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Unexpected Things That I Learned When Learning Web Development

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The "Lorem Ipsum" text

I know the "Lorem Ipsum" text because I learned web development. Otherwise, I will never know about it.

Until now, I still do not know what it means. I also do not care about it.

Accessibility

I did not know that website is for everyone. I thought it was only for companies promoting their products or services. I thought a website is for advertisements.

I thought only people without disabilities use the website. Now, I know that websites should be accessible to those people too.

I thought that I was ignorant when I could not use a website. For example, when I can not click a tiny button. Now, I know that the button needs to be bigger. Another example is when I could not remember what I should input because the label is the placeholder of the input. Now, I know that input elements should not use placeholders as labels.

When I learned more about web accessibility, my HTML started getting better. I left the alternative text empty for decorative images. I used headings in logical order to structure the content on the website—instead of making the text big and bold. I started writing alternative text without phrases like "Image of" or "Picture of". I realized that <button> and <a> should be used for different purposes.

My CSS started getting better as well. I stopped using the CSS pixel unit (px). I started learning how to use rem and em. I became aware that decorative images can be rendered as background images or pseudo-elements.

I knew about web accessibility when I joined the Frontend Mentor community two years ago. I started reading feedback from ApplePieGiraffe, Grace Snow, and Matt Studdert. Then, I got feedback from Grace Snow and other people. After that, I started having discussions with different people there. That was a good learning experience. It is still good.

Knowing web accessibility gives the reasons behind the code that I write. Without knowing that I do not think I will use the <main> element or <footer> since they are the same as <div>.

Related resources for this section:

Different file types

I would not know a lot of file types if I did not learn web development.

Now, I know five file types for images.

I also know four file types for fonts.

Many other file types.

Privacy and security

I was using the same password for all my accounts. It was 14 characters long and all numbers. (Can you guess it?)

After, I learned about internet security. I started using a password manager and changed all of my password accounts. Now, all of my accounts have different passwords and I only need to remember one password.

For the privacy area, I learned that Google Analytics collects Personal Identifiable Information (PII). Google Chrome is not privacy-friendly. So, I switch to use Brave and Firefox. I use uBlock Origin to block many trackers in Firefox.

I started learning to understand the "Privacy Policy" page and the "Terms and Conditions" page. Before, I was never reading those two pages. I was always agreeing without even reading them. Now, I read those two pages before signing up to use a service.

Related resources for this section:

Free and Open Source Software

I also started knowing about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). It is software where the source is publicly available and everyone can make contributions. Also, it is more privacy-friendly than proprietary software—most of the time.

For your information, proprietary software is software where the source code is not publicly available. In other words, it does not have a public repository. For example, Google Chrome, Twitter, and Amazon.

After knowing this, I started replacing my applications with FOSS. For example, I use Brave instead of Google Chrome, and I use Simple File Manager instead of the default File Manager.

Simple File Manager Pro | F-Droid - Free and Open Source Android App Repository

Now, my Android has more free space since FOSS tends to be lighter than proprietary software.

I use AlternativeTo.net to search for an alternative and then filter it with open source.

AlternativeTo - Crowdsourced software recommendations

Many more

I do not want to list everything. I mean this will be a never-ending thing. As I keep learning and browsing the internet, I learn new things.

For example, recently I learned about Webmention. Webmention is a way to communicate with each other through personal websites. I applied Webmention to this website. Then, I connected my Twitter to Bridgy to receive Webmention from my tweets. Until now, I do not get any comments on any of my tweets—that contain a link to my website. Even worse, Bridgy is no longer having access to Twitter.

So long, Twitter API, and thanks for all the fish | snarfed.org

Bridgy