Category: Lambda

Axel Rauschmayer is running an excellent series of blog posts introducing and exploring in some depth features of…

Axel Rauschmayer is running an excellent series of blog posts introducing and exploring in some depth features of the ReasonML programming language. http://2ality.com/archive.html?tag=reasonml

Reason is a new language created by Facebook which uses a C-like syntax similar to JavaScript but is implemented in OCaml under the hood. OCaml is a robust and mature functional programming language which is over twenty years old.

Reason compiles to JavaScript, web assembly and native.

The latest installment of this series is a pretty deep dive into how functions are defined in Reason. http://2ality.com/2017/12/functions-reasonml.html

Rauschmayer is well known in the developer community for writing in-depth books explaining the various syntax nuances of JavaScript. You can read his books for free at his website.

http://2ality.com/2017/12/functions-reasonml.html

One of the best parts of working on large corporate and government websites is that these sites must comply with…

One of the best parts of working on large corporate and government websites is that these sites must comply with accessibility guidelines. Failing to do so exposes that website to the possibility of a law suit if it can be proven that the site is discriminating against people with disabilities for no reasonable reason.

Accessibility (a11y) compliance can seem onerous to web developers who generally learn things on the job and are often unaware of these requirements. It’s a fact however that accessible web sites are simply good web sites ie. sites in which the developer:

treats HTML tags the way they were intended to be used

respects the idea of user focus and the possibility of keyboard navigation

doesn’t use JavaScript to subvert the basic operation of the browser

respects the URL

doesn’t break the browser back button.

Being forced to think about these things not only makes websites usable by a wider range of people, it actually make websites more useful for everyone.

The hard parts of accessibility are in overcoming developer ignorance and in flagging problems. For that there are a number of automated tools and developer widgets. I believe that all developers of web sites, no matter how small, should learn to use these tools.

https://css-tricks.com/accessibility-testing-tools/

⚡️ WAlt is an alternative syntax for WebAssembly text format.

⚡️ WAlt is an alternative syntax for WebAssembly text format. It’s an experiment for using JavaScript syntax to write to as ‘close to the metal’ as possible. It’s JavaScript with rules. .walt files compile directly to WebAssembly binary format.

Highlights:

Write “close to the metal” JavaScript!

No C/C++ or Rust required, just typed JavaScript.

Zero dependencies 100% written in JS.

Fast compilation, integrates into webpack.

https://github.com/ballercat/walt