Web Development × Engineering Management × Philosophy (6)
Articles and books on the craft of web development (with a focus on HTML/CSS optimization and maintainability), engineering management, and philosophy.
Notes on HTML 3.2
Would it still be useful to read the HTML 3.2 specification—from 1997? A few observations.
#440 · · development, html
Upgrade Your HTML II
If you care about HTML as a craft, if you consider yourself an HTML minimalist, if you believe in pushing for boundaries (and sometimes overdoing it), then this is a right book (and a right book series) for you—with 10 new examples from the field that get inspected and improved.
#439 · · books, development, html, minimalism, optimization
On HTML (and HTML in 2020)
What seems noteworthy about HTML, and how we’re doing on that in the year 2020.
#438 · · development, html
People Care
It seems easy these days to lose faith in people. We’re destroying the planet, elect the least competent and least humane of our peers for presidents, kill our own people when we don’t kill people in other countries, etc.—and yet we all care.
#437 · · misc
A Day Is a Day
On a personal preference for Inbox 0, and doing, delegating, and deferring.
#436 · · misc
Custom Properties: Questioning “:root”
For custom properties (aka CSS variables) we got into the habit of declaring variables in a rule with a :root selector. Yet unless you’re working in an environment in which style sheets serve several document types (and roots), question this use of :root.
#435 · · development, css
Love
Love is the essence, love is the emotion. Yet it’s striking how we talk about love, as if there was just one type of love. Aldous Huxley comes to mind, and After Many a Summer Dies the Swan.
#434 · · misc
Website Optimization Measures, Part X
9 TILs that I applied to my personal projects.
#433 · · development, optimization
The Anti-Reset (to Reset to User Agent Styles)
I advise against resets. You don’t need them. (We don’t need them.) Yet what’s the opposite of a reset? Of all resets? The anti-reset. It looks something like this—
#432 · · development, css
Caring About Comments
Maybe you’re like me, and comments have begun to mildly scare you. Maybe you’re skeptical about popular discussion culture, too. Maybe you can relate because you, too, have found yourself write something reasonable you care about and a shitstorm broke out. And yet you and I love feedback.
#431 · · misc
33 Web Development Terms You May Not Have Heard Of
Web Development has its own, special vocabulary that easily consists of several thousand terms. Even if you’re an experienced developer you’re unlikely to know all of them. Still, do you like to try your knowledge? How many of the following terms do you know?
#430 · · development, design
On Disclosing Our Salaries
For a year now I’ve been toying with the idea of publicly disclosing my salary, as well as my financial assets. Not because of me, but because I’ve come to believe that this step, if taken by others, too, would be a step towards more transparency.
#429 · · misc
The 27 Boolean Attributes of HTML
What is a Boolean, what is a Boolean attribute, how does a Boolean attribute work, and what Boolean attributes are there? Meet the Boolean attributes, from allowfullscreen to truespeed.
#428 · · development, html
5 Tips to Get Your Dev Blog Running
If you know what you can deliver, if you keep at it, if you make it easy for your peers, if you talk about the effort, and if you measure and improve and employ a process, you’re likely to do well: thoughts on technical outreach.
#427 · · development, misc
The 4 Pillars of Good Embed Code
Embed code is third-party code to be integrated on websites and apps, like ads or social media widgets. There have been many problems with embed code for a very long time. This post covers the essence of what makes for good embed code.
#426 · · development, quality, html, javascript, design
The Web Development Glossary (More Than 2,000 Key Terms for Developers)
What is a BHO? Goanna? Hooking? How about a principal box? Or the Ten-Second Rule? Covering more than 2,000 terms ranging from A11Y to Zsh, and including explanations from Wikipedia and the MDN Web Docs, I’m very happy to release the The Web Development Glossary.
