The Archive

Previous ramblings for your leisurely perusal.

May 03, 2016

In this new Pattern Build series, we’re going to pick a pattern on the web and write modular, responsive, and reusable HTML and CSS for the particular pattern. This week, we’re going to recreate the cards seen on CodePen.

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April 19, 2016

I’ve talked a lot about GitHub in the past for version control, as well as working collaboratively with a team. However, I’ve found additional uses for GitHub. Particularly, storing documents — a collection of Markdown files — that are managed entirely within GitHub’s interface. Let’s talk about how to set this up.

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March 22, 2016

In order to stay on top of projects and tasks, I use a combination of notes and todos. When working on a team, I use tools like Trello and GitHub, but these notes and todos are just for me, so I have a specific approach to how I manage them. Let’s talk about each of these systems of organization.

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February 09, 2016

Workflow automation is all about continual refinement. Nothing is perfect, and you will continually evaluate and improve your systems of organization. It’s an endless battle, and things can always be better.

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January 26, 2016

Alfred is a powerful efficiency application for the Mac. I use it to launch applications, search sites on the web, create custom workflows, and a whole lot more. I’d like to focus on a few, specific aspects of Alfred usage: Custom Searches and Hotkeys.

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December 15, 2015

On the front-end team at Code School, we've implemented the idea of "Weekly Project Iterations."

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December 01, 2015

Dispatcher is a JavaScript class that determines which page is active, and runs page-specific initialization code based on that determination.

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July 14, 2015

At Code School, we work hard to constantly improve the front-end development team organization. I thought I’d spend some time talking about the organization as it stands right now.

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June 02, 2015

Trello is a great tool for managing projects. I've developed a specific project template for use in Trello that has been working out really well.

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May 05, 2015

We’re frequently building sites or applications that don’t quite lend themselves to being built with a JavaScript framework, such as Angular, Ember, Backbone, React, etc. Sometimes we only need a collection of components and architectural conventions that can make our application more manageable. That’s where Spellbook comes in.

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May 06, 2014

I'm not good at sharing the things that I build. Well, externally, that is. My coworkers know all about the little applications I create, and I'm more than happy to show them off to them. Why? Is it because I trust them and know that they'll only give me constructive feedback? Am I scared of the Internet? I don't know. Whatever the reason, I'm not doing it anymore. I've let way too many projects sit in a private GitHub repository. No more!

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January 07, 2014

Middleman is my preferred tool when it comes to building static sites. Not only do I use it on all my deployed sites, but I use it even when I'm prototyping an application that will ultimately move into a different system. Let's talk about static-site generators and, more specifically, Middleman.

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December 03, 2013

In this article, I'm going to cover the basics I go through when setting Moom up, and cover some more advanced tips and tricks. Hopefully this is useful if you have trouble understanding Moom's full power. Let us begin.

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October 29, 2013

We all have moments where a project stagnates, we get "writer's block" (or at least the equivalent of that for front-end developers), and we need a "win" to keep the motivation rolling. For me, that's building little apps for myself. Let me tell you about "Gificiency," my outlet that helped reinvigorate my motivation on a project I was working on.

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October 15, 2013

Alfred is a fantastic application that I could simply not live without. It's the first application that I install on a fresh copy of OS X. I'm going to show you how to set it up to optimize your productivity with the application.

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May 15, 2013

It feels like such a short time ago that Nick Walsh and I, determined to apply proper conventions to our CSS, came together and created MVCSS.

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April 30, 2013

The usefuless of this setup guide will vary based on your personal preferences for how your text editor should function, but it should help with the initial setup of Sublime Text.

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August 17, 2012

I would like to share my thought process behind building modular HTML and CSS components. I assume you have a solid grasp of HTML and CSS, and you are looking to get into the more complex details of writing modular, maintainable markup and styles.

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July 23, 2012

One of my favorite aspects of the team at Envy Labs is the way in which problems are approached. They are not viewed as something only pertinent to the team member that is tasked to work on that particular problem. Rather, problems are approached in unison, using what I like to term, "The Method of We."

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July 12, 2012

Moom is a real thing, and it is amazing. There are numerous window management solutions out there on the Mac (Divvy, Breeze, etc.), but Moom is by far my favorite.

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© 2019 Drew Barontini — Building products under Drewbio, LLC