Better way to indent ordered lists in Markdown
Published on in Markdown
1. foo is annoying because the list item's text is indented with three spaces.
Solution: add another space after the period.
Blog
A collection of my wildest adventures with computers. Mostly about web development.
Previewing HTML files directly on GitHub with a bookmarklet
Published on in Bookmarklets and JavaScript
There's no built-in way to preview HTML files on GitHub, but you can use this nifty bookmarklet. (GitHub's project managers HATE it!)
Beware implicit Content-Type: "application/json"
Published on in JavaScript, Node.js and TypeScript
If you are sending a FormData body with fetch,
things might not work correctly if you are (accidentally)
setting the Content-Type request header to "application/json".
Safari doesn't support position: relative on <tr> elements
This is a problem if you want whole table rows to be clickable. Luckily there's a (hacky) workaround.
"Slap" means "sounds like a plan"
Published on in English
I came up with this acronym myself, and I'm proud of it!
How to use Azure AD authentication in DBeaver
Published on in Miscellaneous
Alternative title: How to fix the "Failed to load MSAL4J Java library for performing ActiveDirectoryPassword authentication" error.
mailto: links with target="_blank" are surprisingly tricky
Published on in JavaScript
Only because Firefox ignores target="_blank" in mailto: links.
Fix all requests timeouting in Burp Suite's Repeater
Published on in Miscellaneous
Make sure you are not missing two empty lines after the request headers. There's a UX lesson here.
Two great video games I played through in 2023
Published on in Games
I managed to find time to play Desperados III and Lost in Play (and Before Your Eyes too a bit).
Fiction books I read and liked in 2023
Published on in Books
I started a new hobby in 2023: reading fiction books! I started with fantasy: Harry Potter, Mistborn, and The Stormlight Archive.
Tweaking website styles with uBlock Origin filters
Published on in Miscellaneous
Use the :style() operator in a uBlock Origin filter
to apply CSS styles to the targeted elements.
"Else equals" in Handlebars (in SendGrid's Dynamic Templates)
Published on in Handlebars and SendGrid
There's a way to do an "else equals" check in Handlebars (in SendGrid's Dynamic Templates), though it's undocumented and a bit tricky.
HTTP headers: Accept vs Content-Type
Published on in Miscellaneous
I sometimes forget what these two headers do in requests vs responses, so here's a refresher for me.
Cmd-tabing to Firefox on Mac gets progressively slower
Published on in Mac
The longer Firefox is kept open, the longer it takes for Firefox to receive focus after Cmd-tabing to it. At some point it can take even about a second, which really kills the flow.
JavaScript's default exports are a footgun
Published on in JavaScript
It's too easy to accidentally import a default export with a misleading name.
Moving zeros to the end of an array in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
Let's learn about anti-symmetry by solving this interview puzzle: "Move all zeros of an array of integers to the end while maintaining the relative order of all non-zeros."
Logging hours to Jira's "Work log" in bulk
Published on in JavaScript
There's apparently no nice way to bulk-log hours in Jira. Use this One Weird Trick to do it anyway – Jira consultants HATE it!
Pin exact dependency versions
Published on in Miscellaneous
In a perfect world, minor- and patch-level version bumps don't have breaking changes. In the real world, things are complicated and shit happens.
error.cause needs to be logged manually to App Insights
Published on in JavaScript
If you are logging errors to Azure App Insights,
and an Error object has a cause property (which too could be an Error object),
the cause Error's message and stack properties are not shown in Azure App Insights.
But you can log them manually.
\d in a regex isn't always equal to [0-9]
Published on in JavaScript and Regular expressions
In JavaScript, \d and [0-9] are equal and match only Arabic numerals (the numbers 0–9).
But in some other languages, \d matches also non-Arabic numerals.
response.json() can throw an error in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript
If the response body is not valid JSON,
response.json() will throw,
just like JSON.parse() would throw
if the same data was passed to it.
error.stack includes the error message in some JS environments
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
In V8-based JS environments (e.g. Chrome, Deno and Node.js) and in Bun,
error.stack = error class name + error.message + stack frames.
yarn install failing mysteriously on Node.js v18.18
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
TL;DR: Upgrading Yarn from v1 to v4 fixed it for me.
