Monthly Archives: February 2006

Portwatch Spain is coming

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A new part of the Portwatch, dedicated the Municipalities of the Spain is coming in the next few days.

I have been extremly busy with my job and all other things, that i have not managed to finish the results, but this weekend definitely i am going to put here an update to the Portwatch, this time about the Spain. I have to say, that the results at this stage are allready extremly interesting and really different to the first part of the research (Portugal).

p.s.: As of 27th of February, the page of the Ceuta, is still being unaccessable, for the unkown reasons, so i decided to give some more time(1 week), to be able to analize every municipality.

New Scriptaculous 1.5.2

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I have to confess that i am starting to enjoy more and more the job, that Thomas Fuchs is doing. The newest version has finally answered my prayers by introducing the queue effects limit ( an effect attribute parameter “limit” ), auto-scrolling option for Draggables and Sortables, and among other things, all programmers favourite “bug fixes”.

The queue limit has finally helped me solving a problem for a website i am doing right now, as i have allready thought about submitting this request, cause my need to limit the number of the effects being executed at the same time was so big, and the available time is so small, that i was allready imagining myself implementing this functionality, and then explaining it to the others involved into this project. Right now all i have to do, is to update the library – fantastic ! =O)

I hope that such new functionality as a : making a pause during the effects, dragging multiple items, effects applied to the multiple items, as well as a better and more complete documentation will be implemented and/or included in the future ( 2.0 or maybe 3.0 ) versions. Having tested a lot of the available javascript effects libraries, i have to say that for me scriptaculous has definitely found a place in my arsenal of the web tools.

IE 7 beta 2

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Nice one …

The very first feeling – i have seen so many things somewhere else … where ? … OsX … again ?
Yeeees (with the intonation of Morpheus).

Interface has been twicked very nicely, thought the very first thought of mine was actually – is it IE 3 or IE 7, the icon should be undone, redone and so on. Oh, i know about that this icon make a part of the “new” aqua “air” interface, but at least on 2 different computers it does not look so fine. The “clear type” fonts are impressive – very nice antialliasing, Quick tabs – copright Apple Microsoft, Zooming feature – fantastic( thanks, Opera Microsoft ), but the most important feature of them all is a tendency (first step), into the direction of the good css support. The one, that the most webdesigners were asking, crying, calling, emailing, spamming, begging on their knees for the last 5(five) years. God wishes, we will have some more real websites by the end of 2006-2007, if iE7 will appear this year alongside with Vista, of course. =O) The search toolbar is where it should be – with msn search as a default option, add-on manager is a very nice and hopefully usefull functional option – you can see all(?) the activeX “stuff” installed on your computer, addons that “run without requiring permission”, currently loaded and currently used add-ons.

Usability – the reload and stop icons have been moved to a very strange position. From one side, its nice to have them separated from the rest of the functionality, but from the other side, you have to get used to their new place, and they are way too small, to be noticed instantly, and even after noticing, the people outside of the computer industry will have some problem understanding their functionality, judging only by the icons.

About CSS – some of the things i did with the hacks, are obviously broken, there is no big surprise here, but its nice to see some real css changes in microsoft policies.( I _hope_ they will get the stuff right, before the final release ) And as one of my friends is going to start working at microsoft – i have to be more careful, when writing about them. I will have a pleasure fixing these little things when i see the final product, but not before i will see it on my computer (promise != final_product && hope(7.0b < 7.0) )

On IE7 beta 2, this blog (which design is still very far away from my wishes) has some minor glitches, and i am going to twick them as soon as the final release going to appear. =O)

I see this effort as a very good and important movement of recognizing the importance of the web design. Lately, microsoft were "feeding" us with the new versions of development tools, but only last year i have finally heard the announcements of the new products dedicated web design. As at this moment the vast majority of the population is using IE, all of us depending on its progress.

In the next few days i am going to do more IE testing, as i am very excited about the progress, that the biggest share browser is going make.