#425 · · books, development
The Frameworks Paradox
The more complex a website, the bigger the need for a framework, the less effective an external framework. This is not new, and not even a paradox because an internal—homemade—HTML/CSS framework is always an option. However—
#424 · · development, frameworks
On the Responsibility That Comes With Good JavaScript Support
According to our data, the classic idea of making sure websites and apps work without JavaScript being enabled is dead; when we look only at support requirements, this was the end of the story. It’s not, however, when we employ a broader look at JavaScript and its misuses.
#423 · · development, javascript
Highlights From “The Crowd” (Gustave Le Bon)
“Crowds are only cognisant of simple and extreme sentiments; the opinions, ideas, and beliefs suggested to them are accepted or rejected as a whole, and considered as absolute truths or as not less absolute errors.”
#422 · · misc
Highlights From “An Introduction to Psychology” (Wilhelm Wundt)
“There cannot be the least contradiction in the idea that physical and psychical phenomena follow different laws, as long as these laws are not irreconcilable with the actual unity of the psycho-physical individual.”
#421 · · philosophy, misc
Round Table
I was late to discover Round Table, but joining this fine service association was one of the greatest decisions and experiences I’ve made in my life. Here’s my story co-founding and accompanying a new table, RT 233 Alster-Milchstraße, for almost four years.
#420 · · misc
Professional Agile Leadership (PAL) Reminders and Resources
Notes, refreshers, as well as an alternative overview over Scrum.org resources for PAL certification.
#419 · · management
HTML and CSS and the 2019 Web Almanac
The HTTP Archive’s Web Almanac is fantastic because it provides us with data about how we build what kinds of websites. While the release of the 2019 Almanac has been accompanied by some analysis, I had found it interesting to interpret the data, too.
#418 · · development, html, css
If It Can Be Done Using an HTTP Header, Use an HTTP Header
The following is a (slightly modified) chapter from Upgrade Your HTML, which is “all about picking examples of HTML in the wild, and explaining how to make that code better.”
#417 · · development, maintainability
How Running Your Own Website Is Much Better for You Than You Think
The typical reason for why professionals don’t have their own websites is that they don’t want to make the commitment, and yet that misses how the disadvantages people see are actually advantages. Renewed thoughts on how running your own website is an asset.
#416 · · development, design
2019
Another year, another retrospective. Factoids and data on life and work.
#415 · · misc
An HTML Optimizer’s Config for html-minifier
Jad Joubran asked me about my configuration for html-minifier the other week, and in a hurry I pointed him to the config I had worked out for sum.cumo. In my own projects, however, I work with a different, more ambitious setup.
#414 · · development, html, performance, optimization
On Codes of Conduct
On the idea, the wish, the vision of us treating each other well.
When to Open Links in a New Tab
Always open links in the same tab unless doing so could 1) disrupt a process, 2) risk data loss, or 3) confuse users.
#412 · · design, usability, development
On Leadership
Leadership is important, and it can be learned.
#411 · · management
CSS: When to Use Logical Properties
Logical properties are great and long overdue. They are great because they solve an ugly problem of international, multi-directional web development in that directionality does not need to affect your writing and managing of CSS anymore…
#410 · · development, css
Website Optimization Measures, Part IX
Random improvements and notes around compression and caching, content security and feature policies, IndieWeb markup, protocols in links, entity references, image formats, and ISBNs in URL paths.
#409 · · development, optimization
Upgrade Your HTML (the Booklet)
I’ve written a very short book on improving HTML code: Upgrade Your HTML. Upgrade Your HTML is about one thing: Picking examples of HTML in the wild, and explaining how to make that code better. Kindly. Constructively. Thoroughly, as finding a balance between detail and brevity permits.
#408 · · books, development, html, minimalism, optimization
On Writing Better Markup
As HTML is so important and yet also so easy, everyone writes HTML, and everyone says they can write HTML. And with that they don’t just mean they are able to write HTML, but that they write good HTML, where “good” means “high quality.” That would be great news.
