Web Development Reading List #187: Webpack 3, Assisted Writing, And Automated Chrome Testing

This week, we’ll explore some rather new concepts: What happens if we apply artificial intelligence to text software, for example? And why would a phone manufacturer want its business model to be stolen by competitors? We’ll also take a look at how we can use the new headless Chrome browser for automated testing and learn to build smarter JavaScript bundles with Webpack 3’s new scope hoisting. Sometimes it’s easy to be excited about all the improvements and new things our industry has to offer.

Further Reading on SmashingMag: Link

• Webpack – A Detailed Introduction¹
• High-Impact, Minimal-Effort Cross-Browser Testing²
• CSS Grid, Flexbox And Box Alignment: Our New System For Web Layout³
• Algorithm-Driven Design: How Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Design⁴

News Link

• TypeScript 2.4⁵ was announced this week, with dynamic import() expressions, string enums, and a couple of other features.
• Safari’s Technology Preview 34⁶ brings experimental support for sub-resource integrity⁷.
• Webpack 3 was released⁸ with support for scope hoisting. This is a huge step forward as it can reduce bundle sizes significantly. Another useful feature in this new version are magic comments for dynamic imports.

General Link

• Samim shares insights into how assisted writing tools are using machine learning⁹ to understand and generate the human language. While the article focuses on how we can reimagine word processing software with machine learning and better algorithms, we can also learn a lot about improving our own writing style.

Tools & Workflows Link

• Eric Bidelman shares how we can use headless Chrome for automated testing¹³, in this case to run your Mocha and Chai tests via the Karma test runner. As a bonus, he also explains how this works on a CI-server.

JavaScript Link

• React Express¹⁴ is an all-in-one guide to modern React application development. Perfect for people who want to get into React development and understand the differences between the various approaches.

¹⁵

CSS/Sass Link

• To help us better understand how Grid differs from Flexbox, Stefan Baumgartner wrote a concise introduction to Grid layouts¹⁷.

Work & Life Link

• Kristian Glass wrote an article about making decisions and owning them¹⁸ — something I constantly fail at in private life and could still improve in business life.

Going Beyond… Link

• The ethical smartphone vendor Fairphone wants Apple to steal its idea¹⁹ of building devices that don’t rely on resources sourced with child-labor or under inhumane working conditions. So far, Fairphone has built two variants of smartphones, and as an owner of the Fairphone 1, I’m convinced that it’s possible to manufacture ethically better devices.

—Anselm

Footnotes Link

1. 1 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/02/a-detailed-introduction-to-webpack/
2. 2 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/02/high-impact-minimal-effort-cross-browser-testing/
3. 3 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2016/11/css-grids-flexbox-and-box-alignment-our-new-system-for-web-layout/
4. 4 https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2017/01/algorithm-driven-design-how-artificial-intelligence-changing-design/
5. 5 https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/typescript/2017/06/27/announcing-typescript-2-4/
6. 6 https://webkit.org/blog/7760/release-notes-for-safari-technology-preview-34/
7. 7 https://trac.webkit.org/changeset/217996/webkit/
8. 8 https://medium.com/webpack/webpack-3-official-release-15fd2dd8f07b
9. 9 https://medium.com/@samim/assisted-writing-7adea9aed19
10. 10 https://medium.com/@samim/assisted-writing-7adea9aed19
11. 11 https://medium.com/@samim/assisted-writing-7adea9aed19
12. 12 https://medium.com/@samim/assisted-writing-7adea9aed19
13. 13 https://developers.google.com/web/updates/2017/06/headless-karma-mocha-chai
14. 14 http://www.react.express/
15. 15 http://www.react.express/
16. 16 http://www.react.express/
17. 17 https://fettblog.eu/grid-concepts/
18. 18 https://blog.doismellburning.co.uk/make-decisions-and-own-them/
19. 19 https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/nevjjk/ethical-smartphone-startup-fairphone-wants-apple-to-steal-its-idea

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