Top picks — 2024 March
Hey folks, it’s the end of March already—shocking! It was a busy month in the web ecosystem, and many significant things happened. Read on to find out a bit more behind-the-curtain secrets about the CSS-Tricks acquisition, details about the new JavaScript Registry, incredible production by Heneybot about the inception of Node.js, and a lot more. Brew a coffee and enjoy your Easter reading list!
Where I’m at on the whole CSS-Tricks thing
Chris dropped the bomb and revealed a detailed back story about the CSS-Tricks acquisition and how he attempted to get it back. Since Digital Ocean took ownership of this website, it is dead to me. The only reason why I still visit CSS-Tricks every now and then is the legendary Flexbox guide.
Introducing JSR - the JavaScript Registry
The Deno team just announced a superset of npm with support for TypeScript. Automatically generated docs based on the type’s definitions, ESM only, cross-runtime, and fast and easy to use are only a few features of JSR. I like Deno’s core principle of staying as close to the specification as possible.
A Global Documentation Platform
It is not a secret that Mozilla is going downhill. After a series of layoffs last year, they recently said goodbye to plenty more engineers. By far, my favourite product maintained by Mozilla is MDN. I have used this website for over a decade, and it has always been my first place for Web API documentation. It has changed a lot recently - more aggressive ads, a strong push toward the paid tier of a product and most importantly, the recent implementation of AI assistant. Andy Bell published this beautiful piece, and I can’t agree more. If you are unsure why I am bitching about the catastrophic outcome of the addition of this feature, just have a look at this GitHub issue.
Popular git config options
Julia published a list of popular options that people put in their .gitconfig files. It’s a great list that made me tweak some details in my configuration file. I like the zdiff3 option to enhance the annotation of merge conflicts.
Ultimate Guide to Visual Testing with Playwright
This article is a comprehensive guide to visual testing. It is based on the popular end-to-end framework Playwright. Even for people who don’t need detailed visual testing of their web apps, this resource is an excellent primer for basic concepts of Playwright, which is incredibly powerful and slowly becomes an industry standard.
Node.js: The Documentary | An origin story
The Node.js documentary is out. It is a production by Honeypot, which produces excellent documentaries. It is an exciting watch about the early days, the famous IO fork, and then finding a consensus in the form of the Node.js Foundation. I enjoyed every minute of this video.
Creating and importing styles with constructable stylesheets and CSS module scripts
I learned a ton from this article by Oliver Williams. I didn’t know there were so many ways to construct a stylesheet or what to do with it. I love digging into the DOM API.
Talker’s block
Seth is the best. He is a massive inspiration for my writing. This post is just a masterpiece and golden advice on improving your skills as a publisher.
On disabled and aria-disabled attributes
Kitty Giraudel published this explanation of the difference between disabled and aria-disabled attributes. A quick, straight-to-the-point, and includes practical examples.
Iterator helpers
Iterators are getting more powerful. This article presents several practical use cases for a new series of sync methods recently added to V8. They are all in the scope of a proposal currently in stage 3. I like the take() and drop() methods the most—they are valuable additions to the language.