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Pushing the boundaries without Breaking the Web Rachel Andrew: WebConf Riga November 2012 Sunday, 11 November 12

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a History Lesson Sunday, 11 November 12

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Sunday, 11 November 12

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Things used by people who understand the problems they solve are also used by those who do not understand those problems, or even if there is a problem. Sunday, 11 November 12

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This is an amazing time to be a web developer. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Frustration Sunday, 11 November 12

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The web is a work in progress. Your job? To deal with it. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Making things better Sunday, 11 November 12

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You now have two problems Sunday, 11 November 12

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The state of play in December 2011. Sunday, 11 November 12

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December 2011: greenbelt.org.uk Sunday, 11 November 12

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Understanding the technology your audience is using gives you a point of reference for your decisions. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Our approach: mobile first responsive design Sunday, 11 November 12

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Problem: no media query support in IE8 and below. Sunday, 11 November 12

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No media query support Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 1: serve these users the mobile version of the site only Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 2: Use respond.js to polyfill media query support Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 3: Offer a fixed width version of the site to IE8 and below Sunday, 11 November 12

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Sunday, 11 November 12

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Problem: lack of support for styling HTML5 semantic elements in older browsers. Sunday, 11 November 12

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No support for HTML5 semantic elements Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 1: use the JavaScript polyfill html5.js to add support via JavaScript Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 2: avoid using HTML5 semantic elements in the templates until IE8 usage declines Sunday, 11 November 12

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Replacing divs with semantic elements later is trivial due to our template based CMS. Sunday, 11 November 12

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We (edgeofmyseat.com) are retained to maintain & develop the site. We can make these changes when old browser usage reduces. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Your mileage (and situation) may vary. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Avoiding using the tag in your selectors means you can switch tags in your templates without changing your CSS. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Problem: lack of support for certain CSS3 Selectors in older browsers. Sunday, 11 November 12

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No support for nth-child Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option1: do nothing Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 2: polyfill with Selectivizr Sunday, 11 November 12

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Option 3: fix each selector in your own JavaScript Sunday, 11 November 12

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My decision to fix the width for older browsers also made polyfilling CSS3 selectors much easier. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Problem: no clear solution for Responsive Images Sunday, 11 November 12

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Solution: put in place technology that will enable us to adopt a solution later Sunday, 11 November 12

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Responsive Images Community Group http://www.w3.org/community/respimg/ Sunday, 11 November 12

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1. What is the problem? My process 2. What are my constraints? 3. Is not supporting this feature an option? 4. What current solutions exist? 5. Use a polyfill or roll my own? Sunday, 11 November 12

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May 2012: grabaperch.com Sunday, 11 November 12

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How many users of the Perch website do not have support for the modern web technologies we want to use? Sunday, 11 November 12

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May 2012: grabaperch.com Sunday, 11 November 12

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I use more polyfills when I have fewer older browser users. The downsides are going to be an issue to a much smaller % Sunday, 11 November 12

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Why not just use a boilerplate? Sunday, 11 November 12

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Sunday, 11 November 12

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Stop solving problems you don’t yet have Sunday, 11 November 12

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If you don’t know what it is doing. Why is it there? Sunday, 11 November 12

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What happens if any part does not load? Sunday, 11 November 12

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Do you know what is safe to delete? Sunday, 11 November 12

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Starting with the bare minimum and adding things forces you to consider the implications of each thing you add. Sunday, 11 November 12

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There’s no silver bullet to making a slow site fast. You must take a holistic approach. High performance runs the entire way through from the hardware it’s hosted on, through the app that builds the pages, to the server software that delivers the pages and the front end code that displays them in a browser. Drew McLellan - http://allinthehead.com/retro/361/how-to-make-your-website-fast Sunday, 11 November 12

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Web pages are getting larger and a lot of the size is down to JavaScript. http://royal.pingdom.com/2011/11/21/web-pages-getting-bloated-here-is-why/ Sunday, 11 November 12

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Size Matters Sunday, 11 November 12

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We are all learners and we are all teachers... Sunday, 11 November 12

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... no matter how old we are, how long we have been doing this, and whether we write tutorials or speak at conferences or not. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Polyfills should not be a black box Sunday, 11 November 12

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Teach problem solving before polyfilling. Sunday, 11 November 12

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“Perch is removing my paragraphs” Sunday, 11 November 12

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We need to teach: HTML, CSS, JavaScript Sunday, 11 November 12

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We need to teach: Problem Solving skills Sunday, 11 November 12

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If we train people to just copy and paste, we stop them growing, learning and contributing. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Make sure you know why you are using a solution and what your other options are. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Know and test for what happens if JavaScript doesn’t load. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Build solutions that are flexible for future changes in best practice. Sunday, 11 November 12

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When teaching or writing tutorials for others explain problems before handing out the solution. Explain why as well as how. Sunday, 11 November 12

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Thank you. @rachelandrew http://rachelandrew.co.uk http://grabaperch.com http://edgeofmyseat.com Image credits - Flickr users: artbystevejohnson, atoach, dominicspics, imagesbywestfall, koalazymonkey, pinksherbert, whatcouldgowrong Sunday, 11 November 12