DH:Personal

A validating front-end article

Josh Collinsworth

The quiet, pervasive devaluation of frontend

I feel like I’m seeing a widespread diminishment of the practice of frontend. Nearly everywhere I look, I notice its importance minimized, and its challenges trivialized.

This article is incredibly vindicating. For the entirety of my time in web development I have heard the claim that HTML and CSS are too simple and beneath the threshold of what qualifies as true “development,” but this attitude has proved to be a detriment to efficient styling, accessibility, and structure for the foundational elements of what makes a webpage. Websites now appear like a chaotic mess of divs with no structure or semantic sensibilities, and styling that lacks the proper separation of concerns that leads to efficient DRY methodologies. The diminishment of front-end development seems to cause excessive framework cycling and decent tooling for builds, leading to complicated setups for even the simplest of pages.

I have always had an admiration for the work that back-end developers do on a site. Their hard work in carefully tailoring APIs and databases for the most efficient calls has always impressed me. I didn’t realize how much I belittled my own experience and skills because of the outward pressure I experienced throughout my formative years along with my own sense of insecurity. I think this snobbery towards front-end development should change. Design is an essential step and front-end development requires a skill that others lack and we should all stop pretending.

Slavery still exists in the United States

Joseph Shannon Nichols (#21647-075) — The Insiders Zine

Prisoner: By Any Other Name

There seems to be an ongoing debate as to what those of us who are incarcerated should be called. Referring to us as "prisoners" seems to be as unpopular as "inmates" does. Some even try “errants,” “cons,” “convicts,” “felons,” “reprobates,” “jailbirds,” and even “internees.” But none of those are any better. Some are downright insulting. “Incarceree?” That has such a terrible ring to it. Stop trying to get cute with it. Let us see what the U.S. Constitution has to say about it. The Thirteenth Amendment says, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for a crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Well now, that just seems to settle the debate, does it not? I'm not saying that all of us behind these walls are lovely flowers or nothing, but why call a rose by any other name and expect it to smell so sweet? Until this “Exception Clause” is removed from the Constitution and it reads, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction,” then call us what we are. Call us slaves.

Robin Mcdowell and Margie Mason — Associated Press

Prisoners in the US are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands

The goods these prisoners produce wind up in the supply chains of a dizzying array of products found in most American kitchens, from Frosted Flakes cereal and Ball Park hot dogs to Gold Medal flour, Coca-Cola and Riceland rice. They are on the shelves of virtually every supermarket in the country, including Kroger, Target, Aldi and Whole Foods. And some goods are exported, including to countries that have had products blocked from entering the U.S. for using forced or prison labor.

Every Christmas a local city operates a Christmas festival in their city park during the holiday season, where people are encouraged to drive around or walk through a meandering collection of tall structures covered in Christmas lights while enjoying Christmas music, hot chocolate, ice skating, and train rides. It’s a lot of fun for me and I enjoy making the trip when I can. I hope that my children will fondly remember their visits.

The experience was deeply tarnished for me when I visited the park during the autumn months. The Christmas decorations were already being set up for the coming event, as the process of preparing the lights and erecting the displays is complicated and extensive. The staff working to build the decorations were inmates from the local prison, guarded by a man holding a shotgun. I felt sick and ashamed to know that my upcoming joy was prepared by those who would not be permitted to experience it, nor even who would be properly compensated monetarily for their labor. My Christmas memories were being prepared by slaves.

Modern front-end Web development makes me feel old

Juan Diego Rodríguez — Smashing Magazine

Web Development Is Getting Too Complex, And It May Be Our Fault

Front-end development seemed simpler in the early 2000s, didn’t it? The standard website consisted mostly of static pages made of HTML and CSS seasoned with a pinch of JavaScript and jQuery. I mean, who doesn’t miss the cross-browser compatibility days, right?

Chris Coyier — CSS-Tricks

The Great Divide

Let’s say there is a divide happening in front-end development. I feel it, but it’s not just in my bones. Based on an awful lot of written developer sentiment, interviews Dave Rupert and I have done on ShopTalk, and in-person discussion, it’s, as they say… a thing.

Nolan Lawson — Read the Tea Leaves

My talk on CSS runtime performance

My main goal was to shine a light on all the heroic work that browser vendors have done over the years to make CSS so performant. Much of this stuff is intricate and arcane (like Bloom filters), but I hoped that with some simple diagrams and animations, I could bring this work to life.

Nikita Prokopov — Tonsky.me

JavaScript Bloat in 2024

I was a bit out of touch with modern front-end development. I also remembered articles about web bloat, how the average web page size was approaching several megabytes!

So all this time I was living under impression that, for example, if the average web page size is 3 MB, then JavaScript bundle should be around 1 MB. Surely content should still take the majority, no?

Oklahoma embarrassment #241295

This state seems to enjoy making a fool of itself on a national scale.

Kaylee Douglas — KFOR

Oklahoma Politics: Representative wants to ban ‘furries’ from Oklahoma schools

A newly filed bill would ban students in Oklahoma from pretending to be an animal during the school day.

Erin Christy — 2 News Oklahoma

Okla. lawmaker backpedals on bills’ controversial language one day after filing

Humphrey admitted the furries bill was more designed to make people aware of furries, rather than it being a problem in schools.

Another non-existent problem based on hearsay taking up time in the state’s political system instead of the real pressing issues getting the attention they deserve.

Neighborhood advice

You’ve been fooled into accepting mediocrity.

Parking Reform Network Parking Lot Map

The Parking Reform Network educates the public about the impact of parking policy on climate change, equity, housing, and traffic. In partnership with allied organizations, we accelerate the adoption of critical parking reforms through research, coalition-building, and direct advocacy.