While browser-based operating systems haven’t taken over the world, 2011 has been a pretty good year for Web developers. It’s an exciting time to be working in Web development, and there’s never been a better crop of tools to work with. Web standards are eclipsing proprietary toolkits, and the development community is creating its own set of open source tools to work with. Here’s a look at some of the best we’ve seen in 2011: Top Web Developer Tools of 2011.
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Hi, I'm Paul Carvill and I'm a web developer. I am Head of Interface Development at LBi, Europe's largest digital agency.
I also like walking, cooking, Bollywood and rock 'n' roll.
Archive for the ‘Web’ Category
Top Web Developer Tools of 2011
Sunday, December 11th, 2011The Verge
Sunday, December 4th, 2011The Verge is a technology-focused news publication founded in 2011. The Verge’s mission is to offer breaking news coverage and in-depth reporting, product information, and community content via a unified, modern platform: The Verge.
Attack of the online advent calendars!
Saturday, December 3rd, 2011A list of online advent calendars for 2011. I’m going to update this list as I find new ones:
1. The Bing Magical Holiday Calendar 2011
Includes HTML5 video where appropriate! But refuses to even be accessible on an iPhone because, it tells me, “my tiny screen is no match for the awesomeness of this site”. Funnily enough it does work on an iPad, but they’ve made no attempt to even make it fit the screen, so I still need to scroll around to see the edges.
So far (Saturday 3rd December) it’s a mix of Bing-manship, Fiat tie-ins and a Spotify playlist.
Also: advent calendars are for CHRISTMAS, Microsoft. What’s all this “holiday” weakness in your URL?
2. Processing.js Advent Calendar 2011
A Proessing.js sketch a day, by Nikolaus Gradwohl. Takes a utilitarian approach to presentation. More info is available on Nikolaus’s blog.
“The speed geek’s favorite time of the year”. A post a day on an aspect of web performance optimisation. So far features articles by Nicholas Zakas on localStorage, Patrick Meenan on WebPagetest and Guy Podjarny on the advantages and disadvantages of inlining scripts, stylesheets and image assets.
As you might expect from such a set of esteemed web practitioners, it also comes with an RSS feed and links to archives of the last few years’ performance calendars.
“twenty four merry days of Perl”. LOL. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this one looks like it was designed and built by Perl programmers.
5. FontDeck Adfont Calendar 2011
Get a free webfont every day from FontDeck, but be quick because the offer expires at the end of the day. Is presented as an old-fashioned type cabinet, in a semi-responsive design (the cabinet adapts to the size of your screen, but the lightbox behind each door does not).
As well as the usual 25 days of Christmas, this font themed calendar comes with 26 doors marked A–Z, behind which are a selection of typography themed videos, such as “Erik Spiekerman Putting Back the Face into Typeface” and “A kinetic typography study of Baskerville by Derek Lau”. A very satisfying calendar.
6. 24 Ways To Impress Your Friends
“24 ways is the advent calendar for web geeks”. One of the originals and one of the best. Populated with the usual suspects: Drew McLellan, Jeremy Keith etc. Even has a 24 Ways Twitter feed so you can keep up to date that way too.
A PHP advent calendar. No wonder the suicide rate goes up at Christmas…
I think this one has been resurrected from a few years ago. Presumably there are some Dorset Cereals goodies to be won.
“the dancing delights of two deluded delinquents.” They dance on a balcony. They dance on the stairs. They dance overlooking a body of water. You can also follow them on Twitter at @theartofdancing
“All good launcher apps require an advent calendar,” says @davymacca of this Mac OS X productivity application related advent calendar. Behind the doors are a selection of Alfred links, tips and giveaways.
11. Mozilla Developer Network Holidays Calendar 2011
Web development themed high jinx. Has an HTML5 logo, the source code s available on GitHub and there’s even a two-part tutorial on how to build the calendar yourself. This is open source web standards turned up to eleven.
12. Woodland’s Junior School Online Interactive
World Advent Calendar 2011
“The Woodlands Junior Advent Calendar 2011 online interactive advent calendar contains fascinating facts and information about how Christmas is celebrated in different countries around the world. IT’S EDUCATIONAL!