Visual mnemonic for an array sorter's return values
Published on in JavaScript and Mnemonics
When sorting an array with a custom comparator function,
the function should return <0, 0 or >0.
But what do the values do?
Use this weird visual mnemonic –
sorting consultants HATE it!
Strict object validation is handy for data exploration
Published on in JavaScript, TypeScript and Zod
Alternative title:
I finally found a good use case for z.object().strict() in Zod.
Adding type-safety to Node-Cache
Published on in ESLint, JavaScript and TypeScript
Last updated on
Node-Cache (a JS library) has generic get and set methods,
but it's easy to accidentally misuse them.
I made a type-safer wrapper around the library.
YouTube's "Show transcript" tool is great for taking video notes
Published on in Miscellaneous
Incidentally, it's also great for searching for certain words in a video.
Bookmarklet to download still images from YouTube videos
Published on in Bookmarklets and JavaScript
Quick and dirty code to grab a single frame of a YouTube video. Might work with other video players too.
Legacy code is code written by other people
Published on in Miscellaneous
Legacy code means unfamiliar code. Legacy code has much more to do with unfamiliarity than the quality of the code itself.
Date objects are nicer to work with than date strings
Published on in JavaScript, TypeScript and Zod
When parsing data,
date strings should likely be converted to Date objects.
But beware mutations.
I read all 7 seven Harry Potter books in 33 days
Published on in Books
I don't know if I have ever read so much in so short time. I just liked the books so much.
Parsing data is nicer than only validating it
Published on in JavaScript, Joi, TypeScript and Zod
Last updated on
Parsing encompasses validation, plus it can increase type-safety, plus it can transform the data to a better format. Parse, don't just validate.
Auto-converting EPUB files to AZW3 instead of MOBI in Calibre
Published on in Books
MOBI is an old e-book format. AZW3 is a newer and apparently better format; for instance, it supports embedded fonts. Here's how to configure Calibre to prefer the better format.
De-ACSM'ing and de-DRM'ing e-books for fun (but not profit)
Published on in Books
Last updated on
A reminder for myself how to make library e-books pleasant to use with the help of Calibre and two Calibre plugins.
Sending (duplicate) emails to email aliases can be tricky
Published on in JavaScript and SendGrid
If you send a single email to a bunch of email addresses, and some of the addresses are aliases, i.e. they point to the same email inbox, chances are high that only one copy of the email is delivered to that inbox.
Harry Potter, the Mirror of Erised, and mindless internet surfing
Mindlessly surfing the internet is like staring at the Mirror of Erised from the Harry Potter books. (Minor Harry Potter spoilers ahead.)
Video notes: Agile Product Ownership in a Nutshell
Published on in Miscellaneous
This 16-minute video by Henrik Kniberg is a great overview of the agile software development process, but also contains lots of smaller great insights.
Book notes: Atomic Habits
Published on in Books
Tiny good things accumulate into great things. Tiny bad things accumulate into horrible things. This book tells you how to do more of those good things and less of those bad things.
From a super ultrawide monitor to a regular 16:9 monitor
Published on in Battlestation
Last updated on
After 2.5 years of using a 120 cm wide super ultrawide computer monitor with a 32:9 aspect ratio, I'm back to a boring 64 cm wide 16:9 monitor. The smaller monitor now feels better in every regard.
I wrote a weekly log for half a year and it was stressful
Published on in Blogging
"Weekly log" basically meaning weekly blog posts with a specific structure. Today I removed the whole Weekly log.
Switching to Mac after 20+ years of using Windows
Published on in Mac
I have used Windows PCs since I was a kid. A year ago (Jan 2022) I got my first MacBook. While Mac isn't perfect, it's so much better that I'm not going back to Windows.
Automatically retrying a failing function in JS/TS
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
Last updated on
A little helper function to retry a function automatically a limited number of times (or until success) and with a certain delay between retries. Useful e.g. when working with a flaky API.
SWR (v1): show previous/stale data on revalidation errors
Published on in JavaScript and React
Last updated on
If I'm already displaying data that I have successfully fetched with SWR, and then another fetch call fails (when revalidating the data), I don't want to replace the data view with an error view. Here's how to avoid that.
Wild ideas to avoid burnout
Published on in Work–life balance
Care less, take a sabbatical, get a second job, get monster ear protection, hide behind your manager.
