Just a Spec

Oh yes, we’re back! In this first Just a Spec episode of the year, the lads speculate on the grand conspiracy behind the results publication delay of State of HTML 2023 (not really!), catch up on personal news from during the podcast’s year-end hiatus, and run through a very entertaining list of all the goodies being worked on by browser vendors as part of Interop 2024. And is the complexity of the web platform just too damn high? (At least for anyone wanting to author a new browser engine?) Let’s discuss!Hosted by Jared White & Ayush and produced by Intuitive FutureLinks & Show Notes:Follow Just a Spec on MastodonThe Spicy Web & That HTML BlogFullstack Ruby rebootedWhitefusion web studio (ready for hire!)The Rails and Hotwire Codex, updated!Interop 2024:ReadmeProgress DashboardIgalia Chats episodeAccessibilityCSS NestingCustom PropertiesPopoverRelative Color Syntax@starting-styletext-wrap: balance

Thanksgiving’s coming up here in the U.S. and we thought it’d be fun to talk about of our favorite aspects of the modern web (and how it compares to the “dark days” of old). In addition, Jared’s launched a brand-new course platform over at The Spicy Web with the first offering being a deep-dive into crafting vanilla CSS architectures and formulating design systems. We talk about that and a bunch of the technical details of the underlying DIY platform. Enjoy this special edition of Just a Spec!Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks & Show NotesFollow Just a Spec on MastodonAyush’s thankful for:Modern web hosting like Render.comThe fetch and pushState APIsCSS Flexbox & GridA brief history of web layoutOld-school framesets/frames — they still work! 🤯Jared’s thankful for:Mobile touchscreens, HTML5 (bye Flash!), and Responsive/Intrinsic DesignCSS3 (rounded corners! gradients! shadows! animations!)Introducing CSS Nouveau: a vanilla CSS architecture course Jared has published on The Spicy WebTechnical details:Built with Bridgetown & RodaTurbo Streams with custom actionsHeartml fullstack web components (library coming soon!) Shoelace & Open Props Media Chrome audio player RhinoEditor (covered on That HTML Blog) Playground Elements

Ah yes, that notorious hard problem in computer science. Time to name some things as we talk abut the philosophy undergirding software development, why “naming things” is hard but also a core aspect of the job, the sometimes reluctance to name things in as disciplined a fashion on the frontend as on the backend, how to communicate across teams and stakeholders via Ubiquitous Language, the importance of embracing modern HTML & CSS semantics when naming things, and so much more.Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:Follow up: Playwright E2E testingTwoHardThingsUbiquitousLanguageClassnames (Naming things needn’t be hard)How to Think Like a Framework DeveloperAdam Wathan on "vanilla" CSSVanilla BreezeThe Design System Ecosystem

A whole grab bag of topics today! We talk about some of the well-known storage APIs like localStorage and sessionStorage, as well as the newer IndexedDB API which pairs well with Service Workers. We also talk about the three Observer APIs to help with reacting to DOM mutations, scrolling, and size changes. Apparently fetch DID happen (!), and testing against three headless browsers at once in a fast and reliable manner is easier than ever. All that and more in today’s episode of Just a Spec.Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:The Spicy Web & That HTML Blog (Jared)Radioactive Toy (Ayush)Web Storage APIIndexedDBService WorkersObserver APIs:MutationObserverIntersectionObserverResizeObserverXMLHTTPRequest superseded by fetchTesting web components in headless browsers with web-test-runnerGist to aid in setting everything upUsing theme-color meta tagLarge, small, and dynamic viewport units

The results of the 2023 State of CSS survey are in, and we're here to break it all down and uncover the most interesting nuggets and opportunities as we look ahead to the future of CSS and the web platform. But not before some spicy meta chat on open source governance and how frequent contributors are treated in light of the recent Hotwire Turbo / TypeScript debacle.Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:That HTML Blog (Jared)Radioactive Toy (Ayush)Turbo:Remove DHH for CoC Violations - Issue #977“Open Source is Not About You”CSS:State of CSS 2023AwardsConferences Ayush is speaking at:wroclove.rbFriendly.rb

The lads are back with an action-packed episode full of juicy details about “buildless” architecture & “Turbo” architecture, server components, tools & techniques which encourage server-rendered HTML pages and fragments sent over the wire, making websites which work without JavaScript, the huge pendulum shift we see in the industry back to coupled fullstack DX, and so much more. Grab your notepad because there’s a lot of ground to cover!Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:That HTML Blog (Jared)Fresh Fusion Podcast (Jared)Radioactive Toy (Ayush)HTML over the wire tooling:HotwirehtmxAlpine.jsUnpolyRails World: website / repoView Transitions APIAstro riffing off itTurbo PermanentRyan Carniato stream on MPAs vs. SPAsA haiku on React Server ComponentsRedwood.js…whoops, our bad!