13. 26 Stories Of Christmas 2011
Using an unorthodox ‘26 doors’ format, the writers’ organisation 26, challenged 26 writers to write a short story for the 26 days of Christmas. Each story is accompanied by a nice illustration, and the whole site has a nice homely feel.
You gotta do what you gotta do
Monday, November 21st, 2011I really like the sentiment expressed by Marcin Wichary at his Full Frontal 2011 talk a couple of weeks ago:
“…the endpoint is about doing something with a sense of purpose, not being infatuated with the technology, or, for that matter, the art.”
Marcin is a user experience designer at Google, and he was talking about Google Doodles, but he could have been talking about anything on the web. Making stuff and putting it on the web necessitates a certain degree of technical knowledge. Making something truly successful on the web requires a special mix of creativity and technical know-how, which will enable you to exploit the unique scale, immediacy and engagement of the web as a medium.
But veer too far to one side or the other and you risk missing that sweet spot and disappearing into a rabbit hole of over-engineering or rococo meaninglessness.
The thing is the thing.
N.B. I found the quote via mahemoff’s live blog of the event.
Translation into English of the newspaper industry’s righteous anger at Steve Jobs and Apple
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011The FT today launched their webapp, a smartly designed website built on HTML5 to target mobile and tablet devices. It utilizes offline storage, native video and a touch interface to deliver a a great user interface and experience. Best of all: it’s available free; and on the web.
Well, almost. They are using user-agent sniffing to detect which device you’re accessing the site with. If you’re not on an iOS or Android device — or if you’re on an ‘incapable’ or slow model — you get redirected either to the FT’s mobile site or to a landing page describing other ways of accessing FT on the web.
In other words, their web content is not really accessible on the web.
It’s nice to see a newspaper, from an industry now well understood to be in a prolonged and continuous state of dying, trying to address some of the technical limitations of their distribution. But the waspish tone of the FT’s own news article announcing the webapp (“FT’s new web app bypasses need for iTunes”) clearly speaks of a technologically blinkered organisation, one which was caught in Steve Jobs’ hypnotic gaze until it was (almost?) too late.
A translation of the announcement article (good luck accessing that on a non-supported device…), reported by Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson:
The Financial Times on Tuesday launches a web-based application for smartphones and tablet computers, allowing it to bypass Apple’s iTunes Store, Google’s Android Market and other distributors to secure a direct relationship with readers.
*** TRANSLATION: The FT have published some content on the web ***
The launch, the first of its kind by a large international newspaper publisher, comes after several publishers have expressed unhappiness at Apple’s reluctance to share detailed data on the identities and behaviour of users of apps distributed through its store.
*** The FT, like any sane company, would like to know who is browsing its wares/reading its content. Imagine if I owned a superstore and I rented some space within that superstore to you, but wouldn’t let you see inside the store, or who was shopping there, or what products I did or didn’t like to be sold within the store, and then I took 30% of your revenue off you for doing so. Now imagine there’s a shop right next to my store which you can run yourself and which anybody in the world can shop at, and you can gather as many details from your shoppers as you like. And you can sell what you want. Which I guess is kind of important if you’re a newspaper. ***
INMA, an international news industry association, voiced concern in February about new rules from Apple relating to content subscriptions on its iPhone and iPad devices.
*** Perhaps the INMA hasn’t heard of the web? Did someone tell them what is was, or did they just believe what they heard when people said everyone uses the App Store now? ***
“A direct relationship with customers is crucial for publishers,” said the INMA.
*** You know, like the web! The largest, quickest and most direct publishing and delivery mechanism ever invented ***
John Ridding, chief executive of the FT, which is owned by Pearson, said it was still talking to Apple about data-sharing concerns, but he added:
“This is not about Apple. It’s about our readers and making sure they have a consistent experience.”
*** This is absolutely about Apple. We thought the world would be paved with gold when we signed up to give Apple 30% of our revenue as part of their App Store terms. What went wrong?! I’m here to tell you it’s not true, and I’m pissed off about that. ***
The FT Web App has been built using HTML5 web standards, which replicate the features of mobile apps within the browsers
*** It’s basically a very nice web site. Accessible by (nearly) everybody in some form. Why didn’t someone tell us about this stuff earlier? ***
Where is the interface development profession heading in the next few years?
