Blog posts from 2019

Git rebase versus merge

Article posted 31st December 2019 in Development and Git

There are two ways to get a branch up to date with master before raising a PR: merge and rebase. Here are pros and cons with each.
Version tagging with Releases in GitHub Flow

Article posted 27th December 2019 in Development and Git

I’ve started using GitHub Flow for some projects and the process is much simpler than GitFlow, but one hurdle I encountered was tagging.
Simplifying branching and deployment with GitHub Flow

Article posted 14th December 2019 in Development and Git

GitFlow is great but it’s not quite right for every project. GitHub Flow is simpler and means I’ll publish a feature or fix as soon as it’s ready.
Why ‘tempertemper’?

Article posted 12th December 2019 in Brand

Over the years, I’ve often been asked where I got the name ‘tempertemper’ from. The answer is very simple.
Apple’s Keyboards revisited

Article posted 21st November 2019 in Apple and Design

Apple released a new MacBook Pro last week and the keyboard has been revised, fixing almost all the issues the current/outgoing models have.
The best Sublime Text theme

Article posted 18th November 2019 in Design and Development

Operator Mono’s fancy italics don’t work with every colour scheme, but finding one that does has lead me to my favourite Sublime Text theme.
Operator Mono and why I want italics in my code editor

Article posted 17th November 2019 in Design and Development

I’m ready to start recording for my YouTube channel and I’ve been thinking about what my coding environment looks like.
Ligatures in coding fonts

Article posted 7th November 2019 in Development

I enjoy freshening my coding environment up a wee bit every now and then, but typefaces with ligatures are a step too far.
If it’s not progressively enhanced, it’s not accessible

Article posted 6th November 2019 in Accessibility

In his latest article, Adam Silver summarises the many ways JavaScript can fail, which, to me, is an accessibility issue.
Which way is that arrow pointing!?

Article posted 2nd November 2019 in Design

To show/hide content you’ll probably use an arrow on the toggle to indicate that content will be revealed. Sounds simple enough, doesn’t it?
If only Apple’s Voice Memos did transcription

Article posted 30th October 2019 in Apple

Imagine dictating a memo and coming back to it later as text for editing into a blog post. You can do that with the new Google Pixel…
Stop search indexing for Netlify Deploy Previews and Branch Deploys

Article posted 26th October 2019 in Development and Serverless

Netlify Deploy Previews and Branch Deploys are great, but what if search engines start indexing them?
Setting up a staging site with Netlify

Article posted 25th October 2019 in Development and Serverless

Netlify Deploy Previews are great, but sometimes it’s good to have a staging site for stuff that isn’t ready to put into the live website yet.
Netlify Deploy Previews

Article posted 24th October 2019 in Development and Serverless

I’ve become a bit of an unashamed fan of Netlify recently, and Deploy Previews are something I’ve been making a quite a bit of use of.
Colour contrast on tempertemper.net

Article posted 14th October 2019 in Accessibility, Brand and Design

Colour contrast on my site now meets WCAG AAA, in light or dark mode. There have been compromises but, if it’s more useable, I’m happy to make them.
List-style articles

Article posted 10th October 2019

I’ve noticed a lot of rough outlines clogging up my drafts; rather than risking not publishing, maybe an outline-style might be the right approach sometimes?
Some brief thoughts on watchOS 6

Article posted 9th October 2019 in Apple

After using it for a couple of weeks, here’s a quick summary of my thoughts on the newest operating system for Apple Watch.
Routine and flexibility

Article posted 7th October 2019

I broke my golden rule this morning. I woke up early, made myself a tea and sat down with my laptop. But instead of writing, I did some freelance work.
Ditching Google Analytics in favour of Netlify Analytics

Article posted 4th October 2019 in Development and Serverless

Having moved my website to Netlify, I’ve been pretty excited about some of the features they offer, one in particular has been Netlify Analytics.
Moving to Netlify

Article posted 3rd October 2019 in Development and Serverless

I’ve really never enjoyed servers, and Netlify looks like an easy to use, powerful alternative for any static sites I build.
Adding files for a commit with asterisks

Article posted 1st October 2019 in Development and Git

It can be fiddly to stage files for a commit using Git on the command line. Or so I thought! I found a shortcut, so thought I’d write about it.
Using nvm on macOS

Article posted 23rd September 2019 in Development

I upgraded node on my laptop and things broke… But I found a way to change the node version, to keep projects alive until there’s time to upgrade all those packages and config.
SwiftUI is more than just a developer convenience

Article posted 19th September 2019 in Apple

Apple announced SwiftUI at this year’s WWDC; I reckon it’s more than just a developer convenience – it’s a tactical move on Apple’s part.
iPhone event 2019

Article posted 18th September 2019 in Apple

Apple’s iPhone event has just passed and it was interesting, but didn’t get me too excited. Here’s a brief list of my take-aways.
Why I’m not using Git aliases

Article posted 11th September 2019 in Development and Git

Git aliases are incredibly useful, but there are five good reasons I’ve decided not to make use of them.
Version control for articles and blog posts

Article posted 6th September 2019 in Development and Git

Git workflows like GitFlow are great, but how does publishing articles fit in when using a static site generator? Here’s how I’m doing it.
Years in, the accessibility learning curve continues

Article posted 5th September 2019 in Accessibility and Development

I’ve cared about accessibility for as long as I’ve been working in the web and, even after all these years, I still enjoy learning new things.
Practice makes perfect

Article posted 30th August 2019

I do a lot of reading on the Metro, on the way to work. A while back, I read an article that quoted something that really stuck in my head.
How to avoid disabled buttons

Article posted 23rd August 2019 in Design

Disabling a submit button can indicate that a form isn’t ready to be sent; there are various ways to design this, but should we be doing it at all?
Changing editor for Git on the command line

