Red Dirt JS

Slides from the opening keynote at Red Dirt JS conference.

Transcript

1. REDDIRT.js The Future of HTML, CSS, & JavaScript — http://reddirtjs.com Today   :)   November 3rd, 2011 @ Oklahoma City, OK
2. #whoami ? My name is Nathan. I do UX stuff at projekt202. But most people know me as "the 960 guy" (that's ok). http://sonspring.com | http://960.gs | http://projekt202.com
3. Download the slides & follow along: http://slidesha.re/nathansmith Or, talk smack about me on Twitter: @nathansmith Note: You don't have to take notes feverishly.
4. Today, I want to talk a bit about what the future of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript will look like.* * My predictive powers are probably average (at best).
5. Difficult to see. Always in motion is the future.
6. In order to determine where we're heading, let's reflect on where we've been...
7. Act I How We Got Here
8. http://w3.org/People/Raggett/book4/ch02.html HTML
9. http://w3.org/People/Berners-Lee 1989: Tim Berners-Lee created HTML to link research docs.
10. "Storage of ASCII text, and display on [80x24] screens, is in the short term sufficient, and essential. Addition of graphics would be an optional extra with very much less penetration for the moment." – Tim Berners-Lee http://w3.org/History/1989/proposal.html
11. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN HTML was for serious work. Initially, no <img> tag.
12. Then everyone got ahold of it:
14. But, I digress. We're getting a little ahead of ourselves. (sorry)
15. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic_(web_browser) Marc L. Andreessen Eric J. Bina
16. 1993: Marc Andreessen proposed the <IMG> tag. Mosaic later becomes Netscape, which then introduces JS, SSL, etc. "Standardizing"  on browser  innovation.
18. JavaScript http://oreilly.com/pub/a/javascript/2001/04/06/js_history.html
19. "JS had to 'look like Java' only less so, be Java's dumb kid brother or boy- hostage sidekick. Plus, I had to be done in ten days or something worse than JS would have happened." Brandon Eich created JS in 10 days. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brendan_Eich
20. JS Java It's not you, it's me. I'm all quirky and prototypical. You're just too classy.
21. With classical inheritance, if your mother breaks her leg, you go visit her in the hospital. With prototypical inheritance, your leg would also (instantly) break. Object Inheritance #TLDR #TLDR = "Too Long, Didn't Read" aka: Sum it up for me :)
22. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator 1995: JavaScript debuted in Netscape Navigator 2.0.
23. The word "JavaScript" was chosen to tap into the brand name of the Java programming language. Sun Microsystems (since acquired by Oracle) owned the trademarks for both Java™ and JavaScript™, and stewarded the development of Java (not JavaScript). In 1997, JavaScript (the language) was standardized by the European Computer Manufacturers Association, and it was dubbed "ECMAScript." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript Um  -­  what? Brief history of JS = Clear as mud...
24. Altogether different beasts: Both potentially delicious (or dangerous), but not actually derived from the same animal. Similar in name: JavaScript is to Java as Hamburger is to Ham.
25. (With apologies to Jeremy Keith and Brad Colbow) http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/29/misunderstanding-markup-xhtml-2-comic-strip
26. 1996: IE 3.0 ships with "JScript" (for copyright purposes). In 1995, MS begins to ship Internet Explorer with Windows 95. For Netscape, it was the beginning of the end. Microsoft also reverse- engineered JavaScript, as "JScript." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Explorer
27. Created at Netscape "ECMA TC39" Committee responsible for evolving the language Who's responsible for JavaScript now? {to name a few... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JavaScript | http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ECMAScript TM of Oracle (via Sun)  Defines the ECMAScript DOM API
28. JS browser support is pretty good. JavaScript (ECMAScript 3.0) is supported fairly consistently in all major browsers. ⾨ This is Wikipedia's compatibility table* for: – Trident (IE) – Gecko (Firefox) – WebKit (Chrome & Safari) – Presto (Opera) * I realize those are rendering engines, not specific JS engines (which change names more rapidly). It's how Wikipedia lists 'em. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_layout_engines_(ECMAScript)
29. JavaScript is that friend in high school you secretly had a crush on, but was always hanging out with that sleazy boyfriend, DOM. Nice  > What  a  punk http://w3.org/DOM
30. The Document Object Model (DOM) is what allows JS to interact with XML/HTML, ala: window.document.getElementsByTagName('*'); The DOM is stewarded by a different group than governs JS. Browsers also implement it slightly differently. For instance, IE historically didn't treat whitespace as text nodes, even though the official DOM spec says it should. http://w3.org/DOM
31. 2005: Then there was jQuery... Heck  yeah! $('p.neat').addClass('ohmy').show('slow'); JavaScript that reads like CSS code!? http://jquery.com
32. $(document).ready(function() { // Many tutorials put all the code here. }); But we treated it like CSS... Um,  okay...  What's  the  big  deal?
