“2023”
Incident, Mitigate, Learn
We can’t just pick two.
#44 · · development, management
“HTML First” Is Not HTML First
On what is and what isn’t “HTML First.” (It’s not just a hunch: It should start with HTML.)
#43 · · development, html, conformance, semantics, accessibility
Something to Know About Defensiveness
“The first rule of effective debate, argument, or heated conversation is to never, ever, get defensive.” On what we label as defensiveness, and a story that appears more complete and empathetic.
#42 · misc
26 Other Web Development Terms You May Not Have Heard Of
From ActionScript (psst) to linearizability to the Z shell.
#41 · development
Why Online Communication Is So Not-Great
Why is online communication so, meh? An approach that considers context, training, and world views, for a much more complicated topic.
#40 · · philosophy, misc
The 9 HTML Elements That Have an Attribute of the Same Name, or: The 9 Attributes That Have an Element of the Same Name
There are nine HTML elements that have an attribute of the same name. You’ll never guess what follows next.
#39 · · development, html
Letter and Spirit of Web Development
In the realm of law, there is the notion of letter and spirit of a law. It seems we could benefit from letter and spirit in web development, too.
#38 · development
14 Tips for Becoming an Indie Author
After a few books with a publisher and a few more as an independent author, some tips and thoughts on how to publish your own books (if that’s what you’re excited about doing, too). From starting with ebooks to not writing overly much to not using AI tools—all sorts of advice you would or wouldn’t expect to get.
#37 · misc
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXI
Who hasn’t had enough of style sheet reviews, editor performance optimizations, ad removals, CTA revisions, pseudo-class refactorings, blocked AI crawlers, custom search engines, social graphics, or server log configs.
#36 · · development, design, optimization
2023: 0 of the Global Top 100 Websites Use Valid HTML
The latest analysis of HTML and CSS conformance of the most popular websites. The situation is only going to get better once we set higher expectations for the code we ship.
#35 · · development, html, css, conformance
Existence and Experience
How can something-exists experience itself?
#34 · philosophy
On the Uniting Power of a Commitment to HTML Conformance
HTML is the language of the Web, there’s a quality standard—expectation—for HTML, but we don’t make use of it, yet if we would, it would come with several advantages, one of them being that it could unite and propel us to master more important challenges, which would be good again for our field and the Web.
#33 · · development, html, conformance
What Happened to Separation of Concerns in Frontend Development
On a story that began around 2010, and in which web standards make separation of concerns easier—and frameworks make it harder.
#32 · · development, html, css
The Most Minimal Valid HTML Document
—isn’t that exciting, isn’t even new, but can use repeating in times of conformance neglect and AI-assisted coding.
#31 · · development, html, minimalism, conformance
Valve, Counter-Strike, macOS, and How Not to Relaunch Software
Yesterday, on September 27, Valve released Counter-Strike 2, replacing the game’s predecessor, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) on Valve’s Steam platform. But.
#30 · misc
The Good Things About All the Problems
On things we cannot meaningfully discuss, and the sequel to The Problems With All the Good Things that may never be.
#29 · philosophy
Website Optimization Measures, Part XX
Definition issues. Aging content. Debugging. Social graphics. CTAs. DNS entries. SVGs. Filler words. PHP. There’s always something worth tending to.
#28 · · development, misc, optimization
Sustainability and Tech and Us
In tech, we’re exceptionally bad at sustainability. While those of us who focus on sustainability, performance, as well as code minimalism are already contributing to improvements, we can do more. A few thoughts.
#27 · development
The 10ish Tools I Install on Every New Mac I Get
Are there going to be surprises.
#26 · development
WebGlossary.info
The Web Development Glossary—now also available as a website. Enjoy exploring.
#25 · · development, design
Website Optimization Measures, Part XIX
Dull maintenance drudgery (?), this time covering dependencies, link checks, keyboard navigation, contrast, hidden UI elements, multi-language tag handling, image compression, IndieAuth, and AI crawling.
#24 · · development, design, optimization
200 Web-Based, Must-Try Web Design and Development Tools
A couple of web-based and free tools to test and improve accessibility, performance, security, conformance, colors and images and typography, SEO and SEM and—more. With an opinion about link lists, and appreciation for well-maintained tool collections.
