Build Right: Frontend Tooling @ BDConf Nashville

Slides for the Frontend Tooling workshop at BDConf in Nashville.

Transcript

1. WELCOME
3. Who we are
4. Who are you?
5. http://bit.ly/bd-conf- nashville-frontend-tooling
6. BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING PATH OF PAIN
7. BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING TRADITIONAL PAIN
8. PATH OF PAIN Traditional Painful Flow DESIGNER FRONTEND BUILDING LAUNCH! DEV A DEV C “DONE!” THIS PART SUCKS LAST SEC CHANGES
10. PAIN POINTS
11. ENLIGHTENMENT
12. The traditional web development workflow is fraught with variance, isolation, and errors. Modern frontend tooling provides solutions for most of these issues.
13. COMPUTERS SOFTWARE DEV FRONT END DEV
14. CS FRONT END DEV SOURCE CONTROL DRY PRINCIPLES JAVASCRIPT
15. “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…” ! —rmurphey.com/blog/2012/04/12/a-baseline- for-front-end-developers/
16. BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING WHERE ARE WE HEADED?
17. Productivity
18. Editors
19. Preprocessing
20. github.com/sparkbox/ br-frontend-demo
21. PRODUCTIVITY BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING
22. LAYING THE GROUNDWORK A Case For Laziness
23. Laziness: the programmer’s mantra
24. DRY Don’t Repeat Yourself
25. Productivity is about net gain.
26. LAYING THE GROUNDWORK Getting Into The Command Line
27. Should a frontend dev learn to use the CLI?
28. Image: nasa.gov Launch a rocket without a control center?
29. Image: flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/ Fight a fire without an oxygen tank?
30. Do it. It’s the “way in” to your computer
31. If you're only comfortable with GUI interfaces, you're always going to be stuck relying on a translator.
32. bit.ly/br-tooling-links
33. You'll take a few steps backward in productivity when you begin. There's a net gain here, though.
34. PRODUCTIVITY PAIN POINTS And Their Solutions
35. MOUSE CLICKS Using the pointer is usually cumbersome.
36. alfredapp.com Type everything.
37. Alfred Workflows
38. kapeli.com/dash Quick access to docs.
39. vimium.github.io Internet with your keyboard.
40. brettterpstra.com/projects/nvalt nvAlt: Quick access to text entry
41. EXCESSIVE TYPING
42. smilesoftware.com/ TextExpander TextExpander: speedy text snippets
43. Shortcuts within the terminal: aliases and bash scripts
44. alias c="clear" ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
45. alias go="cd ~/Documents/Projects ; ls" ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc
46. Your /dotfiles repo
47. Other People's Dotfiles (OPD) dotfiles.github.io github.com/asimpson/dotfiles
48. DISTRACTION
49. Achieving focus: Obsessive singularity
52. manytricks.com/moom Moom: quick screen resizing
53. Achieving focus: The desktop of evil
54. Achieving focus: Hide your dock
55. Achieving focus: Do not disturb
56. THE INTERNET IS A DEEP BLACK HOLE
 The thing we build can also keep us from doing notable work
57. THE PRODUCTIVITY MINDSET
58. Drip, drip, drip ‣ Productivity boosts happen in tiny increments ‣ Could I automate this?
59. Productivity Strain: ! Embrace small strains for huge productivity gains over time
60. Productivity Strain COMFY OUCH! RADICAL IMPROVEMENT
61. Productivity Strain ‣ The best time to create a shortcut for an obtuse task is the moment you imagine that it could be faster. ‣ It’s probably billable time.
62. Simple example: ! TYPE ALL OF YOUR CODE
63. Your productivity hacks?
64. TEXT EDITORS BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING
65. Which editor do you use?
66. WHY CAN’T WE ALL JUST GET ALONG?
67. Do Editors Matter? ‣ 90% of editor arguments are lighthearted ‣ Your editor preference barely effects the rest of your team ‣ Fighting over editors is almost useless. There are better battles to fight.