Four ways to use a fallback ref with React.forwardRef
Published on in JavaScript and React
A component wrapped in React.forwardRef
normally expects to receive a ref from its parent component.
What if you want the component to have a ref
even if it doesn't receive one from its parent?
Software for syncing internal and external hard drives
Published on in Cool tools
I'm looking for a software that does 2-way syncing between my MacBook's hard drive and an external hard drive. Syncthing vs rsync vs Unison vs FreeFileSync vs Resilio Sync... oh my!
Stashing only unstaged changes in Git
Published on in Git
git stash -k doesn't work as expected.
Use a temporary commit instead.
JS solutions to the "coin combinations" interview puzzle
Published on in JavaScript
"Given an array of coins and a target amount, return all combinations of coins that add up to the amount, or an empty array if no such combinations exist."
Local mutations are all right
Published on in Clean code and JavaScript
For example, mutating a reducer function's accumulator array can be better than religiously avoiding mutations and returning only new arrays from the reducer.
Generating permutations of large arrays is complex
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
That's because it would take a very long time, and at some point you would have so many permutations that they wouldn't fit in an array.
Generating array permutations of all lengths in JS
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
Example:
converting [1, 2, 3]
into [[1], [2], [1, 2], [3], [1, 3], [2, 3], [1, 2, 3]].
I want a chat app with an "unreplied" message state
Published on in Miscellaneous
Most chat apps have an "unread" message state to keep track of messages I haven't read yet. Why isn't there a different state for messages I haven't replied to yet?
LTeX: grammar/spell checker on steroids for VS Code
Published on in Cool tools, English and VS Code
Doesn't only look for typos but for grammar and style issues as well. Not to be confused with LaTeX.
Linen bedclothes are the best
Published on in Sleep
I recently switched from linen bedclothes (sheets, pillowcases, duvet covers) back to cotton bedclothes – bad idea. My sleep quality took a drastic hit.
Updating a private Git submodule before builds in Netlify
Automatically updating a private Git submodule before builds is convenient but requires some setup.
Mortgage calculations in JS: annuity and fixed principal
Published on in JavaScript
Instead of spending 5 minutes to look for and use an existing mortgage calculator, I wasted time figuring out how to do the calculations from scratch.
Sorting a read-only array is OK if it has only 1 or 0 items
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
Huh. But if the array has 2+ items, attempting to sort it will cause a TypeError.
Correct tongue position in 3 steps
Say "n" and cluck and relax. Easy! Correct tongue position makes nasal breathing easier.
Running vs jogging
Jogging is one type of running. When I run, I mostly jog, but I still think I'm a runner, not a jogger. Huh?
Stop keeping your phone in your pocket
Published on in NoSurf
A trouser pocket is way too easily reachable. I often find myself reaching for my phone automatically even if I don't have anything to do with the phone.
Toggleable React state with a 1-line useReducer
Published on in JavaScript and React
Say goodbye to useState
and a silly toggler function calling the state setter.
Be cool and use a tiny reducer instead.
1 line of code to animate element additions, removals and moves
Published on in JavaScript, Mithril.js and React
AutoAnimate is a JS library that provides simple animations with no effort. Works with Mithril.js, React and any other JS app.
Your Button component should default to type="button"
Published on in JavaScript, React and TypeScript
A <button> element defaults to type="submit"
which can cause accidental form submissions.
Make type="button" the default in your Button component
to make your life easier.
Preventing "illegal invocation" errors in TypeScript
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
The TypeScript compiler could help prevent "illegal invocation" errors at compile time, at least theoretically.
Client-side navigation and React's dangerouslySetInnerHTML
Published on in JavaScript, React and TypeScript
Last updated on
To handle internal link clicks when using dangerouslySetInnerHTML,
attach click event listeners to the rendered links.
In the listener, push the link to the browser history.
Joi: checking against multiple values in conditional()
Published on in JavaScript, Joi and Testing
Last updated on
Use { is: Joi.any().valid(...values) }
to check if a value is included in an array.
.mts is a cool file extension (TypeScript ES modules)
Published on in JavaScript, Node.js and TypeScript
What's that, a file extension named after me?! Or a file extension for TypeScript files that are always ES modules?
