I wrote similar posts to this one a few years ago, but two new loves have stolen my night and online life: Children.
Our first little-man was 2.75 years ago, our most recent lad was born on March 2nd 2015. Aha, just 3 days ago. He is still in hospital with mum as she recovers from her belly-slashing. I have only hugged him three times, helped him have his first bath, and rocked him to sleep once. He is adorable.
But I digress.
I am a HTML trawler. Yes, I scrape your HTML to learn how a thing is happening and how I can reproduce it. Rest assured, I don’t simply copy and paste. I copy and paste into an editor, test it to ensure I have all the components … then carefully research it. I want to know how and why, it has always been my passion. Heck, when I first got online in 1998, I spent about two years reading LOTS of information regarding HTML and CSS (and a few other webdev languages) as my main focus.
Which is a great segue into my favourite paragraph by Daniel Mall: It says everything about my (sporadic) reading, testing, writing, coding and creating CSS/HTML over the last 16 years. Here it is:
I read as much as I could from people like: Mike Davidson, Shaun Inman, Jason Santa Maria, Dave Shea, Jeffrey Zeldman, Jeff Croft, Andy Budd, Eric Meyer, Ryan Sims, Jeremy Keith, Garrett Dimon, Jared Christensen, Mark Boulton, Wilson Miner, D. Keith Robinson, Faruk Ateş, Ethan Marcotte, Derek Featherstone, Greg Storey, Cameron Moll, Roger Johansson, Khoi Vinh, Dan Cederholm, Dan Rubin, and so many more.
/…/ When these people wrote a new post, I read it.
/…/ This was a community I wanted to be associated with.
Wow, me too! And the funny thing? I am rereading their blogs & articles again after a long hiatus. It feels like finding old friends. None of them would know me, but I feel like I know them. Many of the site designs have changed (that’s how well I feel I know these people, I remember some their sites from 10 years ago!), yet their writing style is much the same, though evolved. The webdev bug is strong in me and ready to resume learning.
So now let me show you what CSS/HTML I have found via my #scrape&learn process. I won’t explain each, I simply show them. If you have an interest in this field, you will see the value in them:
FIXED ABSOLUTE
/* Sits at base of page, beneath all text. Could be used as a fixed base */
.base { background-color: #666; color: red; text-align: center; padding: 0.5em 0; position: absolute; bottom: 0; left; 0; width: 100%; }
.base a { color: green; text-decoration: none; }
.base a:hover, .back a:focus { color: yellow; }
// Found here
VIEWPORT
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width,initial-scale=1″ />
AND
/* Fix for device screen width */
@viewport {
zoom: 1.0;
width: extend-to-zoom;
}
@-ms-viewport {
width: extend-to-zoom;
zoom: 1.0;
}
<meta name=”viewport” content=”width=device-width, initial-scale=1, minimum-scale=1, maximum-scale=1, user-scalable=no” />
JITTER
<p class=”jitter” style=”left: -4px; -webkit-transform: rotate(-1deg);”>
That’s enough samples for you. Three each time is enough.
Okay, next I show you interesting #webdev sites. I am always finding and reading tidbits of information about stuff I think can make my own site look better, or else which I can incorporate into #holdingbay pages. Yet since delicious.com fails for me regularly, I will post as articles with my descriptions. Plus it keeps my browser bookmarks tidier! Here goes…
1. Textile live web editor ~ A WYSIWYG editor where the code is on the left an the output is on the right. Includes the final HTML output for easy insertion into the page of choice. I use it for creating blog posts. Textile is so much easier for attaching URLs.
2. Fillerati ~ Lorem Ipsum is often confusing for clients. I had a client a few years back who asked if the content had been hacked on a #dummysite I was showing them. Sigh. This may still confuse them, but at least my english-speaking clients will at least go “Ooooh!”
3. A Pixel Identity Crisis by SCOTT KELLUM January 17, 2012 ~ Basically, pixel definition changes the defined appearance of a site on a smartphone. A long read, but our design process will improve for it.
4. Stephen Coles ~ Visit his ‘bits of work’ pages. Mostly visit to see how he uses his website. Inspirational. # |
5. Carolyn Wood ~ Another great web site design. Simple colours, easy to follow, uncluttered and to the point.
6. HappyCog ~ I have visited their site many times over the years. The home page has changed dramatically since last I looked. Thankfully their articles are still cognitive. ;)
7. Quantity Queries for CSS by HEYDON PICKERING March 03, 2015 ~ Wow. Heavy reading, yet very interesting. May have to read that again. I can see already it will be worth it to incorporate into my site, thereby making it easy to access from a tablet or smartphone. Can see potential for expansion.
8. How to Build an App (.tumblr.com) ~ The thing most fascinating is the slightly tilted paragraphs. The answer is in the HTML. I have included in my sample CSS above. PLUS the article is interesting and educational.
9. What is your ViewPort size? ~ With so many smartphones and devices on the market, how can you be sure of the dimensions of any of them? Yes, this site can tell you. Email to yourself, open in browser on your device. Voila!
Nine is enough. I will try to write these style of posts once a week. Heck, with WordPress I can schedule them – and I still have hundreds of interesting articles and sites waiting to be re-revealed. Watch out for them…
Creativity & Artwork of Stephen Mitchell 
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