33. Loosely  translated: "You'd better lose yourself in the music, the moment. You own it, you better never let it go... You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to [load]." (with apologies to Eminem) window.onload http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8_Mile_(film)
34. Really, it's not the fault of jQuery, nor of any other capable JavaScript libraries: Dojo, MooTools, Prototype, Sencha, YUI... As is almost always the case with code, the problem is actually a human one. We've become complacent and forgotten (or never learned) how JavaScript works. Beware the danger of abstraction & illiteracy. http://ejohn.org/blog/javascript-language-abstractions
35. http://w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/history/Overview.html CSS
36. http://intercom.co.cr/www-archives/1994-q1/0648.html 1994: Marc Andreessen, on styling... "Sorry, you're screwed."
37. 1994: Håkon Wium Lie proposed CSS. Initially it was called CHSS, ("Cascading HTML Style Sheets"), but was later shortened to simply CSS. 1996: The first browser to support CSS was Internet Explorer 3.0, followed closely by Netscape Navigator version 4.0. http://people.opera.com/howcome/2006/phd
38. CHSS had 100 levels of "!important" h1.font.size = 24px 12% /* 12% importance */ h1.font.size = 16px 100% /* 100% importance */ h1.font.size = 12px 89% /* 89% importance */ h1 {font-size: 24px;} /* Applies globally (weak) */ h1.x {font-size: 16px;} /* More specific */ h1 {font-size: 12px;} /* Beats line 1, not line 2 */ Thankfully, CHSS was never implemented: CSS has "last-in" wins, with specificity override. http://www.w3.org/People/howcome/p/cascade.html
39. Brief history of the first "Browser War" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Browser_wars
40. 1998: "Web Standards" advocacy begins. http://w3.org/Style/LieBos2e/history/Overview.html The box model isn't fixed until October 2006, release of IE7.
41. We made sites "best viewed in IE6," and Netscape lost the browser war. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netscape_Navigator
42. The "dark side" = developing for 1 browser. Oh, what... Like you never photoshopped you vs. yourself with a lightsaber? C'mon! http://flickr.com/photos/nathansmith/32757176
43. In 2001, IE had over 90% market share. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Browser_Wars.png
44. 2004: Firefox arose from Netscape's ashes. Thus began a new Browser War, still in progress.
45. Since then, IE has been in steady decline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usage_share_of_web_browsers_(Source_Net_Applications).svg
46. Chrome is gaining, at the expense of Firefox. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usage_share_of_alternative_web_browsers_(Source_StatCounter).svg
47. "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." – George Santayana http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Santayana "My 'pure CSS' demo only works in WebKit"
48. Act II Where We're Going
49. http://zeldman.com/2009/07/02/xhtml-wtf
50. Realistically speaking, XHTML 2.0 would've been a very tough sell, from a practical standpoint. It was extremely rigid. A page simply would not render, if it wasn't perfectly formed from an XML structure standpoint. Oh, and it would've done away with <img>. Oh  noes!
51. There were differing schools of thought on HTML vs. XHTML. In the field "make it work" Academic "make it valid"
52. rapid  —> iteration http://whatwg.org/specs/web-apps/current-work/multipage
53. Ian Hickson, benevolent HTML5 specification dictator curator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Hickson
54. Technically, "HTML5" is now a misnomer. (But, it's too late. Marketing already got ahold of it.) HTML is to be considered an ever-evolving "living standard". The "WHATWG" — Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group — will continue to work on HTML, and the W3C will "snapshot" feature sets periodically, and tag them with incremental version numbers: HTML5 (and presumably, HTML6, etc). Thus, no more version numbers in DOCTYPE...
55. HTML5 "killed" XHTML. Good riddance, says I. <!DOCTYPE html> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/ DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> <—  Much  easier  to  remember! As it turns out, "<!DOCTYPE html>" = minimum number of characters to trigger "standards" mode in older IE versions.