68. HOWEVER
69. You spend almost all of your time in your editor.
70. Your editor preference changes the way you think.
71. THE PATH OF PAIN
72. TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor: 1. Your editor is writing code for you
73. TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor: 2. You’re doing lots of clicking
74. TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor: 3. You’re repeating yourself—a lot!
75. TEXT EDITORS A few signs you need a better editor: 4. You’ve hit a ceiling, and you can’t go higher.
76. THE CASE FOR THE PLAIN TEXT EDITOR
77. Technically, all you need to code is an app that will accept text:
78. Writing all your code in TextEdit.app would be pretty painful, though! ‣ Lots of typing! ‣ No project tree ‣ No syntax highlighting ‣ Sad and depressed
79. IDE? Integrated Development Environment
80. This is the part you actually need
81. Choosing a great text editor removes abstraction between your brain and your code.
82. IDE’s ‣Slow development time ‣Messy code ‣Unskillful developers
83. “Dreamweaver was attempting to be helpful, but the moment it reformatted my code, I threw a fit. YOU TOUCHED MY CODE. Dreamweaver never recovered from that horrendous first impression.” http://randsinrepose.com/
84. Enter the simple, powerful text editor
85. Here’s what to look for: ‣ are you comfortable in it? ‣ can it do what you need? ‣ is it writing code for you?
86. THE CURRENT STATE OF EDITORS
87. Editors on the market: ‣ Sublime Text ‣ Vim ‣ TextMate ‣ BBedit ‣ Coda ‣ Emacs ‣ Espresso
88. Editors you should actually consider: ‣ Sublime Text ‣ Vim
89. Seriously, you guys. Vim Sublime Text sublimetext.com vim.org
90. “I don’t think of BBedit as a commitment. It simply continues to be the best choice.” —bit.ly/editor-rage
91. bit.ly/br-tooling-links
92. Why Sublime? ‣low barrier of entry sublimetext.com/
93. Why Sublime? ‣highly extensible
94. Why Sublime? ‣highly extensible sublime.wbond.net/installation
95. A few essential Sublime packages: Many more: sublime.wbond.net/ ‣ SideBarEnhancements ‣ AdvancedNewFile ‣ Emmet
96. Why Sublime? ‣killer features Go to Anything: ⌘+P
97. Why Sublime? ‣killer features Command Palette: ⌘+Shift+P
98. Why Sublime? ‣ recent rise in popularity ‣ compared to Coda or Espresso, it’s fast & close to the code ‣ Vintage mode for Vim key bindings ‣ hint: you should use Sublime
99. Why Vim?
100. Why Vim? ‣ fast ‣ mouseless! ‣ text objects and motions ‣ dot command ‣ configurable (vimrc, vundle) ‣ super old
101. …the fact that, yes, people still use an editor that is over 20 years old […], and those people number in the hundreds of thousands, perhaps they might be
 onto something. csswizardry.com/2014/06/vim-for-people-who-think- things-like-vim-are-weird-and-hard/
102. Why Vim? ‣ high skill ceiling ‣ popular (vimbits.com) ‣ Runs in a terminal ‣ everywhere (any platform, ssh, other people’s machines) ‣ fun, in a weird way
103. Runners-up panic.com/coda/ macrabbit.com/espresso/
104. THE RABID CASH MACHINE
105. TEXT EDITORS MATTER. GET FOAMY.
106. Editor Cults ‣ Get cultic about your editor ‣ As you're making your case, you'll have to nerd out on your editor. ‣ This is where real learning happens!
107. Seething, rabid coding machine
108. There’s only one thing more important than your editor. The code it helps you write.
109. While you're nerding out on your editor, your coworkers are raking in cash for the boss.
110. THE RABID CASH MACHINE He’s using Sublime
111. $ $
112. PREPROCESSING BUILD RIGHT: FRONTEND TOOLING
113. “I’m doing just fine, thank-you.”