Blind Target

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As it was written by Derek, Molly, WebStandards.org and a lot of others – there is a new law suit, by U.S. National Federation of the Blind (NFB) against a major american company – The target. As always, the opinions over the web are very divided, but as for me, i am sticking to those, who believe, that it is a good thing. It’s time for those, who ignore the standards, to start learning them, even if it means by this way.

Having some friends with disabilities, i know what it takes for them, to have a normal access to those things, which the most of us, using without thinking if its a gift or not. Once, i have even dedicated myself to some kind of the research, connected with the disabilities – i have seen a lot of not working elevators on the train platforms with a lot of stairs, ramps with such degrees, that i had fallen from the willchair while trying to convince 2 friends, that those ramps are ok, “accessable” buses with no adaptable entrances, and a lot of stupid people around, ignoring the basic needs of those, whom they might become, if they would have just less luck.

So if the big enterprises are ignorant, i see no problem of the people with the special needs, taking advantage of them. Really, dont get me wrong, i find such law suits as a “McDonald Hot Coffee”, as completely ridiculous, but when it is about the basic rights of those, who close to us – i dont feel a lot of pitty. Especially, when somebody was warned and asked for whole 9 month. No i am not talking about a poor little store, but about the company, whos name is a reference and who’s earning should have easily allowed them using the accessability standards.

Counting, that the Amazon.com is “powering” the Target’s site, i have to say, i would love to see both of them recognized as the responsibles, because for me – they are. I hope to see this thing spreading a little bit across the web, to see the people demanding a better sites and in the end effect seeing more quality work over the net.

p.s. and as it seems, that they have fixed some things over the night, it is allready producing a good effect and prooving, that they are capable of doing a good job, so i hope this law suit will help them to finish the job fast … as fast as it possible =O)

Oracle’s Open-Source Shopping Spree

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3 more open source firms should be preparing to be aquired by the Oracle in the nearest future, when believing this article at the business week. After aquiring the InnoDB, now its “Zend Time” as it seems. It would make enough sense, from the business point of view – securing all alternative to microsoft development, positions. As recently Borland has announced that after disappointing year results, they are going to sell , maybe it is a good time, to buy them, before some other “sharks” would do that ? I strongly believe, that “saving” the Borland is much more important, then securing Sleepycat Software deal, though i understand that these deals have different dimensions.

For me, as a developer, seeing such firm as a Borland, being bought by Microsoft would be the worse nightmare in years. Yes, i know that Borland is not an open source, and that recently it was not so successful, but behind this name, there are great web developer communities (for some time i was making part some of them), and no doubt, that if some of the product would be fixed, then the number of the developers would greatly increase. It would give the market one more chance, and a bit more of concurrence, cause the principal idea of the delphi and the kylix is absolutely great.

Tables vs CSS

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Through the StyleGala i have found this site, which critices the point of using tableless design, and i have found this article extremly interesting. While not agreeing in a lot of aspects, i feel it represents an important point of view — an opposite point of view, which have been missing inside the webdesigners community.

Here are some points where i do not agree:

