First of all, hope everyone safe.
So, last week, the iPadOS 13.4 released with much better pointer support. The pointer support was supported since iOS 13.0 released last September. But it was accessibility mean for inputs. But since iOS 13.4, the pointer is first-class input methods.
It is not just copying the mouse pointer from macOS. It is more like a mix of tvOS’ navigation and mouse. The snapping of objects in the user interface creates an illusion of actually grabbing and dragging them on screen.
I haven’t get a chance to try the new keyboard, which won’t make public until May. I stick to the Bluetooth Magic Keyboard and Magic Trackpad. The Bluetooth keyboard allows Esc key and the function keys to control volume, playback, and brightness.
I always enjoy using iPad, pro or not, as my primary working device until I have to move to the MacBook for tasks that are inconvenient or impossible on iOS.
Being able to focus is the reason I prefer working on iPad. In addition to writing, reading, and drawing which are clearly what tablets are good for, I can do front-end development with Codepen. I can do a quick screencast recording. Reviewing my code with Working Copy. Quick video editing with Photos or LumaFusion.
By using one app a time, and occasionally split-screen for work and reference, I can work with deep focus. The updated iPadOS now allows me to work more effectively in this focus machine.
Links worth sharing
Apple’s new local storage restriction
https://andregarzia.com/2020/03/private-client-side-only-pwas-are-hard-but-now-apple-made-them-impossible.html
Safari is adding a 7-day auto-deletion on third-party local storage data. Apple emphasis that it should not restrict first-party data. I’m doing the test on this restriction, waiting for 8 days passing to see the result.
We do not expect the first-party in such a web application to have its website data deleted. —Webkit.org
MVP.css—Minimal stylesheet
https://andybrewer.github.io/mvp/
No class names, no frameworks, just semantic HTML and you're done.
Promising!
Static website with Google Sheets and Eleventy
https://css-tricks.com/creating-an-editable-site-with-google-sheets-and-eleventy/
The TableTop.js turns published Google Sheets into JSON API which feeds the Eleventy static site generator.
Tutorial of using CSS Scroll Snap
https://blog.logrocket.com/how-to-use-css-scroll-snap/
A Practical Guide to Memory Leaks in Node.js
https://www.arbazsiddiqui.me/a-practical-guide-to-memory-leaks-in-nodejs/
xkcd styled chart library
https://github.com/timqian/chart.xkcd
How Basecamp runs Basecamp
https://www.pscp.tv/w/1OyKAYOreqgKb
Insights from Jason Friend and DHH.
Until next week,
Thomas Mak