When does software end? How do we get there? - 123dev #21

Posted on September 26, 2021 • 2 minutes • 340 words

An animation of flying through doors created by folding paper

Comments

End results

When I think about how I create software it feels very haphazard. Some days are better than others but I rarely make the progress I want. By the time I’m ready to share with someone I realize how much a week or a month of steady progress adds up.

The gif was created by making folds and creases in paper and then using stop motion to put them together. Progress must have been slow but the end result is stunning.

One of the biggest differences with software is there is no end. There’s usually just a progression toward improvements and enhancements.

Browser extensions

How we extend our browsers has changed a lot over the years. One of the things I like about the current generation of extensions is many times they’re written in javascript and approachable for a broad developer base. Here’s three browser extensions I like that are also open source so you can see how they’re built.

Links

The Internet Archive is an amazing service to see what pages historically looked like. This extension gives you an easy way to jump directly from your current page into a historical timeline.

GitHub - vegetableman/vandal: Navigator for Web Archive Navigator for Web Archive. Contribute to vegetableman/vandal development by creating an account on GitHub.

There are plenty of occasions where you need to test how apps or websites behave with specific headers. I often used curl -H but that doesn’t work if I want to render a page. With this extension you can test specific features, enable tracing, or test different user agents.

GitHub - bewisse/modheader: ModHeader browser extension ModHeader browser extension. Contribute to bewisse/modheader development by creating an account on GitHub.

I have manually erased tracking data from URLs I share for years. There’s now an extension that does it for me automatically.

Kevin R. / ClearURLs · GitLab ClearURLs is an add-on based on the new WebExtensions technology and will automatically remove tracking elements from URLs to help protect your privacy when browse through the Internet.