#407 · · development, html, quality
The Developer’s Fallacy of Close Collaboration With Designers
Working closely with designers makes sense and is awesome, notably for mutual understanding and efficiency. And yet there are also good reasons not to work closely with designers. For developers it’s important, for otherwise foolish, to be aware.
#406 · · development, design
Definition of Web Developer
Web developer, n.: A person who—
#405 · · development
“Must Work Without JavaScript”
That websites should work without JavaScript has a long professional tradition, and for apps much the same has been asked for. Yet with the success and ubiquity of scripting, how relevant is it to make sure sites and apps “work without JavaScript”?
#404 · · development, javascript
Optional HTML: Everything You Need to Know
Optional HTML can be left out to improve performance, to guide code comprehension, and to hone the craft. An overview over all optional tags, rules around quotes for attribute values, and omissible attribute value defaults, as well as notes on pitfalls and tools.
#403 · · development, html, performance
Sources 2019
In 2014, for idealistic transparency and enthusiastic link love, I’ve shared the feed sources I was following at the time. I’m still a huge believer in and user of feeds. As I also still like to be transparent I thought to share an update.
#402 · · misc
When to Use “img,” “img@srcset,” and “picture” and “source”
I’ve disliked srcset and the whole family of ideas around it from the start because doing the same thing for the same purpose several times has usually looked like too much DX cost for too little UX gain to me. Two angles at what to use when.
#401 · · development, html
13 Leadership Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
We’ve all seen approaches to team management and leadership that work, and others that don’t. A brief and scrappy list of the mistakes I’ve witnessed (or committed), together with thoughts on how not to make them.
#400 · · management
Image Compression: How to Super-Easily Set Up Automated Base Optimization
Setting up image compression tooling is easy—and for those who want to err on the safe side automatically employing lossless compression, it’s even easier with a solution from sum.cumo: Merlin.
#399 · · development, performance, optimization
The Problem With Web Development Checklists, or: The Frontend Checklist, Revised
Checklists are a great way to make sure nothing gets forgotten, yet they are problematic when they contain items that aren’t important. A few general thoughts and a very specific review of The Frontend Checklist—of which 33 guidelines appear useful, and 41 not (yet).
#398 · · development, html, css, javascript
3 Reasons Against Ad Blockers
Ad blockers are popular. Yet, they’re also a problem. They’re a problem that can be broken into three sub-problems, sub-problems that speak not only against the use of ad blockers but argue against their existence.
#397 · · misc
Understanding Image Compression: Tooling and Context
Image compression plays an important role in performance optimization. It seems straightforward but is a little deceptive, however, because it consists not of one but two parts—and it’s usually lack of understanding of one part that causes problems.
#396 · · development, performance, optimization
A Crime Called Favicon
16×16, 30×30, 32×32, 48×48, 57×57, 60×60, 64×64, 70×70, 72×72, 76×76, 90×90, 96×96, 114×114, 120×120, 128×128, 144×144, 150×150, 152×152, 160×160, 167×167, 180×180, 192×192, 195×195, 196×196, 228×228, 256×256, 270×270, 310×310, 558×558.
#395 · · development
How Can We Make Website Maintenance Work More Visible?
The maintenance and maintainability of websites is a much neglected topic. This is problematic because: We cannot not maintain. Yet primarily we may deal with a visibility problem that we could explore more options for.
#394 · · development, maintainability
Counter the Happiness Assumption
It may be rather clear that life is not all about being happy.
#393 · · philosophy
199 Love Haiku (the Book)
In 2016, I wrote 1,000 short poems, haiku-style. I wrote those poems to challenge myself as a writer. I launched a website for the haiku and I shared the story. Today, I’ve published the 199 haiku that a few friends and I liked the most as a book.
Print Styling, the 3 Basics
Many sites are not prepared for print, and yet our users print, and they save through print. Therefore: Have a print style sheet, and be it a negative one. Hide what’s not usable or useful. Always test, and tweak when you want better.
#391 · · development, css, design