Web Development
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.
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.”
How Running Your Own Website Is Much Better for You Than You Think
The typical argument for why professionals don’t have their own websites is usually 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.
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.
When to Open Links in a New Tab
Always open links in the same tab unless doing so 1) could disrupt a process, 2) could risk data loss, or 3) could confuse the user.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
Definition of Web Developer
Web developer, n.: A person who—
“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”?
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.
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.
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.
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).
Understanding Image Compression: Tooling and Context
Image compression plays an important role for performance optimization. It seems straight-forward 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.
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.
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.
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.
Optional @lang
The lang attribute is one of HTML’s global attributes. If one doesn’t simply take it for granted, it begs a number of questions—and these suggest to drop W3C requirements around it, and to demand software to do the job.
What Happened on Google+, the Web Development Archives
Following a few philosophy posts to be archived, here are past entries related to web development. Nothing more, nothing less.
HTML and Performance: Leave Out Optional Tags and Quotes
As experts we should know what code is optional and leave it out, and our production systems should do a better job assisting us with that. After all the years of neglecting basic HTML optimization, let’s think about taking the next step and not ship optional HTML markup.
Google Lighthouse and PWA
A review of Lighthouse’s PWA audits and the PWA category as a whole. Just in time to see it be superseded by Lighthouse 4, the major update that solves some (unfortunately not all) of those issues.
On Performance Visions, or: Performance Optimization Is a Process
It’s smart to have a vision for what one wishes to achieve for the performance of a site or app. Yet even the soundest approaches to performance visions have their problems, and in them we recognize that performance, or performance optimization, is indeed a process.
Categories
- Adventure (26)
- Art and Design (51)
- Everything Else (88)
- Philosophy (47)
- Web Development (234)
Archives
By Year
By Month
- January 2020 (3)
- December 2019 (3)
- November 2019 (3)
- October 2019 (2)
- September 2019 (2)
- August 2019 (2)
- July 2019 (2)
- June 2019 (2)
- May 2019 (3)
- April 2019 (4)
- March 2019 (4)
- January 2019 (2)
- December 2018 (2)
- November 2018 (3)
- October 2018 (3)
- September 2018 (1)
- August 2018 (2)
- July 2018 (1)
- June 2018 (1)
- May 2018 (1)
- April 2018 (1)
- March 2018 (1)
- February 2018 (3)
- January 2018 (7)
- December 2017 (6)
- November 2017 (4)
- October 2017 (6)
- September 2017 (7)
- August 2017 (7)
- July 2017 (4)
- June 2017 (7)
- May 2017 (2)
- April 2017 (3)
- March 2017 (3)
- February 2017 (5)
- January 2017 (6)
- December 2016 (3)
- November 2016 (6)
- October 2016 (1)
- September 2016 (2)
- August 2016 (5)
- July 2016 (6)
- June 2016 (3)
- May 2016 (1)
- April 2016 (3)
- March 2016 (2)
- February 2016 (1)
- January 2016 (4)
- December 2015 (1)
- November 2015 (2)
- October 2015 (4)
- September 2015 (4)
- August 2015 (6)
- July 2015 (2)
- June 2015 (2)
- May 2015 (4)
- April 2015 (4)
- March 2015 (8)
- February 2015 (3)
- January 2015 (5)
- December 2014 (7)
- November 2014 (1)
- October 2014 (3)
- September 2014 (7)
- August 2014 (2)
- July 2014 (5)
- June 2014 (1)
- April 2014 (3)
- March 2014 (1)
- February 2014 (4)
- January 2014 (2)
- December 2013 (6)
- November 2013 (1)
- October 2013 (4)
- September 2013 (2)
- August 2013 (5)
- July 2013 (1)
- January 2013 (1)
- December 2012 (2)
- November 2012 (1)
- April 2012 (1)
- February 2012 (1)
- January 2012 (2)
- December 2011 (1)
- October 2011 (1)
- June 2011 (2)
- May 2011 (2)
- April 2011 (1)
- February 2011 (1)
- December 2010 (3)
- October 2010 (1)
- September 2010 (1)
- July 2010 (1)
- June 2010 (1)
- May 2010 (1)
- March 2010 (1)
- February 2010 (2)
- January 2010 (1)
- December 2009 (1)
- November 2009 (2)
- October 2009 (4)
- September 2009 (2)
- August 2009 (2)
- July 2009 (3)
- June 2009 (4)
- May 2009 (2)
- April 2009 (2)
- March 2009 (6)
- February 2009 (3)
- January 2009 (3)
- December 2008 (4)
- November 2008 (6)
- October 2008 (7)
- September 2008 (3)
- August 2008 (4)
- July 2008 (4)
- June 2008 (5)
- May 2008 (5)
- April 2008 (2)
- March 2008 (6)
- February 2008 (5)
- November 2007 (3)
- October 2007 (1)
- September 2007 (4)
- August 2007 (2)
- July 2007 (2)
- June 2007 (6)
- May 2007 (4)
- April 2007 (3)
- March 2007 (6)
- February 2007 (6)
- January 2007 (6)
Perhaps my most relevant book: CSS Optimization Basics (2018). Writing CSS is a craft. As craftspeople we strive to write high quality CSS. In CSS Optimization Basics I lay out some of the most important aspects of such CSS. (Also available in a bundle with Upgrade Your HTML.)