
Variable naming


Currently reading Functional Light JS by Kyle Simpson. You can read this for free online https://github.com/getify/Functional-Light-JS or buy the ebook from Leanpub.
This book explores the core principles of functional programming (FP) as they are applied to JavaScript. But what makes this book different is that we approach these principles without drowning in all the heavy terminology. We look at a subset of FP foundational concepts that I call “Functional-Light Programming” (FLP) and apply it to JavaScript.
Google just doing what Google does—but in the real world.
How is Apple maps doing in comparison? It seems that there are at least six years of catch up Apple needs to do but actually that gap also seems to be widening not narrowing.
The pace of improvement of Google maps is actually accelerating.
Via Emlyn O’Regan
Anime: an animation library for JavaScript
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.
Just read the generous sample so far but definitely buying this one.
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.

Bitcoin is the currency of smells.
It begins.