HTML Concepts: The “Nothing” Content Model

There’s a content model in HTML that contains—nothing. Details on what this means, and how it relates to “empty” or void elements.

Post from June 17, 2021, filed under Web Development.

Thoughts for the Aging Web Developer

There may be a time when you’ll feel “too old” for web development. When you begin to feel that, here are a few thoughts. They might not be all you need but—maybe they are of use.

Post from May 31, 2021, filed under Web Development and Everything Else.

2% of the Top 100 U.S. Websites Use Valid HTML (in 2021)

Is frontend development in the bad shape it’s said to be? Is it hyperbole when frontend developers are accused of poor quality work? When you look at the code of the most popular websites, the answer is clear.

Post from May 18, 2021, filed under Web Development.

Upgrade Your HTML III

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 fresh examples from the field that get inspected and improved.

Post from May 13, 2021, filed under Web Development.

Engineering Management ×12

Ideas and principles for managing engineering teams: From “competence, caring, conviction” and googliness to systems and processes to communication and delegation to team focus and health to trust and humility.

Post from May 11, 2021, filed under Web Development and Everything Else.

HTML Concepts: “Body-Ok”

“body-ok” relates to link type keywords, and denotes what link elements are okay to be used in the document body.

Post from May 4, 2021, filed under Web Development.

Code in Quarantine

In the current paradigm, we often work with components and have a 1:1 relationship of HTML to CSS. This makes maintenance more predictable. However, it also pronounces the problem of rarely used code—which can be useful to put in quarantine.

Post from March 31, 2021, filed under Web Development.

33 Additional Web Development Terms You May Not Have Heard Of

As you know, Web Development has its own, special vocabulary that easily consists of several thousand terms. Do you like to try your knowledge again, on how many of the following 33 terms you know?

Post from February 12, 2021, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

HTML: The 16 Content Categories and Their Elements

HTML puts elements into content categories. This article serves as a boring, brief, but updated overview over the broad and overlapping categories of HTML, and which elements fall into them.

Post from January 20, 2021, filed under Web Development.

In Critical Defense of Frontend Development

The field of frontend development is in another crisis, largely due to an incomplete, misinterpreted definition and a bizarre mess created by “web development as a commodity” and “web development as software development.” How frontend development is more than development, and what we can (and should) do.

Post from January 12, 2021, filed under Web Development.

Ignore AMP

In 2018, my recommendation was to avoid AMP, to use AMP for the most relevant pages, or to use AMP only. In 2020 my recommendation is to ignore it, because AMP largely appears meaningless now. Upgrade Your HTML II gives an opinionated idea why.

Post from December 21, 2020, filed under Web Development.

Website Optimization Measures, Part XI

Welcome to another round-up of possible website improvements, this time going from several types of link updates to table of contents CSS upgrades to CDN integration and privacy policy checks.

Post from December 14, 2020, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

Notes on HTML 3.2

Would it still be useful to read the HTML 3.2 specification—from 1997? A few observations.

Post from December 6, 2020, filed under Web Development.

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.

Post from November 17, 2020, filed under Web Development.

On HTML (and HTML in 2020)

What seems noteworthy about HTML, and how we’re doing on that in the year 2020.

Post from November 10, 2020, filed under Web Development.

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.

Post from September 21, 2020, filed under Web Development.

Website Optimization Measures, Part X

9 TILs that I applied to my personal projects.

Post from August 30, 2020, filed under Web Development.

The Anti-Reset

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—

Post from August 17, 2020, filed under Web Development.

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?

Post from June 30, 2020, filed under Web Development and Art and Design.

The 25 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.

Post from May 19, 2020, filed under Web Development.

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.

Post from May 6, 2020, filed under Web Development and Everything Else.

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.

Post from April 23, 2020, filed under Web Development and Art and 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.

Post from April 7, 2020, filed under Web 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—

Post from April 2, 2020, filed under Web Development.

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.

Post from March 26, 2020, filed under Web Development.