114. SEMANTIC SHIFT “the evolution of word usage — usually to the point that the modern meaning is radically different from the original usage” —http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semantic_change
115. Usage of words, 1850 to 2014 —books.google.com/ngrams/
116. AWFUL inspiring wonder or truly terrible?
117. FANTASTIC existing only in the imagination or marvelous, wonderful?
118. MOUSE small gray rodent with a long tail or a plastic device used to navigate on a computer screen
119. Languages have always evolved.
120. Why should we expect anything less from computer languages? ‣ Incredible complexity ‣ Rapid change in hardware ‣ Rapid change in software
121. Embrace “semantic shift” in your workflow if it tends toward efficiency.
122. THE PATH OF PAIN Our languages are flawed ‣ HTML is redundant. ‣ CSS is “flat”. ‣ JavaScript is verbose.
123. Preprocessors let us live in a fantasy world where we create the languages we want.
124. What is a preprocessor, exactly?
125. User friendly language PREPROCESSOR Compiled language
126. Language optimized for humans PREPROCESSOR Language optimized for browsers
127. What, exactly? ‣ Preprocessors are a way to write code in a friendly language. ‣ The code then gets processed into something that browsers can understand.
128. CSS PREPROCESSORS
129. Preprocessing: CSS ‣ Less: lesscss.org/ ‣ Stylus: learnboost.github.io/stylus/ ‣ Sass: sass-lang.com/
130. Less CSS .unstyled-link {! text-decoration: none;! }! ! .toollist-item {! .border-radius(5px);! background-color: #7b81d1;! ! a {! &:extend(.unstyled-link);! color: #000;! }! }! .toollist-item {! -webkit-border-radius: 5px;! -moz-border-radius: 5px;! border-radius: 5px;! background-color: #7b81d1;! }! ! .toollist-item a {! text-decoration: none; ! color: #000;! }!
131. .toollist-item {! -webkit-border-radius: 5px;! -moz-border-radius: 5px;! border-radius: 5px;! background-color: #7b81d1;! }! ! .toollist-item a {! text-decoration: none; ! color: #000;! }! Stylus CSS .unstyled-link! text-decoration none! ! .toollist-item! border-radius 5px! background-color #7b81d1! ! a! @extend .unstyled-link! color #000!
132. .unstyled-link {! text-decoration: none;! }! ! .toollist-item {! @include border-radius(5px);! background-color: #7b81d1;! ! a {! @extend %unstyled-link;! color: #000;! }! }! Sass CSS .toollist-item {! -webkit-border-radius: 5px;! -moz-border-radius: 5px;! border-radius: 5px;! background-color: #7b81d1;! }! ! .toollist-item a {! text-decoration: none; ! color: #000;! }!
133. PREPROCESSING: CSS Which one? ‣ nesting ‣ variables ‣ mixins / functions ‣ extends ‣ math ‣ including
134. PREPROCESSING: CSS We use Sass ‣ Widely used ‣ Personal preference ‣ Shipped with Rails ‣ Not much else
135. gem install sass! ! sass-lang.com
136. PREPROCESSING: CSS Sass: The Ecosystem ‣ Compass ‣ Bourbon ‣ Scut
137. gem install compass! ! compass-style.org
138. JAVASCRIPT PREPROCESSORS
139. Preprocessing: JavaScript
140. var number, summaryMarkup;! ! number = 3 + 2;! ! summaryMarkup = "<div class=\"content\">\n <p> \n Foo: " + number + "\n </p>\n</div>";! JS
141. number = 3+2! ! summaryMarkup = """! <div class="content">! <p>! Foo: #{number}! </p>! </div>! """! Coffee