#23 · · development, design
The Web Development Glossary 3K—More Than 3,000 Terms and Concepts for the Well-Rounded Developer
Announcing the new edition of The Web Development Glossary, including almost a thousand additional terms as well as major usability updates, like improved source and cross-reference navigation—to provide an overview of web development unlike any other book or site.
#22 · · books, development
Good Code Is—
On a question everyone does and does not have an answer for.
#21 · development
New Book: “The Problems With All the Good Things”
When good is considered unproblematic, and everything can be shown to be problematic, then—partner up with AI.
#20 · · books, philosophy
Give
On one-things and lack.
#19 · · philosophy, misc
Frameworks and Libraries and Leaky Abstractions
“Abstractions save us time working, but they don’t save us—”
#18 · development
On Working on Vacation
Working while on vacation can be a sign of extraordinary commitment and initiative. But—it can also be a sign of disorganization and poor prioritization. A few thoughts.
#17 · · management, misc
48 Laws, Rules, and Principles of Web Development
In anticipation of the upcoming release of The Web Development Glossary 3K, here are four dozen laws, rules, and principles related to web and software development.
#16 · development
HTML Concepts: Kinds of Elements
There are six kinds of elements in HTML: void elements, raw text elements, escapable raw text elements, the template element, foreign elements, and normal elements.
#15 · · development, html
Website Issues: On the Relevance of Audience Size and Impact
Website issues—relating to conformance, security, accessibility, performance, content, others—are usually treated with a particular priority, but that priority may not always be understandable, and may also be off. On the perspective we obtain when we consider and chart audience size and impact.
#14 · · development, management
CSS Naked Day and the Missing Wikipedia Page
CSS Naked Day has a message—separation of concerns. The event has been around for nearly 20 years, thousands of developers have participated, and it’s still alive. It may not be an event significant enough for Wikipedia, for which this post had been a draft—but it does seem significant for our field.
#13 · · development, css, maintainability
Two Underused Arguments for Writing Documentation
Validating our thinking and allowing to scale may not get enough attention.
#12 · · development, management
On Ageism
One may argue that the big “-isms” go back to speciesism, the idea that one was “better” than other living beings, or that others were inferior. With that idea warranting a post by itself, there are two things that make ageism particularly stupid.
#11 · misc
Highlights From “The Social Contract” (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
“The strongest is never strong enough to be always the master, unless he transforms strength into right, and obedience into duty.”
#10 · philosophy
Highlights From “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (Max Weber)
“The modern rational organization of the capitalistic enterprise would not have been possible without two other important factors in its development: the separation of business from the household, which completely dominates modern economic life, and closely connected with it, rational book-keeping.”
#9 · · philosophy, misc
HTML Concepts: Customized Built-In Elements
HTML allows to define custom elements, elements which enable authors to “build their own fully-featured DOM elements.” One special type of custom element is the customized built-in element—a custom element built on an existing HTML element.
#8 · · development, html
Website Optimization Measures, Part XVIII
Random improvements as always, this time covering ARIA roles, Apache module checks, <guid> elements, CLS rules of thumb, Eleventy, block lists, site licenses, and compression settings.
#7 · · development, optimization
Conformance and Accessibility
The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.2 are going to obsolete Success Criterion 4.1.1, which had been WCAG’s nod towards conformant HTML output. This is understandable, and it may even be good—to strengthen accessibility as well as conformance.
#6 · · development, html, conformance, accessibility
Speed Up Your Org: When to Require Approval
Organizations can be slow. One thing that makes them slow is process. One part of process consists of approvals. But approvals aren’t always needed. On default answers, and the severity and probability of failure.
#5 · management
My CSS Wishlist
Trim it.
#4 · · development, css
26 Additional Web Development Terms You May Not Have Heard Of
Web Development has its own, special vocabulary that consists of several thousand terms. No one knows all of them. (Or do they?) Here are 26 more terms you may or may not have heard of—perhaps including AAAA or MAM or YMYL.
#3 · development
Challenge Yourself, Even When It’s Art
The paradox of CSS art may suggest an artist had a free pass for the quality of their code. Or does it? I believe there are three possible answers to this.
#2 · · development, html, quality, design, art
2022
Release of my next book, a new apartment in downtown Hamburg, good news from the football club, a political adjustment, some travels, and preparation for a professional change—some of my highlights in 2022.
#1 · misc