Web Development (2)
A Node and Command Line Tool to Find Obsolete HTML
Ever wondered if and where you have obsolete HTML in your code base? Of course, there’s a tool for that.
#350 · · html, conformance
On Mapping the World of Frontend Development
What if we had easy access to many—thousands—of the most useful, interesting, influential frontend development posts from 2000–2019? If you took care of it, how would you go about it, what challenges would you face, what would excite you? Here are some impressions, doing this work, for Frontend Dogma.
#349 ·
Thoughts on CSS in 2024
What I appreciate, what I don’t need (so far)—light and casual and certainly subjective notes on contemporary CSS.
#348 · · css
Transitive Optimization Considered—Interesting
Transitive optimization means that if we improve A to optimize B, and optimizations of B also optimize C, then improving A should also lead to an optimization of C. But now what?
#347 · · optimization
Know the “search” Element
Let’s talk about element #112.
#346 · · html
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXIV
On AVIF tests, book prices, AI experiments, Eleventy performance, IE scripts and styles, domain registrations, site headers, and (old) document functionality that can better be handled by native HTML elements than by handmade scripts.
#345 · · design, optimization
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXIII
Affiliate marketing and ads and Brave Rewards. HTML elements and dotenv and Git. Spellings and designs and stuff.
#344 · · design, optimization
We Need to Talk More About Conformance, if We Want to Stop Fantasy HTML
Conformant and valid HTML is the exception on websites and in apps, even though valid output is a sign of professional web development. Given how rarely the topic is being discussed these days, we benefit from raising more awareness for HTML conformance and validation.
#343 · · html, conformance
Now Available: Upgrade Your HTML V!
The newest part of the ebook series for HTML craftspeople and minimalists, touching on past, present, and future of the greatest document language ever specified.
#342 · · books, html, minimalism, optimization
April 24 Is JS Naked Day
Every year on April 9 we, a part of our field, do without CSS; from this year on, on April 24, there’s an opportunity to temporarily swear off JavaScript.
#341 · · javascript
Building Websites and Building Websites Well
On exercises, orthogonality, and—choice.
#340 ·
“Web Design as a Process” in Charts: Maintenance, Decay, Tech Debt, and Big Bang Launching
Web design is a process. This process relates to the quality and completeness of a given website, as observed over time. We can chart and understand different types of this process.
#339 · · quality
Website Optimization Measures, Part XXII
Web design is a process, running our own websites is awesome, and together it means there’s always something to tweak and improve and optimize. Select things I’ve done over the last few months.
#338 · · design, optimization
My Web Development Wishlist 2024
Respect, UX before DX, quality output that starts with conformance, running one’s own website, and adding as much as necessary, but as little as possible to web standards—five wishes to benefit our field, our users, and us as professionals.
#337 · · quality
Stop Closing Void Elements
Some developers believe in closing all HTML elements. Some have to close all HTML elements. Others don’t believe in doing so, or aren’t forced either way. In Upgrade Your HTML IV, I wrote a little about closing void elements.
#336 · · html
Incident, Mitigate, Learn
We can’t just pick two.
#335 · · 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.)
#334 · · html, conformance, semantics, accessibility
26 Other Web Development Terms You May Not Have Heard Of
From ActionScript (psst) to linearizability to the Z shell.
#333 ·
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.
#332 · · 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.
#331 ·
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.
#330 · · 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.
#329 · · html, css, conformance
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.
#328 · · 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.
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.
#326 · · html, minimalism, conformance
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.
#325 · · 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.
#324 ·
The 10ish Tools I Install on Every New Mac I Get
Are there going to be surprises.
#323 ·
WebGlossary.info
The Web Development Glossary—now also available as a website. Enjoy exploring.
#322 · · 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.
#321 · · 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.
#320 · · 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.
#319 · · books
Good Code Is—
On a question everyone does and does not have an answer for.
#318 ·
Frameworks and Libraries and Leaky Abstractions
“Abstractions save us time working, but they don’t save us—”
#317 ·
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.
#316 ·
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.
#315 · · 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.
#314 · · 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.
#313 · · css, maintainability
Two Underused Arguments for Writing Documentation
Validating our thinking and allowing to scale may not get enough attention.
#312 · · management
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.
#311 · · 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.
#310 · · 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.
#309 · · html, conformance, accessibility
My CSS Wishlist
Trim it.
#308 · · 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.
#307 ·
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.
#306 · · html, quality, design, art
A Problem With Link Relationships
It’s easy to get excited about link relationships and similar types of metadata. But link relationships are invisible information, and some invisible information is notoriously hard to maintain—especially on things that decay, describing attributes that change.
#305 · · html
A Brief History of UITest.com
UITest.com just merged with Frontend Dogma, which is asking for select and random screenshots and facts about a site that I ran for 19 years to provide “web-based and free tools for web development and design.”
#304 ·
Website Optimization Measures, Part XVII
Encoding declarations. Conditionals. Ahrefs. ErrorDocument directives. Mastodon links. Mastodon citizenship. Bitbucket. Eleventy. Action.
#303 · · misc, optimization
Upgrade Your HTML IV
HTML forms the heart of the Web. The beautiful thing is, HTML is easy to learn. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to master. In the Upgrade Your HTML series, I’m taking examples of HTML, discuss these examples, and make them a little better. I’m excited to announce the fourth book of the series.
#302 · · books, html, minimalism, optimization
HTML Concepts: Unstyled Documents
There’s unstyled and there’s fully unstyled. And then there’s also styled “in a manner that is useful for a developer.”