Elsewhere monthlies for September 2006

Good Agile, Bad Agile

About software development in general, and software development at Google in particular.

Fortunately I've never heard of Agile Programming, and after reading this article I'll give it a wide berth whenever I encounter it.

Incidentally, Google's way of working (as portrayed here) reminds me of the heady hype days when I worked for a fast-growing Web site creation company. Looking back, I can see we were trying to do something akin to what Google's doing, but it didn't quite work out; especially because just at the time I felt I began to understand how the company should operate, the Dot-Bust happened, project and other managers finally subdued the last spots of engineer resistance, and working at the company became boring.

I wish this article had been written back then. It'd helped me a lot convincing my bosses that we were on the right track.

Theory | Permalink

for in Intrigue

Douglas Crockford explains the finer points and dangers of the for in loop.

Core | Permalink

dhteumeuleu

This site is an excellent showcase of DHTML effects—in the good sense of the word (we'd almost forget there is such a sense). Gerard Ferrandez has created a brilliant cascade of intriguing effects that somehow reminds me of Literary Moose's ground-breaking CSS work.

Besides, Ferrandez is (also) a real designer instead of just a programmer who just wants to show how nifty he is but can't tell a font size from a colour scheme. That doesn't mean the programming side of things has been forgotten; every script can be viewed and copied easily and will satisfy even the most arduously object-oriented programmer.

This site is more than worth sharing. Unfortunately, judging by the rather crappy sites (hotscripts.com? scripts.com?) it links to, it hasn't yet found its way into the standard list of great JavaScript sites. Let's therefore give Gerard Ferrandez the acclaim he deserves. Please link to his site. It's more than worth it.

Showcases | Permalink

A forensic analysis of the IE6 BackgroundImageCache command identifier

How to prevent IE6 from sending requests for cached images.

IE | Permalink

Web Directions North

John Allsopp, too, wishes to conquer the entire world. The first step is a hook-up with Derek Featherstone and Dave Shea to dominate Canada.

Conferences | Permalink

W3C Change: Full Independence

Eric proposes:

Transform the W3C from a member-funded organization to a financially independent entity.

The best idea of his series, but it'll likely be the most difficult one to implement.

Standards/W3C | Permalink

Yahoo! Developer Day Sept. 29: Speaker & Workshop Schedule

Well, look at that lineup. I'd love to hear Douglas Crockford's talk, but unfortunately my budget doesn't accomodate a weekend in San Francisco.

Conferences | Permalink

@media goes global: Europe, Asia, and America

Apparently Patrick Griffiths has a grand and cunning plan to conquer the entire world. I wish him luck.

Conferences | Permalink

Understanding HTML, XML and XHTML

The difference between HTML and XHTML (and XML) explained once more. Lucid overview.

HTML | Permalink

IE7 JavaScript Improvements

IE 7's JavaScript now runs much, much faster than before. Dean Edwards has the details; and Chris Wilson has confirmed them.

IE, JavaScript | Permalink

The IE7 User-Agent String

It turns out that there are still sites that block IE 7 because (presumably) it isn't IE 6! Once again proof that browser detection is like putting guns in the hands of idiots.

The IE team has added a navigator.userAgent-spoofer that allows users to send IE 6 strings to such sites. Although this is the only possible solution from MS's point of view, it's still a sad comment on the state of the Web.

IE | Permalink

Diversity thoughts

Rachel Andrew shares some of her thoughts on web diversity.

Society | Permalink

Diversity in the web professions

The web development world is predominantly white and male. How can we change that? John Allsopp ponders the question.

Society | Permalink

Top CSS Tips

Some useful CSS tips and best practices. I can especially recommend the zoom: 1 to force IE into 'having layout'; I often use it myself (also on this site).

CSS | Permalink

Strange Medium

On the meaning of font keywords in CSS supporting browsers.

CSS | Permalink

W3C Change: Working Groups

Eric continues his proposals for W3C reform. This time he talks about the organisation of a W3C Working Group.

So that’s how I’d reform WG membership and leadership: participants need to be active; WGs need a minimum membership to continue; and WGs should be able to remove their own chairs when necessary.

Interesting ideas, all in all. It'd also be interesting to see if W3C officially reacts to these ideas beyond "We'll take in into consideration but at this moment we can't say anything more."

Standards/W3C | Permalink

The comments of crowds

Jeremy starts an interesting blog comment experiment.

Blogging | Permalink

d.Construct debrief

Andy's wrap-up.

d.construct 2006 | Permalink

W3C Change: Outreach

Eric proposes that every W3C Working Group appoint an Outreach official who's responsible for communication between the Working Group and the general audience.

The main advantage would be more clarity: if people understand why a certain feature cannot be implemented, they'll start thinking along with the WG and maybe propose a viable solution. Right now, they can only guess at the reasons for not implementing the feature, and that's not good.

Standards/W3C | Permalink

W3C Change: Introduction

If W3C becomes slower and slower, what's the alternative? Unfortunately there is no simple answer to this question.

Eric feels W3C does not need to be replaced, provided it mends its ways. He'll continue to explore this topic in future entries. I, for one, am curious.

Standards/W3C | Permalink

Text-Resize Detection

An onFontResize event handler created by Chris Heilmann and Lawrence Carvalho.

I had a similar idea a few months ago, but never did anything with it because I couldn't find a way around the inevitable interval. Essentially you have to continue running a check function for as long as the user stays on the page. That's no problem if you have only one such function, but what if we get many more custom events like this, and the browser has to check dozens of them every 1/5th second or so?

Regardless of this potential problem it's an interesting idea.

Events | Permalink

If basic JavaScript will do the task, then use basic JavaScript.

Benchmarks, Libraries | Permalink

The FOUC Problem

Dave Hyatt on parsing order. Are CSS files read first, while the HTML is stalled, or are they read at the same time?

Browsers, CSS, JavaScript | Permalink