Elsewhere
Things we find interesting we think you might too.
Enhancing Cross-Document Navigation with the View Transitions API – Trung Vo
The View Transitions API helps developers create smooth animations when moving between different parts of a webpage. You’ll often notice this when going from one page to another (like from /page-1 to /page-2), but it can also make updates within the same page more dynamic. Historically, achieving seamless animations during significant state changes has posed challenges, with full-page load transitions largely dependent on browser capabilities. Source: Enhancing Cross-Document Navigation with the View Transitions API – Trung Vo
Rising Tide Rents and Robber Baron Rents – O’Reilly
Why is it that Google, a company once known for its distinctive “Do no evil” guideline, is now facing the same charges of “surveillance capitalism” as Facebook, a company that never made such claims? Why is it now subject to the same kind of antitrust complaints once faced by Microsoft, the “evil empire” of the previous generation of computing? Why is it that Amazon, which has positioned itself as “the most customer-centric company on the planet,” now lards its search results with advertisements, placing them ahead of the customer-centric results chosen by the company’s organic search algorithms, which prioritize a combination of low price, high customer ratings, and other similar
JSR Is Not Another Package Manager
Over the past years, new package managers like yarn and pnpm have emerged, enhancing how packages are downloaded. However, the npm package registry, a cornerstone of the JavaScript ecosystem, has barely evolved. Its last notable update was a “files” tab added years ago. The JavaScript language, known for its vibrant evolution, seems paradoxically mired in a distribution model that hasn’t kept pace. Source: JSR Is Not Another Package Manager
Opinion | How Should I Be Using A.I. Right Now? – The New York Times
There’s something of a paradox that has defined my experience with artificial intelligence in this particular moment. It’s clear we’re witnessing the advent of a wildly powerful technology, one that could transform the economy and the way we think about art and creativity and the value of human work itself. At the same time, I can’t for the life of me figure out how to use it in my own day-to-day job. So I wanted to understand what I’m missing and get some tips for how I could incorporate A.I. better into my life right now. And Ethan Mollick is the perfect guide: He’s a professor at the Wharton School
HTML attributes vs DOM properties – JakeArchibald.com
Attributes and properties are fundamentally different things. You can have an attribute and property of the same name set to different values Source: HTML attributes vs DOM properties – JakeArchibald.com
Latency numbers every frontend developer should know – Vercel
Web page load times and responsiveness to user action in web apps is a primary driver of user satisfaction–and both are often dominated by network latency. Latency itself is a function of the user’s connection to the internet (Wifi, LTE, 5G), how far away the server is that the user is connecting to, and the quality of the network in between. While the latency numbers may seem low by themselves, they compound quickly. For example, a network waterfall of depth 3 on a 300ms link leads to a total latency of 900ms. Technologies like React Server Components can move network waterfalls to the server where the same request pattern might
musicForProgramming();
Through years of trial and error — skipping around radio streams, playing entire collections on shuffle, or repeating certain tracks over and over — we have found that the most compelling music for sustained concentration tends to contain a mixture of the following: … The goal of this series is not to present music as disposable background noise to be mostly ignored or tuned out, but the complete opposite — the goal is to present music that can engulfthe listener, carefully selected works that can be fully appreciated (perhaps even enhanced) despite sometimes only having peripheral attention paid to them. Source: musicForProgramming();
Demystifying the Shadow DOM – by Petar Ivanov
Last year I taught Advanced JavaScript classes at the local university. One of the topics I explained was about the Shadow DOM. Since I wasn’t very familiar with it, I had to dig deeper and understand its benefits, drawbacks, and use cases. After reading more about it, I thought that more developers should get familiar with it since it’s a fascinating technology worth being in one’s toolbox. Source: Demystifying the Shadow DOM – by Petar Ivanov
Invoking elements by using only HTML: A first look at invokers | utilitybend
Wouldn’t it be cool if we could click on a button to open a modal with just HTML? How about those file input elements? Imagine that creating a custom play button for video controls would be an easy thing to do. How about custom counter buttons for a number input? This is where the idea of invokers comes in. It’s currently available behind a flag to play around with and it’s definitely one of the most exciting advances in HTML to look out for. Source: Invoking elements by using only HTML: A first look at invokers | utilitybend
The Anatomy of a Component Sprint | Figma Blog
The Washington Post’s inclusive process for creating new design system components bridges the gap between design and development to make features that help navigate the news online. At The Washington Post, we help readers understand the rapidly evolving events shaping their world. In order to deliver the news quickly, reliably, and at a high quality, we need tools and processes that accelerate collaboration. So, in 2019, we embarked on an ambitious journey to craft The Washington Post Design System (WPDS). Source: The Anatomy of a Component Sprint | Figma Blog
