This post will be kind of “personal” since I want to talk about things I would like to be able to do before the end of the year.
Get better at JavaScript
God, I suck at JS. Hopefully, I get slightly better each day. My code is more and more structured but I’m far from being even acceptable at JavaScript. So many things are still a mess in my head. I’d really like to get better before the end of the year. At least good enough to do some simple stuff without struggling for hours.
Learning Canvas
I have good hope that once I’ll be more comfortable with JavaScript, I will also be more comfortable with Canvas. This is a fantastic tool offering close to endless possibilities. I had the opportunity to use it once or twice during the past, but it was mostly coming in some kind of library.
I know there are some pretty good tutorials out there to learn how to use Canvas but I didn’t take the time to dig into them. What do you think people, worth it? Or we can live without it for now?
Learn how to use Flexbox
I have some basic knowledge regarding the Flexible Box Module. I even made all the CSS-Tricks Almanac entries on this stuff and the complete guide for it. But I am not comfortable with this. I haven’t implemented it in any project yet, and can’t wait to do so.
I truely believe Flexbox is the future of CSS layout, especially when it comes to RIA (Rich Internet Applications) and web apps. Floats and inline-blocks are sucky as hell when it comes to complex architectures.
On a lesser extend (mostly because of the browser support), I think the Grid Layout Module is equally very interesting. Layout possibilities are endless, and it’s only the beginning: the specification is still not over.
Finally understanding z-index
I consider myself a good “CSS developer” (if such a thing even exists); I have solid knowledge on the language, I know how to do pretty much anything that comes in a standard-to-advanced frontend project and I’m aware of performance, accessibility, responsive design and all the topics that cool kids talk about. But if there is one thing I still don’t get properly, it has to be z-index.
I swear, people behind the specification of this property were either sadist or completely high. If you’re asking me, this is by far one of the most complicated things to understand in CSS2.1. This excellent article by Philip Walton proves it.
Work on a medium to large scale project
I feel like I lack some experience when it comes to large-scale projects. Same goes with team work. Even if I work on a team, I use to be the only developer on projects I’m working on. Other people are either designers or managers, and such.
I’d really like to work with several developers on a same project before the end of the year. I’m sure I will learn a ton of things. It is very different to work with multiple people on the same code basis from working alone with one’s own code.
Final words
It has been week since I first designed the first draft of this post in my head. Back then, I wanted to include “go to a conference”, and even “speak at a conference”. Hopefully, I don’t have to include them since I’ll be attending the KiwiParty as a speaker in late June. Very excited. :)
Anyway, this is only the tip of the iceberg, there are so much more things I would love to learn and do before even the end of the month. Alas, time isn’t expandable!
What about you people? What is it that you’d like to be able to do before the end of 2013?