A fitVids vanilla JavaScript do-over

FitVids.js is a jQuery plugin used to create fluid videos. It helps makes video embeds from YouTube, Vimeo and a number of other sources display nicely on responsive sites.

FitVids calculates the ratio of a video, wraps it in a div and sets the padding to enforce a ratio. A typical 4:3 YouTube embed starts as:

<iframe 
  width="420" height="315" 
  src="//www.youtube.com/embed/btPJPFnesV4" 
  frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Responsive Web Design MVP

This is not another responsive web design equals web design post. That particular debate is largely answered every time an m-dot link is shared on Twitter or Facebook.

Ethan Marcotte’s landmark A List Apart article defined responsive web design as having three technical ingredients:

  • fluid grids
  • flexible media
  • media-queries.

It’s often argued that modern responsive web design requires more than these three ingredients.

To hell with bad email software

The current state of email clients is such that responsive email is considered one of the most difficult tasks in web-development. It’s time to force the hand of email client developers.

In 2001 Jeffrey Zeldman wrote:

[Web] standards have been around for years. Browsers that support them have been around for six months to a year. If not now, when?

It typically takes 18 months or longer for web users to upgrade their browsers. Many still use browsers, like Netscape 4, that date back to 1997. These folks will only upgrade if we give them a reason to do so.

To hell with bad browsers, A List Apart