Thursday, January 20th, 2011I originally posted this as an answer to a question on Quora, but I thought I’d post it here too, with a few minor changes, as it’s an accurate reflection of my current thinking.
Web development is an industry which moves fairly quickly. Looking back, between 1990-2000 a huge amount was achieved, including, fairly obviously, the invention of the web and thus the creation of the industry. But in the same length of time between 2000-2010 the industry was far less volatile than you might have expected. Until the last 2 or 3 years I’d say it was definitely a demotivated industry in danger of being almost in a state of inertia. So, here’s what I think will happen to the profession over the next few years.
Right now
Interface development (or client-side/front-end development) is the hottest area of development right now. Platform, device and browser innovation and competition is currently the healthiest it’s ever been. This means interface developers, in some ways, have the richest set of tools and the quickest route to market of anyone in the web development world.
At the same time, they operate in what Douglas Crockford once described as “the most hostile software development environment imaginable” — the browser. The sheer variety of user agent rendering, standards compliancy and provision of APIs means that creating consistent cross-platform websites will remain a specialism. Combine this with the ever-increasing demand by the market for rich interfaces, web standards and accessibility, and you ensure the continued high-value placed on interface developers.
Technical maturity
I see the profession evolving in two ways. The web development industry is working to apply the lessons of computer science to interface development, to create robust, repeatable mechanisms for development, testing and deployment. At the same time as developers from other disciplines are generalising their skills in the direction of front-end tech, so front-end developers are embracing full-stack development. You will increasingly see programmers equally comfortable working on either side of the client/server divide, and particularly using dynamic languages — there’s natural bi-directional traffic between JavaScript and Python/Ruby, and there’s an ancestral line between JavaScript and Java/C#. This trend will continue in a logical fashion to embrace development on Infrastructure-as-a-Service systems such as Amazon EC2, Heroku and Google App Engine, and will peak in a mammoth movement towards Platform-as-a-Service systems, with tight integration between users and the host service, whether it is Salesforce, Facebook, Google or even the UK government.
This focus on the technical aspects of the profession will also see a blooming of the Web Performance Optimisation industry (WPO), and the deep analytical aspects of this will attract a certain proportion of the interface development community.
Beautiful creativity
The other path that will become more apparent as time goes on is the one focusing on true front-end technologies, the user experience and the creative process. Standards-support from the browser vendors, fast broadband speeds, GPU support and the ubiquity of development frameworks for every possible requirement mean that rich, seductive interfaces, immersive multimedia environments, games and a tighter integration with the desktop/OS/device will be more and more popular. Specialisms, and greater toolsets, will emerge for vector graphics (SVG) and bitmap graphics (Canvas), and tech-leaning creatives and formerly emasculated Flash/Flex developers will all be sharing the spoils.
$$$
I also see an initial rebalancing of pay structures to reflect both of these changes in the current weighting of development disciplines. This has already been happening for some time, with server-side jobs increasingly commoditized and their remuneration remaining largely static in comparison to front-end developer rates which have been steadily rising for the last 18 months. This may itself be counterbalances, however, by an influx of eager interface developers who are skipping college/university and going straight to work for a startup, agency or enterprise.
Opposing government and corporate censorship of the web
Sunday, December 5th, 2010I’ve added an A record to my domain, pointing http://wikileaks.paulcarvill.com to the IP address Wikileaks is currently serving their website from.
I’ve done this as a simple gesture of my support for Wikileaks and my opposition to arbitrary censorship of the web by governments and corporations.
This follows the dropping of the wikileaks.org domain by EveryDNS, the Californian ISP, and the removal of WikiLeaks from Amazon’s EC2 cloud computing service.
How does my action help? DNS is a hierarchical system, and the removal of a domain name from the system makes it much harder for most people to find a website — you need to use the numerical IP address instead e.g. 88.80.13.160 (try putting that in your web browser’s address bar — it’s WikiLeaks‘ own IP address). Adding a subdomain to my website which points at the WikiLeaks site will hopefully make it that much easier to find, and that much more resilient to government and corporate interference.