Gather ’round the accessibility tree, dear listeners, and hear a grand tale about roles and attributes, screen readers and DOM inspectors, and how to be a good A11Y. We also touch on why accessibility isn’t something you bolt on after you design a website but is part of the process from the very beginning.Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:Want to keep the discussion going?Join the The Spicy Web Discord ServerFollow @justaspec@intuitivefuture.com on MastodonHTML Design Principles: Priority of ConstituenciesWAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)The Accessibility TreeARIA Resources for DevelopersARIA Attributes (MDN Docs)ARIA Roles (MDN Docs)Additional resources:Adrian RoselliCommon ARIA mistakes and how to avoid them(No ARIA is better than bad ARIA!)WebAIM - web accessibility in mindBasecamp Accessibility GuidelinesThe Patchability of the Open Web(aka the “Right to Inspect”)

We're here to deep dive into the technical underpinnings of everyone's FAVORITE internet technology: email. ;-PAmaze your nerd friends with all the exciting trivia you will learn in this action-packed episode!Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinks:From Ayush:ScattergunThe Rails and Hotwire CodexScary weather 😟 Rhodes wildfires - Andy BellHistory of email - WikipediaCompuServe - WikipediaThe Unknown Story of How Hotmail Grew to 12 Million Users in 1.5 YearsDo all email clients use "In-Reply-To" field in email header?What are DMARC, DKIM, and SPF?Want to keep the discussion going?Join the The Spicy Web Discord Server

It’s hard to imagine in this current world of any dot-something you could possibly imagine when looking to register a domain name, but there was once a past era of the internet when all we had was .com, .net, and .org. A dark time. A sad time. How did we get there in the first place? And how did we eventually arrive here at today’s promised land? Join us for this rousing episode all about: gTLDs! (and IANA, and ICANN, and IETF, and…)Hosted by Jared White & AyushLinksICANN Archives: Top-level DomainsGeneric top-level domain (Wikipedia)scattergun.emailwhitefusion.studioradioactivetoy.techbridgetownconf.rocksyoudontneedreact.comyoudontneedtailwindcss.com

Web developers and content authors have a rich array of tags to chose from as they build experiences using HTML. Learn about some of our favorites young and old which may pique your curiosity, as well as enjoy a spirited refresher on the importance of writing semantic and accessible HTML.Hosted by Jared White & Ayush

Witness the rise of the Fediverse! In this episode we talk about early attempts at building decentralized social networking protocols for the web, the modern effort to craft a true W3C-published standard, challenges at scale with building out ActivityPub-based services, some of the new companies and infrastructure adopting ActivityPub, and what Meta’s upcoming entry to the Fediverse could mean for the future of decentralized social media. Note: we recorded this episode prior to the meltdown of Reddit, so we will not be covering the sudden rise of the "Threadiverse" with software such as Kbin and Lemmy. A topic for another day!Hosted by Jared White & AyushShow Notes:Early social networking protocols:OpenSocialOStatusPump.ioFinally: ActivityPub!Uses Activity Streams under the hoodand JSON-LDand WebFingerMastodon: How to implement a basic ActivityPub serverUnderstanding ActivityPubSample Python codeTrack Fediverse growth at FediDB

A whirlwind tour through the history of CSS, where it's landed today, and the myriad of goodies we can expect in the very near future. And do we still need pre/post-processors in this day and age, or can we just, like, y'know, write vanilla CSS?! Also, shockingly, Roy Kent makes an appearance on the show with an epic rant about Tailwind CSS. You're not gonna want to miss this!Hosted by Jared White & AyushShow Notes:Zach Leatherman: Pay HTML/CSS devs what they deserveA Brief History of CSS until 2016Sass - WikipediaSass and Native NestingCSS Specificity Wars Over? All Hail Cascade Layers (video)The CSS Podcast with Una Kravets and Adam ArgyleContainer Style QueriesCSS HD GradientsClassless CSSThe Three Laws of Utility Classes

Not just a great Enigma song, shadow and light is the theme today as we dive deep into an exciting new frontend web specification: Declarative Shadow DOM (DSD). Having just landed in Safari as well as Chrome (crossing our fingers for Firefox support soon!), DSD has the potential to transform how we build UI for the web. We also take the opportunity in this episode to wish the World-Wide Web a happy birthday, which was gifted to the public 30 years ago, and to touch on some of the highlights as well as the perils of having a global information network.Hosted by Jared White & AyushShow Notes:30th anniversary of licensing the web for general use and at no costComments by Coralie Mercer of the W3CDeclarative Shadow DOM (WebKit blog)Declarative Shadow DOM (Chrome blog)

In our kickoff episode of Just a Spec, we take a look back at the early use of forms on the web to facilitate messaging and payments, the introduction of XMLHttpRequest which started the Ajax revolution, how JSON-based API calls began to veer away from the spirit of progressive enhancement, modern page update techniques which still take advantage of form mechanics and HTML transport, and promising new specs like FormData and ElementInternals which propel "vanilla" form technology into the future.Hosted by Jared White & Ayush