In this episode of the HTML All The Things podcast, Matt and Mike dive into why good HTML practices are essential for building better, more accessible, and maintainable websites. They kick things off by explaining the importance of semantic HTML for readability, SEO, and accessibility—covering useful tags like <header>, <footer>, and <article>.
Matt and Mike also discuss how developers can properly create and use custom attributes—like data-* attributes—to store extra information cleanly without relying on fragile class naming conventions. Finally, they emphasize HTML's critical role in accessibility, highlighting best practices such as using ARIA attributes appropriately and providing meaningful alt text for images.
To cap off the episode, the hosts share some lighthearted updates about their holiday plans and give a shout-out to this episode’s sponsor, Magic Mind.
In this episode, Matt interviews Thomas Chant, an educator at Scrimba and creator of their Advanced JavaScript Course. Thomas shares insights from his journey as a TEFL teacher and web developer, highlighting his passion for teaching and technology. The discussion covers the role of educators in web development, leveraging social media for learning, and the evolving impact of AI on the industry. Thomas also provides tips for aspiring developers entering the job market and details Scrimba’s exciting annual event, JavaScriptmas. With the holiday season in full swing, JavaScriptmas has come once again to ring in some holiday cheer with coding challenges and cool prizes. Get involved and start learning some code by dominating challenges through December 24, 2024.
In this episode of the HTML All Things Podcast, Matt and Mike explore the concept of monorepos - what they are, why they have gained popularity in recent years, and how they compare to polyrepos. The discussion delves into the advantages of monorepos, such as simplified dependency management, improved code sharing and reusability, consistency across teams, and streamlined CI/CD processes. Mike shares personal experiences and insights on the challenges and solutions related to monorepos, particularly through their team's use of TurboRepo. The episode also covers the potential drawbacks, including scaling issues, overhead of tooling, access control challenges, and the risk of entanglement. Whether you're new to monorepos or considering implementing one, this episode provides valuable insights and practical tips.
CSS is typically reserved to just laying out pages, with any sort of interactivity or layout changes being left to JavaScript. As CSS matured, more features came out that gave it the ability to detect dynamic conditions on the page, create advanced animations, and apply advanced styling based on custom attributes. These advanced features give web designers the power of interactive design without the need for less-performant JavaScript. With JavaScript remaining one of the top choices for building web pages, should web developers be concerned with advanced CSS features both present and future? Or is offloading these tasks onto CSS concerning to the JavaScript community? In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed, debated, and analyzed interactive CSS, covering some features that Matt has been using and reading up on lately.
In this episode, Matt and Mike introduce a new episode type dedicated to exploring the rapidly evolving world of AI. As AI tools advance at lightning speed, staying informed is critical for developers navigating this transformative era.
This week, they dive into the evolution of AI-powered development tools, from simple autocompletes like Copilot and TabNine to full-scale IDE solutions like Cursor and Supermaven. They discuss the pros and cons of using these advanced tools for multifile code generation and manipulation, highlighting both the efficiencies and risks they bring.
The conversation then shifts to the rise of AI-driven full-stack application generators, such as Bolt.new, V0, and GitHub Spark. These tools can build entire applications from simple prompts but come with a notable downside: tech bias. Matt shares his experience building a podcast website and highlights how AI's reliance on popular frameworks can limit the adoption of emerging technologies.
Finally, the duo debates the future of AI in the development industry. Will AI replace developers in 1, 3, or even 10 years? Tune in to find out!
How much power should you give your clients and non-tech colleagues? In this episode, Matt and Mike explore the evolving landscape of web development tools and workflows, inspired by Webflow's new page and component slots. They discuss how these innovations, along with popular page builders and CMSs, are empowering non-tech staff to take on more responsibilities, reducing developer involvement in day-to-day content updates. However, this shift comes with risks like design inconsistency, security vulnerabilities, and technical debt. The duo also examines the future of page editing, from AI-driven templates to voice-activated tools and automated quality checks, highlighting the balance between empowering editors and maintaining developer oversight.
Level up your vanilla JavaScript with these powerful Web APIs that every developer should know. In this episode, Matt and Mike dive into essential Web APIs that can take your web development skills to the next level. Discover how Web APIs differ from external APIs and explore their powerful capabilities—from manipulating the DOM and fetching data to enabling offline functionality for native app-like uses (ie PWAs). They’ll cover must-know APIs like Fetch, Storage, and Service Worker, along with user experience (and native app-like) boosters like Geolocation and Notifications. Tune in to learn practical applications, security tips, and best practices that will help you create fast, interactive, and native-like web apps.
