Tidying up my server I found a front-end style switcher lying around I’d not used much. It seems very simple and pleasant to use, so thought I’d blog it here, as a demo, before deleting the original forever…
Continue reading Simple stylesheet switcher for WordPressTag Archives: css
PHP basics
As a kinesthetic learner, my preference when taking a course in code is to build what I’m shown, but tweak, improve, build on and document what I learn as I go along.
Returning to professional web development after a long break, I needed a refresher course in php, so I took a look at the php basics video series from codecourse:
With a series like this, where examples have a minimal front end, I like to build a suitable front-end as I go, shaping it to the needs of the project. To me this is an ideal way to build a site, but isn’t always possible in a client project. Personal projects are ideal for this kind of discipline, and it’s amazing what can come out of it.
Continue reading PHP basicsCSS for real people
IN a new article on A List Apart, Håkon Wium Lie, the “father of CSS” and CTO of Opera explores how new devices “force us to rethink web design”, as scrolling gives way to app-like paged gestures, and figures will float in multi-column layouts, and to what extent this can be achieved in pure CSS.
While CSS figures and paged gestures are a little while off browser support yet, multi-column layouts are available now (vendor-prefixed), and Håkon gives an example.
To me, this is where CSS code morphs into poetry: one succinct line of code scales from the narrowest phone to the widest TV, from the small print to text for the visually impaired. There is no JavaScript, media queries, or expensive authoring tool involved. There is simply one highly responsive line of code.Håkon Wium Lie
Animation and UX
Modern CSS opens up new possibilities for designing animated web user-interfaces, with the @keyframes rule and css transform and transition properties.
A List Apart recently published UI Animation and UX: A Not-So-Secret Friendship, outlining good design patterns for using animation, and includes a number of useful links for further reading, including information on the performance cost to the browser of these new-ish features. .