The Open Web App Prototype
For some time, I’ve thought that many applications written as native applications for many different platforms could be done just as well as cross-platform web applications. I understand why people...
View ArticleNext steps for Mozilla Developer Tools
I’m going to use this opportunity to make a couple of observations about Mozilla and planning. If you really just want to know about what we’re thinking of doing next in Mozilla’s developer tools...
View ArticleWork with me at Mozilla! Solve the puzzle
My first two years at Mozilla have been great fun and an amazingly positive experience. This year promises to be even more fun, where I define fun as going after some ambitious goals. This year, we’re...
View ArticleMore challenging puzzle for the devtools job
Yesterday, I posted about the Developer Tools Engineer position we’re hiring for at Mozilla. The response to my little puzzle has been terrific, but “it’s too easy” was a common refrain. So, I decided...
View ArticleInitial thoughts on Eclipse’s Orion
Last week, I had the opportunity to join a planning meeting for the newly coming together Orion project. Orion is a new take on the IDE coming from some people with a raftload of IDE experience with...
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Editing HTML in the browser
Live editing of CSS in the browser works great. You get to see your changes immediately, and there’s nothing like live feedback to keep you rolling, right? The Style Editor in Firefox makes it really...
View ArticleAn Important Role for SVG
Yesterday, I came across a link to JustGage, a JavaScript library that uses Raphaël.js to create attractive, dashboard-style gauges. Since it uses Raphaël, which in turn builds upon SVG, these gauges...
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GitHub adds a command line, and so should you!
Yesterday, GitHub announced their new “Command Bar”. I am a fan of command lines, and this is an awesome addition for navigating GitHub. I love being able to get more done without pulling my hands away...
View ArticleWhat is a “developer”?
My goal as a product manager at Mozilla is to represent the needs of web developers well and make sure that Mozilla is doing what we can to help them. I came to the realization last night that when I...
View ArticleWeb developer personas (are you in there?)
User personas are a useful tool for when you want to discuss needs that users have and, ultimately, features that meet those needs. Personas help keep you talking about real people versus some random...
View ArticleThe Brackets Scrum to Kanban Switch
The Adobe Brackets team has switched its development process from Scrum to Kanban. I thought that others might be interested in why we changed the process that we use to build an open source code...
View ArticleDaring Fireball at XOXO
John Gruber spoke about his site, Daring Fireball, at XOXO. Daring Fireball looks almost the same as it did when it launched in 2002, but the way Gruber makes a living has evolved a good deal and the...
View ArticleMy React-in-Brackets Trilogy
I started experimenting with React in February or March, blogged about my experiments starting in May, committed to landing a Brackets feature in September and the latest release of Brackets now ships...
View ArticleFaster Yosemite Upgrades for Developers
Faster Mac OS X 10.10 Yosemite Upgrades for Developers Your Yosemite upgrade may take many hours if you’ve got anything non-Apple in your /usr folder (Homebrew, Texlive, or Mactex for example). I don't...
View ArticleData Visualization with JavaScript
Data Visualization with JavaScript is a nice looking online book by Stephen A. Thomas: If you’re developing web sites or web applications today, there’s a good chance you have data to communicate, and...
View ArticleRon Jeffries on Hours Estimation
Ron Jeffries kicks off the new year with the notion that small (1-2) day stories is best. So here we are, in my experienced if not wise opinion: Designing using tasks can have value. Building with...
View ArticleThanks to my friends at Adobe
My last day at Adobe was April 3rd. I am very fortunate to have worked at one of the best places to work during a phenomenally successful time as the company moved from packaged desktop software to a...
View ArticleThe Changelog talks about TypeScript
Our guests this week are Anders Hejlsberg and Jonathan Turner. Anders is the language architect and Jonathan is the Program Manager for TypeScript, a typed superset of JavaScript that compiles to plain...
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The Tale of the Merry Squid: Teaching Programming with Minecraft
This past January and February, I taught a class that introduces children to programming through Minecraft. I called the class “The Merry Squid”, and this is my story of how it went. For the benefit...
View ArticleMy onboarding experience at Khan Academy
I’m in my third week at Khan Academy and thought I’d write a little about my experience with the onboarding process here. I’m a remote employee and my first two weeks have been here at home, 2,000+...
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