Front-end development is not a problem to be solved

The sentiment is that front-end development is a problem to be solved: “if we just have the right tools and frameworks, then we might never have to write another line of HTML or CSS ever again!” And oh boy what a dream that would be, right?

We should see front-end development as a unique skillset that is critical to the success of any project.

Reluctant Gatekeeping: The Problem With Full Stack

Seriously, I want to quote every line of this article.

By assuming the role of the Full Stack Developer (which is, in practice, a computer scientist who also writes HTML and CSS), one takes responsibility for all the code, in spite of its radical variance in syntax and purpose, and becomes the gatekeeper of at least some kinds of code one simply doesn’t care about writing well. This has two adverse effects: 1) Poor quality code. 2) A bunch of people who can (and would enjoy!) expertly writing that code, standing unemployed on the sidelines muttering “WTF”.

Everything about CSS environment variables

When the iPhone X came out with the infamous notch, you may have heard of the new safe-area-inset values, which allowed browsers to detect the area of the screen that was covered by the notch and move content around appropriately. Recently, these values have been formalised as part of a new specification for CSS Environment Variables.

Front-End Developers Have to Manage the Loading Experience

Web performance is a huge complicated topic. There are metrics like total requests, page weight, time to glass, time to interactive, first input delay, etc. There are things to think about like asynchronous requests, render blocking, and priority downloading. We often talk about performance budgets and performance culture. Front-end developers already have a ton of stuff we're responsible for regarding performance. We now have another major concern: handling the loading experience.

It’s not about the device.

"Is anyone actually going to use the browser on a watch, though?" Sometimes the question’s asked sincerely; more often than not, it seems to be asked skeptically. (And perhaps a little derisively.) But each time I share a link to an article about browsing on the Watch, it’s always, always asked.