My “saved for later” link lists are getting bigger, so I thought I’d post another one of these little roundups. This time, I’m mostly focusing on some interesting guides and docs that I’ve found recently.
As always, I can’t necessarily vouch for the quality and accurateness of all of these sources, but they are all certainly worth a glance. Enjoy.
Google JavaScript Style Guide
This is a somewhat obscure resource, and I haven’t delved into it much, but looks like it could contain some interesting nuggets. This is basically Google’s style guide for writing JavaScript. It’s divided into two main sections: Language Rules and Style Rules. They sum it up nicely: “The point of having style guidelines is to have a common vocabulary of coding so people can concentrate on what you’re saying rather than on how you’re saying it.”
Starbucks’ Style Guide
This one made the rounds a few weeks back thanks to a tweet by Nicole Sullivan. More and more large sites and apps are adapting responsive, flexible, CSS that uses OOCSS principles, and this is a good example. The guide has some options in the top-right corner of the screen that let you toggle stuff you want highlighted or visible while you check out various features of the guide.
A Test-Driven JS Assessment
This is an interesting little project by Rebecca Murphey. It’s a GitHub repo that consists of “a set of tests that can be used to assess the skills of a candidate for a JavaScript position, or to improve one’s own skills.” There are instructions on how to install and run the tests locally. Definitely something for front-end developers who want to take their JavaScript to the next level.
A Baseline for Front-End Developers
More awesomeness from Rebecca. In her own words: “There’s a new set of baseline skills required in order to be successful as a front-end developer, and developers who don’t meet this baseline are going to start feeling more and more left behind as those who are sharing their knowledge start to assume that certain things go without saying.” Although not everyone agrees with her assessment of the front-end baseline, I think this is a must-read for all front-end developers. You can also check out this slide deck that covers the same subject.
HTML5 Please
Although this one definitely needs a new name (most of what it covers is not “HTML5”), this is a great resource for dealing with the realities of web development today. That is, the fact that there are multiple worlds of support because of older versions of IE still in use, and the fact that even modern browsers don’t have consistent support. In a nutshell, this project helps you “use the new and shiny responsibly.”
Understanding JavaScript OOP
This looks like a really good in-depth little mini-book on OOP principles and how they’re used in JavaScript. It’s written by a Brazil-based front-end developer by the name of Quildreen Motta. The coolness of his name alone makes this one worth reading! :)
The State Of HTML5 Video
This is a regularly-maintained page on the LongTail Video site. It summarizes browser support in chart format for a number of different HTML5 video-related features including media formats, the API, accessibility, and more. Pretty comprehensive stuff that’s comparable to what Wufoo did with HTML5 forms.
Thanks Louis, these are all great resources. Looking forward to digging into some of the JavaScript articles.
+ http://html5doctor.com/