Brothercake

came here for something, and found something else

Brothercake is a front-end web-developer based in Australia, with a strong focus on accessibility and standards-based development.

This site is a portfolio for some of my work, and a collection of useful resources including scripts, games and articles. There's also some hobbies and personal stuff, and occasionally I rant or give vent to something or other.

Latest news and stuff

Stop Using Ajax!

Published, 24th April 2008

“In this controversial article, James "Brothercake" Edwards argues that we should stop using Ajax until we have ironed out the issues surrounding its lack of compatibility with accessible technologies such as screenreaders, and suggests how you can stick to accessible web standards-based techniques, instead of resorting to Ajax.”

The Art & Science of JavaScript

Published, January 2008

“The Art & Science of JavaScript assembles seven of the greatest minds in modern JavaScript to teach you the most inspirational techniques you'll ever use. From creating impressive mashups and stunning, dynamic graphics, to more subtle user-experience enhancements, you're about to be amazed by the true potential of this powerful language.”

BeatBox

Published, 30th September 2007

“BeatBox is my take on the Lightbox concept, with some particular variations — including semantic and accessible content, configurable proportions, and no library dependencies...”

You Can't Have It Both Ways

Published, 30th August 2007

“... we're still asked to compromise our principles in the name of business logic. Because if we didn't do that there would be no jobs. Because that business logic is what pays for our principles. Except that isn't really true; I think the exact opposite is true — our principles sustain business logic.”

The truth of beauty

Published, 20th August 2007

“That which is beautiful is not always good.

“But that which is good is always beautiful.”

Dust-Me Selectors

Published, 30th July 2007

“Dust-Me Selectors is a Firefox extension (for v1.5 or later) that finds unused CSS selectors.

“It extracts all the selectors from all the stylesheets on the page you're viewing, then analyzes that page to see which of those selectors are not used. The data is then stored in your user preferences, so that as you continue to navigate around a site, selectors will be crossed off the list as they're encountered.

“You'll end up with a profile of which selectors are not used anywhere on the site.”