React is a framework, not a library
Published on in JavaScript and React
React is marketed as a view library, but it's more accurately a (view component) framework.
Why compose() is right-to-left
Published on in JavaScript
Functions composed together with compose()
are called from right to left.
It feels unintuitive at first,
but it's conventional
and kind of makes sense.
Periods and commas belong inside quotes in American English
Published on in English
Like so: "The name's Bourne," the man said, "JSON Bourne." Also when quoting single words, like "nibbles," "gronk" and "fleebles."
React's ecosystem is a dumb necessity
Published on in JavaScript, Mithril.js, Rant and React
Last updated on
React's ecosystem is large, which is a good thing: lot's of great libraries to use. But it's also a bad thing: most of those libraries are compatible only with React.
Scheduling vacations for maximal relaxation
Published on in Work–life balance
Try to schedule vacations so that they start and end in the middle of the week. You'll get two short work weeks around the vacation.
JSX vs HTM (Hyperscript Tagged Markup)
Published on in JavaScript and React
Last updated on
HTM provides a transpiler-free alternative to JSX via tagged templates. HTM has some limitations, but can be used in browsers and can be good for smaller projects.
FizzBuzz in JavaScript with infinite arrays and multimapping
Published on in JavaScript
Fun way to solve the simple puzzle.
Infinitely repeating arrays
and mapping over multiple arrays
almost makes the remainder/modulo operator (%) unnecessary.
Memoized Fibonacci function in 1 line of JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
Using recursion,
logical OR assignment operator (||=),
BigInts
and more!
11ty vs Eleventy
Published on in Eleventy
The two names are often used interchangeably, but there's a slight difference: 11ty is the organization, Eleventy is the static site generator.
How to render Optimizely Content Recommendations using React
Published on in Episerver, JavaScript and React
Last updated on
Also known as Episerver/Idio Content Recommendations. The usual way of using a Mustache template can be circumvented by using a JavaScript proxy.
How to trigger daily Netlify builds using GitHub Actions
Or any other automatic periodic builds. I'm using daily builds to automatically publish scheduled blog posts on my Eleventy site.
Two ways to use absolute import paths in Node.js
Published on in JavaScript and Node.js
Last updated on
Say goodbye to ../ times million
and use absolute import paths from the app's root directory instead.
Two contenders: Basetag and Sultan's sexy-require! 🤺
Smoke testing is quick and dirty testing
Published on in Testing
Last updated on
Smoke testing is cursory or "quick and dirty" testing to see that the software works correctly.
React + TypeScript: Interdependent prop types
Published on in JavaScript, React and TypeScript
Last updated on
I.e. props that depend on other props. You can require and forbid certain prop combinations by utilizing TypeScript's union and intersection types.
The 5 rules of ARIA
Published on in Accessibility
Last updated on
Five simple rules for using ARIA attributes, straight from W3C.
Goodbye Cookbook, hello more blog posts
Published on in Blogging
Last updated on
I ditched my website's Cookbook section and converted existing recipes to blog posts. Mostly to reduce stress and make things clearer.
My favorite mnemonics for American vs British English
Use these weird tricks to remember which words are American English and which are British English. Linguists HATE them!
Squircley is an SVG squircle generator
Published on in Cool tools and SVG
A squircle is a rounded square with no straight edges; the shape is a continuous curve.
Kayaking is fun
Published on in Miscellaneous
I kayaked for the first time in my life and quite liked it. Then I ate pizza.
useStateMachine: ½ kB state machine hook for React
Published on in JavaScript and React
A state machine is a bit like useReducer,
but with greater constraints (in a good way).
This state machine hook is tiny.
Sprint-centric vs people-centric daily stand-up meetings
Published on in Miscellaneous
A daily stand-up should focus on the sprint. But it should also be about the team members.
Cursive (Clojure IDE) supports Parinfer out of the box
Published on in Clojure
It's not mentioned in the docs or anywhere, but you can enable Parinfer from Cursive's settings. Works great with IdeaVim.
Scrolling to top on page changes in React Router (v5)
Published on in JavaScript and React
A common solution is to scroll to top every time the page changes. That's incorrect: the page should be scrolled to top only when navigating to new pages, not when navigating back or forward.
<strong> and <em> should be treated as progressive enhancement
Published on in Accessibility
Screen readers don't announce emphasized text, so your text should be understandable even without the emphases.