142. Preprocessors let us live in a fantasy world where we create the languages we want.
143. sudo npm install -g coffee-script! ! coffeescript.org
144. HTML PREPROCESSORS
145. jade-lang.com
146. haml.info
147. We don’t use HTML preprocessing at Sparkbox
148. Emmet emmet.io/
149. LET’S PULL IT ALL TOGETHER
150. How do we compile preprocessed code?
151. bit.ly/br-tooling-links
152. incident57.com/codekit/
153. http://alphapixels.com/prepros/
154. Honorable mentions: ‣ Less.app ‣ Scout app ‣ Compass.app
155. Is there a better way?
156. Ruby Node SASS, Compass Grunt packages Bundler NPM Grunt
157. Grunt: a taskrunner gruntjs.com/
158. npm install -g grunt-cli
159. Grunt does all the things! ‣ Process CSS ‣ Process CoffeeScript ‣ Process HTML ‣ Reload a page when code changes ‣ Minify code ‣ So much more
160. Grunt is a JavaScript task runner that can automate dozens of repetitive tasks.
161. It's just JavaScript. (actually Node)
162. Grunt: Open source. Just files.
163. module.exports = function(grunt) {! ! // Project configuration.! grunt.initConfig({! pkg: grunt.file.readJSON('package.json'),! uglify: {! options: {! banner: '/*! <%= pkg.name %> <%=grunt.template.today("yyyy- ! ! ! mm-dd") %> */\n'! },! build: {! src: 'src/<%= pkg.name %>.js',! dest: 'build/<%= pkg.name %>.min.js'! }! }! });! ! // Load the plugin that provides the "uglify" task.! grunt.loadNpmTasks('grunt-contrib-uglify');! ! // Default task(s).! grunt.registerTask('default', ['uglify']);! }; Everything lives in Gruntfile.js
164. Bower: a frontend package manager bower.io/
165. npm install -g bower
166. What is Bower? ‣ Pull down almost any JS library via the command line ‣ Not checking dependancies into the repp ‣ Use Grunt to manipulate the libraries once Bower pulls them down
167. bower install jquery
168. “Bower runs over Git, and is package-agnostic.” —http://bower.io
169. bower install git@github.com:sparkbox/Custom-Selectbox.git
170. {! "name": "br-demo",! "version": "0.1.0",! "dependencies": {! "jquery": "1.9.1",! "js-md5": "~1.1.0",! "d3": "3.4.2",! "bootstrap": "2.3.2"! }! } Everything lives in bower.json
171. The holy grail: modular markup
172. This is a simple page, right?
174. Many repeating elements
175. This is our final preprocessor pain point
176. Handlebars + Assemble: powerful, modular markup
177. Handlebars ‣ Basic templating without a CMS ‣ Brings automation power to markup (100’s of helpers) ‣ Reduce repetition
178. Assemble ‣ Light static site generator ‣ Organize your layouts into manageable chunks ‣ Separate data from markup
179. Notice the repetition?
180. _tool-list-item.hbs <div class="tool-list-item" style="background-color: {{color}}">! <div class="tool-list-item--container">! <div class="tool-list-item--title">{{title}}</div>! <div class="tool-list-item--entry"><a href="{{entry-anchor}}" title="{{entry}}">{{entry}}</a></div>! {{#if notes}}! <div class="tool-list-item--expander js-trigger-tool-list">! <span class="icon-plus tool-list-item--expander-icon">! <a href="#" title="Read more">Read more</a>! </span>! </div>! {{/if}}! </div>! ! {{#if notes}}! <div class="tool-list-item--dropdown js-list-dropdown">! <div class="tool-list-item--dropdown-content wysiwyg">! {{#markdown}}{{notes}}{{/markdown}}! </div>! </div>! {{/if}}! </div>! Let’s write that once.
181. _tool-list.hbs {{#each tool-list }}! {{> _tool-list-item }}! {{/each}}! Then use handlebars to automate it
182. _tool-list-item.scss .tool-list-item {! @extend %clearfix;! overflow: hidden;! padding: 3em 1em;! position: relative;! }! Now our Sass can mirror this partial
183. Questions?
184. THANK-YOU!