Mayank

front-of-the-front end developer. always listening to prog.

posting about HTML, CSS and other web stuff.

trying to build a less broken, more accessible web.

(posts will auto-delete after N days)

#nobot #noindex #nobridge

pronouns: they/them
blog: https://www.mayank.co/blog

Public Key

npub1ftxguws0g7ujpv2h7tdcu7j0s64u9cq5p5hmqgez27043znrd4csuvyzsr

NIP-05 Address

mayank_at_front-end.social@momostr.pink

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsy4nyw8g850wfqk9tl9kuw0f8cd27zuq2q6tasyv39086c3f3k6ugpz3mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujuerpd46hxtnfduqs6amnwvaz7tmwdaejumr0ds3y8duu

Publishing to

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1ftxguws0g7ujpv2h7tdcu7j0s64u9cq5p5hmqgez27043znrd4csuvyzsr

Show more details

Last Notes

2026-06-01 21:29:53 UTC

- reply

hmm, i just tested a fresh button. chrome and safari allow text selection, but firefox blocks it.

2026-06-01 21:15:54 UTC

- reply

no, it was just getting rid of the default cursor. when i hover the button, my pointer literally disappears!
are you perhaps thinking of `user-select: none`? i see that on buttons all the time. (also not a fan of it, but it makes sense in some cases)

2026-06-01 15:54:02 UTC

found `cursor: none` on a button today. that's a new one.

2026-05-06 12:50:21 UTC

- reply

develop on firefox and safari. maybe you'll even fix some bugs that you'd otherwise ship to your users

2026-05-06 12:43:08 UTC

can we all uninstall chrome now?

2026-03-23 18:18:55 UTC

- reply

they're talking about the "future of the web". to me, that literally sounds like Servo. it's one of the few technologies i'm actually looking forward to.

2026-03-23 18:07:46 UTC

not even a hint of Servo mentioned in this post about "independent browser engines". https://blog.mozilla.org/netpolicy/2026/03/23/competition-innovation-and-the-future-of-the-web/

2026-01-27 18:08:49 UTC

this is an interesting gadget which would be useful for my ADHD brain, if only it wasn't literally designed to become e-waste. https://repebble.com/blog/meet-pebble-index-01-external-memory-for-your-brain

2026-01-17 14:25:03 UTC

- reply

indeed, it expects formats/units from the '90s.
i just can't design with these unnecessary limitations. it's fundamentally incompatible with how i think about the web today.

2026-01-17 03:59:31 UTC

design tools and i will never be friends 💔
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/115/908/435/557/626/369/original/6faa98d4eb1531ce.png
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/115/908/435/558/055/180/original/8e9b5a02e78d9e01.png

2025-12-05 09:47:19 UTC

RE: https://indieweb.social/@NicMakesStuff/115664939193113656
Nic (@npub1ppz…5fpk) is quite literally the best person you could hire right now for any kind of webdev project
#note194a…6ru5

2025-11-27 17:38:10 UTC

Anyone hiring a frontend developer in Canada? Circumstances have led me to start looking for my next job sooner than I would have liked.
I excel at working on design systems, cultivating a frontend culture, building with the grain of the web, and creating inclusive user experiences. Reach out if you need help with any of these!
I have deep knowledge of the web fundamentals (HTML/ARIA, CSS, JS) and the frontend ecosystem at large (build tools, frameworks, design tools).
#GetFediHired #FediHire

2025-10-08 18:22:43 UTC

just one more month until the `color-mix()` function is considered "baseline widely available"
this function is possibly one of the most useful recent additions to CSS.

2025-08-01 21:27:28 UTC

- reply

finally some good news!

2025-07-19 14:51:01 UTC

the next generation of stalebots
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/114/880/456/852/140/794/original/0126bf82102c72fc.png

2025-06-18 21:29:21 UTC

- reply

i haven't taken the time to learn any fancy obsidian features (someday!)
i still pay for obsidian sync, because it's just so nice to use a piece of software and not have to deal with "AI" or any other crap

2025-06-18 21:17:18 UTC

i've been trying out "one page per idea" in my private obsidian. any new idea, no matter how small, gets its own page.
previously i would only sort/organize by date, which means multiple unrelated things ended up on the same page and it also became impossible to meaningfully search for anything from the past.

2025-06-10 18:14:14 UTC

svg favicons everywhere! this is not a drill
https://webkit.org/blog/16993/news-from-wwdc25-web-technology-coming-this-fall-in-safari-26-beta/

2025-06-08 14:56:34 UTC

what the fuck is happening
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/ai-spiritual-delusions-destroying-human-relationships-1235330175/
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/114/648/323/967/565/752/original/45db1dd8512e2de6.png

2025-06-04 19:00:08 UTC

- reply

i would link it to the id of the first sensible thing on the page (e.g. an `<h1>`, or even a skip-to-content link). the focus will move to that element on click.
note: HTML supports a special `href=#top` value, but it behaves the same as `href=#` and does not move focus (unless there is an element with `id=top`)

2025-06-04 16:27:03 UTC

every time i use CSS grid, i wish it behaved more like flexbox.
bad API or skill issue?

