Code articles

When you’ve worked in the digital industry for long enough, eventually you’re going to have to work with code that you’ve inherited from someone else. Whether this is part of a handover process from another company, written by a developer that has since moved on or written by a freelancer, sooner or later you’ll find yourself sifting through line after line of code that you didn’t write. When this happens it’s easy to slip into a...

COBOL is a programming language that was originally designed in 1959, an era that many people might think of as being “before computers”. That’s not true, of course; they just didn’t have computers at home. The language is still being used by some businesses on giant mainframe computers. It’s a bit like Linux: people interact with it every day, they just don’t know it. The point here is simple: the world more or less runs on old code,...

DOMmy.js is a super-lightweight, standalone Javascript library, designed to work easily with the DOM and produce powerful CSS3 animations via JS. Full disclosure: I developed DOMmy.js. And in this tutorial I want to demonstrate how it can be used to keep your webpages nice and light. DOMmy.js has a very shallow learning curve; it’s even shallower if you have ever used an old-generation style framework such as jQuery or Prototype. DOMmy.js...

TL/DR: When you use eight values specifying border-radius in CSS, you can create organic looking shapes. WOW. No time to read it all ? — we made a visual tool for you. Find it here. During this year’s Frontend Conference Zurich Rachel Andrew talked about Unlocking the Power of CSS Grid Layout. At the end of her talk, she mentioned something about an old CSS property that got stuck in my head: The Image is set round just by using the well-supported...

CSS Grid and CSS Flexbox are complimentary web layout technologies that have been hotly anticipated for years. However, despite some superficial similarities they are actually used for very different tasks; they each solve a very different set of problems. In an ideal scenario, you may find that you employ both for different layout tasks. In this post we’ll look at their differences, look at how they solve various layout problems, and...

First let’s define what we mean by “Monolith” and “Microservice”. A monolithic architecture is built as one large system and is usually one code-base. A monolith is often deployed all at once, both front and end code together, regardless of what was changed. A microservices architecture however is where an app is built as a suite of small services, each with their own code-base. These services are built around specific capabilities...

For a couple of years now, AI and Machine Learning have been taking over web forums as well as adding to the excitement of eager developers who are keen to give it a go in their projects. I’m by no means a Machine Learning expert, but I have brushed the surface of it in a couple of development projects which required a “smarter” way of doing things. To be clear, what we’re going to explore today is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Machine...

If you can get through the basics of PHP then you’ll have a solid foundation on backend development. It’s knowledge you can use for WordPress coding or even to build your own webapps. But developers nowadays often use open source frameworks like Laravel. This is by far the most comprehensive framework for PHP development and guaranteed to help you create your own apps, land a job in the industry, or a mix of both! To get you started with Laravel...

AMP is a contentious technology, to be sure. People seem pretty sure that Google intends to use it to shackle publishers and users to the search engine (like we weren’t already), and that it’s just another way for Google to abuse its powers. And more importantly [sarcasm alert], it’s just not all that pretty to look at. I mean, it was never bad, but AMP is all about speeding up the web (and that other thing), and that means cutting down on a lot...

WebVR is an amazing way to create immersive 3D Virtual Reality experiences in the browser. It’s an experimental specification of Javascript API’s and has a lot of backers and people pushing it forwards, with Mozilla being a big part of that. With the explosion of VR headsets coming to market and more on the horizon, now is a great time to experiment and see what awesome things you can create in WebVR. The open web is becoming an exciting hotbed...

With all the talk lately of finally being able to use CSS Grid, it got me thinking: What other amazing CSS features can I use now? CSS Variables was the one that instantly sprung to mind. It’s been a while since I’ve heard anything about CSS Variables and it adds a whole new toolset and way of thinking to front end development that excites me. A Refresher on CSS Variables CSS Variables have been knocking around for a few years now but don’t seem...

There’s a lot you can do with just CSS and a web browser. Great developers love to push the envelope and show just how much is possible. While experimental projects aren’t always useful on production sites, they are incredibly inspiring and educational. We’ve organized a handful of CSS projects that showcase the true power of CSS. These are all hosted on CodePen so you can even study and clone the source code to see how they work. 1. Gradient...

You do not have to start—and finish—every new website design from scratch. Seriously! Before you scowl, think about it for a minute. How many times have you done the exact same thing to start a project? How many times have you created the exact same icons or user interface elements with subtle changes? That’s where a design kit or template can come in and totally change the way you work. For many designers the benefits can outweigh some of...

UX has been the focal point of modern web development for quite some time now. This is influenced by several factors, including page loading speed, readability, usability, and design. But now that more users prefer mobile web browsing over using desktops, any website—be it a niche blog or an e-commerce store—should start prioritizing mobile friendliness. Nowadays, it’s easy to apply a mobile-responsive theme and use tools like...