Increment Issue 13: Frontend

Stripe's Increment, a superb quarterly magazine (print and online), explores how teams build and manage large-scale software systems. While generally covering website development, this issue marks its first dedicated focus on front-end development.

My contribution, "When frontend means full stack," is included. I may eventually adapt it for this site, adding more context (print limitations applied). I'm thrilled with how it appears in Increment! Here's a snippet:

We approach this expanding responsibility in various ways. Despite sharing a broad job title, many front-end developers specialize. Often, we lack a choice. The term "unicorn" once described the rare individual proficient in both front-end and back-end development, but today, even mastering the full spectrum of front-end skills is equally uncommon. In fact, "full stack" often signifies "a front-end developer handling many tasks previously assigned to back-end developers."

This issue boasts an impressive lineup of authors:

• Lea Verou's "A user's guide to CSS variables" (I learned CSS variables can create infinite loops—a condition the browser detects and handles).
• Ian Feather's "How to reevaluate your frontend architecture" (An insightful look at BuzzFeed's technical decision-making).
• Evan You's "The process: Making Vue 3" (Framework evolution is often driven by browser advancements that enhance capabilities and efficiency).
• Ipsita Agarwal's "Case study: Web components for screen readers" (Exploring a specific Slack component and the complexities of accessibility).
• Safia Abdalla's "On composable modular frontends" ("We need to apply composable design principles to the front end.")
• Chris Stokel-Walker's "The rise of React"
• Nishant Shukla's "A chatbot expedition"
• Glenn Fleishman's "Design by design"

And the article most relevant to my interests: Chris Lilley's "Why is CSS . . . the way it is?". It's surprisingly revealing, both disheartening and reassuring, to see CSS evolve like any software project—sometimes meticulously, sometimes with a "we'll fix it later" attitude.

Once implemented, a feature is easier to refine than to replace with a superior but entirely different alternative.

This explains why list markers were initially defined in CSS by extending the float property. (The marker floated left, allowing text to wrap around it to the right). That approach was abandoned in favor of the list-style-position property, whose current definition includes the less-than-confident inline comment: "This is handwavey nonsense from CSS2, and needs a real definition."

A truly exceptional collection of front-end articles.

My sincere gratitude to Sid Orlando and Molly McArdle for their guidance throughout the process; they're doing a fantastic job leading Increment.

1. The magazine consistently uses "frontend," adhering to its style guide. However, I prefer "front end" in this context. ? The term "front-end" is correct as a compound adjective; "front end" is correct as a noun.

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