Hey,
It is January February already, and it feels like time flies. In the world of technology, there are always so many news, trends, and possible distractions. On top of that, we already have so much work to do, projects to finish, and people to please. It is easy to feel empty or get burned out. Plus, we still live in the middle of an uncomfortable situation for everyone, a so far unseen pandemic situation; This causes a lot of mental problems on its own and drains a lot of energy from us.
What we can do in this case — although it’s hard to accept — is slowing down.
When I feel overwhelmed, I try to go outside as much as possible. I will get some fresh air, have a long walk and reflect on the things I do. I try to answer the question: »What brings me joy in web development?«. After that, I find myself working more calmly and happily.
Now, if you have the time and energy, you can read through some interesting articles we curated for you. This week, Malte wrote the intro.
Generic
UI/UX
Tooling
Security
- This is something I love to see coming to our browsers: The HTML Sanitizer API. If that becomes reality, we finally get a safer frontend web and our written JavaScript code is slimmer and less bloated up with sanitising libraries. Until then (and maybe afterwards as we still need it for some cases), we can use DOMPurify.
Web Performance
HTML & SVG
Accessibility
- Stephanie Eckles has a short code snippet how to standardise focus styles on a web project easily with CSS custom properties.
JavaScript
CSS
- Bramus Van Damme shares what’s to expect in 2022 from CSS — which could be a lot. Things like Container Queries, Cascade Layers, Color functions, better viewport units, Parent (
:has()) selector, Subgrid, Accent color, Media Query ranges. - Temani Afif shares an approach how to build reponsive layouts with less media queries based on the way we note Flex and Grid patterns. By using
min,max,clamporautofitfunctions, we reduce the complexity of media queries. - The CSS :has() selector is way more than a “Parent Selector”.
- This CSS snippet collection by 30 seconds of code contains great utilities and interactive CSS modules, such as custom checkbox styling, scroll snap, and lots more.
- Stefan Judis explains how the
hwb()color syntax works and why it’s probably the easiest to work and understand as human. Safari and Firefox both recently implemented it with others to follow soon hopefully. - CSS has come a long way since the early days of web development, when tables and various other hacks were used for layout and positioning. Today’s developers can enjoy writing CSS that works in all major browsers, without having to bend over backwards to implement tricky layout requirements. Not only does this make it easier to create dynamic layouts, but it also allows you to ship smaller (and simpler) stylesheets by removing unnecessary cruft. In this article, we’ll look at various scenarios where modern techniques can reduce the complexity of your code and allow you to write better CSS.
Work & Life
Go beyond…
- When we buy something, we get an immediate boost. But what happens once we have the item for a few days? Most of the time, it doesn’t match our expectations of becoming a happier person by buying it. Leo shares his findings on buying less and focus on the inner self to solve these issues. With that in mind, we tend to buy only really useful things while being happier overall. Win-win.
- There is currently a lot of hype around crypto and web3 around. Moxie Marlinspike shares his impressions and down-to-earth thoughts on those topics. But even if you’re not very interested in web3, this article reveals a couple of interesting problems with the current system. For example the fact that “Even nerds do not want to run their own servers at this point.”
- As service platform provider, should you clean up your inactive users regularly or collect them for your numbers instead? Here’s the Flare app team sharing why and how they remove inactive users and teams.
I hope you’re doing fine and have a way to stay positive, find your way to make an impact and help build a better society, better friendships and make our world a little better.
If you like this newsletter, you can contribute to financing the project. Thank you!
Anselm
