The internet operates as a network of interconnected computer networks with a layered structure, where each layer provides specific functionalities. HTTP requests travel through these layers, starting with the sender's request and ending with content rendering on the client's screen. HTTPS is a secure version of HTTP that uses TLS for encryption and verification, where the TLS handshake process establishes a secure connection and generates session keys for encrypted communication between client and server.
Monday, May 27, 2024Web devs are experiencing high levels of burnout and churn due to the unrealistic expectation for developers to be experts in multiple specialized fields. Developers are having a hard time keeping up with the pace of change in each area of expertise. Companies are deskilling the industry by pushing for the use of tools like AI to replace skilled developers, leading to lower wages, job insecurity, and worse software.
This author dislikes the current state of the internet due to paywalls on useful articles, outdated StackOverflow answers, automatic pop-ups for login and modals, and cookie consent banners. The constant need to close popups and banners on websites is annoying.
A developer shares lessons learned from running a simple static news archive website for learning Finnish. He enjoys using cronjobs and Git together as they complement each other nicely. He also thinks simplicity and working locally are severely underrated.
A developer created a tic-tac-toe game using only HTML and CSS, adding a "random" button to simulate a computer player and incorporating an audio easter egg.
Self-hosting fonts can often be much more performant, but it requires careful implementation of web performance techniques like font-display: swap, subsetting, and removal of hinting. Google Fonts simplifies this process with its delivery mechanisms, but can come at a slight cost to performance.
CSS provides properties like size-adjust, ascent-override, and descent-override to override font metrics and minimize layout shifts caused by font swapping.
Minor issues in app development and speed can become significant problems in areas with slow Internet. While developers shouldn't be expected to spend excessive time on extreme cases, it's important to acknowledge elements of websites that may perform worse with slower internet. Apps should be resilient enough to handle basic tasks like transmitting text without getting stuck due to hardcoded timeouts.
Speculation rules, a new web platform feature, allow developers to instruct browsers to prerender or prefetch specific pages for faster navigation. Prerendering involves downloading and rendering a page in the background, while prefetching only downloads the main document resource. This can be achieved using URL lists or document rules with conditions.
MobX, a React state management library, automatically tracks dependencies and memoizes components. The upcoming React Compiler is meant to auto-memoize components, but MobX already does this more efficiently with less memory.
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