2025-05-17 17:18:25 UTC

- reply

i was also very disappointed in penpot's implemention of design tokens. it doesn't make much sense. i want to "set a color" not "use a token"

2025-05-02 18:40:21 UTC

- reply

"don't use CSS that makes the visual order contradict the logical order." 💯
now to wait until Firefox/Safari express interest in implementing this.
- https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1056
- https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/378

2025-05-02 18:25:41 UTC

- reply

i would be interested in seeing examples of where this is actually improving accessibility.
maybe the real problem here is that CSS can drastically change the visual order of elements.
i also worry about the progressive enhancement story for this. until this is implemented in all browsers, it probably should not be used.

2025-05-02 18:07:37 UTC

does anyone have thoughts on the #accessibility impact of Chrome shipping `reading-flow` and `reading-order`? https://developer.chrome.com/blog/reading-flow
seems like it could be misused. and it might encourage bad patterns.
#a11y #CSS

2025-05-01 23:20:16 UTC

- reply

omg this also happens to my work mac sometimes. it's so weird!

2025-03-29 16:22:58 UTC

"Then CSS came along, it was a fucking miracle." — https://eev.ee/blog/2020/02/01/old-css-new-css/
learned at least 7 different things about the web from this post

2025-01-30 16:15:40 UTC

the US Web Design System having to delete their page on inclusive design is wild
https://github.com/uswds/uswds-site/pull/3078

2025-01-11 18:43:26 UTC

why does it feel like there are fewer and fewer real allies going into 2025?

2025-01-07 00:44:24 UTC

babe wake up, new neal.fun minigame just dropped https://neal.fun/stimulation-clicker/

2024-12-22 17:49:33 UTC

- reply

i could just accept it as "the way things are". but i choose to keep being angry at how most software sucks in so many little ways (by design).
this doesn't even cover the worst aspects of capitalism, but it's a good read: https://www.wheresyoured.at/never-forgive-them/

2024-12-22 17:26:16 UTC

- reply

you know it's December when YouTube recommends shit like "lofi christmas". also michael bublé in four different playlists.
google literally knows about every song i've ever listened to in my entire life. it would be so easy for them to give me something relevant. it doesn't have to be like this

2024-12-20 18:26:44 UTC

- reply

this is so good! i crave this kind of "inside scoop". it came in at the perfect time too; building a tree of interactive elements at work, and we started with simple nested lists, which are hella annoying to navigate.
am i understanding correctly that you want the sub-issues experience (i.e. keyboard shortcut which opens a dialog for secondary actions) to be used everywhere on github? and that the current tabbing approach was a compromise made mainly because of the size of the change?

2024-12-20 01:37:46 UTC

you know it's December when Hulu and Hbo both want you to watch Elf 200 times

2024-12-10 19:42:32 UTC

today has been like:
Oops! All Disappointment

2024-12-05 19:53:40 UTC

this call is being recorded. anything you say can and will be used for AI training purposes

2024-12-02 09:59:52 UTC

- reply

wait this is genius! do you put it in a `<text>`?

2024-12-02 09:18:17 UTC

- reply

i always create an empty favicon.svg file. but this is even better 👀

2024-11-29 19:02:39 UTC

this article and the quoted research is *wild*. https://www.404media.co/are-overemployed-ghost-engineers-making-six-figures-to-do-nothing/
i've personally worked with "ghost engineers" who get paid double what i make and contribute absolutely nothing. but management is usually aware of them and even complicit in protecting them.
surveillance is going to change nothing (except of course violate the privacy for those who are actually contributing)

2024-11-21 03:07:45 UTC

today i finally updated chrome. i was holding off bc i knew they had added AI bullshit to dev-tools. https://developer.chrome.com/blog/new-in-devtools-131
it's so in your face — "Ask AI" is literally the first option when you open the context menu
maybe it's just me, but this thing makes me not even want to open chrome dev-tools.

2024-11-19 20:11:03 UTC

- reply

i still use `rel=noreferrer` manually because i almost never use `target=_blank`

2024-11-07 01:14:43 UTC

- reply

settled on netlify after all. Matt made it easy
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/113/439/020/209/575/356/original/fc71b88eeba542cd.png
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/113/439/020/185/490/865/original/1ba4646361c7b127.png

2024-11-06 19:00:38 UTC

- reply

yeah i think that's not enough. it's plausible deniability at best

2024-11-06 18:49:51 UTC

are there any hosting providers that you know for certain are not problematic in some way?