56. You don't have to type extra junk anymore. <script> alert('This is some inline JS.'); </script> <script type="text/javascript" charset="utf-8"> /* <![CDATA[ */ alert('Are you kidding me?'); /* ]]> */ </script>
57. Have you ever used a non-CSS stylesheet? <link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/file.css"> <link rel="stylesheet" href="/path/file.css" type="text/css" media="all" /> Note: Media queries best defined via @media in a single stylesheet anyway, to avoid unnecessary HTTP requests. (No?  Me  neither,  so  why  "type"  it?)
58. You can't do that! What about the validator? Relax. It's valid. HTML5 is no longer a sub- set of SGML like all versions of HTML before it. Nor is it a spin on XML, like XHTML 1.x was. HTML is just HTML now. This is how browsers always treated (X)HTML anyway. I know what you XHTML purists are thinking: (phew!) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML
59. HTML5 CSS3 http://w3.org/html/logo What about JS? (Not stewarded by W3C)
61. https://github.com/voodootikigod/logo.js
62. Branding, FTW! So, what's next? 1. Get cool logo(s). [X] 2. Convince others. [X] 3. Profit! [X]
63. http://apple.com/html5 Apple likes HTML5.
64. http://html5rocks.com Google likes HTML5.
65. Mozilla likes HTML5. https://developer.mozilla.org/en/HTML/HTML5
66. Opera likes HTML5. http://opera.com/docs/specs/presto25/html5
67. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/aa740476 Microsoft likes HTML5.
68. HTML5 <canvas> is gaining traction. http://playbiolab.com
69. As of IE9, all browsers support <canvas>. http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/asteroidbelt/default.html
70. 2011: IE9 supports SVG (proposed in 1999). Examples of Dojo.js charts To be fair, IE9 renders SVG very fast, via hardware acceleration. Konqueror (WebKit predecessor), was the first browser to have built-in SVG support, in 2004. http://user.sitepen.com/~dwalsh/dojo-charting.html
71. SVG is like construction paper. Layers retain distinct shapes. SVG files can live without JS. http://flickr.com/photos/124330160/2127121118 And, each layer can respond to mouse events!
72. Canvas is like a whiteboard drawing, one layer. Note: Canvas only works in the browser via JS. http://flickr.com/photos/azuriblue/3350954960
73. Quick CSS tip to fix IE9's SVG rendering: svg { overflow: hidden; }
74. IE9, without the CSS fix for SVG: http://host.sonspring.com/raph
75. IE9, with the CSS fix for SVG: http://host.sonspring.com/raph
76. SVG in: Chrome, Firefox, Opera, & Safari. http://host.sonspring.com/raph
77. I won't cover <svg> or <canvas> in detail during this talk, but two helpful JavaScript libraries are worth noting... Raphaël (SVG) – Dmitry Baranovskiy Processing JS (Canvas) – John Resig http://raphaeljs.com http://processingjs.org
78. More  Semantic  Richness! New tags in HTML5 http://html5doctor.com/element-index
79. <header role="banner"> <footer role="contentinfo"> <aside> <nav role="navigation"> <div role="main"> <article> <section> <hgroup> <section> <dialog> <p> etc... <figure> <img /> <details> <summary> <p> etc... <figcaption> Mixes  well  with  ARIA
80. The dawn of 3D browser graphics. aka: Can I play Farmville in IMAX!? WebGL is going to be HUGE (eventually)   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebGL
81. https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js
82. https://github.com/mrdoob/three.js
83. Metaprogramming Haml => HTML Sass/Compass => CSS CoffeeScript => JS Note: Yes, I'm sure there are many, many more examples in the wild. But my time is finite, and this is what I'm familiar with. http://haml-lang.com | http://sass-lang.com | http://compass-style.org | http://coffeescript.org
84. Personal note: After giving 'em a try, I am becoming more a fan of meta languages that treat whitespace as significant. Usual  disclaimers  apply: "It depends." Your mileage may vary. No purchase necessary. Machine-wash only. Enter at own risk. Batteries not included. Void where prohibited, etc.