Rushed timelines and last-minute jobs are something that most developers are all too familiar with. While frequent rush jobs can signal deeper management issues, the fast-paced nature of the world means unexpected challenges often arise. In this episode, Matt and Mike explore strategies for developers to take charge when work needs to be completed quickly. They discuss how project leadership and effective decision-making can help prevent a rush job from turning into endless overtime. By taking ownership of the work order, setting realistic expectations, and cutting through bureaucratic red tape, developers can streamline communication with their teams to prioritize coding time and deliver results efficiently.
The WordPress drama between WPEngine and Matt Mullenweg has been quite the stir up for primarily WordPress, but also the open source community in general. Not to mention, all the WPEngine customers that are effectively collateral damage having their websites adversely affected, sometimes without even realizing what's happening. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the WordPress drama and touched on how it could affect open source projects moving forward. Is WordPress in the right? Is WPEngine? You decide...
Side projects are often done as a for-fun and potentially for-profit outlet for web developers looking to break free from client projects where they have little control. Unfortunately, just like client projects, side projects can easily spiral out of scope to the point of developer exhaustion. In this episode, Matt and Mike explore how scope creep can derail personal projects, offering practical strategies to prevent it. They discuss defining a solid MVP, niching down to maintain focus, and prioritizing features using methods like the MoSCoW framework. By setting clear boundaries and establishing achievable milestones, developers can avoid common pitfalls and keep their side projects on track.
In this episode Matt and MIke, continue their deep dive into the toughest concepts in web development. The guys tackle topics like mastering responsive design, ensuring web accessibility (a11y) for all users, and the complexities of server-side rendering (SSR), static site generation (SSG), and client-side rendering (CSR). They also explore the challenges of event-driven architectures, managing project dependencies efficiently, and setting up smooth CI/CD pipelines. Whether you're building scalable web applications or just want to level up your dev game, this episode has actionable insights to help you through some of web development's most intricate concepts.
Web development is not easy! Websites need to work on multiple devices, respect SEO best practices, and must deliver everything from blogs through complex design programs. These demanding sees web developers navigating not only demanding topics, but ones that are also difficult to engineer, implement, and maintain. In this episode, Matt and Mike start a discussion the toughest concepts in web development. In this first of two parts series, the duo discussed: Asynchronous programming & promises, state management, security concerns (ie XSS CSRF, SQL Injection), performance optimization, scalability & architecture, and cross-browser compatibility.
Part 2 is now available!
Matt and Mike had a great conversation with Shashi Lo this week! Shashi is a senior software engineer at Microsoft and founder of Gridiron Survivor - an open source NFL Survivor pool SaaS application that’s designed to help the junior developers working on it further their skills and knowledge through real-world experience. Unlike self-taught personal projects, Shashi walks us through how his mentees on the Gridiron Survivor project are guided through corporate standards such as writing clean code and covering all the bases with proper testing - concepts that may seem superfluous on small portfolio project, but are a must-have in a corporate setting.
While trying to solve a coding problem this week, Matt found himself buried in a collection of solutions offered by ChatGPT and Google search results. Some of the solutions were completely new to him and so he got to thinking about how "safe" it would be to implement them. Not from a security perspective, as there wasn't any private data involved in this particular case, but his concern was more for the page UX itself. How efficient were the solutions he was about to implement, would it slow the web page down? Were these new topics even being used in the correct context and being implemented appropriately? In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed how to think through problems like this in terms of project architecture, website performance, and troubleshooting/research time spent.
There is a lot of tech out there! It seems every day someone is coming out with a new way to edit images, use AI, build websites, assist developers, and the list goes on and on. This week, Matt and Mike decided to zoom in and discuss some of the tech that they enjoy using at the moment including Svelte/SvelteKit, TailwindCSS, Supermaven, and much more! The technologies that web developers change all the time - and not always obvious things like frameworks and plugins, but also more logistical elements of the job like where to host, compress images, etc. What are you using in your projects?
Scope creep is a very dangerous thing that can endanger a team's productivity and mental health. It involves taking the original scope of a project, and slowly but surely, adding more and more tasks to it. Often times scope creep is not done nefariously, as those that request tasks from developers are ignorant of the technical complexities of their requests. Unfortunately, there are those that will add to a project's scope willingly to take advantage of their employees, or there may be some mismanagement within the company that leads to additional work in a short period of time. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the who, what, where, when, and why of pushing back against customer requests in order to keep projects in-scope. They discussed the importance of pushing back sometimes, when to push back, and whether it's appropriate to push back when acting as a freelance contractor.
