Terms starting with "R"
Replace Magic Literal with Symbolic Constant
Magic literals (numbers/strings hardcoded without context) should become named constants — MAX_RETRIES = 3 is self-documenting; the literal 3 is not.
6mo ago
Code Quality beginner
requestAnimationFrame — Smooth Animations
HTML5
requestAnimationFrame(callback) schedules a function to run before the browser's next repaint — the correct way to animate in JavaScript, producing smooth 60fps motion and automatically pausing when the tab is hidden.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
ResizeObserver API
HTML5
2
ResizeObserver watches element size changes without polling — more efficient than resize event listeners and works for any element, not just the window.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
Responsive Design
1
A CSS approach where layouts adapt to different screen sizes using fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries — one codebase that works across mobile, tablet, and desktop.
6mo ago
Mobile beginner
Return Type Declarations (PHP 7.0)
PHP 7.0+
PHP 7.0 return type declarations (:int, :string, :void, :static, :never) enable functions to declare what they return — making return contract violations detectable at runtime and by static analysis.
6mo ago
PHP beginner
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
3
An authorisation model where permissions are assigned to roles, and roles are assigned to users — checking 'can this role perform this action?' rather than 'can this specific user?'
6mo ago
Security intermediate
ReferenceError — Undefined Variables
ES2015
ReferenceError is thrown when accessing a variable that hasn't been declared — unlike undefined which is a declared variable with no value.
6mo ago
JavaScript beginner
register_globals Risk & Legacy Code
PHP 3.0+
1
register_globals automatically created PHP variables from GET/POST/COOKIE data — removed in PHP 5.4. Legacy code using it is critically vulnerable to variable injection.
6mo ago
Security intermediate
Reactive Patterns — Observer & Pub/Sub in JavaScript
ES2015
EventEmitter, CustomEvent, and pub/sub patterns coordinate state changes across components without tight coupling — common in PHP-rendered pages with JS islands.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
Read Model Projections
Denormalised views of domain data built by processing event streams — the read side of CQRS, optimised for query performance rather than write consistency.
6mo ago
Architecture advanced
Regex Flags & Modifiers
PHP 5.3+
4
PCRE modifiers in PHP — i (case-insensitive), m (multiline), s (dotall), x (verbose), u (Unicode) — and their inline equivalents (?imsx).
6mo ago
Regex intermediate
Regex with grep, sed & awk
Three essential Linux text processing tools — grep for filtering lines, sed for stream editing, awk for field-based processing — all using regular expressions.
6mo ago
Linux intermediate
Regular Expressions in JavaScript
ES2015
2
JS regex syntax, flags (g, i, m, s, u, d), methods (test, match, matchAll, replace, split), and the critical differences from PHP's PCRE.
6mo ago
JavaScript intermediate
Removed PHP Function
PHP 7.0+
2
Calling a function removed in a newer PHP version — causes a fatal error on upgrade and blocks modernisation of the PHP runtime.
6mo ago
PHP intermediate
Resource Prefetching
HTML5
dns-prefetch, preconnect, preload, and prefetch hints — fetching critical resources early to reduce perceived load time.
6mo ago
Performance intermediate
Responsive Design Patterns
CSS3
Layout patterns for adapting UI across screen sizes — fluid grids, the column drop pattern, layout shifter, mostly fluid, and off-canvas navigation.
6mo ago
Mobile intermediate
Responsive Images
HTML5
Serving different image sizes to different devices using srcset and sizes — preventing mobile devices from downloading desktop-sized images.
6mo ago
Frontend intermediate
RoadRunner — Persistent PHP Worker
PHP 8.0+
Go-based server keeping PHP workers alive between requests — eliminating per-request bootstrap cost.
6mo ago
Performance advanced
Runbooks & Playbooks
2
Documented step-by-step procedures for handling operational tasks and incidents — ensuring any on-call engineer can respond correctly under pressure without tribal knowledge.
6mo ago
General beginner
RabbitMQ
PHP 7.0+ A message broker implementing AMQP — producers publish to exchanges, exchanges route to queues, consumers pull from queues — providing durable, reliable message delivery.
6mo ago
Messaging intermediate