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Hex Opacity Table
6.3.2020
We’ve used hex colors for years but 8-digit hexadecimal is still relatively new. While rgba is simple to understand, 8-digit hex is more difficult, as you need to provide a hex representation of a numeric value. The following is a hexadecimal chart of opacity! 100 FF 99 FC 98 FA 97 F7 96...
How to Set a Default Commit Message
2.3.2020
Having a default commit message is really useful for a number of reasons: It can formalize your commit messages It serves as a good reminder for the information you should add to your commit message, like issue number If you set it to “Drunk AF, don’t accept this” To set a default...
How to Specify User Agent with cURL
25.2.2020
Over the years I’ve shared how to perform a number of actions with cURL: how to send POST data, how to retrieve headers, follow redirects, check GZIP encoding, and more. Another useful cURL directive is sending the user agent, as some servers respond with different content or headers...
Override window.alert
11.2.2020
For years the only bit of feedback web developers could get was via alert("{str}") calls. These days we have the web console but, in rare cases, we don’t have a console and alert calls are our only window into a value at a given time. One problem: if an alert sneaks into production code, your...
Git Branch Autocompletion
4.2.2020
Naming git branches is something most of us have down to a science. My branch naming pattern is usually {issue number}-short-feature-description, though many developers prefer to lead with the description and end with the issue. Regardless of the pattern you use, having a feature like autocomplete...
Duplicated Argument Names
6.1.2020
Oftentimes we override or monkey patch functions and, in many cases, there are arguments we don’t care too much about. A common practice for those arguments is using _ for argument names — it’s a generally accepted and known practice for “this isn’t important”....
JavaScript ~~
9.12.2019
JavaScript is loaded with tiny syntax tricks to accomplish useful effects. For example, explore any codebase to see !! being used to convert a value to a boolean value. Have you seen ~~ before? Let’s have a look at what it does! We can employ ~~ to trigger a Math.floor operation with those...
JavaScript waitForTime
6.11.2019
I write a lot of tests for new features within Firefox DevTools. We have hundreds of “mochitests” which open the browser and perform synthetic actions like clicking, typing, and other user actions. I’ve previously written about waitForever which essentially halts following actions...
Promises and Static Values
23.8.2019
Async can throw a real wrench into the cogs of our programming workflows, all despite the fact that async is the modern JavaScript pattern. While async/await helps, there’s sometimes confusion about the way to have a single function that returns a value whether it exists or needs a Promise...
Data URIs
18.8.2019
We’re all familiar with traditional URI protocols like https, http, ftp, and file, but data URIs have become a large part of our online strategy. We can use them to display images, the Mac camera and webcams, and more. But what if we simply want to use a data URI to convey basic data? Typing...
then on Objects
5.8.2019
Promises were a revelation in JavaScript development, allowing us to enjoy async processing and avoid callback hell. Many new APIs like Battery API, Cache API, and others use the promise API. One fact you may not know is that you can add a then method to any object to make it Promise-like!...
CSS Gradient Text
15.7.2019
Web developers know the fight we’ve all had to improve fonts on the web. Whether it be load time, odd strategies for using custom fonts (Cufon, anyone?), or just finding the right font itself, beautifying text on the web has never come easy. That got me thinking about fonts and CSS gradients, since...
Detect if Element is a Web Component
5.6.2019
I’ve advocated for web components since before they became a spec, mostly inspired by the Dojo Toolkit’s dijit framework. Empowering first class JavaScript widgets, as opposed to a mess of DIVs and templates, always made the most sense. Now that web components exist, and awesome...
Recursive Array.flat
17.5.2019
There was much talk about Array.prototype.flat during its early stages, starting with the name alone. Many developers preferred the name flatten but the spec differed from MooTools’ implementation. MooTools would recursively flatten an array but the new, official flat implementation was only...
Using Array reduce
14.5.2019
Every developer who specializes in any programming language will tell you there’s a powerful tool the language provides that they rarely use and wish they knew more about. For me, it’s Array.prototype.reduce. I quite enjoy the other Array methods like map, filter, and find, but reduce...
Type Conversion with JavaScript Arrays
7.5.2019
JavaScript’s loose nature allows developers to employ amazing tricks to do just about anything you’d like. I’ve detailed how you can filter falsy values in arrays using a filter(Boolean) trick, but reader David Hibshman shared another trick for typecasting array values the same...
JavaScript Detect Async Function
29.4.2019
JavaScript async/await has changed the landscape of how we code. We’re no longer stuck in callback or then hell, and our code can feel more “top down” again. Async functions require the following syntax: async function myFunction() { } To use await with a function, the function...
Remove Recent Applications from Dock
19.4.2019
A Mac user’s dock is a sacred place. We customize our dock to no end, and if you’re ultra organized like me, you even use dock separators to group your app icons. Apple recently implemented a feature which displays three recently used apps in the dock. For basic users that’s...
Open FaceTime Call from Command Line
11.4.2019
Communication tools are always associated with UIs, and for good reason — if you want communication to be easy and intuitive, you need easy and intuitive interfaces. We need communication tools to provide the lowest barrier of entry, since not all users will be tech savvy. For tech experts...
How to Reverse a Video
9.4.2019
One of my favorite media utilities is ffmpeg. This command line utility allows us to do some pretty amazing stuff like; Slice videos Convert video formats Modify video speed Combine audio and video Every once in a while I see a meme or funny video that reverses a video for effect. Since ffmpeg does...