Dispatches From The Internets

Excellent advice (as usual) from Jonathan Snook. Although, based on the project—such as a limited-scope site with a tight size limit—you may want to define almost everything as base styles. As with everything on the Web, it depends.

Parker looks like an interesting tool for general information about your CSS, but you should take its reporting with a grain of salt.

An excellent post from Ada Rose Edwards on Progressive Web Apps. She’s brings up some very real concerns, many of which I share:

• The basis for what Chrome defines as a Web App is based upon a set of technology rather than a set of features.
• We need to consider carefully before we throw away URLs or the entire browser chrome in an effort to look like and behave like platform-specific apps.
• The install banner is the browser manufacturers’ choice; it’s not a spec.

Moving in this direction poses a lot of problems for terrestrial data. It could also increase the digital divide.

Ratcheting prices up further will only increase the digital divide, but the difference won’t just be between those who have Internet access and those who don’t. The cost of data limits could also divide the population between those who can take full advantage of high-bandwidth applications like streaming and video conferencing, and those who have to curb their usage for fear of incurring overage charges.

Another brilliant CommitStrip. My transcription follows.

The benefits of single platform development are easily reaped by developers, but they come at a cost to the consumer who doesn’t have the right device or specs and (moreover) it limits a project’s potential reach.

An excellent post from Dion Almaer on the importance of choosing the appropriate approach for the critical tasks of your web property. He dubs it “time to first meaningful interaction”. This is where progressive enhancement shines.