LeeseIT Blogs » CSS

doctype, a predictable problem

Leroy Leese — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:33:39 +0000

I don’t want to sound condescending, but it was something that was bound to come up. I ran into it working with the Tactical Sensor Model (also called the Common Sensor Model, and finally, Joint Sensor Model) working group. In that situation, the API needed to grow as the abilities and capabilities of the Sensors (and their Models) improved. And how do you progress an API (or in this case, specific Standards) and maintain backwards compatibility? Some people who are smarter than me are working on it which is good but I can tell you that we never came up with a solution that satisfied everyone. In this case, if I were developing a browser, I would NOT be interested in handling version cases for rendering a page. It means that the engine will grow and grow and grow and although there won’t be alot to maintain because each version will build on the last and once a version is released, its not going to get modified but what about NEW browsers? Really, they are going to test each version’s engine and move forward? So basically, if you are not in the browser market now, you will have a huge-uphill battle if this goes through. Ick, its a nightmare and its easy from the server side of the problem to sit back and go, “You, client-side people REALLY have your work cut out for you”. If that is the case, I hope the open-source community likes testing (as opposed to developing) because that is going to be where time gets spent.

The alternative isn’t pleasant either, what with all kinds of progress moving forward with standards AND browsers. It isn’t an easy puzzle to solve. Good luck. To everyone.

Be like Dave…

Leroy Leese — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 15:34:44 +0000

Dave Matthews is a phenomenal guitarist. He’s also a great singer, using different parts of his voice to create different tones – its really impressive. I used to pride myself on being able to replicate his songs – felt like I was really mastering something…and that was just the guitar part. And when I played the songs for my college buddies – they seemed impressed. But being able to copy someone is really not as impressive as creating a brand new and original idea. Its only through the creative process, having experienced it and learned from it that we nurture the opportunity for authentic creativity. Copying will dull your mind.

Right now I am working on a design that uses some elements of things I have built before, and some new elements. Its truly becoming something new and original because I am free to experiment and explore. And in the end, the site may not have anything that is new to the community, but it is new to me having discovered the solutions on my own. So next time, I’ll be able to take it farther. Thats the only way Dave got to be so creative – he took his natural creative talent and extended it.

I recommend trying to be like Dave. It may be easy to use Google to find solutions to your problems all the time, and it may be easier to “borrow” CSS from other sites you like – but really – take the time to learn it on your own, and it will reward you – people might actually want to be like you.

We’ve got something here…

Leroy Leese — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 15:04:18 +0000

I have been searching high and low for development software that meets the following criteria:

Connects to web based version control
Has functional reference for PHP
Runs on multiple platforms (PC/Mac)
Easily manipulates and assists with CSS/JavaScript/(X)HTML

And the good news is, I have finally found a solution… I recommend any team doing distributed development on multiple development and deployment platforms use the following setup:

Eclipse 3.1.1
Subclipse 1.0.0
Aptana 0.2.5
PHPEclipse 1.1.8

Using Aptana, you can be FTP’ing into the website. With Subversion, you have version/source control. With PHPEclipse you have reference, templates and with Eclipse you have a distributed platform. Its a dream come true. Why couldn’t I find someone recommending this setup on a website before I invested dozens of hours in research? I think that people are either satisfied with the Zend Framework, or they simply don’t have the cross-platform needs that we have. And frankly, most designers we work with are completely satisfied with Dreamweaver MX/8 and the check-in/check-out process it affords. For the time being, when I work with those developers, I will have Dreamweaver running concurrently in order to make sure I don’t stomp (or overwrite) the designer’s updates. Until we get to point where we are solely a development shop, and can ease off design, we’ll run this setup…or maybe we can develop an Eclipse plugin that will allow us to simulate DW check-in/check-out while using Eclipse…hmm…