Jake Bresnehan

Grid Frameworks for Sass

This article is not about whether you should or shouldn’t use a Sass grid. It’s about showcasing a few options that are worth investigating if you do decide to go down that path.

The amount of grid systems out in the wild is quite outstanding. Some are super light weight and some are bloated nightmares. With so much choice it’s really hard to decided which one is right and is something that shouldn’t be taken lightly.

Throttle Bandwidth for Testing

Working with a fast internet connection on a day-to-day basis is a real privilege. it’s easy to forget that others are less fortunate.

With a recent vacation to “slow internet land” this really hit home. So much so, once being back in “fast internet land” I explored the different ways to throttle bandwidth for testing.

After a little research, here are few different methods that I discovered.

Shaping CSS

In someway or another we are exposed to CSS on a daily basis. Either by tinkering with some code, reading a technical blog post or just viewing the source files of a site.

Over the years CSS has really evolved and I thought it might be a good time to stop and take a look at some of the key players in our industry. The ones that are helping shape the direction.

Your own device lab today

During the last few years there has been no shortage of devices being released to the market. For us this was a new challenge and we all stepped up to the plate by adding device specific media queries to our stylesheets.

This was possible in “the good old days”…

Set Up WordPress Multisite

If you do any type of WordPress development then I would highly recommend setting up a WordPress Multisite to help speed up your development time.

In this screencast I quickly run over how to set up a WordPress Multisite locally.

A Better Git Commit

I am a bad committer, there is no lying. Since learning Git in my final years of University, I managed to pick up a few bad habits, which have been with me ever since. When you do something everyday it’s easy to forget that there might be a better way.

Over the last few years the number of detailed commits I have made could be counted on one hand. Quite disgraceful really.

Sublime Text Settings I Use

It’s always interesting to find out how people set up their coding environment. To be honest I don’t think I’ll ever get the perfect setup but what I currently have does a pretty good job.

Tweaking your Sublime Text settings is relatively easy but can be a little daunting if you are fan of a GUI. Within Sublime all settings are handle by a simple JSON file. They can be found either from under the Sublime Text menu (Sublime Text 2 -> Preferences -> Settings – User) or by the shortcut (Command + .).

Psychedelic Grunt Plugins

A few months ago, I started to research build processes to help improve the pattern we currently follow at work. During my research I somehow ended up configuring Grunt and discovered the true awesomeness it has to offer. Unfortunately, so far I haven’t managed to integrate it into our workflow, but for my after-hours development, it has become an integral part of the way things roll.

Handy Sass Mixins

Mixins are one of the most powerful features of Sass. Mixins allow for efficient and clean code repetitions as well as an easy way to adjust your code with ease. If you are using Sass in your development workflow, no doubt you are using some of the mixins that I have covered below but some might also be new and helpful.

Why You Scared of Sass?

During a discussion a few weeks ago with an amazing front-end developer I was blown away that they hadn’t even given CSS preprocessing a go. I was bamboozled.

Learning something new, be it Sass, Less, YUI, Grunt, etc can always be a little daunting but making the time to ‘try’ is an important part of developing for the web.

If you get overwhelmed with all these new fandangle ‘things’ people are talking about, be mindful that you don’t necessarily have to adopt them. Having a basic understanding and awareness of what they do is all you really need to know. If the ‘thing’ really fits into your development workflow, then it’s a win. Dedicating more time to really learn and adopt it should be a no brainer. If it doesn’t, then at least you have the peace of mind that you’re not doing things in a inefficient manner.