Programming posts

Still using desktop code editors? Web integrated development environments (IDEs) are a new way to build your web projects directly in the browser, often saving development time and making collaboration easier.

The humble browser used to just serve up simple HTML documents, but it’s often now your first stop for just about any task. Think about it — document editing, file sharing, image manipulation, server backups, 3D rendering, music production and just about any other work traditionally done in desktop software can now be handled by a web service.

I’ve actually become reluctant to install anything anymore, as there’s usually a great web alternative that just requires a simple account signup to use it. But even with all the great...

Ah, Ruby on Rails. The champion of the startup hustle, and the side project. That in essence describes a lot of why I think people enjoy the community as a whole, because they all appreciate those two facts.

It surely has done a lot for the startup world, and for developer communities alike. It is very similar to languages such as JavaScript in the affects it has had on the web world. I know quite a few people that have gotten into development...

WordPress plugins allow you to easily modify and enhance your blog by bringing new functionality not otherwise available in the base code.

Using plugins works more effectively than trying to modify the overall core programming that makes up WordPress. Defined as a program or a set of functions written in PHP, plugins add specific features that can easily be integrated with the blog through the WordPress...

The evolution of WordPress from a blogging platform into a fully-fledged CMS, simultaneously turns it into a solid framework for developers to build outstanding projects and applications upon.

The WordPress core, powers not only the users’ publishing engine but also provides developers with a robust set of classes, APIs and helpers, designed to address a wide range of needs.

One of hidden gems of WordPress that allows developers to perform operations with the local file system...

Zurb has a long history of providing awesome web apps and resources for designers and developers. Their apps include Notable, Axe, Enroll, and Spur, among others.

Other resources from Zurb include everything from downloadable sketchsheets and grid paper, CSS buttons, CSS3 tools, visual effects & animation examples, and a lot more.

Zurb has recently launched a new tool for designers,...

Designers and developers are pushing the envelope with what’s possible in interactive design on a continuous basis. And awesome new examples come out all the time.

One of the newest examples is an interactive music video for Evelyn, by ABBY.

It’s a fantastic site that gives you the opportunity to mix different instruments and vocal styles together, while the song is playing, for...

An application programming interface (API) is a set of rules and specifications that software programs can follow to communicate or ‘interface’ with each other.

As developers are well aware, there are hundreds of APIs out there for doing almost anything you could imagine online. Some are better than others, and some are definitely more useful than others.

Below are forty of the most useful APIs out there. The included APIs will let you do everything from shortening a URL to displaying a book ...

Bookmarklets are special links that users can add to their browser’s favorites.

These special links include code (i.e. not just a target URL), and they trigger various kinds of useful functionality, allowing you to modify and extend any web page.

Once you begin using and building your own, you will no longer see web...

The semantic web has brought on a new generation of Internet technology. As designers and developers work together to redefine the rules of the web, the number of open-source projects and third-party APIs continues to grow.

The opinions of web scholars differ on the use of grid systems. Many argue that setting grid points limits the creativity of designers. Others contend that a grid provides a scientific basis for a design to be perfected.

Both sides provide interesting arguments. These ideas have become part of a unique web culture characterized by influential design rules and open-source projects.

The grid isn’t a...

Too often as developers, we ignore a crucial last step before launching a website: optimizing for performance.

Most developers now recognize that organized, valid code ensures maintainability and compatibility.

Anyone who doubts this merely has to speak to a developer who has picked up work on an old website that is littered with unorganized, uncommented spaghetti code.

Just as preparing our code to be read by other developers is important, so is preparing...

CSS can be compared to a sculptor’s tool set; like sculptors at work, we designers use CSS to create structured layouts of websites.

Over the years, this process has become more organized; rules have been put in place to create best practices of coding.

In this article, we’ll take a look at some ideas you can use when writing style sheets to speed up your code.

Efficient CSS is easy to manage and easy to read and can be a resource for web designers. Getting organized is a big step, but using CSS can be a little more complicated than...