Planning JavaScript and Ajax for larger teams, equine invigorating imagery, one voice for libraries and a lot of good speakers - this was @mediaAjax 2007
Chris's write-up and slides.
@media Ajax 2007 | Permalink
This is the monthly archive for November 2007.
22 November 2007
Chris's write-up and slides.
@media Ajax 2007 | Permalink
The Safari team unveils a few upcoming additions to their browser.
Safari | Permalink
Sitepoint is on the verge of publishing an ultimate CSS reference, and one of its findings is that IE7, despite being light-years ahead of IE6, still doesn't have really good CSS support. Sitepoint has tried to be fair to IE by not counting its lack of support for inherit, but that action still doesn't help IE7 from running up quite a few "Buggy" entries.
I want to see their actual tables (and test cases) before committing myself to a stance on this, but the news seems to be not good.
CSS | Permalink
Ajaxian follows up Chris's recent Seven rules of unobtrusive JavaScripting by interviewing him.
JavaScript | Permalink
Andy wonders why everybody is so negative about "instant cake mixes" (nudge, nudge, know what I mean). What bothers people so much about them?
It's a fair question, especially since I think I count myself among the anti-cake-mix crowd—for now. Of course I have never actually used the instant mixes, so I argue from perfect ignorance; something that's quite popular in cake-baking circles.
Maybe, just maybe, the problem is that cake-baking as a whole isn't quite mature enough yet to automate. On the other hand, the very fact that instant mixes have appeared might mean that we have crossed the line from lovingly crafted handiwork being the only reasonable alternative to a situation where handicraft and instant mixes start to kind of — mix, so to speak.
The above paragraph rambles a bit, which seems to mean that I myself don't quite know what I want to say. Besides, I find myself moving away from baking cakes toward creating unobtrusive roast beefs as a topping for structural mashed potatoes and veggies—without ever using pre-roasted beef gridworks, it goes without saying.
Finally, Andy definitely has a point when he says that part of the fear comes from old-fashioned craftspeople afraid of being replaced by instant-cake-mixing factories. Nonetheless, craftspeople have been said to be in danger of replacement often, and it has never actually happened yet. True craftspeople just move on to a new craft instead of passively waiting to be replaced.
CSS | Permalink
More years ago that I care to think about, Owen Briggs, one of the unsung heroes of early CSS, published an influential set of articles about text sizing in CSS. What always struck me is how much effort he put into this project; I mean, taking 250+ screenshots and then interpreting them is not something you do in a few stolen hours.
Unfortunately, the intervening 5 years and countless browser versions have made his conclusions less applicable to today's situation.
Therefore Richard Rutter of Clearleft fame has had the excellent idea to take a look at this question anew and publish his findings at A List Apart. True, Richard has done "only" 150+ screenshots, but still the result is quite worth it. Besides, he also covers text resizing, something that Owen didn't because back then it wasn't a factor in web developers' calculations yet.
CSS | Permalink
15 November 2007
John Resig creates a map of the confused jumble JavaScript is right now. Study it carefully and impress your friends with your detailed knowledge.
JavaScript | Permalink
David Storey offers a way out of the CSS 2.2 vs. CSS Snapshot dilemma:
Any feature that has more than one implementation should be listed with a short justification why it isn't included or ready.
Now we just need a list of such features. Maybe, in the new year, when I have more time, I'll see if I can create such a list.
CSS, Standards/W3C | Permalink
Dispelling some CSS specificity myths. Useful overview of what early tutorials did wrong (or at least implied).
CSS | Permalink
Chris unveils a few easy-to-learn rules for learning unobtrusive JavaScript.
Theory | Permalink
Dustin is not happy with the proposed JavaScript 2.0, largely because it makes JavaScript more like Java.
I know about the fight going on between (apparently) Mozilla/Adobe vs. Microsoft/Yahoo! about the spec, but I'm not sure what the actual issues are. Therefore I like this sort of opinion pieces: they show what people on both sides of the dividing line think.
Now let's hope for an opinion piece that defends the proposed changes in easy language.
Core | Permalink
11 November 2007
A valiant try at defining the browser incompatibilities surrounding the key events. Yes, this is complicated. In any case I'm glad somebody has done some work; I'll probably use this page once I get back to describing the key events and their problems.
Events | Permalink
6 November 2007
Derek Powazek gives advice to budding web developers. Just make websites! Don't worry about degrees; even work experience matters little.
Skillset | Permalink
The UK government's plans for accessibility. Bruce is cautiously optimistic.
Accessibility | Permalink
Rachel Andrew asks what people expect from an advanced CSS course (or book). I'd like to know the same.
CSS, Skillset | Permalink
2 November 2007
After the JS Core, John gives an interesting overview of the limitations of the iPhone; especially when it comes to JavaScript.
iPhone | Permalink
John calls attention to some changes in JavaScript Core that will gradually become supported. I especially like the this propagation.
Core | Permalink
1 November 2007
Dave Hyatt announces the lastest addition to Safari's CSS: animations.
div {
opacity: 1;
-webkit-transition: opacity 1s linear;
}
div:hover {
opacity: 0;
}
Now this sounds great, but I have to agree with Shaun Inman and Jonathan Snook that these new properties blur the line between presentation and behaviour even more.
Behaviour and presentation have to be separated somewhere; there has to be some sort of line dividing the two. The problem is that on the CSS side of things there are plenty of people who want to slowly push back the line, integrating more and more functionalities that once were JavaScript-only into CSS (content, for one).
Now animations. Where will it stop? Presentation is presentation, and behaviour is behaviour.
Besides, didn't we decide that we should attempt to follow the W3C standards? For sure, "following" has acquired the secondary meaning "implementing declarations W3C is considering but hasn't yet made up its mind about", but just about all new CSS additions actually have some sort of basis in some sort of spec. Animation hasn't.
All in all I wonder whether this is a good idea.
CSS, Safari, Theory | Permalink
See the October 2007 archive.
This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.
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