Going by the sample chapter Andy Budd has produced a well writen and, most importantly clear book explaining CSS.
CSS Mastery is now on my ever growing shopping list, along with upgrading my ageing copy Photoshop 5.5.
Archive for the 'Code' Category
I must admit that the xmlhttprequest thing ( I can’t currently use the “a” word without wanting to punch myself in the face repeatedly) seems pretty interesting. It still relies on having Javascript turned on of course although I’ve never seen any data to show what proportion have js turned off so it may not matter anyway.
The point is to put a bit of thought into where and when it’s used so the user isn’t punished for their choices. What’s the phrase, “graceful degredation”?
Being the form freak that I am you can bet the xmlhttprequest thing (txt ?) is going to be sneaking into some of my work but not being a javascript coder I couldn’t really see how it all came together. There’s a post on rajshekhar.net that describes the process in a format that even I can understand. I think I’ve found a good enough reason to get to grips with javascript.
Rajshekhar link was via Deep Resonance.
I recently had to re-write the order form for my companies website. The previous version mixed HTML and PHP using lots of echo()’s and made sense when I orginally wrote it. It was only later, when my bosses wanted me to add new options to dropdown boxes and change things around that I realised what a pain this was.
The current version was written using templates and OOP. While, for what ever reason I still don’t quite get it I can see the advantages of using classes and templates when a project starts to get complicated.
It’s just going to take time for it to click completely.
I can’t say I’ve ever really been impressed by Javascript. Oh sure, on the surface you can do lots of interesting things with it but browser support has always been varied (only works with IE or Netscape for instance) and then there was always the issue of those that surfed with Javascript turned off. Me for instance.
But I noticed recently Jeremy Keith posting about a get together which started me thinking. If these people who are aware and use web standards are happy to use it then maybe things have moved on since I last looked at it although I’m not sure what relation Javascript has to the Document Object Model (DOM).
It would appear that things have move on since I last flirted with the webs evil twin*.
An article on Digital Web would appear to be a good place to start figuring out uses for the DOM. Especially as I enjoy creating forms. No, really. Honest.
*It’s a joke dammit. I’ve never been one of those who thought Javascript evil. Just not convinced of it’s useability.
The Etherdoxproject has had some content added and code tweaked. It’s proof for me how far I’ve progressed as there were some things that had me wondering why I’d opted for that route instead of the way I’d do it now.
For instance I used <strong> to represent headings. There’s nothing really wrong with it but nowdays I’d use a <hn> tag. It still didn’t bother me enough to go and change it though. I’m too lazy.
As far as I’m concerned people can use tables for layout, non-semantic mark up and have sex with animals but it’s just made me realise how far I’ve come over the last year. I must have been really bad a couple of years back.
Actually I lied. Sex with animals is just weird. Especially if you use tables for layout.
I’m having trouble getting to grips with some aspects of PHP, although it’s probably more to do with programming in general than a particular language.
Functions I get. Using arrays? I can get them to work in the end. Classes? I just don’t get classes. Functions seem to be called methods(!?) and why would I want to use classes anyway? How does $this --> work?
Don’t worry, I’m just letting off some steam. I’ll google for an explanation later.
Tired. Been playing Eve a lot this weekend so it’s my own fault but it doesn’t help when you have a work shedule like mine. I’m still trying to fit the finishing of my companys web site into that shedule. How long ago was it I started? The main problem is that it doesn’t feel like work to me (work isn’t supposed to be fun) so I usually abandon it to do some “real” work.
I’ve also become the code monkey on a revamp of a popular open source projects web site. I realise that last sentance is clunky but it’s probably not right to mention which one as it’s still in the early stages but I was pleased to be asked.
Why is it that most of my CSS based problems stem from Internet Explorer for mac. Is Mac IE used on OSX? Please tell me it’s not.
Kevin over at denial has put up a great new design and moved to Textpattern at the same time. I tried the early gamma versions and really liked the UI but couldn’t really get to grips with creating a whole site with it. That doesn’t mean I don’t think it’s a good bit of kit but that it didn’t work for me at the time. I’m fed up of moving systems so I’m going to stick with wordpress. Unless something new and shiny catches my eye that is.
Who would’ve expected this to work on images? Not me anyway.
width:xx%; - where “xx” is your value.
But it does. (Semi) scalable JPEGs, GIFs and PNGs. I’ll have to experiment as it opens up some interesting avenues for layout.
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