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No-Class CSS Frameworks
13.4.2020
I linked up Water.css not long ago as an interesting sort of CSS framework. No classes. No <h2 class="is-title">. You just use semantic HTML and get styles. Is that going to “scale” very far? Probably not, but it sure is handy for styling things quickly, where — of course...
Tips for Writing Animation Code Efficiently
10.4.2020
I’ve been coding web animations and helping others do the same for years now. However, I have yet to see a concise list of tips focused on how to efficiently build animations, so here you go!
I will be using the GreenSock Animation Platform (GSAP). It provides a simple, readable API and solves...
Google’s Technical Writing Guide
3.4.2020
It’s good!
I’ve written up my advice (sprinkled with great advice from others), but this is way more straightforward nuts-and-bolts training on technical writing. It’s structured like an actual course, with exercises along the way.
I’m far from an expert here. But between...
Playing With Particles Using the Web Animations API
18.3.2020
When it comes to motion and animations, there is probably nothing I love more than particles. This is why every time I explore new technologies I always end up creating demos with as many particles as I can.
In this post, we'll make even more particle magic using the Web Animations API to create...
Disney World Economics: How Coronavirus Could Be Used to Justify a Global Financial Reset
13.3.2020
‘What in the world is going on’ has now become a question of real pertinence, instead of just a cliché for common bewilderment. As COVID-19 panic grips the world, ripple effects are crashing markets and effectively canceling economies across the globe, scrawling the writing on...
The 3 Laws of Serverless
6.3.2020
Burke Holland thinks that to "build applications without thinking about servers" is a pretty good way to describe serverless, but...
Nobody really thinks about servers when they are writing their code. I mean, I doubt any developer has ever thrown up their hands and said “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Wait...
4 Ways to Animate the Color of a Text Link on Hover
3.3.2020
Let’s create a pure CSS effect that changes the color of a text link on hover… but slide that new color in instead of simply swapping colors.
There are four different techniques we can use to do this. Let’s look at those while being mindful of important things, like accessibility, performance,...
Selectors Explained
2.3.2020
Have you ever found yourself either writing a CSS selector that winds up looking confusing as heck, or seen one while reading through someone's code? That happened to me the other day.
Here's what I wrote:
.site-footer__nav a:hover svg ellipse:first-child { }
At the end of it, I honestly couldn't...
Where to Learn WordPress Theme Development
28.2.2020
Over a decade ago, I did a little three-part video series on Designing for WordPress. Then I did other series with the same spirit, like videocasting the whole v10 redesign, a friend's website, and even writing a book. Those are getting a little long in the tooth though. You might still learn from...
The Unseen Performance Costs of Modern CSS-in-JS Libraries
13.2.2020
This article is full of a bunch of data from Aggelos Arvanitakis. But lemme just focus on his final bit of advice:
Investigate whether a zero-runtime CSS-in-JS library can work for your project. Sometimes we tend to prefer writing CSS in JS for the DX (developer experience) it offers, without...
10 Interesting JavaScript and CSS Libraries for February 2020
11.2.2020
Our web dev resources compilation for February comes packed with awesome React frameworks, tools for writing better tests, and much more!
The Three Types of Code
3.2.2020
Every time I start a new project, I organize the code I’m looking at into three types, or categories if you like. And I think these types can be applied to any codebase, any language, any technology or open source project. Whether I’m writing HTML or CSS or building a React component, thinking...
Smaller HTML Payloads with Service Workers
31.1.2020
Short story: Philip Walton has a clever idea for using service workers to cache the top and bottom of HTML files, reducing a lot of network weight.
Longer thoughts: When you're building a really simple website, you can get away with literally writing raw HTML. It doesn't take long to need a...
Building Multi-Directional Layouts
23.1.2020
There are some new features in CSS that can assist us with building layouts for different directions and languages with ease. This article is about CSS logical properties and values (e.g. margin-inline-start).  These are a W3C working draft that still going under heavy editing, but have...
Component-Level CMSs
23.1.2020
When a component lives in an environment where the data queries populating it live nearby, there is a pretty direct line between the visual component and the database where that exact content lives. That is opening up doors to site editing experiences that travel that line. We're starting to...
Getting Started with Front End Testing
20.1.2020
Amy Kapernick covers four types of testing that front-end devs could and should be doing:
Linting (There's ESLint for JavaScript and Stylelint or Prettier for CSS.)
Accessibility Testing (Amy recommends pa11y, and we've covered Axe.)
Visual Regression Testing (Amy recommends Backstop, and we've...
Understanding Async Await
9.1.2020
When writing code for the web, eventually you'll need to do some process that might take a few moments to complete. JavaScript can't really multitask, so we'll need a way to handle those long-running processes.
Async/Await is a way to handle this type of time-based sequencing. It’s especially great...
Jetpack Slideshow Block
7.1.2020
One of the many (many) useful things that Jetpack does is give you extra-fancy custom blocks in the WordPress block (AKA Gutenberg) editor: a slideshow, business hours, contact info, GIF, Mailchimp, Map, Markdown, Pinterest, Star Rating, Recurring Payments Button, Repeat Visitor, Simple Payments...
These Myth-Busting Articles Dispel Common Bitcoin Myths
22.12.2019
Recently, a few Bitcoin Cash (BCH) proponents have been writing a series of myth-busting articles that describe Bitcoin technicals generally thought to be true but which are not. The articles posted on the read.cash blog have reviewed topics like 10-minute confirmation times, SPV wallets,...
Design APIs: The Evolution of Design Systems
17.12.2019
A clever idea from Matthew Ström:
[...] design APIs don’t seem like a stretch of the imagination. An API-driven approach is the natural extension of the work currently being done on design systems, including tokens and standardization projects.
If you buy into the idea of design tokens, that...