Jeff Lynch [MVP]

April 2008 - Posts

• More Thoughts on HTML5, CSS3 & WebKit Advances!

  Yesterday I wrote a post on Why Safari May Become the Browser of Choice and got some great feedback (both positive and negative) in the comments and several emails. I thought I'd take this opportunity to address this feedback and explain a little bit more about why I believe these new "features" in WebKit are so important to the future of web development and design. First off, let me set the record straight and tell you that I am an unqualified supporter of Microsoft technologies such as SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and the .NET Framework. I'm also a Microsoft MVP for Commerce Server and an avid C#, ASP.NET and BizTalk developer. In my day job, I use these Microsoft technologies to create business-to-business e-commerce applications for the company that I work for. But at night and on the weekends, I moonlight as a free-lance web designer/developer using mostly non-Microsoft technologies such as Ajax, PHP & mySQL. In both areas I strive to create "standards" based web sites and applications and my overriding goal is always to "create the best user experience requiring the least bandwidth" and this is where WebKit comes in. Think about how we (ASP.NET) developers create great user experiences today and two things come to mind; ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. Both technologies allow you to create really great user experiences on the web but only at the cost of bandwidth (download time, initial or otherwise). The same rule holds true for Flash and any Ajax library such as Prototype, script.aculo.us or jQuery (all of which are excellent Javascript frameworks). Now think about our potential to create great user experiences using nothing more than the new HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities found in the latest WebKit builds. Gradients, shadows and rounded-corners without images, transforms and animation without Javascript, client-side data that goes way beyond cookies and support for highly compressible vector graphics (SVG). All in a fully "standards" based HTML/XHTML/CSS framework that (hopefully) renders the same in all browsers, both desktop and mobile. Now we're talking about actually having the tools to "create the best possible user experience requiring the least bandwidth". This may be a pipe dream but it looks like the WebKit folks and I are drinking the same Kool-Aid at the moment!   Currently listening to: "Still Feels Good" by Rascal Flatts Posted Apr 25 2008, 12:28 PM by jlynch with 3 comment(s) Filed under: Web 2.0

• Why Safari May Become the Browser of Choice!

  If you're a web designer, web developer or just someone that keeps up with the latest "Web 2.0" technologies, you know that a lot of progress is being made by ALL the major browsers to become "standards compliant". You also know that the Web Standards Project has created a number of "Acid" tests that help all the browser developers ensure that their browser works as "expected". If you're an experienced web designer or developer, you probably use several different browsers (IE, Firefox, Opera, Camino, Safari, etc.) to test your sites against everyday. What you may not be aware of is some of the very "advanced" features Safari (WebKit actually) has in the works which may well change the way we think about developing Web 2.0 applications. Web Fonts Client-Side Database Storage CSS3 Transforms CSS3 Animation SVG Support CSS Gradients CSS Box Shadow And Many, Many More... If you look at any one of these new features individually, they are very cool! If you look at integrating these new features together, you begin to see the potential for replacing today's Javascript (Ajax) "eye-candy" with native browser rendering support! And why you ask, is WebKit (and Safari) pushing these advanced features out the door so quickly? Safari on iPhone! Starts you thinking, doesn't it! Currently listening to: Eric Merienthal's "Just Around the Corner" Posted Apr 24 2008, 12:04 PM by jlynch with 7 comment(s) Filed under: Web 2.0

• Consolas Font: Old Age & Tired Eyes!

  There is a great little post on this morning's IEBlog that talks about the (relatively) new Consolas font and how to enable it for use in a command prompt! Here's an excerpt from the post... Bryn Spears on the Internet Explorer team gave me the following simple instructions to turn on Consolas in the CMD Window: reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas logoff Note: In Windows Vista, you need to run the reg command from an elevated command prompt. When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties.  (n.b., Bryn tells me it actually shows up before you relog, but it won’t work.) You can install Consolas on your Windows system even if you don’t have Vista or Office 2007 with a free download from Microsoft.com Being an old fart, I've really come to appreciate the little things in life, like a 22" wide-screen monitor and the new Consolas font in Visual Studio 2008. Thanks to the IE team for explaining how to enable this in a command prompt! Jeff Posted Apr 23 2008, 08:56 AM by jlynch with 6 comment(s) Filed under: Orcas, Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio Team System