Looking at AWS Amplify
October 6th, 2020
AWS Amplify is a collection of tools from AWS to help you build applications. Allow me to set the stage here to try to make that as clear as I know-how. I have a friend (true story) who wants to build an app centered around physical training. His wife is a physical trainer, and they…
The Flavors of Object-Oriented Programming (in JavaScript)
September 28th, 2020
In my research, I’ve found there are four approaches to Object-Oriented Programming in JavaScript: Using Constructor functions Using Classes Using Objects linking to other objects (OLOO) Using Factory functions Which methods should I use? Which one is “the best” way? Here I’ll present my findings along with information that may help you decide which is…
A Gentle Introduction to Using a Docker Container as a Dev Environment
September 24th, 2020
This article is mostly sarcasm. I do not think that I actually speak for Dylan Thomas and I would never encourage you to foist a light theme on people who don’t want it. No matter how wrong they may be. When Dylan Thomas penned the words, “Do not go gentle into that good night,” he…
Introducing the New JSX Transform in React
September 21st, 2020
Although React 17 doesn’t contain new features, it will provide support for a new version of the JSX transform. In this post, we will describe what it is and how to try it. What’s a JSX Transform? Browsers don’t understand JSX out of the box, so most React users rely on a compiler like Babel…
Thinking About Power Usage and Websites
September 21st, 2020
Gerry McGovern asked if I had any insight into energy consumption and websites. He has a book, after all, about the digital costs on the planet. He was wondering about the specifics of web tech, like… <blockquote\>If you do this in HTML it will consume 3× energy but if you do it in JavaScript it…
Pre-Caching Image with React Suspense
September 21st, 2020
Suspense is an exciting, upcoming feature of React that will enable developers to easily allow their components to delay rendering until they’re “ready,” leading to much smoother user experience. “Ready,” in this context, can mean a number of things. For example, your data loading utility can tie into Suspense, allowing for consistent loading states to…
Vue 3
September 18th, 2020
It’s out! Congrats to the Vue team for getting it done, I know it was a massive effort and a long time coming. All new docs, as well. I like it’s still a priority that Vue can be used with just a <script> tag with no build process at all. But it’s ready for build…
Angular Thoughts on Docs
September 18th, 2020
Photo by Patrick Tomasso on Unsplash If you have visited the docs at angular.io lately, you might have noticed some changes in our content layout and structure. As the lead technical writer for Angular, I thought I’d take a moment to cover some of the main goals we have for making the Angular documentation experience the…
Enforcing performance budgets with webpack
September 18th, 2020
As you probably know, a single monolithic JavaScript bundle — once a best practice — is no longer the way to go for modern web applications. Research has shown that larger bundles increase memory usage and CPU costs, especially on mid-range and low-end mobile devices. webpack has a lot of features to help you achieve…
Virtual Event Registrations with Wufoo Forms
September 15th, 2020
We’ve seen many events shift from in-person to online this year. That may have required a huge change to how you collect attendee registrations in the past, but with a paid Wufoo account and Zoom — along with a sprinkle of Zapier — it’s easier than ever to go virtual. First, set up a Zoom…