Article posted 21st August 2019 in Development and Git

Something that has been bugging me since moving from a GUI to command line git has been the default editor for writing commit messages.
Fixing your last Git commit

Article posted 21st August 2019 in Development and Git

Since I’ve started using Git on the command line, there’s one ‘new’ thing that I’ve used more than any other: amending my most recent commit.
Website version 5

Article posted 4th August 2019 in Design and Development

I’m already more than a dozen releases into version 5 of my website, but I’m finally ready to ‘officially’ announce it!
Changing your Git history

Article posted 26th July 2019 in Development and Git

This week I removed some files and data from my Git history. It was a bit of a learning curve, but here’s how I did it, step by step.
Right here, right now

Article posted 18th July 2019

I was reminded of a neat idea the other day: the Now page. I’d seen the idea a while ago but hadn’t had time to do anything about it.
Stop the ride, I want to get off

Article posted 17th July 2019 in Design and Tools

I never thought I’d see the day, but I’ve fallen out of love with Dropbox. Dropbox’s genius was its simplicity, which is getting buried by questionable new features and messy branding.
Minimalism and progressive enhancement

Article posted 16th July 2019 in Design and Development

I’ve been enjoying reading though Adam Silver’s articles around accessibility and inclusive design, and his take on progressive enhancement really struck a chord.
Refining my writing process

Article posted 14th July 2019 in Workflows

I’ve rebuilt this site with a static site generator and it has been great so many reasons, but there’s one I want to share ahead of the ‘official’ announcement: my writing workflow.
Folder sharing and the new Apple OSs

Article posted 13th July 2019 in Apple and Workflows

The up-coming Apple operating systems will allow folder sharing in both Files/Finder and the Notes app. This is a big step forward!
Design and dev should be more joined up

Article posted 2nd July 2019 in Design and Development

I’ve been catching up on some reading and came across this nugget in ‘The “D” in the DOM’…
Getting to grips with Git

Article posted 26th June 2019 in Development and Git

I’ve been using Git for years and it’s finally time to make a concerted effort to move away from my GUI to the command line.
What’s emphasis and what’s not

Article posted 24th June 2019 in Accessibility and Development

Semantic HTML is hard. We stopped using  and  elements in favour of  and , but are  and  still useful?
Implicit ARIA landmark roles

Article posted 14th June 2019 in Accessibility and Development

ARIA landmarks give a screen reader user an easy way to orient themselves on a web page. Implicit roles are also great. Except when they’re not.
Looks like 3D Touch is going away

Article posted 8th June 2019 in Apple

In spite of my recent enthusiasm for 3D Touch, there have been murmurs that it is on its way out. I think they might be right.
WWDC 2019 roundup

Article posted 6th June 2019 in Apple

I love watching the opening Keynote for WWDC. Here’s a brief overview of the things they announced this year that I’m excited about or interested in.
Reducing motion

Article posted 30th May 2019 in Accessibility, Design and Development

Accessibility is important, so I’ve taken steps to minimise animation on my site, and even removed it completely for those who ‘prefer reduce motion’.
Let’s make webmasters a thing again

Article posted 21st May 2019

We used to be webmasters. CMSs then gave our clients control of their websites, but I can’t help wondering if we had it right in the first place.
Face ID and sunglasses

Article posted 21st May 2019 in Apple and Design

Face ID worked perfectly every time until the sun started coming out. Seems its achilles heel is sunglasses, but I think I might be ok with that.
Settling for less

Article posted 18th May 2019

I take a lot of care over my articles, but that means they take a long time before I hit ‘publish’. Maybe I need to put less pressure on my writing…
Thoughts on 3D Touch

Article posted 8th May 2019 in Apple and Design

Moving from an iPhone 6 to an iPhone XS has been great, and I know it has been around for a while but one of my favourite things is 3D Touch.
Still a sucker for Sublime

Article posted 1st May 2019 in Development and Tools

Over the years I jumped from one code editor to another before settling on Sublime Text. I’ve since tried others but keep ending up back with Sublime.
I can’t wait for Dark Mode on iOS

Article posted 24th April 2019 in Apple and Design

Dark Mode on iOS looks to be right around the corner. I’m already all-in on Dark Mode on my Mac but it’s even more compelling on the iPhone.
Choosing Dark Mode on macOS

Article posted 17th April 2019 in Apple and Design

It’s nice to dust the cobwebs off with a UI overhaul every so often, so when macOS Mojave was released last year I couldn’t wait to try Dark Mode.
Keep on learning

Article posted 10th April 2019

I’ve found myself with extra time on my hands for the first time in years and I can’t wait to pick up some projects I’ve been eyeing been for a while.
Reading at night with a neat iPhone hack

Article posted 20th March 2019 in Apple

I love reading in bed each night but even my iPhone’s lowest brightness is too fierce in the dark, so here’s a neat trick to make it even dim further.
They’re my rules to break

Article posted 28th January 2019

While I’m not one to say something publicly, only to go back on it, I learned through bitter experience last year that over-committing isn’t healthy.
My favourite RSS app

Article posted 25th January 2019 in Design and Tools

I love RSS. Having used the same RSS app for years, I decided to have a look what else was out there one stood out above the rest.
The new MacBook keyboard

Article posted 9th January 2019 in Apple and Design

The new MacBook keyboard has certainly been a talking point. From the new layout to the Touch Bar and keys sticking; I both love and loathe it.
A New Year’s resolution for 2019

Article posted 2nd January 2019

2018 was a funny one. Not at all how I planned it. This year, I’m making one commitment – to write and publish a blog article each and every week.

Other years

2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2012, 2011.