Meeting Notes
Talks
SvelteJS
Svelte is a frontend JavaScript framework which uses a compiler to deliver code that surgically updates the DOM when your app changes state. (https://svelte.dev/)
We were treated to a compelling demo of Svelte when Nate Clark, Technical Director at Base Camp Coding Academy gave us an introduction via the sandbox provided at svelte.dev. (If you go there, Nate wins!)
Talk Details
Nate took us to the Svelte website tutorial page where we looked at a few examples of what Svelte can do:
- Adding Data
- Dynamic Attributes
- Nested Components
- Reactive Declarations (Cool stuff! Auto-calculate behavior familiar in spreadsheets!)
- That one with a lot of smiley faces raining down
- and some others
His commentary was informative and engaging as he tweaked the many examples on the fly.
Transitioning to some background info, we learned of the creator of Svelte, Rich Harris. Graphics editor for the New York Times, he created Svelte out of a need to produce interactive graphics under strict deadlines.
Nate finished with a visit to the Base Camp Coding Academy website and some discussion of the work they are doing for high school graduates. Present were three of his students.
Overall, we got a great sense of Nate's love of teaching, coding and, er...Svelte-ing.
Axe
Axe is an accessibility tool for developers, available as both browser extension (Chrome, Firefox) and native app.
Tony White, Senior Manager - Digital Development at Hilton, demoed the Axe browser extension in Chrome.
Talk Details
Navigating to the 'axe' tab in developer tools, we are given an 'Analyze' button that fires off the tool. The result is a list of accessibility issues, filterable in a dropdown. Using the websites of Memphis Web Workers and Shelby County Schools for examples, Tony shared a part of his typical workflow with the tool:
- Filter for violations
- Select a violation of interest
- Click 'Inspect Node' link, taking us to the elements tab with the questionable element highlighted
- Tweak the code in developer tools
- Revisit 'axe' tab and select 'Run again' link
Tony did a great job of opening our eyes to a tool that could benefit many of us. And he brought donuts (courtesy of Hilton)!