Prefixes, separation and vibration.
CALL FOR ACTION: THE OPEN WEB NEEDS YOU *NOW* - <Glazblog/>
This morning (Central European Time) my twitter timeline exploded with tweets about vendor prefixes and that something's wrong with them. All these tweets and blog posts were a reaction on this article by Daniel Glazman in which he rings the alarm bells about a feature that's about to break.
Now, what's the problem? It's explained in the original article but maybe it's easier explained in this article by Bruce Lawson; on the mobile web we see more and more developers only using the -webkit-prefix for experimental CSS3 when they should have been using all prefixes (or at least the prefix-less one). Right now some non-webkit browsers are about to implement the -webkit-prefix. This will acutely render the whole idea of prefixes on the web useless.
Some people like Peter van der Zee have been trying to find the cause of this prefix thing. In this article he blames the browser vendors for not updating fast enough. That's a pretty valid point. Remy Sharp rightly blames everybody, including himself, in these unedited – very accurate – thoughts about the subject.
More about this prefixes right here with a bunch of links to more articles and opinions on this subject
Pre-fix the web
Some people, including me, asked for examples of broken, webkit-only websites. I got a link to a Chrome showcase and one to an old Apple propaganda page. That's it. But the problem is not so much the bad sites, it's bad code examples. Christian Heilmann created this excellent page which encourages developers to just go ahead and fix bad examples on Github. This is by far the most constructive thing about this whole issue today. Many, many internet points for Christian Heilmann for launching this initiative.
Remember non-vendor-prefixed CSS 3 properties (and put them last) | 456 Berea Street
Confused by all this vendor-prefix mayhem? Here's a good article by Roger Johansson about how to use them properly.
Prefix free: Break free from CSS vendor prefix hell!
If you don't want to write out all these prefixes in your CSS you can always use the magnificent polyfill that Lea Verou wrote.
Modern Pictograms - The Design Office
Here are some nice pictograms you can use freely on your website. Here's an explanation on how to do that.
The separation of structure, presentation and behavior is dead | Think Vitamin
This article has a slightly exaggerated title. It should have been called The separation of structure, presentation and behavior has changed a bit over the years, but that's not as dramatic.
Using the Vibration API – Part of WebAPI ✩ Mozilla Hacks – the Web developer blog
I want an Android device now, I really want to play with the vibration API (the previous name of this API was poorly chosen, BTW). I think some useful – and some terrible – things can be done with it. Robert Nyman explains how it works.
The State Of HTML5 Video
What's the current state of HTML5 video? The folks behind the JWPlayer published their extensive findings in this thorough article.
Link Dump
Want more to read for the weekend? Here's the always surprising Link Dump by Blair Millen.