Code quality matters! When developers write better, cleaner, and safer code - their deliverables improve significantly. When code is safer, there are less problems with crashes and unintended errors. When code is cleaner, team members find it easier to read, peer review, and add on to down the line. Improving the quality of your code is easier said than done, however, as it takes more than just "getting good" at coding. In this episode, Matt and Mike discussed the importance of and how to improve your code quality by keeping coding styles consistent with your team, refactoring, writing good tests, using prettier formatting, and linting.
Should AI run in the cloud or on-device? Some people think that on-device is the only way forward as it ensures a certain level of privacy, while others worry that our local hardware (PC, smartphone, smartwatch) is not powerful enough to deliver cutting-edge features. In this episode, Matt and Mike explore how on-device AI and cloud-based AI work. The guys discussed the benefits of each approach while analyzing and debating their differences on both a hardware/software and user-experience level. Are you worried about your AI information being out in the cloud?
This week Matt and Mike took a trip down memory lane to discuss, debate, and reflect on some of their biggest projects that shaped their careers as web developers. As with many tech careers, the road to becoming a web developer is anything but straightforward. In the case of Matt and Mike, their planned IT startup took a hard right turn based on the opportunities they were afforded over the years such as working for a large medical clinic under the scrutiny of strict government regulations, being caught up in Chrome OS fever as Chrome Apps landed on Windows, helping a large fast food franchise deliver important info to their franchisees, and many more! The pathway to becoming a web developer is anything but linear and the guys hope that this episode's conversations prove that there is no one single pathway to success in the web dev game.
It's often said that in order to become a junior developer, you should learn the three foundational pillars of web development before moving onto a framework, plugin, or other specialty. These pillars are of course: HTML (for site structure), CSS (for page styling), and JS (for advanced UI interactivity) - we refer to them as vanilla tech. Way back in the day, these pillars were pretty much the only thing most developers used to create websites (minus backend tech), but these days most jobs require that you have experience with a popular toolset like React + Next.js, or Svelte + SvelteKit. In this episode, Matt and Mike check in on HTML, CSS, and JS in 2024. The duo discussed these technologies through the frontend lens exclusively, pushing aside things such as JavaScript usage in the backend, or being typed by TypeScript - in order to capture what these technologies were initially used for. Through this discussion the guys question how relevant vanilla tech is 2024, and whether or not it is primarily used as a learning tool by today's standards.
In this episode, Matt and Mike dive deep into the results of the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2024, uncovering the latest trends, technologies, and tools shaping the programming world. From the most popular programming languages and frameworks to the evolving work environments and career satisfaction of developers, the guys break down the data to give you a comprehensive look at the state of software development today. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, this episode offers valuable insights into where the industry is headed and how you can stay ahead of the curve.
Today, we're diving deep into the vital topic of navigating ethics in web development. As developers, we face numerous decisions that fall under the umbrella of ethical practice, from ensuring digital privacy and user consent to integrating accessibility features and prioritizing data security. We'll explore how ethical considerations influence our choices, such as selecting sustainable hosting options, responsibly implementing cutting-edge technologies like AI, and making mindful UI/UX design decisions. Additionally, we'll discuss the complexities of client intentions and our responsibility as developers to uphold ethical standards. Join Matt and Mike as they unpack these essential aspects to create a more ethical web.
Web development is regarded by many as an absolute cluster f*ck. You can't just grab the "right" language and start making a website, there is a seemingly endless supply of no-code tools, libraries, JavaScript frameworks, and more. Even if you and a developer friend are trying to make the exact same project, your finished product will likely be largely the same...but the technology that powers it can be wildly different. What makes matters worse is that problems in the industry are addressed relatively quickly by community projects that of course spawn competing alternatives, and then rather quickly (at times) become old and outdated by even more modern solutions that push them out of the way. While it's great to have such an active community, if you're looking from the outside in, the web development industry looks like a total disaster. In this episode, Matt and Mike explore why web development seems so messy.
Explore the dynamics of synchronous vs asynchronous work as Matt and Mike discuss, analyze, and debate these two popular team workflows. Learn the pros and cons of both work styles, including security, flexibility, and team collaboration. Discover how these methods impact web developers with practical examples of onboarding, mentoring, and deep work. Tune in to understand how to effectively balance sync and async environments for optimal productivity and employee satisfaction. Whether you're a team leader or a solo developer, this episode has valuable takeaways for everyone in the tech industry.
In this episode we dive into the toughest situations web agencies face. From budget cuts and impossible deadlines to social media crises and viral success, Matt and Mike discuss practical strategies for managing stress, negotiating with clients, and maintaining quality. Learn from the guys' experience as they explore real-life scenarios like “The Budget Slash,” “The Perfect Storm,” and “The Design Diva,” offering insights and solutions to keep your agency thriving.
