Bookmarks

Links vs. Buttons in Modern Web Applications | MarcySutton.com

Good post on the semantics of buttons vs links in HTML

January 2019
Third Bit: Use Case Maps Revisited

Really interesting post about using "use case maps", mostly about automatic creation of them. But I'm most interested in the concept itself. The tldr is that they're architecture diagrams (showing the different parts of a system), marked up with arrows showing how the user flows through the system in an individual use-case.

December 2018
React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

React v15 documentation, Since the v16 docs were launched previous versions were inaccessible online. This site archives the v15 docs

December 2018
Remove Background from Image – remove.bg

Useful site that uses AI to remove backgrounds from images (and replace with them transparency). Potentially useful for web design

December 2018
Using aria-live

Really great primer on the aria-live attribute, with some examples of how to use it

December 2018
React hooks: not magic, just arrays – Rudi Yardley – Medium

Good mental model for how React hooks are internally implemented

December 2018
Shell Chair Drawings & Sizes | Dimensions.Guide

Interesting collection of "technical-looking" line drawings of every day objects

December 2018
Package Phobia

Useful tool for determining the install size of npm dependencies

December 2018
What do software architects at Khan Academy do? | Khan Academy Engineering

Interesting definition of an architect role at Khan Academy. tl;dr: "an architect acts as a sort of product manager for the system in which software is built. This “system” consists of the coding standards, tools, platforms, and even processes used by the engineers on the team to build features for their users. Architects look for ways in which the system can better serve the engineers."

December 2018
Leading Ideas: Buffer’s new Engineering Career Paths Framework

Buffer's take on a Career ladder (explicitly not a ladder). Uses a "sphere of influence idea" to gauge level, instead of a checklist of skiils

December 2018
guides/npm-global-without-sudo.md at master · sindresorhus/guides

Quick & helpful guide for installing npm without sudo

November 2018
Meta Tags — Preview, Edit and Generate

Very useful tool to preview/generate/edit the <meta> tags used by Twitter/Facebook/etc to show page previews

November 2018
Today's Events

Calendar showing a bunch of exhibitions at London museums/galleries. Bit slow to load, but nice design

November 2018
Squoosh image compressor

Tool from Chrome dev team to compress images - png, jpg, svg

November 2018
SVGR: The SVG to JSX transformer

Super useful tool to convert a raw SVG (say from Sketch) and convert it to JSX, and also running it through SVGO to optimise it.

November 2018
Bruce Lawson's personal site  : Why don’t we add a <lovely> element to HTML?

Bruce Lawson post nominally about custom HTML elements bit with an interesting sidebar about the <data> element which is designed to wrap microdata/microformats to make it machine readable. There's also an interesting JS Bin linked showing an implementation of a colour swatch element.

October 2018
Idle Until Urgent — Philip Walton

Really interesting pattern/JS snippet to defer calculation of an expensive task with `requestIdleCallback`, *except* if that task is "urgent" (i.e. required synchronously)

October 2018
A tour of JavaScript timers on the web | Read the Tea Leaves

Good reference article on various timeout functions in JS (setTimeout, requestAnimationFrame, requestIdleCallback)

September 2018
Color gradient

Some neat colour functions in JS to darken/lighten/blend colours

September 2018