2024-11-03 20:54:51 UTC

📝 new blog post: "Your CSS reset should be layered". https://www.mayank.co/blog/css-reset-layer
i've been wanting to publish this one ever since i built my own CSS reset. i was waiting until layers were "baseline widely available"

2024-11-03 00:25:32 UTC

- reply

there's good parts and bad parts. APG only shows you how to use ARIA (which may not even be supported), it's not a production-tested pattern library to use as a blueprint. that's why there's a prominent warning on every page

2024-10-22 00:13:38 UTC

- reply

speaking of emojis, i recently learned that HTML allows some emoji (like "🥔") in a custom element name, but disallows certain other emoji (like "✨").
the CSS spec borrowed the same restrictions from HTML: https://drafts.csswg.org/css-syntax/#non-ascii-ident-code-point
but browsers don't follow the spec here. so custom properties named `--🥔` and `--✨` both work in all browsers.
https://cdn.masto.host/frontendsocial/media_attachments/files/113/348/183/087/867/895/original/d47508eccc1426d9.png

2024-10-21 22:46:58 UTC

- reply

when @npub1ufg…wuqt said "start overengineering your CSS", i really took that to heart.

2024-10-21 22:20:30 UTC

a sign that your CSS might be too powerful is when it breaks all the existing tooling
over the last few days i've noticed:
- nested cascade layers break vscode's syntax highlighting
- emojis in custom properties break biome's and vscode's CSS parsers in different ways
- cyclic space toggles break browser devtools

2024-10-10 10:03:44 UTC

- reply

it looks still open source (at least partially)? https://github.com/tldraw/tldraw/tree/main/apps/dotcom/client

2024-10-10 00:36:52 UTC

two use-cases for #WebComponents that i don't see being talked about enough:
1. micro-micro-frontends using custom elements: you can have different people build different parts of the same page (even using different frameworks), and bring them together using custom elements.
2. stateful diffing using shadow dom: you can swap out HTML of a shadow-tree without losing dom state (e.g. focus or text selection) of slotted elements.

2024-09-20 21:17:47 UTC

- reply

i don't often talk about mastodon meta (feels really weird) but i've been enjoying https://phanpy.social/ - it's pretty decent with regards to threads and replies

2024-09-20 21:15:53 UTC

- reply

(i think this was a reply to me? haha)

2024-09-17 19:40:42 UTC

- reply

this is the clarification i was looking for, thank you! and congrats 🎈

2024-09-17 19:37:22 UTC

- reply

sorry if i'm being dense but could you maybe clarify a little bit more?
if the answer to all of @npub1lpj…5j0h's questions is "yes", then i don't understand how FA "bought" 11ty and how it's still "owned" by you. these seem mutually exclusive?

2024-09-12 18:24:56 UTC

- reply

this has probably been asked before: what's the least bad CMS?
things i'm looking for: accessibility, self-hostability, customizability.
bonus points if it can output markdown.

2024-09-12 00:48:03 UTC

- reply

do they still have the lady shouting "bluetooth (dis)connected" and "battery low" in your ears?

2024-09-10 20:02:09 UTC

help i feel like building a CMS (i really shouldn't)

2024-09-09 23:19:29 UTC

anyone know yahoo is?
i have the vaguest memory of what it was from when i was 6 years old. today i have absolutely no clue what yahoo.com is and i simply ignore it in search results

2024-09-06 18:38:13 UTC

- reply

hunte-- oh hi Zach!

2024-09-06 18:17:37 UTC

as a macOS user,
i want a random unrelated window to steal my focus while i'm in the middle of typing
so that i can waste 10 minutes complaining about it before i get back to whatever i was doing

2024-08-28 23:56:24 UTC

"can you convert a video to pure css?" https://dgerrells.com/blog/can-you-convert-a-video-to-pure-css
i don't know who David Gerrells is, but they have the most cursed blog posts (previously: "so you think you know box shadows?" https://dgerrells.com/blog/how-not-to-use-box-shadows)
10/10 would subscribe again
they even built a tool that takes your video and converts it into keyframes: https://dgerrells.com/video-to-css

2024-08-27 19:32:52 UTC

- reply

you can build a simple, maintainable website that serves zero JS by using nonstandard tooling (like Preact/Astro) on the server.
you cannot do the same by following web standards. that just makes me sad.
RE: https://toot.cat/@zkat/113030184473098684

2024-08-27 19:31:59 UTC

it has been almost a decade since Mozilla killed HTML imports and we still do not have a meaningful replacement.
https://hacks.mozilla.org/2014/12/mozilla-and-web-components/
RE: https://typetura.social/@scott/113035240085936283

2024-08-27 12:23:50 UTC

how is mastodon still DDOSing websites, smfh
https://flipboard.social/@coffeegeek/113030436873628885
https://hackers.town/@requiem/113033744308284474
(first seen on https://mastoddos.evilgeniusrobot.uk/ and then on https://kevquirk.com/blog/mastodon-is-ddosing-me)

2024-08-15 20:48:50 UTC

- reply

still thinking about this, five hours later

2024-08-12 12:43:00 UTC

- reply

this sort of thing should probably be a fragment link. currently a screen-reader user does not get any feedback after clicking the link; it's as if the link were broken. in comparison, clicking a fragment link would move focus to the target element, which gets announced by screen-readers.

2024-08-12 12:13:36 UTC

- reply