No More Tools

As creatives we constantly search for ways to optimise and streamline workflows. Currently we’re being bombarded with more tools than ever. But how do we know that we reached a tipping point, when the apparatus we pick introduces more complexity and wastes way more time that it was supposed to save? As craftspeople, how do we maintain simplicity and learn to rely on bare-bones solutions? We’ll have a look at up-to-date front-end tooling and analyse alternative approaches to compiling, building and automation processes.

Transcript

1. NO MORE TOOLS
2. We have a plethora of tools that are bound to make our lives easier and tasks completed faster.
3. “Creatives aren’t good at their art because of their tools; their talent stems from the skills and knowledge they’ve acquired while using their tools.” “The Good Creative”—Paul Jarvis
4. SIMPLICITY
5. We live in superabundance of information and the most crucial skill isn’t multi-tasking but single-threading our attention.
6. The strive for simplicity is superficial.
7. “Complexity is a fact of the world, simplicity is in the mind.” “Living with Complexity”—Don Norman
8. TESLER’S LAW OF CONSERVATION OF SIMPLICITY Every application has an inherent amount of irreducible complexity. The only question is who will have to deal with it.
9. AUTOMATION
10. We need to automate tasks to stay productive and focus on problem-solving that simply cannot be delegated.
11. AUTOPREFIXER postcss/autoprefixer Worry-free vendor prefixing.
12. LINTING csslint/csslint Checking for bad patterns
13. MEDIA OPTIMISATION jamiemason/imageoptim-cli svg/svgo addyosmani/tmi Strip unnecessary bytes
14. MINIFICATION jakubpawlowicz/clean-css jbleuzen/node-cssmin Strip unnecessary characters
15. CODE BLOAT giakki/uncss geuis/helium-css Search and remove unused declarations
16. TESTING PERFORMANCE zeman/perfmap adyedinborough/stress-css Find specific elements hindering performance
17. TESTING PERFORMANCE YSlow, Chrome Developer Tools Audit, Google Page Speed
18. DEBUGGING LAYOUT ISSUES pesticide.io Find problems with the box model
19. GUIs FOR AUTOMATION Hammer for Mac CodeKit Livereload
20. NPM
21. npm provides a native ecosystem for task automation.
22. “The current support in npm for front- end packaging isn’t good enough. npm loves you, front-enders, and we care about your use cases.” Npm and front-end packaging—
23. ` ` "scripts": { "start": "npm run watch-styles & npm run watch- jade & npm run server", "watch-styles": "stylus -w ./assets/styl/ -o ./ assets/ static/css/", "watch-jade": "jade --watch ./assets/jade/ index.jade --out ./assets/static/" }
24. bit.ly/leveldb-example bit.ly/npm-task-automation
25. GULP & GRUNT
26. ` ` var gulp = require(‘gulp’); var jshint = require(‘gulp-jshint’); gulp.taks(‘test’, function() { return gulp .src(‘./sample.js’) .pipe(jshint()) .pipe(jshint.reporter(‘jshint-stylish’)); });
27. MAKE
28. ` ` build: all all: index.html public/css/main.min.css public/css/main.min.css: public/css/main.css cssmin public/css/main.css > public/css/main.min.css public/css/main.css: public/styl/main.styl $(STYLUS_FILES) stylus -u ./ public/styl/main.styl -u autoprefixer-stylus -o public/css
29. bit.ly/building-static
30. COLLABORATION
31. Technology is a mean to an end but it will fail miserably if people can’t work together, feel empowered to contribute and grow.
32. Every single person joins a team with their own set of biases, predispositions and preferences.
33. “Knowledge makes everything simpler.” “Living with Complexity”—Don Norman
34. Breaking down data in modules makes it more digestible and controllable.
35. Good tools, especially command line based, don’t fail nor succeed silently.
36. The aim to build bullet-proof software is profound but almost impossible to achieve.
37. It’s relatively easy to build overcomplicated solutions but it’s hard to maintain them.
38. It’s easy to introduce unnecessary complexity by adding tools that manage other tools.
39. “brew install python easyinstall pip install bower install npm install -g fuck-you” @lewiscowper
40. The right set of tools or lack thereof sets apart a craftsman from an operator.
42. THANK YOU