c't <webdev> 2024

The key phrase for c’t , at least from the talks I went to and the conversations I ended up having with others, was “just use the browser”. Time and time again, I ended up marvelling at just how powerful the modern browser is, and just how much easier our work as developers is when we stop trying to rebuild browser components ourselves, and just use the built-in tools.

Accessibility

This topic started early on with two talks in quick succession about accessibility - one about how easy it can be to implement accessibility if you start building with that as your goal, and one about how to test accessibility in manual, unit, and end-to-end tests. The first talk by Paul Hempel was particularly interesting in terms of showing how much work the browser does for you. We all know (hopefully!) that we don’t need to put onClick handlers on random <div> elements because the browser already provides a <button> element. But did you know there’s also a <details> element that can be used as a toggle or accordion? Or a <dialog> element that provides a fully-accessible modal window without needing to import any libraries at all?

The testing talk explored the tools that we can use to check for accessibility issues. The speaker, Anna Maier, showed just how many problems common automated accessibility checkers (e.g. Google Lighthouse) can miss. But she also showed how to build automated tests that can check key accessibility issues in our applications, such as using tab-navigation in tests, or using findByRole and similar functions to check that semantic roles are correctly defined. She also looked at how AI might be useful in the future to find problems that are difficult for automated tools to spot, but also warned that those tools don’t exist right now.

The Magic of CSS

Continuing the theme of “just use the browser”, I went to two talks, each fantastic in their own way, about the power of CSS. The first was an introduction to fluid typography by Richard Rutter, and explained how to use CSS features like clamp() to create typography that scaled responsively but still looked good at different sizes, without needing to resort to breakpoints. He also showcased a set of typographical defaults that make typography easy even for those of us with limited design skills!

The keynote talk on the second day was from Håkon Wium Lie, creator of CSS and CTO of the Opera browser, who described the history of CSS, browser support, and browser competition, and ended by encouraging us all to embrace CSS in new contexts. In particular, he showed us how CSS can work for publishing books — again, fitting with the “just use the browser” theme.

The Hallway Track

This was my second c’t , and it was great to catch up with speakers that I’d met at the last conference, and at other conferences in Germany. We were able to trade stories, learn from each other, and see different sides of the industry — talking to designers, CEOs, other consultants, functional programming developers, and people working in open-source.

I got some new insights into the value of web components. I’m still a bit sceptical personally — I tend to side more with Ryan Carniato’s perspective that web components are standardising the wrong things — but it was interesting to hear success stories and suggestions there. I also learned a lot about HTMX in practice, and I’m looking forward to using it in projects where it can make our work easier.

My Contribution

The talk I gave was the same one I mentioned in my post last week about the Explicit Resource Management proposal. Unfortunately, I had the last talk slot on the last day, which meant a lot of people had already left by the time I got to speak, but I still got positive feedback from the people there. Many thanks to the person sitting near the front of the room and nodding along all the way through — it’s great to have someone like that to rely on when you realise you’ve made a mistake and want some reassurance!

Conclusion

c’t in 2023 was the first conference I ever spoke at, and it was great to be back again this year. The message of building less by using more native browser capabilities was a great one to come away with, and I picked up some good tips for new ways to put that into practice. I also had a great chance to talk to other developers and speakers.