  • Bandwidth — I believe that for the most home-made sites (like this one), which do not have millions of visitors per day, the bandwidth mayy not play a very important point, but for any corporate site or just a site with a lot of visitors — it can be pretty important thing. And as i have seen some corporate sites from the inside i can tell, that there are too many cases, where refacturing the HTML cuts some very serious percentage.
  • The future of the web is full CSS — yes, and even microsoft with the IE are also following it. Yes, microsoft have their own extensions, but Opera, Safari, Mozilla and others do have them as well. The best example of a good idea coming into the world of standards and being accepted by the communities is the AJAX. And i have no doubt, that though IE 7 wont be available for anything below Windows XP, microsoft will convince the most of the users of switching with the time to Vista
  • Remembering the styles applied to different pages after some monthes — the same as in a good professional programming, if you did a good job, giving good names to your functions and variables, you wont have a lot of problems. If you are calling your style or id something like “white” or “blue”, and not with the functional name — then most probably after some time you will start getting a lot of problems
  • Is full CSS faster — i dont know what kind of a “typical” page was represented in that case, but while doing some sites i have noticed the reendering speed inside the Visual studio for example. And having 200 rows or more in a buisiness web application is nothing special at all. Once again, for a home site with a few things, probably the difference wont be noticed. And one more thing — not everyone enjoying having the fastest computers at home
  • Return on investment — a well done page with a CSS, will enable the webdesigner doing a lot of the global changes in just a few seconds, and if a webmaster is tricking you telling that he needs the same time, then you better look for another one
  • W3C standards are useless — why everyone including microsoft are following them, ok not all of them, but as in the real world — some are getting through, while others not.
  • Separation of strcture and content makes websites more organized — no point to argue about it, organizing a page helps maintaing it
  • 31K & 51K for a page — i see a lot of difference, even if its 41K & 51K. Once i decided to “reorganize” a page for some business application and it went straight from 130K to 73K, now that was big change, i would say. And if your application is being loaded like 500 times per hour or more, then very soon you will start seeing the difference
  • Common sense of skipping small images and webpages by the webdevelopers are the things which are not compattible. It is ridiculous to think, that the people with disabilities are in way or another should be “presented” a different page, then the others.
  • Selling your product is a question of marketting, which has nothing to do with a structural presentation of the page, though a good marketer can use the standard compliance as a prefential factor to his cause
  • “May work well” by Zeldman is much better then “wont work” by the tables design

But from the other side:

  • CSS Complexity — even today one of my friends was talking with me about the complexity of the CSS, i believe it is a valid point of view, the structure is not that simple, when you are starting out, but once getting in, and when creating a well-thought structure it can be very efficient
  • Tables are not only for the tabular data — i agree that sometimes tables can be used as a part of the interface, when the interface is pretty tabular
  • Always ask for “Return On Investment” of the LATEST STANDARD before going — as it should be done with any other thing, i agree with it. No need to use the CSS 3, especially because it is not final at this moment, but if you ignore the movement, you are risking to find yourself in a situation, being some years behind the rest of the web

Anyway — a lot of the issues depend on the point of the view, but i think, that the standard compliance(not a blind one, cause that would be stupid), brings a lot of advantages, but once again i think its good to do the “reality check” from time to time, to see if we are still going into the right direction.

PortWatch

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20 principal portuguese municipal websites have been deconstructed, analized and compared with the current webstandards, in a friendly attempt of advising those municipalities about the current state of the web and the points of view of a lot of webdesigners. Aveiro, Azores, Beja, Braga, Bragança, Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Evora, Faro, Funchal, Guarda, Leiria, Lisbon, Portalegre, Porto, Santarem, Setubal, Viana do Castelo, Vila Real, Viseu – are those, which sites have been included in this part of the Portwatch.

I was trying to create some kind of a definition what a modern municipality site in the year 2006 should have – and i came with the idea of the declaring this small list of the standards, which i consider to be important or “nice to have”: good support for different browsers, no frames, table-less design, good modern doctype, valid (x)HTML, valid CSS, minimum resolution 800×600, favourite icon, different foreign languages, and WCAG

To be short i will show a few statistics from the final result:

  • Frames in portugal are still popular – 6 sites are using them (30%)
  • No good design practic (fluid, table-less designs) were found between those 20 municipals, and its a big shame.
  • Only8 websites are using doctypes – thats about 40% of the whole pie
  • No valid html – at all, 0 sites, 0%, nada.
  • Only 5 sites (25%) have a valid css, thats a start … in a year 2006
  • 6 sites (30%) are optimized for the 1024×768 resolution and i think it is to much, counting the number of computers in portugal with the resolution 800×600, though it is not that bad i would say.
  • Only 3 sites (thats a 15%) have the idea, about using the icons on the net
  • Only 3 sites have support for different languages, it seems that the most municipal minds are not interested in having more tourism

If you are interested in what came out, then check it out and take a look at the the results

Portwatch graphic (small)