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A responsive grid layout with no media queries
9.5.2019
Andy Bell made a really cool demo that shows us how to create a responsive grid layout without any media queries at all. It happens to look like this when you change the size of the browser window:
I think this is a wonderful layout technique that’s just 6 lines (!) of CSS.
.auto-grid...
Moving from Gulp to Parcel
25.4.2019
Ben Frain just made some notes about the switch from Gulp to Parcel, a relatively new "web application bundler" which, from a quick look at things, is similar to webpack but without all the hassle of setting things up. One of the things I’ve always disliked about webpack is that you kinda have...
Faking env() to Use it Now
18.4.2019
There is already an env() function in CSS, but it kinda came out of nowhere as an Apple thing for dealing with "The Notch" but it has made it's way to be a draft spec. The point will be for UAs or authors to declare variables that cannot be changed. Global const for CSS, sorta.
That spec doesn't...
Clever code
17.4.2019
This week, Chris Ferdinandi examined a clever JavaScript snippet, one that's written creatively with new syntax features, but is perhaps less readable and performant. It's a quick read, but his callout of our industry's fixation on cleverness is worth... calling out:
...we’ve become obsessed as...
Native Lazy Loading
9.4.2019
IntersectionObserver has made lazy loading a lot easier and more efficient than it used to be, but to do it really right you still gotta remove the src and such, which is cumbersome. It's definitely not as easy as:
<img src="celebration.jpg" loading="lazy" alt="..." />
Addy Osmani says...
Undefined: The Third Boolean Value
5.4.2019
I wanted to implement a notification message in one of my projects, similar to what you’d see in Google Docs while a document is saving. In other words, a message shows up indicating that the document is saving every time a change is made. Then, once the changes are saved, the message becomes: “All...
Responsible JavaScript
3.4.2019
We just made a note about this article by Jeremy Wagner in our newsletter but it’s so good that I think it’s worth linking to again as Jeremy writes about how our obsession with JavaScript can lead to accessibility and performance issues:
What we tend to forget is that the environment websites...
TheWestTour: Ice, Products, and 2G
26.3.2019
“Do people speak English in Africa?”, “Do high school students have access to smartphones and computers?” These series of challenging questions made me know I was amongst the right crowd and the lo
An Introduction to Web Components
18.3.2019
Front-end development moves at a break-neck pace. This is made evident by the myriad articles, tutorials, and Twitter threads bemoaning the state of what once was a fairly simple tech stack. In this article, I’ll discuss why Web Components are a great tool to deliver high-quality user experiences...
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
The Benefits of Structuring CSS Around Appearance and Layout
13.3.2019
I like this point that Jonathan Snook made on Twitter and I’ve been thinking about it non-stop because it describes something that’s really hard about writing CSS:
I feel like that tweet sounds either very shallow or very deep depending on how you look at it but in reality, I don't think...
Planning for Responsive Images
13.3.2019
The first time I made an image responsive, it was as simple as coding these four lines:
img {
max-width: 100%;
height auto; /* default */
}
Though that worked for me as a developer, it wasn’t the best for the audience. What happens if the the image in the src attribute is heavy? On high-end...
Deliver your best work with the help of monday.com
21.2.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Here's the situation: You've bashed out a complicated design over two weeks of near full-time effort, gotten everything down to the exact spec of the design file, turn it in for stakeholder review and... you're way off scope. Turns out a few folks on the team put their...
Deliver your best work with the help of monday.com
21.2.2019
(This is a sponsored post.)
Here's the situation: You've bashed out a complicated design over two weeks of near full-time effort, gotten everything down to the exact spec of the design file, turn it in for stakeholder review and... you're way off scope. Turns out a few folks on the team put their...
The Importance of One-on-Ones
30.1.2019
What do we mean by 1:1 (pronounced one-on-one)? This is typically a private conversation between an Engineering Manager/Lead and their Employee. I personally have been a Lead, a Manager, and also an Independent Contributor/Software Engineer, so I’ve sat at each side of the table. I’ve both...
Mac Dark Mode from Command Line
30.1.2019
One of the best professional decisions I ever made was switching to a dark text editor theme. I suffered from horrible headaches for years, partially caused by late night coding sessions with blindingly bright computer screens. Recently Apple implemented a dark OS theme which helps my eyes,...
Using React and XState to Build a Sign In Form
24.1.2019
To make a sign in form with good UX requires UI state management, meaning we’d like to minimize the cognitive load to complete it and reduce the number of required user actions while making an intuitive experience. Think about it: even a relatively simple email and password sign in form needs...
React indeterminate
22.1.2019
I’ve fallen in love with React.js and JSX over the years; state-based rendering and a logical workflow have made me see the light of this modern framework. That doesn’t mean I don’t sometimes get a bit frustrated that the “simple” things seem harder than they should...
Making Movies With amCharts
16.1.2019
In this article, I want to show off the flexibility and real power of amCharts 4. We’re going to learn how to combine multiple charts that run together with animations that form a movie experience. Even if you’re only interested in creating a different kind of animation that has nothing to do with...
A CSS Venn Diagram
17.12.2018
This is pretty wild: Adrian Roselli has made a series of rather complex Venn diagrams using nothing but CSS. With a combination of the Firefox dev inspector, plus a mixture of CSS Grid and the shape-outside property, it’s possible to do this and without a ton of hacks, too.
I also think it’s super...