Whatâs Old Is New | CSS-Tricks
[ad_1]
I’m collecting a bunch of links in a bookmarks folder. These are things I really want to read, and I will – eventually. It’s a good thing that bookmarks are digital, otherwise I would need a larger coffee table to separate them from the ever-growing stack of magazines.
The advantage of accumulating links is that the virtual stack begins to reveal recurring themes. Two seemingly unrelated posts published a few months apart could coalesce and become more of a dialogue about a common topic.
I spent the time going through a bunch of links I’d accumulated over the last few weeks and noticed a few trending topics. No, that’s not me you smell – there’s a hint of nostalgia in the air, namely a newfound focus on learning web basics and some love for manual deployments.
Web developers, AI and development basics
Ultimately, It’s not about AI replacing developers, but about developers adapting and evolving with the tools. The ability to learn, understand and apply the basics is essential because without the right foundation, tools will only get you so far.
ShopTalk 629: The Great Divide, Global Design + Web Components and Job Titles
Chris and Dave turn on the sound The Great Divide In this episode and the increasing value of a return to fundamentals:
Dave: But I think what’s perhaps missing from this is that there was a very big sense of disempowerment towards people who are good and great at CSS, JavaScript and HTML. But then there were… The market shifted a lot to these all-in JavaScript frameworks. And a lot of people said, “This is not what I signed up for.”
[…]
Dave: Yes. I’m sure you can say, “Eat shit.” That’s right, boy.” But that also devalues a person’s abilities. And I think what the market is proving now is that if you know JavaScript or HTML, CSS and regular JavaScript (JavaScript without a framework), you are, again, more valuable because you understand how one line of CSS can replace 10,000 lines of JavaScript – or whatever whatever it is.
Chris: Yes. Maybe it’ll come back just a touch –
Dave: A little bit.
Chris: – that kind of respect for the basic things, because since then, since five years ago, there has been an exodus. Now it’s like these React-only developers that we hired, how useful are they anymore? Were they a bit too limited and basic people know more? I don’t know. It’s hard to say the job industry is back when it doesn’t quite feel like it to me.
Dave: Yes yes. Yes, who knows. I just think that the value of CSS and HTML knowledge, good HTML, has increased more than it did perhaps five years ago.
Just a spec: HTML is finally getting the respect it deserves
Jared and Ayush Insights into the first-ever State of HTML survey, why we need it, and whether State of… surveys are representative of people who work with HTML.
[…] Once you’ve learned about Divs and Hs 1 through 6, what else is there to know? Quite a lot, as it turns out. Once again, we hired Lea Verou to bring her in-depth knowledge of the web platform and help us create a survey that goes well beyond just HTML and covers accessibility, web components, and much more.
[…]
You know, it’s perfectly fine to be an expert in HTML and CSS and know very little JavaScript. So, I think it’s important to keep that in mind when we talk about the survey because the survey is a snapshot of just the people who know about the survey and are answering the questions, right? It’s not necessarily representative of the broad swath of people around the world who have used HTML at all.
[…]
So yeah, big interest in HTML. I’m talking about HTML. And yes, finally Lea Verou talks about how we really have a great need for more extensibility of HTML.
In one more current episode:
I’m not surprised. I mean, when someone who has only ever used React can see what HTML does, I think it’s usually a big revelation for them.
[…]
It just blows her away. And it’s like, to a certain point, you just don’t know what you’re missing. And there is a better world out there that many people simply don’t know about.
[…]
I remember a post popped up somewhere on social media a while back where someone said, “Oh, I just tried working with HTML forms, just standard HTML forms the first time, and it to get people to submit things.” And wait, it’s that easy?
Yes, last year when I was mentoring a young developer at the Railsworld conference website, she had come through bootcamp and had only ever done React, and I showed her what a web component does and she was like, “Oh man “That’s right.” Cool. Yes, it is the web platform.
Reckoning: Part 4 – The Way Out
Alex Russell in the last episode an epic four-part series worth your time to fully understand the timeline, impact, and cost of modern Javascript frameworks on today’s development practices:
Never hire employees who have JavaScript framework knowledge. Instead, only apply to basic topics like web standards, accessibility, modern CSS, semantic HTML, and web components. That is double Important if your system uses a framework.
Semi-annual reminder to learn and set web standards
This is a common cycle. Web developers are tired of a certain technology – which was often viewed as an HTML killer when it was released – and are demanding a focus on the native web platform. Then they decide to reinvent it again, but badly.
There are many reasons why companies don’t have deep core HTML/CSS/ARIA/SVG knowledge requirements. The easiest is commercializing the capabilities, partly because framework and library developers have looked down on the basics.
The anchor element
Heydon Pickering in a series dedicated to HTML elements, starting alphabetically with the good old anchor :
Sometimes that is
is called a hyperlink or simply a link. But it’s neither of those, and people who say it is are technically wrong (the worst kind of wrong).[…]
Web developers and content editors all over the world are making the mistake Text that describes a link is not actually included in that link. This is absolutely unfortunate, considering that the point of writing is to get everything right Hypertext.
AI myth: This allows me to write code that I can’t do on my own
At the risk of being old and out of touch, if you don’t know how to write code, you probably shouldn’t be using code that Chat GPT et al. write for you.
[…]
It’s not bulletproof, but StackOverflow offers opportunities to learn and understand the code in a way that AI-generated code does not.
What skills should you focus on as a junior web developer in 2024?
Let’s not be
old-man-shakes-fist-at-kids.gifBut learning the basics of technology is proven to be useful. This is true in basketball, piano, and website building. If you want a long career in websites, it’s the fundamentals that drive you.[…]
The fundamentals are about how long-lasting and transferable the knowledge is. Either way, it will serve you well other Technologies you might use for a job, or if the abstractions about them change as you wish.
As long as we’re talking about learning the basics…
The basics
Oh yeah, and of course there’s this little one Online course I published this summer to learn HTML and CSS basics describe like this:
The basics are more for your customers who don’t know how to update the website they paid you to build. Or the friend who is learning but still keeps annoying you with questions about the things they read. Or your mother, who still has no idea what you do for a living. It is for those for whom entry points are disappearing. It’s designed for those who could easily sign up for a Squarespace account but want to understand the code it spits out so they have more control to create a website that uniquely reflects them.
This nostalgia applies not only to HTML and CSS, but also to the delivery of code. A few recent posts discuss what it might look like to ship code with buildless or buildless vicinity Buildless workflows.
Raw dogging websites
It is extremely liberating. Yes, there are some ergonomic flaws, but in the end it comes out in the wash. You may have to copy and paste some HTML, but in my experience I would spend that much time or more debugging a broken build or dependency hell.
Become unfinished
Max Böck Following up on Brad:
So can we all do without our build tools soon?
Probably not. I would say that when it comes to development ready for series production, we are not quite there yet. Performance degradation is a big part of this, but there are plenty of other small issues that you’ll likely run into soon once you reach a certain level of complexity.
However, for smaller locations or side projects, I can imagine going the route without buildings – just to see how far I can get with it.
Manually until it hurts
Jeremy Keith following on from Max:
If you think your next project couldn’t possibly be done without a build step, let me tell you a phrase I heard for the first time in the year Indie WebCommunity: “Manually until it hurts”. It is basically a two-step process:
- Start doing what you need to do by hand.
- If that is no longer practical, introduce some sort of automation.
It’s remarkable how often you never reach step two.
I’m not saying that premature optimization is the root of all evil. I’m just saying it’s premature.
That’s it for this bunch of links and my goodness does it make my laptop feel lighter. Have you read other recent posts that explore similar topics? Share them in the comments.
[ad_2]
Source link