Delegate types in C#: Action vs Func vs Predicate
Published on in C#
Last updated on
Action doesn't return anything,
Func does.
Predicate takes one parameter and returns a boolean.
Comment terminal commands to find them later more easily
Published on in Miscellaneous
If you append a comment (like # foo) to a terminal command,
you can search by the comment text when using Ctrl+R.
4 + 1 wrapping styles for Markdown prose and code comments
Published on in Clean code, Documentation and Markdown
A paragraph per line, a sentence per line, or hard wrapping at e.g. 80 characters? These days I prefer a fourth option: semantic line breaks.
Two-way data binding in React
Published on in JavaScript and React
Normally you would use one-way data binding in React apps: parent components own data and pass it to children. You can mimic two-way data binding with a custom hook.
Site-specific components in a (React) multi-site
Published on in Clean code, JavaScript and React
Last updated on
A multi-site React project has likely two kinds of components: common components and site-specific components. There are a few ways to handle site-specific logic in common components.
Using ESLint to restrict where files can be imported from
Published on in ESLint and JavaScript
There's an ESLint rule to prevent importing certain files in certain folders. I needed this in a multi-site project to prevent importing site-specific components in other sites' folders.
My new webcam: Logitech BRIO
Published on in Battlestation
Maybe a bit of an overkill, but much more convenient than using my iPad as a webcam or my laptop's integrated webcam.
Frequency illusion
Published on in Miscellaneous
That cool thing you just heard about – is it suddenly gaining popularity, or are you just noticing the topic more?
*Vertical* centering in CSS with margin: auto
Published on in CSS and CSS for JS Devs course
margin: auto is not only for horizontal centering.
position: fixed breaks if any of its ancestors uses transform
Published on in CSS and CSS for JS Devs course
Or perspective or filter.
This can easily cause confusing bugs.
JavaScript functions have a length property
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
A bit exotic, but can be useful for currying.
Different logics behind heights and widths in CSS
Published on in CSS and CSS for JS Devs course
height and width work somewhat differently in CSS.
height looks "down" the tree
whereas width looks "up" the tree.
Block vs inline directions in CSS
Published on in CSS and CSS for JS Devs course
Block elements stack on top of each other. Inline elements are placed side by side.
Updating React context outside of a component
Published on in JavaScript, React and Testing
React context is normally updated inside the React app. Here's a hacky way how I circumvented that restriction in a test file.
Excel stores time durations as days
Published on in Excel
For example, 6 hours is stored as 0.25 days.
To format a duration as hh:mm:ss.000,
first convert the duration to days.
"Blocked plug-in" error in Safari when opening a PDF file
Published on in Safari
Try to add object-src 'self'; to the Content Security Policy.
Then your users don't have to download the file to view it.
Broken CSS-animated SVG files in Safari and iOS Safari
Some parts of an SVG were missing and some parts were distorted.
I had to render the SVG via an <svg> element
instead of loading it via an <img> element.
Firefox DevTools can explain why some CSS styles have no effect
Published on in CSS and CSS for JS Devs course
Last updated on
It's frustrating when a CSS declaration is technically valid (not crossed out in the browser's DevTools) but has no effect for some reason. Firefox DevTools can often tell you why and also how to potentially fix those issues! (Update: Chrome 108+ can too.)
4+ types of documentation
Published on in Documentation
Last updated on
Splitting documentation into multiple categories can make the documentation much clearer.
Turning constructor params into class props in TypeScript
Published on in JavaScript and TypeScript
"Parameter properties" reduce boilerplate in classes, but they can also make the code hard to read.
Cool way to check for leap years in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript
Spoiler:
new Date(year, 1, 29).getDate() === 29.
Cleaner unit test mocking in C# with NSubstitute
The NSubstitute package simplifies how mock implementations are created and how mocks are used.
Cleaner unit test assertions in C# with Fluent Assertions
The Fluent Assertions package makes unit test assertions read like English and also improves the error messages.
How to disable ImageProcessor's upscaling feature
Disabling the upscaling feature (by default or completely)
can be done via ImageProcessor's ValidatingRequest event.
It's not possible via a config file.
My notes on two nice .NET refactoring videos
YouTube recommended me a two-part video series that was fun to watch and gave me a few lightbulb thoughts.