Product Design Is Lost / Design Systems International
How the field of product design lost its way — and how it can find its way back The ongoing tech layoffs have decimated UX and UI positions to such a degree that some have wondered whether the tech world has fallen out of love with the field of design.After several whirlwind years where design was hailed as the solution to everything, organizations are now deprioritizing design teams entirely. Executive-level design roles are slowly disappearing across corporate America. And even well-established practitioners within the design service industry were hit by the record layoffs that have swept through tech over the last two years. Source: Product Design Is Lost / Design
No Web Without Women
WEB WITHOUT WOMEN A collection of innovations by women in the fields of computer science and technology. Source: No Web Without Women
Looking for AI use-cases — Benedict Evans
We’ve had ChatGPT for 18 months, but what’s it for? What are the use-cases? Why isn’t it useful for everyone, right now? Do Large Language Models become universal tools that can do ‘any’ task, or do we wrap them in single-purpose apps, and build thousands of new companies around that? Source: Looking for AI use-cases — Benedict Evans
Upgrading jQuery: Working Towards a Healthy Web | Official jQuery Blog
With the rise of modern JavaScript frameworks, fewer developers may be choosing to use jQuery for new projects, but worldwide usage is still extremely high. After analyzing the results of a survey conducted by IDC, the OpenJS Foundation estimated that 90% of all websites use jQuery. And about a third of those use an outdated version. Source: Upgrading jQuery: Working Towards a Healthy Web | Official jQuery Blog
Considerations for AI Opt-Out
Creating a Large Language Model (LLM) requires a lot of data – as implied by the name, LLMs need voluminous input data to be able to function well. Much of that content comes from the Internet, and early models have been seeded by crawling the whole Web. This now widespread practice of ingestion without consent is contentious, to put it mildly. Content creators feel that they should be compensated for providing this input data, or at least have a choice about whether it is used; AI advocates caution that without easy access to input data, their ability to innovate will be severely limited. Source: Considerations for AI Opt-Out
We Need To Rewild The Internet
Our online spaces are not ecosystems, though tech firms love that word. They’re plantations; highly concentrated and controlled environments, closer kin to the industrial farming of the cattle feedlot or battery chicken farms that madden the creatures trapped within. Source: We Need To Rewild The Internet
How web bloat impacts users with slow devices
In 2017, we looked at how web bloat affects users with slow connections. Even in the U.S., many users didn’t have broadband speeds, making much of the web difficult to use. It’s still the case that many users don’t have broadband speeds, both inside and outside of the U.S. and that much of the modern web isn’t usable for people with slow internet, but the exponential increase in bandwidth (Nielsen suggests this is 50% per year for high-end connections) has outpaced web bloat for typical sites, making this less of a problem than it was in 2017, although it’s still a serious problem for people with poor connections. Source: How
AI isn’t useless. But is it worth it?
But there is a yawning gap between “AI tools can be handy for some things” and the kinds of stories AI companies are telling (and the media is uncritically reprinting). And when it comes to the massively harmful ways in which large language models (LLMs) are being developed and trained, the feeble argument that “well, they can sometimes be handy…” doesn’t offer much of a justification. Source: AI isn’t useless. But is it worth it?
What’s Going On in Dark Theme / Light Theme Land – Frontend Masters Boost
There has been a fresh round of enthusiasm and writing around light mode / dark mode support for the web lately. I think it’s driven partially by the new light-dark() function in CSS (CSS Color Module Level 5 spec) that makes it easier to declare values that change depending on the mode. Here’s the basic usage: Source: What’s Going On in Dark Theme / Light Theme Land – Frontend Masters Boost
A primer on the cascade and specificity – Piccalilli
Often feared by developers, the cascade and specificity is actually really simple if you utilise the right mental model when authoring CSS. Source: A primer on the cascade and specificity – Piccalilli
Coming Soon to JavaScript Near You? (TC39 Stage 2 Proposals) | That HTML Blog
It’ll definitely be a while before we see some of these getting prototyped in browsers, but it’s always fun to take a sneak peak at the future of this vital web language. Source: Coming Soon to JavaScript Near You? (TC39 Stage 2 Proposals) | That HTML Blog
Interview with a Senior JS Developer 2024
The satirical interview series from Programmers are also human is always worth a watch, with a genuine understanding of the technology, and obsessions and rituals and beliefs of various types of developer. This recent one is absolutely spot on. It captures the frenetic, chaotic state of Front End Development in 2024 so well.
Things That Can Break aspect-ratio in CSS – Frontend Masters Boost
CSS has an aspect-ratio property, which has had full support since around 2021. It can be a very satisfying property to use, because it can help match how your brain 🧠 works or what the desired design outcome does better than forcing dimensions does. “I need a square here” or “I need to match the 16:9 size of a <video>” are very reasonable design needs. Especially in a fluid environment where you’re purposely trying not to think in exact dimensions because you know they can change. Source: Things That Can Break aspect-ratio in CSS – Frontend Masters Boost