Author: tracy

Easier Modernizng with Sass

November 16, 2012

Seriously, Sass, where have you been all my life?

Or, more truthfully, why did I not appreciate you before now?

In this world where web developers might like to say “we only support the latest browsers,” the truth of the matter is we’re constantly making tweaks and fixes to support browsers that, well, haven’t quite kept up with the times. And a great tool in this thankless task is Modernizr.js, a library of browser feature tests that can tell you “yes, this browser can support CSS3 gradients” or “sorry, but no support for RGBa here.” Modernizr does this by putting the browser the visitor is using through its paces, and then including the capabilities and deficiencies as CSS classes added to the <html> tag. Continue reading “Easier Modernizng with Sass” →

A Response to “Preprocess THIS!”

October 25, 2012

So, I’ve already posted a bit about how CSS preprocessors (namely, Sass) can save you gobs of time when coding a responsive site. In the week since I posted that, I’ve discovered even more tips and tricks that make preprocessors an almost necessary part of your responsive development portfolio, and I’ll share those with you in the near future.

In the meantime, I wanted to respond to Allison Wagner’s post entitled “Preprocess THIS!”, and address some of the concerns she had regarding Sass and how we at RP3 Agency have begun to address the same issues. Continue reading “A Response to “Preprocess THIS!”” →

Embracing the Mobile World

October 12, 2012

The following is cross-posted from the RP3 Magnetisms blog, and is presented here in its original form.

As you read this, I have no idea where you are.

You could be on the train, on your way home, reading this on your smartphone. You could be sitting on your couch, reading this on a tablet like the iPad or Kindle Fire. Or you could be sitting at your desk at work, reading this on your computer, but the numbers show that this is becoming a less likely scenario every day.

And in the end, it shouldn’t matter. People today are confronted with a staggering amount of Internet-based media, from online news sources to blogs to streaming video and audio, and increasingly they’re ditching the traditional computer to consume it. Continue reading “Embracing the Mobile World” →

TC Custom Taxonomy Filter

September 14, 2012

I’ve got a new plugin for your WordPress enjoyment: TC Custom Taxonomy Filter.

What does it do? Well, you know how in the dashboard you can filter your posts and pages by their category? Yeah, well natively you can’t do that with custom taxonomies. And with custom post types and custom taxonomies quickly becoming a really big thing, it seems like very useful functionality.

Continue reading “TC Custom Taxonomy Filter” →

Responsive Design and WordPress

April 11, 2012

On April 10, I had the honor of giving a presentation to the monthly WordPress D.C. meetup about responsive design and how it can be used with WordPress. I’ve gathered up a few of the resources mentioned in that talk and placed them here, along with the slides from that presentation.  I’ll be adding more links to resources as I come across them, so check back often.

Many thanks to Nacin, Jorbin and Anthony for allowing me to speak, Thad Allender for his wonderful talk on the same topic, and all who attended.

New jQuery Plugin: BetterSlide

January 17, 2012

It’s been forever since I’ve posted here, due to being busy with a great responsive design project.  However, the project is over now, and now that the holidays are behind us I’m focussing on a lot of the little projects I’ve had on the back burner for awhile.

One of those is dealing with something that came up on my last contract: the jQuery “jumping” bug with slideUp, slideDown and slideToggle. If you’re not familiar with it, check out Remy Sharp’s great screencast on the issue.

Continue reading “New jQuery Plugin: BetterSlide” →

The Other Side of the Coin

September 2, 2011

Update: Add another article to the fray: Crossing the Chasm Between Design and Code

Original:

There seems to be a lot of discussion going on about how a “real” web designer also needs to have serious HTML and CSS chops, otherwise they’re just (in the words of one blogger) “drawing pictures.” Some blog posts of note:

Okay, fine, if you want to focus this on the designer, one could take that point.

Continue reading “The Other Side of the Coin” →