Smoother CSS animations with the will-change property
Published on in CSS
The will-change property makes the browser render an element with the GPU,
which can reduce jankiness and also allows utilizing sub-pixel rendering.
But use the property sparingly.
CSS: display: flow-root is better than the clearfix hack
Published on in CSS
The flow-root value is clearer (no hacks!)
and has great browser support.
Action-driven CSS animations
Published on in CSS
Polish your animations by animating based on actions or events, like mouse-enter and mouse-leave, instead of animating based on states, like default and hover state.
Casting in C#: cast expression vs as and is operators
A cast expression like (string)foo throws
if the types don't match.
The as operator doesn't throw
and defaults to null.
The is operator doesn't throw
and ignores nulls.
Name front-end test cases from user perspective
Published on in JavaScript, React and Testing
Such naming helps you create tests that resemble the way your users use your app.
Episerver + AutoMapper is a confusing combo
Blocks in Episerver implement the IContent interface only during runtime
which makes using AutoMapper difficult.
Prefer accessible queries with (React) Testing Library
Published on in Accessibility, JavaScript, React and Testing
Accessible queries take into account the semantic meaning of HTML elements. Such queries help you write more accessible apps.
Assume vs presume in English
Both are guesses. Assume is weaker (little or no evidence), presume is stronger (reasonable evidence). But how to remember which is which?
How to quickly count (source) lines of code using npx cloc
Published on in Cool tools
Last updated on
Run npx cloc [options] <files/dirs>.
E.g. npx cloc src/ or npx cloc foo.js bar.css.
Excluding your own mobile browser visits from Plausible Analytics
Published on in Bookmarklets
Last updated on
Use a bookmarklet to stop Plausible Analytics from counting your own visits made using mobile devices.
How to get component's HTML without mounting in Mithril.js
Published on in JavaScript and Mithril.js
Last updated on
Create a DocumentFragment
and render the component to it.
Then there's no need to mount the component to the DOM.
Coding SVG icons by hand
Published on in SVG
Last updated on
Creating icons and simple figures by handcrafting SVG code is not as hard as it sounds.
How to debounce events in Mithril.js
Published on in JavaScript and Mithril.js
Last updated on
Disable auto-redraw with event.redraw = false
and use a timeout.
How to nest selectors in Mithril.js for extra brevity
Published on in JavaScript and Mithril.js
Last updated on
m.nest('ul > li', 'Item')
can be achieved with reduceRight().
Lazy and greedy quantifiers in regular expressions
Published on in Regular expressions
Last updated on
Greedy quantifiers (the default, e.g. *) match as much as possible.
Lazy quantifiers (e.g. *?) match as little as possible.
Formatting lists with JavaScript's Intl.ListFormat
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
Pass an array of strings and get back a string with the array items separated by commas, except with the last comma replaced with the word "and" or "or." Like "item 1, item 2 and item 3."
Episerver + TinyMCE + React = uh oh!
Published on in Episerver, JavaScript and React
Thoughts on how to efficiently use React to render Episerver blocks embedded in TinyMCE fields.
How to pretty print JSON in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
Run JSON.stringify(object, null, 2).
Adjust the number for a different level of indentation.
3 ways to convert a path into cumulative segments in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript and Regular expressions
Last updated on
How to convert
'/foo/bar/baz/'
into an array of
'/', '/foo/', '/foo/bar/', and '/foo/bar/baz/'.
Example use case: building breadcrumb navigations.
Two types of skills and two types of learning
Published on in Miscellaneous
Last updated on
Expiring skills vs permanent skills and just-in-time learning vs just-in-case learning.
new Date() and Date.parse() are bad at parsing dates
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
Use them only with certain date time formats, and use a library for parsing fancy formats.
"Illegal invocation" errors in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
The error is thrown when calling a function
whose this keyword isn't referring to the object where it originally did,
i.e. when the "context" of the function is lost.
Dynamic tag names in Pug
Published on in Pug
Last updated on
Use string interpolation at the beginning of a line,
e.g. #{myVariable}.
Mnemonic for array.shift() vs array.unshift() in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript and Mnemonics
Last updated on
shift() removes the first array item,
and unshift() prepends items to the array.
But how to remember which is which?
