This is a first link dump in this blog, where I will list all interesting links that I have found in Internet. I plan to post link dumps once a week, so stay tuned to read most useful stuff with no effort. Todays topics are: organizing your CSS, top mistakes made by WordPress plugins authors, ways MySQL uses indexes, and the git version control advantages over the Subversion.
Beautiful CSS: Organizing Your Stylesheets
by Matthew Griffin
When I first took the plunge into CSS several years ago, one of my biggest frustrations was stylesheet organization. I scoured source code from popular sites trying to figure how they accomplished various layout effects. But tracking back and forth from stylesheets to HTML proved to be a difficult task. Unfortunately , that separation of style and content that makes CSS so awesome can also make it difficult to understand. Adding to that difficulty is the fact that each designer may have a different way of organizing stylesheets. If you inherit someone else’s site, this can cause some problems. In a perfect world everyone’s CSS would be well-organized, easy to scale, and easy to understand. We may not be able to attain such CSS Nirvana but we can at least make it easier on ourselves and those we work with by following this set of guidelines.
A nice article about organization of your CSS code. Author recommends to split your CSS code to several sections (universal styles, library styles, template layouts, individual page styles.) Also he proposes to indent styles related to nested HTML elements.
Top 10 Most Common Coding Mistakes in WordPress Plugins
by Ozh
As promised, I’m going to share a list of the most common mistakes, errors, misunderstandings, bad habits or wrong design decisions I’ve encountered while reviewing all these 43 plugins. Some are highly critical stuff (I’ve contacted 3 plugins authors after finding serious security holes in their plugin), some are more potential annoyances than real bugs, or are just causing a waste of server resources that could be avoided, but all have something in common: they’re trivial to fix. I’ve classified them in two parts: 10 bad code signs, plus a bonus with design decisions that suck. If you consider yourself a semi experienced coder or better, be sure to skip this article, you’re not going to learn a thing.
A comprehensive list of common pitfalls of WordPress plugins authors. If you maintain a plugin, please read this article carefully, most of mistakes are quite common (yes, I found several issues with my ones
3 ways MySQL uses indexes
by Peter Zaitsev
I often see people confuse different ways MySQL can use indexing, getting wrong ideas on what query performance they should expect. There are 3 main ways how MySQL can use the indexes for query execution, which are not mutually exclusive, in fact some queries will use indexes for all 3 purposes listed here.
You should read it. Period! Article covers all ways how MySQL uses indexes: filtering rows, sorting data, and reading data.
Why You Should Switch from Subversion to Git
by Scott Chacon
You may have heard some hubbub over distributed version control systems recently. You may dismiss it as the next hot thing, the newest flavor of kool-aid currently quenching the collective thirst of the bandwagon jumpers. You, however, have been using Subversion quite happily for some time now. It has treated you pretty well, you know it just fine and you are comfortable with it – I mean, it’s just version control, right?
Yet another article about git and what features make it so wonderful tool for any developer. Author covers main features of this version control system, and explains how it could improve your work and boost your productivity. Hey Subversion (SourceSafe, CVS, etc) users, I do not accept any excuses, you definitely should read it. Yes, right now!
I really like that article on MYSQL indexing and speed. It is a correct assumption that some people use the wrong indexes for the wrong things…even professionals :/