Today I learned that there is an HTML entity called “thin space” that you can use when you need less space between two characters than the normal space. The HTML code is   Thin Space might be the most underrated HTML entity. It can be used for a name like J. K. Simmons. Without spacing, the J and K would seem too close together; with a regular space, they seem too far apart. Insert a thin space and it is just perfect. - Typography Manual ...
Today I learned about a handy little Visual Studio extension called Copy Nice whose sole purpose is to address an annoyance I encounter frequently where the indentation is off when I copy and paste code snippets. With this extension, when code is copied it will automatically be formatted to take care of the leading indentation issue. Now if only there was some system-level utility to this do when copying from anywhere…
Today I learned that you can now implement smooth scrolling purely with CSS in modern browsers. By adding the following CSS: /* Smooth scrolling IF user doesn't have a preference due to motion sensitivities */ @media screen and (prefers-reduced-motion: no-preference) { html { scroll-behavior: smooth; } } the browser will scroll smoothly whenever scrolling is triggered either by Javascript (with something like document.documentElement.scrollTop = 0) or by linking to elements with an internal anchor link. It’s considered best practice to use the prefers-reduced-motion media query to only enable things like animations to be mindful of users with motion sensitivities. In my testing, however, the browser won’t ever smooth scroll if the user has prefers-reduced-motion enabled. ...
People like to joke that vim is impossible to exit, but I just discovered that there are actually several different ways to quit and :x is my new favorite. The :x command will save and quit but it differs from :wq in that it will only write the file to disc if there were any changes so the modified date of the file won’t get updated unnecessarily. This seems like the preferred behavior most of the time. That coupled with the fact that it’s slightly faster to type has made it my new default way to exit vim.
Today I learned that you can reference the upstream branch in git with @{u}. I used this to make a convenient git alias reso for “reset to origin”: git config --global alias.reso "reset --keep @{u}" note: I’m using --keep instead of --hard because it’s a bit safer I use this when a branch I’ve pulled down has completely changed on the remote and I have no changes (for instance when reviewing a PR) and a pull would be messy (a reset is also much faster depending on the number of commits). ...
Today I learned that C# 12 is getting some nice javascript-like syntax with collection expressions and the .. (spread operator): string[] moreFruits = ["orange", "pear"]; IEnumerable<string> fruits = ["apple", "banana", "cherry", ..moreFruits]; Note though that the spread operator is only 2 dots instead of 3 dots like in javascript.
Today I learned about the local overrides feature of Chrome Devtools that lets you “you can override HTTP response headers and web content, including XHR and fetch requests, to mock remote resources even if you don’t have access to them”. This came in handy for me when trying to debug an issue that I wasn’t able to reproduce locally. The official docs do a nice job showing how to enable the feature but just make sure you delete the override once you’re done otherwise you might wonder why the page has stopped updating. ...
Today I learned that you can add alt text to images in PowerPoint and Google Slides by right-clicking on an image. It hadn’t occurred to me before but it makes sense that it would be as important as alt text for images on the web if you’re going to share your slides. Likewise, you should mark an image as “decorative” if you want a screen reader to ignore it. This post has some nice examples of how to write good alt text.
Today I learned that you can configure both Google Calendar and Outlook to show the week number in the “month” view. You might find this handy for project/sprint planning — I’ve also been keeping weekly notes with the week number at the beginning of the filename.