Using non-default locales with toLocaleString() in Node.js
Published on in JavaScript and Node.js
Last updated on
With Node.js 13+,
it should just work.
With earlier Node.js versions,
you need to install and use the full-icu package.
My new microphone: RØDE Procaster
Published on in Battlestation
Last updated on
Much better than a Jabra headset, but also much pricier. Why a dynamic XLR microphone instead of a condenser USB microphone? Read on to find out.
Locality of Behavior / Co-location
Published on in Clean code, CSS and JavaScript
Last updated on
These two similar principles state that the behavior of code should be obvious on inspection and that code should be located where it's relevant.
Calculating week numbers in JS is surprisingly complex
Published on in JavaScript
JavaScript doesn't provide a native way to get the week number of a date. Just use a library instead.
How to do overlapping matches with regular expressions
Published on in JavaScript and Regular expressions
Last updated on
E.g. how to capture overlapping pairs of letters from the string 'abcde',
i.e. 'ab', 'bc', 'cd' and 'de'.
Spoiler: with lookahead and lookbehind assertions.
fn.apply() vs fn.call() in JavaScript + better alternative
Published on in JavaScript and Mnemonics
Last updated on
Mnemonic:
"a" (apply()) for an array,
"c" (call()) for commas.
But Reflect.apply() is better.
When to use the xmlns and version SVG attributes
Published on in SVG
Last updated on
The xmlns attribute is required for SVG files
but optional for inlined SVGs.
The version attribute is always optional.
Uncontrolled form inputs in React
Published on in JavaScript and React
Last updated on
If you need form input values only at the time of form submission, uncontrolled inputs can be nice to work with.
My notes on "Tail Call Optimization: The Musical!"
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
My quick notes on a funny but informative video (11:27) that explains how tail call optimization (TCO) works. Bonus: does JS support TCO? Spoiler: yes but no.
How to sort package.json automatically
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
Just run npx sort-package-json.
How to force push in Git with style (and some safety)
Published on in Git
Last updated on
Never run git push --force.
Instead run git push --force-with-lease
or alias it to git please.
How to undo the last / previous / most recent commit in Git
Published on in Git
Last updated on
Run git reset HEAD~ or alias it to git undo.
Bonus: how to use the commit message from the undoed commit.
How to chunk an array in JavaScript
Published on in JavaScript
Last updated on
A simple reducer to chunk (split) an array into smaller arrays.
How to bypass Episerver's Content Delivery API when doing Ajax requests
Published on in C#, Episerver and JavaScript
Requests with the Accept header set to application/json
are automatically routed to Content Delivery API.
Here's how to bypass it
and make the request go to a page controller instead.
TFA stands for "The Featured Article"
Published on in English
And RTFA/RTFM stands for "Read The Fine Article/Manual." Who likes profanity, anyway?
RFC 2119 in a nutshell
Published on in Miscellaneous
Last updated on
RFC 2119 defines key words such as "MUST," "MUST NOT," "REQUIRED" and "SHALL" that are often used in specifications. Here's a summary of the key word definitions.
Hyperscript: hyperior alternative to JSX
Published on in JavaScript, Mithril.js and React
Last updated on
JSX is just JS under the hood.
Hyperscript is like that JS,
but better.
Example:
h('a.link', { href }, 'Click me')
is nicer than
<a className="link" href={href}>Click me</a>,
right? Right?!
contenteditable + ::first-letter + Chrome = buggy combo
Published on in CSS
Last updated on
This combination causes weird behavior and data loss
because of a bug in Chrome,
so it's best not to use contenteditable and ::first-letter together.
How to change Modified date programmatically in Episerver
When migrating content from another platform to Episerver,
I wanted to set a specific datetime for each content's Modified date (Saved property).
Sounds simple,
but it was only possible by using Episerver's internal, undocumented API.
Switch statements: default doesn't have to be the last case
Published on in C#, Clean code, JavaScript and TypeScript
Last updated on
Non-last default cases are confusing
but perfectly valid.
Sometimes it makes sense to place them at the beginning or in the middle.
Mnemonic for Markdown's link syntax (and image syntax)
Was it [text](url) or (text)[url]?
Use this one weird trick to remember –
Markdown consultants HATE it!
Spoiler: it's the former since it looks like a function call.