Goodbye time, datetime, and pubdate. Hello data and value. - The tag has been removed from the HTML5 spec. and is replaced by . was originally added to allow dates and times to be machine readable, via the datetime attribute. This gives us human-readable content (âyesterdayâ) plus hidden machine-readable content (â2011-11-02â) with no accessibility problems.
CodeKit - CodeKit automatically compiles Less, Sass, Stylus & CoffeeScript files. It effortlessly combines, minifies and error-checks Javascript. It even optimizes images, auto-reloads your browser and lets you use the same files across many projects.
Node.js: a practical introduction - So you’ve noticed this new hip thing called Node.js, but is it worth your time to dive into? These set of slides give a good introduction/overview of what it is and how it can be useful.
Gzipping Responses in Node.js + Express App - Node.js hosting options don’t Gzip their output, as far as I know. This article explains how to add gzip support to your express app. Please keep in mind that (on the fly) Gzipped content response will require more power to serve. Note: Node v0.6.0 was just released and includes a built in zlib module.
According to The New York Times my beloved web talkshow Diggnation will call it quits after their live in December. Sad to see it go, but such is live i guess, also I’m expecting some very impressive beards!
As you’ve might have noticed from my last post I’ve just started a new direction in my life, actually more getting back to my roots. I’ve decided to focus on building UI/UX and though it would be a good idea to share al the fun stuff I come across in thing journey. I’ll sum things up every week, n-weeks or month. Hopefully it will be useful to some.
A better theme for PhpStorm
As far as it comes to PHP IDE’s, PhpStorm is a pretty good option. The default editor theme is only a bit hard on the eyes. Yes, you can fully customize the theme in PhpStorm, but that sounds like a lot of work. Luckily Marcus Ekwall did the hard work for you by porting the Obsidian to PhpStorm. Download it via his blog which also tells you how to install it. Here’s a little preview:
[caption id=”attachment_64” align=”alignnone” width=”426” caption=”Preview of the Obsidian theme for PhpStorm”][/caption]
Starting point for new design
I’ve just started working on a design for this blog (still work in progress I’m afraid), for this I needed a good starting point/blank slate. Usually I just start out with a full browser reset, the problem with that is that you have to define everything yourself. Normalize.css is a better option, it aims to make all browsers render all elements more consistently and in line with modern standards. But I was in a hurry, so I wanted more!
Welcome to Skeleton
“Skeleton is a small collection of CSS & JS files that can help you rapidly develop sites that look beautiful at any size, be it a 17” laptop screen or an iPhone.” It includes a grid, typography, form styling an a bunch of other useful stuff.
Or you can bootstrap it
If you want even more, you should take a look at Bootstrap, from Twitter which adds some more features. This is great for those little app you build for yourself or just with in the company. But is you want it to look a bit different, it mean more overwriting of styles that skeleton.
Less or Sass
I’ve also been looking in to Less and Sass to make CSS development a bit more comfortable. But without some knowledge adn experience it’s hard to decide which option fits your needs best. Smashing magazine just posted a article on the subject to help explain the differences: An Introduction To LESS, And Comparison To Sass.
Typography
Big part of the web is text, so attention to typography is important. This week I rediscovered a little gem of a web site: Explorations in Typography. Which is basically a tool to teach you some things about type.
Also I’ve found a couple of list of great fonts to use:
