September 12, 2013 in Learn
How to Securely Send Messages Between Windows with postMessage
As we build an ecosystem where web applications can interact with one another we need a way of securely sending messages between windows. The postMessage() method provides just that. For a long time sending messages between windows was only possible…
September 10, 2013 in Learn
Getting Started With The History API
Over the past decade, web applications have evolved to make heavy use of JavaScript in order to dynamically load content into web pages. One of the big challenges that developers face when creating these applications is preserving an accurate and…
September 3, 2013 in Learn
3D in the Browser: WebGL versus CSS 3D Transforms
WebGL and CSS 3D transforms are two major technologies for creating 3D in the browser, and as recently as a few years ago, they didn’t have much browser support. Much has changed in a short period of time, and if…
August 15, 2013 in Learn
The Beginner’s Guide to Objective-C: Language and Variables
Perhaps my own experience with the Objective-C programming language will sound familiar to you. I grew up in a world of dots, semicolons, and curly braces that are known around the programming world as the familiar syntax of JavaScript, Java, C#, and…
August 5, 2013 in Learn
Making The Web Faster With SPDY
SPDY (pronounced “SPeeDY”) is a new technology that aims to decrease page load times by fixing a number of flaws present in HTTP 1.1. It’s not a replacement for HTTP but instead adds a number of features that help to…
August 5, 2013 in Learn
Multiplane Design with SVGs and CSS 3D Transforms
Recently I tweeted about my experimentations with an idea that I’m calling multiplane design. I’ve been experimenting with multi planing using 3D and SVGs: http://t.co/l4h1slT4jK Only works on desktop Chrome/Safari (for now). — Nick Pettit (@nickrp) August 4, 2013 Right…
July 26, 2013 in Learn
Creating Reusable Markup with The HTML Template Element
Templates are one of the key tools at any developers disposable. They make it easier for us to build complex websites that are maintainable and easy for other developers to understand. With the exception of a few JavaScript frameworks, most…
July 18, 2013 in Learn
Working with Shadow DOM
As developers, we often need to create widgets for interfaces that make it easier to accomplish certain tasks. These might be sliders for controlling video playback, calendar pickers for selecting dates or any other number of other useful widgets. The…
July 18, 2013 in Learn
CSS Tip: A Better Clearfix with Sass
The CSS clearfix has been a must-have in our web design toolkit for quite some time and, until new layout features like flexbox become more stable, we’ll always need some form of clearfix in float based layouts. There are several…
July 8, 2013 in Learn
CSS Tip: Better Rounded Borders
We’ve all used border-radius in our designs to round the corners of images, divs, navs, etc. But have you ever noticed what happens when a thick border is added to an element with a border radius? As we learned in…
July 5, 2013 in Learn
Build a Gmail-Style Expanding CSS3 Navigation Menu
Users of GMail should be familiar with sliding effects of the inbox side navigation. In the most recent design you will find the GChat/Hangouts box along with other various email tags(inbox, trash, etc.). When you have a large number of…
July 3, 2013 in Learn
Triggering CSS Animations with Sibling Selectors
Combinators describe the relationship between CSS selectors, and they’re commonly used to combine two or more selectors into a more specific selector. Examples of combinators are the greater-than sign (>), plus sign (+), and tilde symbol (~). If you’ve ever worked with descendant selectors,…