Software in 2014

We’re at an inflection point in the practice of constructing software. Our tools are good, our server developers are happy, but when it comes to building client-side software, we really don’t know where we’re going or how to get there. Great read, by Tim Bray. Could pull a ton of quotes from this post, but …

Using ConsoleServiceProvider with Silex

use Knp\Provider\ConsoleServiceProvider; $app->register(new ConsoleServiceProvider(), array( ‘console.name’ => ‘ConsoleApp’, ‘console.version’ => ‘1.0.0’, ‘console.project_directory’ => __DIR__ . ‘/..’ )); Good writeup and code by Ken, a former student of mine. Using ConsoleServiceProvider with Silex → Want to start developing with Silex? Then check out my freely available course materials on the subject.

Responsive Deliverables

During the era of Print Design, companies would approach agencies for a brand identity system. The identity work started with a simple logo and color scheme and then scaled to business cards, product packaging, vehicles and more. The sum of these components made up the physical brand. Building webpages is not so different. Be sure …

Planetary.js – Awesome interactive globes for the web

Planetary.js is a JavaScript library for building awesome interactive globes. It is based on D3.js and TopoJSON and has built-in support for zoom, rotation, mouse interaction, and displaying animated “pings” at any coordinate. Via plugins, Planetary.js can be extended to do whatever you want! Planetary.js → Planetary.js Seismic Activity Demo →

Gulp – The streaming build system

gulp.task(‘sass’, function() { return gulp.src(‘src/styles/main.scss’) .pipe(sass({ style: ‘compressed’ })) .pipe(autoprefixer(‘last 2 version’, ‘safari 5’, ‘ie 8’, ‘ie 9’, ‘opera 12.1’, ‘ios 6’, ‘android 4’)) .pipe(gulp.dest(‘dist/assets/css’)) }); Gulp is a build system and performs tasks such as the ones we do using Grunt: minify, concat, prefix, uglify, etc. Main difference: Gulp allows you to input your …