Tools
Episode 113 Standing on Turtles with Husani Oakley
February 22, 2016
Our technology has gotten really complicated. Sometimes we get so deep into our work, we lose sight of what matters. We have hundreds of choices to make — “Which tool should we use?”; “Should we change what we are doing, or stick with what we’ve got?”; “Do I keep solving this problem, or move on to the next one?” — how do we ever decide? Husani Oakley joins Jen Simmons to debate these questions and more.
In This Episode
- Why do we get too enamored with details that don’t matter, and forget the big picture?
- How do we find the balance between taking time to “do things right” vs making sure we keep getting work done?
- When is it time to make a style guide, or create a deployment system, or restructure how things are organized, and when is that a waste? How can we tell?
- When should we refactor old code — or not?
- How can we fight the haze of getting so deep into work that we loose focus on why we are doing what we are doing?
- The value of true diversity on teams
- What is a full-stack developer? designer?
- What’s a full-stack thinker?
- How separate silos of development and design don’t work — because of the turtles
- How collaboration works in a world where the work isn’t ever really done
- The role of a Product Manager
- The role of a sprint planning and a sprint review meeting as the opportunity to connect back to why we are doing this work
- How we tend to assume that more technology, more complexity, is always better. Is it?
Episode 90 Engineering the Front with Claudina Sarahe
December 16, 2014
Front-end development has changed a lot. What used to be simple text in files is now a deep stack of robust engineering tools. Is this a good change? What advantages do the power tools provide, and what might we be giving up in exchange? Claudina Sarahe joins Jen Simmons to debate.
In This Episode
- The latest techniques and tools in front-end development
- The evolution of website-making technology over 20 years
- When is a more complex tool chain the right choice?
- How front-end devs share open source code through such tools
- Gulp, Grunt, Broccoli, Bower, NPM — what they do
- Sass, Git, GitHub, GitTower, CodeKit, even Blogger… and a whole bunch of other weird words
- Using the Command line vs. using GUI software tools
- A discussion of how the tech industry is changing, debating ethics and money
Episode 79 Advanced Git with Tobias Günther
August 18, 2014
Git is a powerful tool for helping developers collaborate, organize, and code at their best. But like anything powerful, Git can be confusing and overwhelming. Tobias Günther joins Jen Simmons to explain how to get through the pain points. They talk about branching, team workflows, remote servers, submodules, GUI tools, and more.
In This Episode
- Tower, a Git client for Mac
- GUI vs CLI apps
- Branching
- Common Git workflows
- Getting back to a different state of your files
- How to handle merge conflicts
- Remote repositories
- Deployment mechanisms using Git
Episode 72 Style Guides with Anna Debenham
June 5, 2014
Style guides, once the exclusive domain of print designers, are finding their way onto the web. Built out of HTML and CSS, such style guides are handy tools for the design process, for maintaining sites over time, and for making collaboration across teams much easier. Anna Debenham joins Jen Simmons to explain.
Episode 54 Jekyll and CMS-less websites with Young Hahn and Dave Cole
June 27, 2013
After many years of using Content Management Systems that store content in a database, there's a movement to store content in files instead. Jekyll and other tools, including GitHub, are springing up to create a new ecosystem of file-based tools. Young Hahn and Dave Cole join Jen Simmons to explain.
Episode 51 Rendering Engines, Vendor Prefixes & Chrome Blink
April 11, 2013
Chrome recently announced they will replacing the webkit rendering engine with a new one, named Blink. What's up with that? To find out, Chris Wilson and Paul Irish join Jen Simmons to explain rendering engines and vendor prefixes.
Episode 50 Web Platform Docs with Peter Lubbers and Scott Rowe
March 6, 2013
After years of many independent sites documenting and teaching web development, the W3C and a consortium of browser makers and companies have come together to create a central resource for information about web technologies — Web Platform Docs. Peter Lubbers and Scott Rowe join Jen Simmons to talk about the project.
Episode 40 Git with John Albin Wilkins
October 26, 2012
The Git version control system has become incredibly popular, with many people using it to collaborate on shared projects. John Albin Wilkins joins Jen Simmons to explain what Git is, how it works and how to use it.
Episode 36 Sass with Scott Kellum
September 26, 2012
CSS preprocessors are becoming very popular very quickly. Many front-end developers are finding them invaluable for coding increasingly-complex sites. Scott Kellum joins Jen Simmons to talk about Sass and Compass, what they offer, how to get started, and why you might want to consider adding such tools to your workflow.
Episode 28 Design Process with Samantha Warren
August 3, 2012
Big changes in web technology are forcing us all to look at what many have been saying for a while — the web design workflow that was enshrined over the last decade really doesn't work. The creator of Style Tiles, Samantha Warren, joins Jen Simmons to talk about workflows, design processes, and how new ideas about our tools can help us all better design websites for the modern age.
Episode 21 Process & Tools with Paul Irish
March 23, 2012
Front-end developer extraordinaire Paul Irish joins Jen Simmons to discuss work process, tools and best-practices.
Episode 17 Mobile Devices with Peter-Paul Koch
February 24, 2012
Mobile device researcher and expert PPK joins Jen Simmons to explain the mobile device landscape. What will we do trying to make websites for all these phones?
Episode 15 Browser Support and Polyfills with Divya Manian
February 1, 2012
When is it safe to implement all this cool new technology on your web project? Divya Manian joins Jen Simmons to talk about progressive enhancement, polyfills, collaboration, tools for developers, and the evolution of web browsers.
Episode 9 Grids with Mark Boulton
November 30, 2011
All about grid systems for the web — why and how. What makes a grid great? How do you create your own? What about responsive web design? Expert Mark Boulton explains.
Episode 8 iOS Design with Sarah Parmenter
November 23, 2011
Sarah Parmenter joins to talk about iOS design, web design, tools for design and more.
