Tinned Fruit Missives December 2017
The Cost of JavaScript - Addy Osmani
https://medium.com/dev-channel/the-cost-of-javascript-84009f51e99e
If you’re developing web applications for consumer mobile devices (which I suspect is most people reading this newsletter in some capacity), then Addy lays down some extremely valuable, research-heavy JavaScript performance optimisation nuggets. Please please please test your web applications on representative ‘average’ devices and not just on your shiny iPhone X. There is an order of magnitude difference in performance.
Declining Complexity in CSS - Eric Meyer
http://meyerweb.com/eric/thoughts/2017/11/14/declining-complexity-in-css/
CSS has grown rapidly in its capabilities over the last few years, but not necessarily in its complexity, or how difficult it is to use. There’s a thread of a common architectural principal here: a language with a broad set of capabilities does not have to result in complex implementations. The JavaScript community had a similar awakening with the publication of JavaScript: The Good Parts nearly a decade ago now.
Using CSS Grid: Supporting Browsers Without Grid - Rachel Andrew
https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/11/css-grid-supporting-browsers-without-grid/
This should be your new go-to article when someone asks whether CSS Grid is ready for production. As always, the answer is ‘it depends’, but Rachel’s article describes how you actually decide whether your project is ready for it and what supporting it actually involves.
Some other World Wide Web hyperlinks I have enjoyed this month
- Introducing the New Firefox: Firefox Quantum - Mark Mayo - I switched to Firefox from Chrome as a trial and so far I’m seeing very little reason to switch back again.
- Designing for a Browserless Web - Mitch Lenton
- CSS for Teams - Jenn Lukas
- Seven into Seven - Ethan Marcotte - Further well-aimed criticism of Google’s AMP
- WebAssembly support now shipping in all major browsers - Judy DeMocker - We might start seeing some more mainstream WebAssembly stuff pretty soon. Time to brush off my C++ skills (exactly four lectures at university).
- Running in Circles: Why Agile Isn’t Working and What We Do Differently - Ryan Singer - Spoiler: what Basecamp are doing is agile (with a small ‘a’)
- Beyond the Cult of Human-Centered Design - Rob Girling & Emilia Palaveeva
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Tinned Fruit Missives is a monthly newsletter about web product development and front-end practices published by Jim Newbery, an independent consultant from Edinburgh in Scotland.
I help growing web product companies with their front-end development strategy and implementation. Find out more.