85. Example of Sass (with Compass). @import compass/css3 // CSS3 helpers, etc. // I write this Sass code: .foobar +background-image(linear-gradient(#fff, #ccc)) +border-top-right-radius(4px) +box-shadow(rgba(#000, 0.5) 0 2px 5px 0) &:hover text-decoration: underline
86. Example of Sass (with Compass). /* This CSS is generated... */ .foobar { background-image: -webkit-gradient(linear, 50% 0%, 50% 100%, color-stop(0%, #ffffff), color-stop(100%, #cccccc)); background-image: -webkit-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background-image: -moz-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background-image: -o-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background-image: -ms-linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); background-image: linear-gradient(#ffffff, #cccccc); -moz-border-radius-topright: 4px; -webkit-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -o-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -ms-border-top-right-radius: 4px; -khtml-border-top-right-radius: 4px; border-top-right-radius: 4px; -moz-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0 2px 5px 0; -webkit-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0 2px 5px 0; -o-box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0 2px 5px 0; box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.5) 0 2px 5px 0; } .foobar:hover { text-decoration: underline; } BLOAT?  Not  really.  You'd have  to  type  all  this  to  make  it   work  cross-­browser  anyway.
87. Note: Don't indent unnecessarily with Sass. // This looks innocent enough: table.table-class tbody tr td a.link-class color: orange
88. Note: Don't indent unnecessarily with Sass. /* But it generates this... */ table.table-class tbody tr td a.link-class { color: orange; } /* When you probably just meant... */ .table-class .link-class { color: orange; }
89. I could go on. But I won't. (Sorry Jina) Note: Don't steal another presenter's topic. Note: Jina Bolton is presenting on Sass later today. Don't miss it!
90. Haml rocks, if you're in a Ruby project. To me, Haml means never typing this again... </div></div></div>
91. Haml can generate nicely formatted HTML.
92. I'm not an über-Ruby guy. Get your feet wet: http://get-serve.com
93. Okay, so abstraction for HTML and CSS is fine. It saves keystrokes, and those languages are pretty #yawn anyway, right? I mean, they're declarative, so of course we should automate writing them. But this is a JS conference, right? Do not touch my JavaScript. I repeat...
94. get.your(coffee) { return 'off my lawn'; }
95. Not everyone's a fan. Dustin Diaz, quoting Douglas Crockford:
96. http://blog.meloncard.com/post/12175941935/how-one-missing-var-ruined-our-launch
97. http://nodejs.org
98. Can you spot the bug? var joe = 1 sue = 2, bob = 3; var joe = 1, sue = 2, bob = 3; Bugs like this can be laborious to find, which is why I write...
99. Nuthin' wrong with being overly clear. var joe = 1; var sue = 2; var bob = 3; Minifiers like Uglify JS can handle removing repeated var keywords. Put that burden on automation, not yourself. https://github.com/mishoo/UglifyJS | http://marijnhaverbeke.nl/uglifyjs
100. I just tell JSLint: "Hey JSLint... Shut up." Actually, JSLint.com is a great tool for checking for JavaScript errors. But validation is a means to an end, not the goal itself. If you want to ensure JSLint compliance, there's CoffeeScript... http://jslint.com
101. Recursion -> CoffeeScript is written in CoffeeScript. https://plus.google.com/116264189418994838408/posts/CSXeyftovTJ
102. # CoffeeScript: $('#foobar').click -> # Do stuff. // JavaScript: $('#foobar').click(function() { // Do stuff. }); CoffeeScript -to- JavaScript... LOL  -­  That's  all?
103. # CoffeeScript: is_between = 3 < my_value < 12 // JavaScript: var is_between; is_between = (3 < my_value && my_value < 12); CoffeeScript = Syntactic Sugar... Oh,  I  see.
104. One last example... (Sorry Brandon) # CoffeeScript: happy = true unless raining // JavaScript: var happy; if (!raining) { happy = true; } That's  hawt. Note: Brandon Satrom is presenting on CoffeeScript later today. Don't miss it!
105. BRAVE NEW WORLD HTML, CSS, JS, & Flash: Government can reach its citizens directly (1:1), via social media...
106. Ours is an era of technological marvels.
107. (Free) fonts used in this presentation. Anonymous Pro http://j.mp/font_anonymous-pro Hand  of  Sean http://j.mp/font_hand-of-sean Titillium Text http://j.mp/font_titillium-text Lady Ice REDDIRT.js logo http://j.mp/font_lady-ice SteelFish http://j.mp/font_steelfish (Listed in order of appearance)
108. Code "reddirtjs" = 50% off Cody Lindley's book. (I tech-edited) http://javascriptenlightenment.com
109. Shameless plug: I'll be speaking on Sass & Drupal next year. http://denver2012.drupal.org/program/sessions/using-sass-compass-drupal-theming
110. Enjoy Red Dirt JS! Get the slides: http://slidesha.re/nathansmith Feel free to say hi on Twitter: @nathansmith Questions? I may (not) know the answer.