Web Development (8)
Apocryphal Apostrophes
Oh, typography. How have you been.
CSS Shorthand Syntax Considered Important
CSS shorthands are no anti-pattern, just as little as universal selectors, just as little as !important, and just as little as no-js
would not be one. Now we learn that shorthands were an anti-pattern. No, they’re not. Yes, they are! No they’re not.
Why I Don’t Use CSS Preprocessors
A tribute to Roger Johansson as well as the craft of web development.
About the Mindset for Quality
In my view, quality starts with quality thinking. Quality thinking is broad, but it quickly leads to a quality mindset. This mindset, now, I’ve long regarded as critical…
Stop Using the Old “Clearfix”
I had thought the old method of clearing through .clearfix:after { clear: both; content: ''; }
long dead, but then I spotted it quite alive and even being taught to developers.
New Book: “The Little Book of Website Quality Control”
The hallmark of a professional is not the pursuit of activity, but the expertly pursuit thereof. What’s worth doing is worth doing well; and what’s done well exemplifies quality. A professional website is no exception, and there are criteria and tools to help.
Accelerated Mobile Pages, a Critical View
Last year Google introduced AMP and the Accelerated Mobile Pages Project. Independent of suggesting tech paternalism when AMP gets treated preferably in search rankings, I’ve been concerned about what the AMP spec entails exactly.
WordPress Themes and Web Development
Like everyone on this planet I work with WordPress. Just setting up a new project I ended up using and building on one of their default themes, Twenty Sixteen. Had I better not?
The Anatomy of a Coding Guideline
Coding guidelines produce consistency, help (code) usability, collaboration, and maintainability, and lead to quality. That is what we all typically learn in development practice. Now, what does a guideline consist of?
On Tailoring and Web Frameworks
After building early frameworks for GMX and Google I had rushed to squeeze my experience into a (literally) little book. In it there’s emphasis on a priority I’ve always deemed critical for us developers: the idea of tailoring…
That’s in a Guideline
About two weeks ago I ended a little lottery to give away signed copies of my last book, The Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines. Here are feedback and winners.
What’s in a Guideline? Win a Copy of the Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines!
I give away five signed copies, and to win one just comment or tweet (to @j9t), until April 30, why you deem coding guidelines important or what you find to be the most useful coding guideline.
Coding Guidelines, the Gist
What’s not to ♥ about coding standards.
The Law of Maintainability
One cannot not maintain. This is an important axiom, critical even when we recognize how little understanding and prioritization this topic enjoys in our industry…
New Book: “The Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines”
Out of the blue! My latest book, The Little Book of HTML/CSS Coding Guidelines, is now available. It’s a brief introduction into the theory and practice of coding standards. Emphasis, as the title suggests, is on HTML and CSS, and furthermore on Google’s guidelines…
What I’ve Hated and What I’ve Loved About Web Development
In On Web Development and in other contexts I’ve alluded to wrapping up, ending my old career. That’s only correct to an extent. (In keeping with the intelligence community, always put everyone at risk by adding backdoors.)
The Problem of “Fire and Forget” in Web Design
If I were to pick the main issue in web design… I couldn’t answer immediately. I don’t think there are so many, but there are a few, they are very different, they operate on different scales, and so they’re hard to compare. One, however, is “fire and forget.”
The Law of User-Generated Code
Whenever you allow users to edit code of your website, you’re doomed. It’s only a matter of time until you need to give up and redo the entire website—and, adding insult to injury, alienate your users.
Analytics: Only When We Actually Use It
Here’s something so obvious, it isn’t anymore. Which is: We should only use analytics software when we actually use it. Not when we think we could might want to need it. And not when we only glance at it, every now and then.
New Book: “On Web Development”
I wrote another book. On Web Development. On Web Development is an ebook that collects most of the articles about web development (and web design) that I wrote between 2005 and 2015. Most articles as in most useful, most important, and also most controversial.
Web Standards: We’re F’ing It Up
It’s a problem to just change specs. But it’s an increasingly bigger problem not to clean and prune them. The intimidating complexity of web standard specs should precisely be a motivation, not a threat, to come up with a plan. It follows the populist version.
A Vision of Web Development
There is one thing every web developer should aspire to: writing the most minimal, semantically appropriate, valid HTML, and then never changing it. “Never” not in a sense of denial and refusal, but in the sense of a guiding light…
The Two Ground Rules for Using a Framework
Follow the documentation, don’t overwrite framework code. These two rules are golden.
Remember: April 9 is CSS Naked Day
CSS Naked Day is coming up! Why the excitement? Because CSS Naked Day is a magnificent custom; the magnificent custom to, on one day of the year, strip websites of all styling. It’s awesome because—
The Truth About “!important”
Sometimes I wake up at night, full of agony, tears in my eyes. The Holiest Alliance Against !important
is haunting me. I see their countless crusaders gallop at innocent web developers with merciless force, incessantly blowing their deafening horns…
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Get a good look at web development? Try WebGlossary.info—and The Web Development Glossary 3K (2023). With explanations and definitions for thousands of terms of web development, web design, and related fields, building on Wikipedia as well as MDN Web Docs. Available at Apple Books, Kobo, Google Play Books, and Leanpub.
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