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The Serif Tax
9.4.2019
Fonts are vector. Vector art with more points makes for larger files than vector art with fewer points. Custom fonts are downloaded. So, fonts with less points in their vector art are smaller. That's the theory anyway. Shall we see if there is any merit to it?
Open Sans (top) and Garamond...
Next Genpm
27.3.2019
So many web projects use npm to pull in their dependencies, for both the front end and back. npm install and away it goes, pulling thousands of files into a node_modules folder in our projects to import/require anything. It's an important cog in the great machine of web development.
While I don't...
Buddy: 15 Minutes to Automation Nirvana
26.3.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Deploying a website to the server in 2019 requires much more effort than 10 years ago. For example, here's what needs to be done nowadays to deliver a typical JS app:
split the app into chunks
configure webpack bundle
minify .js files
set up staging environment
upload...
Build a Decentralized Web Chat in 15 Minutes
25.3.2019
In this 15 minute tutorial we’re going to build a simple decentralized chat application which runs entirely in a web browser. All you will need is a text editor, a web browser, and a basic knowledge of how to save HTML files and open them in the browser. We’re going...
It’s pretty cool how Netlify CMS works with any flat file site generator
21.3.2019
Little confession here: when I first saw Netlify CMS at a glance, I thought: cool, maybe I'll try that someday when I'm exploring CMSs for a new project. Then as I looked at it with fresh eyes: I can already use this! It's a true CMS in that it adds a content management UI on top of any static site...
Schematics: A Plug-in System for JavaScript Projects
18.3.2019
Schematics is a tool from the Angular team that allows you to manipulate projects with code. You can create files, update existing files, and add dependencies to any project that has a packag
Write Your First Service Worker in 5 Minutes
18.3.2019
What is a service worker? A service worker is a little file that will allow you to cache files and other assets on a user’s machine. How is this different from server-side caching? Because the assets are stored on a user’s machine, rather than a server, there is no need to go across...
Sublime Text 3.2 Is Out! Git Integrated and Still Blazing Fast
14.3.2019
Sublime Text has a special place in my heart. It's the editor that made me love editors. Before that it was Notepad++ or Coda and trying to get files onto a server using FTP. Those were the days! W
A Bit of Performance
28.2.2019
Here’s a great post by Roman Komarov on what he learned by improving the performance of his personal website. There’s a couple of neat things he does to tackle font loading in particular, such as adding the <link rel="preload"> tags for fonts. This will encourage those font files...
Bandwidth or Latency: When to Optimise for Which
5.2.2019
Harry Roberts:
A good rule of thumb to remember is that, for regular web browsing, improvements in latency would be more beneficial than improvements in bandwidth, and that improvements in bandwidth are noticed more when dealing with larger files.
Direct Link to Article — Permalink…...
The Many Ways to Change an SVG Fill on Hover (and When to Use Them)
31.1.2019
SVG is a great format for icons. Vector formats look crisp and razor sharp, no matter the size or device — and we get tons of design control when using them inline.
SVG also gives us another powerful feature: the ability to manipulate their properties with CSS. As a result, we can make quick...
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...
Collective #468
15.11.2018
State of Houdini * Turtletoy * VisBug * Squoosh * The Writable Files API * Web.dev (beta) * Inlining or Caching? Both Please!
Collective #468 was written by Pedro Botelho and published on Codrops
Mercurial: Mass Add and Remove All Files
29.10.2018
While I much prefer git and the GitHub workflow, Firefox’s codebase (mozilla-central) is store in a mercurial repository. There are tools that wrap mercurial so you can use a git-like interface, like git-cinnabar, but my philosophy is to learn the root tool so that I know what’s going...
Find and Change Default App for File Type from Command Line
23.10.2018
There are few things more frustrating to any computer user than files opening in an unwanted application. Sure you can use the Open menu item in the desired application but we all just want to double-click a file and see it open in the application we expect. I recently got to thinking about this...
View Source
23.7.2018
I remember seeing this Tom Dale tweet a while back. It's literally about the browser's ability to look at the HTML of the document you're looking at as it first arrived. Now the tweet is stirring up a new round of conversation.
Jonathan Snook has kind of a baby bear take:
We have the ability...
Automate Your Workflow with Node
18.7.2018
You know those tedious tasks you have to do at work: Updating configuration files, copying and pasting files, updating Jira tickets.
Time adds up after a while. This was very much the case when I worked for an online games company back in 2016. The job could be very rewarding at times when I had...
Uppy File Uploading
11.6.2018
One of the big tasks I was charged with at my first job was setting up a system by which any customer or potential customer (aka anonymous user) could upload PDF and image files. I had loads of constraints to deal with: browser support, server settings, variance in user tech knowledge, etc....
Transmit Droplets
30.5.2018
Ethan Marcotte documented his workflow for storing GIFs in a web directory. Sometimes just SFTPing files into a folder is as fancy a workflow as you need, and in fact, modern workflows don't have anything on it!
I've also used Transmit's fancy features for this kind of thing. I prefer saving...
How to Delete Untracked Files in a Mercurial Repository
29.5.2018
Working around Firefox at Mozilla means that you need to get acquainted with mercurial, the version control system that rivals git and svn. Like any tool, hg (mercurial) can be difficult until you’re well versed with it. And if you hg import a URL that doesn’t match up with...