There’s more info in this Guardian news article, and here at Jamie McClelland’s website. You can find other people participating in this effort by searching Twitter for the #imwikileaks hashtag.
***** UPDATE: *****
It is also possible to become a full mirror of the contents of the WikiLeaks website. You can find information on how to do this on the WikiLeaks site http://213.251.145.96/mass-mirror and also on any other sites currently mirroring WikiLeaks e.g. http://wikileaks.gooby.org/mass-mirror.
The content is static, and can be securely administered by WikiLeaks themselves. It is currently around 2-3 GB in size.
The free distribution of data, and resistance to top-down evaluation of the merit of that data, is what the web excels at. It is more important now than ever before that individuals are allowed to publish and consume information as they see fit, within the bounds of the law. The world wide web, must be allowed to operate neutrally and independently of governments and corporations, including domain name registrars, ISPs, data carriers and other and infrastructure providers. Everyone who uses the web benefits from such independence, and should promote and support it wherever possible.
Who should have a key to restart the internet?
Thursday, July 29th, 2010Right, I’ve nommed my seven recipients for each of the 7 Keys To Restart The Internet In The Event Of A Catastrophic Failure. They are:
1. Richard Desmond. Because with his recent purchase of Five he’s really shown that he understands the high quality of service and content that a truly global medium demands. Also, I’m not sure there’s really enough boobs on the internet yet.
2. Ling of Ling’s Cars. Because she already has most of the Internet right there on her page.
3. Double Rainbow guy. Because the Internet, like a double rainbow right the way across the sky, is a beautiful thing.
4. Rupert Murdoch. Because he’ll do the internet properly this time. Delivered to your door daily by ‘internet-boys’ on bikes.
5. A randomly selected Mayor or badge-holder. Because that’s the responsibility that comes with being a pillar of the community or badge hobbyist, right? And by community I mean cliquey braggadocio service and self-selecting marketing database. But remember — no deputy mayors.
6. A HOT SPY. Because the key holders need to convene in a secret location, and you can’t have a secret location without spy, so you might as well get a HOT one.
7. Whoever has the highest Hot Or Not score. Because someone HOT should be able to restart the Internet, and Vint Cerf is NOT HOT.
I shall be sending these names to ICANN forthwith, and hopefully they will soon be installed either as replacements for the already-nominated 7 or at the very least as substitutes for them in the event of international travel problems following a large scale war or terrorist attack.
Have you nommed your 7 Recipients Of The Keys yet?
#whoShouldHaveAKeyToRestartTheInternet
Outlook India use Google Translate on article pages
Thursday, July 29th, 2010I noticed today that Outlook India have a Google Translate feature on their article pages. It’s the first instance I’ve seen of the Translate tool being used on a major publisher’s website. I gave it a go and it’s pretty slick. You can see an example on this page about how the ancestral homes of legendary Bollywood actors are being conserved in Peshawar, Pakistan, where they were once part of India, pre-Partition.
The tool is at the bottom of the article — it’s a select box. You can currently select one of 52 languages to translate into. Selecting a different language serializes and urlencodes all the elements on the page and POSTs them to the translate.googleapis.com service. They are returned, translated, in a JSON response along with the original English, which is used in popup boxes when you hover over a section of the newly translated text. Everything is translated, not just the main content — including all the form controls, menus and even any comments on the page — and the page design and structure is respected.
A toolbar is added to the top of the viewport so you can select a new language or revert back to the original. The speed of a translation seems to vary somewhat — I tried Hindi, which was very quick, and Irish, which was relatively slow — but a progress indicator let’s you know how much time you will be waiting. Overall the effect is deeply impressive and the function has a high level of polish, something that Google has not always been able to provide.
I first saw Google’s translation technology early in 2009. Back then it seemed an awkward fit for in-place translating and more suited to a post-and-response web service. But this is certainly a feature that more publishers, large and small, should be including on their sites.
Outlook India is a fine magazine which I wholeheartedly recommend. Most of their published content is available on the website as well as web-only content. They have an extensive series of essays by the author and activist Arundhati Roy.