Simple question I just want to know what you guys think about using the likes of CSS3, HTML5 and all other newer forms of web based technologies?
I mean I know this is a bit of a slide and scale topic, some people are all for using CSS3, then I also know of some people who're dead against using CSS3. Myself, I love using CSS3, but that's only because I love to mess around with the latest tech and I love to see what can actually be achieved with CSS3 and HTML5 alone. I mean the stuff I mess around with in my own time, I wouldn't put it live for most websites as it's probably highly experimental, like the kinda stuff you'd see on Codepen or sometimes JSFiddle and even CSS Tricks. I mean it's all cool stuff and it's all interesting, but it's not essentially the best stuff to publish live for a great deal of websites I would imagine. I hope the majority of you agree with me there?
I personally wouldn't bother with things like WebGL, mostly because of how slowly it performs on mobile devices, I mean I think it's F!?$ING AWESOME.... But I can never see myself ever using WebGL for a live website, more of a toy, and even on desktop devices, it CAN be buggy sometimes. Or at least that's what I've found from looking at other people's work.
I mean personally, if I were to make my own website which would basically be a fancy CV/portfolio, then I wouldn't bother with thinking about old users, mostly because I'd use it to apply to jobs where they do use newer tech. But for commercial use, let's be real, there's always that one A?! HOLE who's using a web browser from the dark ages.
How do you guys feel about developing your web applications for people who're using web browsers that are out of date?
Personally I plan on updating my personal website sometime in the near future. I plan on using all the latest tools and tricks, but that's because it'll be my own website, I mean if someone using a browser from way back when is trying to view it, as far as I'm concerned that individual can go elsewhere!
I'd probably just state that even though this version of my website is made with the latest tech, I can code for websites going back as far as IE6. Which I have done believe it or not. .... I found that fairly disgusting, but it had to be done, simply because of the computers in a previous place of work were THAT OUTDATED... I didn't think much of that personally, but it was a good learning experience in my opinion!
This topic was inspired by the fact that my colleague has a recently purchased second hand mac, and he went to log into some admin page for one of the websites we're hosting. Well the browser installed on there is 7 years out of date as it turns out.... So... When he loaded the admin page, the styling was all s*?t. Simply because we're using CSS3 and specifically for a lot of the styling we're using the following feature for a few things:
width:calc(##% - ##px);
Like I said, I love using CSS3, but this has just made me see, right before me how using it can cause for some issues.... Like I also said I love messing around with the latest front end tech, I'd call myself a front end developer more so than a back end developer, I mean I can do a bit of both, but front end is where I perform well. Simply because I've not had access to servers for long, I've never had the ability to REALLY experiment with back end, and as embarrassing as this is, I only discovered the likes of WAMP not too long ago.... So up until recently, I've just gone awol with front end development.
Whilst we're here talking about web based technologies, what do you guys think about using ruby gems too? I know a TONNE of front end developers are using them these days, I mean look at how popular sass/less has become recently...
Also, do you guys know of any backend ruby gems? ... I personally do not currently know of any really nice/useful ones at this very moment in time.
I also know that the likes of sass is an iffy subject, like one of my colleague hates using sass because some of the compiles will just fill up your compiled CSS with some code that's kinda crappy. Like he said, not all, but some, hence why he just tries to stay away from it for the time being.
So I'd love to just get some opinions, what do you guys think?