syntax...
@property
25.4.2020
The @property is totally new to me, but I see it’s headed to Chrome, so I suppose it’s good to know about!
There is a draft spec and an “intent to ship” document. The code from that document shows:
@property --my-property {
syntax: "<color";
initial-value: green;
...
Tencent Taps DAML Smart Contract Language for Chinese State Blockchain Network
20.4.2020
Digital Asset’s DAML smart contract language is being integrated into the blockchain that will underpin China’s national Blockchain-Based Service Network
Pseudo-Randomly Adding Illustrations with CSS
17.4.2020
Between each post of Eric Meyer’s blog there’s this rather lovely illustration that can randomly be one of these five options:
Eric made each illustration into a separate background image then switches out that image with the nth-of-type CSS property, like this:
.entry:nth-of-type(2n+1)::before...
Create a Responsive CSS Motion Path? Sure We Can!
15.4.2020
There was a discussion recently on the Animation at Work Slack: how could you make a CSS motion path responsive? What techniques would be work? This got me thinking.
A CSS motion path allows us to animate elements along custom user-defined paths. Those paths follow the same structure as SVG paths....
Thinking in Behaviors, Not Screen Sizes
11.4.2020
Chase McCoy wrote a nifty post about the “gap problem” when making a grid of items. His argument might be summarized like this: how should we space elements with margins in CSS? He notes that the gap property isn’t quite ready for prime time when it comes to using it with flexbox, like this:
.grid...
CSS Findings From The New Facebook Design
7.4.2020
Ahmad Shadeed digs around the new Facebook’s front-end code.
One that stood out to me:
.element {
inset: 4px 0;
/* Which is equivalent to: top: 4px, bottom: 4px, left: 0, right: 0 */
}
Whaaat? This is the first I’ve heard of the inset property. Ahmad said he saw it working...
Wide Gamut Color in CSS with Display-P3
31.3.2020
Here’s something I’d never heard of before: Display-P3 support in CSS Color Module Level 4 spec. This is a new color profile supported by certain displays and it introduces a much wider range of colors that we can choose from.
Right now the syntax looks something like this in CSS:
header...
How They Fit Together: Transform, Translate, Rotate, Scale, and Offset
30.3.2020
Firefox 72 was first out of the gate with "independent transforms." That is, instead of having to combine transforms together, like:
.el {
transform: rotate(10deg) scale(0.95) translate(10px, 10px);
}
...we can do:
.el {
rotate: 10deg;
scale: 0.95;
translate: 10px 10px;
}
That's extremely...
Did You Know the Ordered List Element Has Start and Reversed Attributes?
24.3.2020
I sure didn't! Tomek Sułkowsi shows how we can reverse the numbering of ordered lists with a simple HTML attribute:
<ol reversed<liApple</li<liBanana</li<liPear</li</ol
CodePen Embed Fallback
And the start attribute can be added to begin the list at a number other...
CSS :nth-of-class selector
23.3.2020
That's not a thing.
But it kinda is!
Bram covers how frustrating .bar:nth-child(2) is. It's not "select the second element of class .bar." It's "select the second element if it also has the class .bar." The good news? There is a real selector that does the former:
:nth-child(2 of .bar) { }
Safari...
CSS2JS
20.3.2020
To add inline styles on an element in JSX, you have to do it in this object syntax, like:
<div style={{
fontSize: 16,
marginBottom: "1rem"
}}Content
</div
That might look a little weird to us folks who are so used to the CSS syntax, where it is font-size (not fontSize), margin-bottom...
What Does `playsinline` Mean in Web Video?
18.3.2020
I got myself confused about this the other day, went around searching for an answer and came up empty on finding something clear. The answer actually is quite clear and I feel a little silly for not knowing it.
With it in place, like this:
<video src="..." controls playsinline</video
Mobile...
A Complete Guide to calc() in CSS
17.3.2020
CSS has a special calc() function for doing basic math. Here's an example:
.main-content {
/* Subtract 80px from 100vh */
height: calc(100vh - 80px);
}
In this guide, let's cover just about everything there is to know about this very useful function.
calc() is for values
The only place you...
How to Cancel a Fetch Request
17.3.2020
JavaScript promises have always been a major win for the language — they’ve led to a revolution of asynchronous coding that has vastly improved performance on the web. One shortcoming of native promises is that there’s no true way to cancel a fetch…until now. A...
Sass !default and themeable design systems
11.3.2020
This is a great blog post from Brad Frost where he walks us through an interesting example. Let’s say we’re making a theme and we have some Sass like this:
.c-text-input {
background-color: $form-background-color;
padding: 10px
}
If the $form-background-color variable isn’t defined then...
Block Links Are a Pain (and Maybe Just a Bad Idea)
10.3.2020
As we noted in our complete guide, you can put an <a href=""> link around whatever chunks of HTML you like. Let's call that a "block link." Like you are wanting to link up an entire "Card" of content because it makes a big clickable target.
<a href="/article/"<!-- display: block;...
Considerations When Choosing Fonts for a Multilingual Website
10.3.2020
As a front-end developer working for clients all over the world, I've always struggled to deal with multilingual websites — especially cases where both right-to-left (RTL) and left-to-right (LTR) are used. That said, I’ve learned a few things along the...
Adventures in CSS Semi-Transparency Land
9.3.2020
Recently, I was asked to make some tweaks to a landing page and, among the things I found in the code, there were two semitransparent overlays — both with the same RGB values for the background-color — on top of an image. Something like this:
<img src='myImage.jpg'/>
<div...