Web Development (7)

“window.scrollTo()” or: When to Stay Clear of User Agents

If you were to ask me whether you as a web designer or developer should do anything about user agent issues, my answer was a clear “no.” It’s not your responsibility. You may lack important insight into decisions made on the user agent side…

#109 · Jan 24, 2012

On Semantics in HTML

As web developers we like to talk about “semantic markup,” a somehow inaccurate short form for “markup that is meaningful and used how it’s supposed to be used.” But where is all that meaning coming from? Let’s take a look.

#108 · Oct 26, 2011 · html, semantics

Print Style Sheets and URLs

Print style sheets are awesome. They’re easy to write, too. Site owners and developers who care about print typically know what to do. Alas there’s one thing that’s done rather the wrong than in any right way: printing URLs…

#107 · Jun 14, 2011 · css, design

Web Development Principles: Develop for What Is, Not What Could Be

For any given project, web developers fare best when focusing on what is, not what could be. To fend off the first misunderstandings, that focus includes what absolutely will be.

#106 · Jun 7, 2011

Exposing Reset Style Sheets

Finally, a Chrome extension to highlight alternative approaches to CSS.

#105 · May 15, 2011

HTML, “@width”, and “@height”

As the width and height attributes are to remain part of HTML, limit their use. The reason to avoid @width and @height is that they are presentational and hence constitute potential maintainability issues.

#104 · Feb 17, 2011 · html, maintainability

Testing Tricks: CSS Bookmarklets

On complex development environments and CSS bookmarklets as a testing complement. Complement as in you’ve done everything you can but want to err on the safe side.

#103 · Dec 29, 2010 · css

One Photo: Reset Style Sheets

It never gets boring.

#102 · Dec 24, 2010

The Secret of Web Development

Playfulness.

#101 · Oct 27, 2010

CSS: How to Host Right-to-Left Styling

For international projects, don’t use separate style sheets for right-to-left (RTL) styling: use natural (@dir) or artificial (@id, @class) hooks instead. The only exception are unbearable performance issues due to hundreds of RTL rules…

#100 · Sep 30, 2010 · css, maintainability

On Solutions

Solutions require problems. If you don’t have a problem, you don’t need a solution. This is exactly why you should, whenever someone proposes a solution—which includes design and technical changes—ask what problem that solution solves…

#99 · Jul 7, 2010 · misc

CSS Validation and Vendor Extensions: Throw Warnings, Not Errors

If you understand valid code as a quality baseline, you validate your code. If you validate style sheets, you come across errors like “Property -moz-border-radius doesn’t exist’”…

#98 · Jun 26, 2010 · css, conformance

Real Web Developers Don’t Need Debugging Tools

Bottom line: Try to limit your use of web dev debugging tools—like Firebug or Chrome’s Developer Tools—in order to grow your skills.

#97 · May 14, 2010

“px” Is Dead, Long Live “px”

It’s over. There is no ban on px anymore. The only reason why we as web developers had to adjust coding practices were user agents that failed to meet user agent accessibility guidelines.

#96 · Feb 23, 2010 · css

How to Become a Solid Web Developer, the Short Version

Every once in a while people ping me on how to master web development and design. Given how much there’s still to learn for me this makes me blush. Chronically short on time I typically reply in just a few sentences…

#95 · Feb 12, 2010

WDR #4: Having Conversations in HTTP

The Web Dev Report, issue #4.

#94 · Jan 12, 2010

HTML/CSS Frameworks: Useful, Universal, Usable, Unobtrusive

A high quality HTML/CSS framework needs to have four attributes: useful, universal, usable, and unobtrusive. The four U’s.

#93 · Nov 18, 2009 · html, css, frameworks, quality

The 3 Ground Rules for Writing HTML

The fundamentals every web developer should know: on respecting syntax and semantics, avoiding presentational and behavioral markup, and leaving out everything that is not absolutely necessary.

#92 · Oct 27, 2009 · html, conformance, semantics

HTML, CSS, and Web Development Practices: Past, Present, and Future

Articles with a title consisting of more than 15,000 characters don’t need an introduction.

#91 · Oct 15, 2009 · html, css, maintainability

Website Optimization Measures, Part VII

In this episode: Unquoted attribute value syntax, q elements, Google Friend Connect, feed styling, work/life balance. Served in no time.

#90 · Oct 6, 2009 · optimization

“HTML 5” or “HTML5”?

It’s “HTML5,” not “HTML 5,” declares the most recent post on the WHATWG blog. A seemingly trivial matter, yet it’s inconsistent.

#89 · Sep 11, 2009 · html

The True Advantage of CSS

Despite CSS being around for a long, long time, there are still some myths around it. Reading Mike’s post on CSS evangelism again I couldn’t only relate to Mike’s concerns, I also felt reminded of…

#88 · Sep 8, 2009 · css, maintainability

Diagnostic Styling Reloaded

Eric cultivated the concept of “diagnostic styling,” meaning using CSS to track down problems within HTML documents. I’ve been working with diagnostic style sheets for general quality assurance…

#87 · Aug 1, 2009 · css, quality

WDR #3: Optional Tags, Unquoted Attribute Value Syntax

The Web Dev Report, issue #3.

#86 · Jul 29, 2009 · html

Microformats, Key Flaws

I like the idea behind microformats, but I’m not convinced of the way that idea is brought to life. I see three major flaws that appear to make microformats stand in their own way.

#85 · Jul 16, 2009 · html, css

XHTML, RIP

Let’s end this week of morbid posts: The XHTML 2 Working Group is expected to stop their work end of 2009. “Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires as scheduled at the end of 2009…”

#84 · Jul 4, 2009 · html

“handheld” Media Type, RIP?

Website authors don’t use handheld as it’s barely supported; mobile device manufacturers don’t support handheld because it’s barely used. This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing, and it’s a problem.

#83 · Jun 30, 2009 · css

Let’s Make The Web Faster

Two weeks after my last outcry regarding slowness on the Web there’s a more proactive response: Google launched code.google.com/speed, subtitled “let’s make the Web faster.”

#82 · Jun 24, 2009 · html, css, performance

Maintainability Guide

Maintainability is important in order to deal with change. Good maintainability means making change easier and more affordable, and avoiding change that is not necessary…

#81 · Jun 17, 2009 · html, css, maintainability

Punctuation Cheat Sheet

Developing and working with international sites is an interesting challenge, not just because of right-to-left contents. Typographically, there are differences between many locales. To improve punctuation in Google translations I’m using a localization aid…

#80 · Jun 3, 2009 · design

CSS: The Maintenance Issue #1 and How You Can Avoid It

The biggest—as most unnecessary—maintenance issue in web development is, as my recent research shows, style sheet naming and integration. Web developers use inadvisable style sheet names and inadvisable ways to integrate style sheets that force them…

#79 · May 27, 2009 · html, css, maintainability

Notes on XML, Elements, and Attributes

Knowledge of the design of markup languages is something I consider beneficial for my job as a web professional. A few notes on XML design, inspired by internal and external documentation.

#78 · Apr 23, 2009

Why CSS Needs No Variables

CSS variables and constants are one of the top features web developers are asking for in web development fora, magazines, blogs, and on W3C’s www-style. Following a concept written by Daniel Glazman and Apple’s Dave Hyatt, the WebKit rendering engine…

#77 · Apr 1, 2009 · css