A quest to save the universe with JavaScript

In this week's Episode

Service workers hit Firefox Nightly, daily DevTools tips in your inbox, debugging IE in Chrome, using Flexbox for RWD, saving the universe with 1k of JavaScript, and generators are in the works for IE and Spartan.

DEVTOOLS DAILY

Speed up your workflow with these helpful tips delivered daily to your inbox. Umar Hansa demonstrates one DevTools tip a day in animated Gif format. Examples include jumping to a line number in the sources panel and replaying network requests in cURL.

https://www.google.com/url?q=https%3A%2F%2Fumaar.com%2Fdev-tips%2F&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNGgWKnyERWpWflwl-7sk6qV4gngmg

DEBUG IE IN CHROME

What if you could debug Internet Explorer in Chrome? Recently open sourced by the IE team, the IE Diagnostics Adapter is a bridge that allows Internet Explorer to talk to the Chrome remote debugging protocol. Though the project is still an experiment, it already lets you do basic script debugging and the team plans to port it to Spartan in the near future.

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2015/04/02/introducing-the-ie-diagnostics-adapter-for-third-party-developer-tools.aspx

SERVICE WORKERS

Building offline experiences may be getting easier because service workers are coming to Firefox Nightly. Based on a W3C spec, service workers give developers increased control over a page, allowing them to reroute network requests, serve resources from the cache, and even send push notifications. Service workers are already shipping in Chrome, and the team at Firefox estimates they may land in version 41.

https://blog.wanderview.com/blog/2015/03/24/service-workers-in-firefox-nightly

http://www.w3.org/TR/service-workers/

https://jakearchibald.com/2014/offline-cookbook/

FLEXBOX FOR RWD

Enhance your site with flexbox to improve your responsive layouts. Developer Zoe Gillenwater explains how flexbox can be used as progressive enhancement on top of sites which have to support legacy browsers. The comprehensive slides can also be used as a cheat sheet to help you remember the myriad of flexbox properties.

https://vimeo.com/124796320

http://www.slideshare.net/zomigi/enhancing-responsiveness-with-flexbox-smashing-conference

JS1K COMPETITION

How many aliens can you blast in just 1k of JavaScript? “Defender” by Keith Clark is the winner of this year’s JS1K competition. Contestants are tasked with creating a compelling experience using nothing but 1024 bytes of JS. This year’s runner’s up include a Mystery Monorail ride, and an impossible rollercoaster.

http://js1k.com/2015-hypetrain/demo/2306

http://js1k.com/2015-hypetrain/demo/2322

http://js1k.com/2015-hypetrain/demo/2364

GENERATORS IN IE/SPARTAN

Callbacks may be a thing of the past because the IE team has announced that generators are in development. Part of ES6, generators are special functions that can be paused and resumed at a later time, allowing you to write asynchronous code in a synchronous fashion. Generators are already shipping in Chrome and Firefox, and are currently in development in Safari.

https://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/257854-internet-explorer-platform/suggestions/6263797-generators

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rT-1ZxhjzBw

https://www.chromestatus.com/features/4959347197083648