2007 March Archive

Firefox 3: the Google browser?

Mozilla have announced that Firefox 3 is to provide support for using web applications offline – despite, as developer Mark Finkle admits, most users not needing it.

The development of offline apps is awarded a higher priority than some other features I would have thought more desirable – fuller SVG support, for example – so why the emphasis on a feature that is only of interest to a small proportion of users of a small proportion of the browser market?

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New Theme – Under Construction

This design is a work in progress, but I was forced to bring it into action early as the previous theme was annoying me! Apologies to visitors using IE6, as I haven’t had the chance to make it fully compatible yet; mind you, you really should upgrade!


Chris Wilson talks Internet Explorer

An interesting chat with IE veteran Chris Wilson (downloadable MP3 or WMA).

IE should serve as an object lesson in monopolies; when it was competing with Netscape it was innovative and forward-thinking. When Netscape threw in the towel, Microsoft stopped development and the browser stagnated and caused many of the problems we have today. Since the rise of Firefox (and, to a lesser extent, Safari), IE have realised they have to start getting the community back onside by becoming innovative again – although, not with IE7, obviously; that was just a catch-up release.


HTML 5 in 2010?

The W3C have announced that they have relaunched activity on HTML:

After the publication of HTML 4… W3C set forth to turn HTML into an XML-based format, called XHTML, due to the benefits of XML formats. The first full XHTML Recommendation was issued in early 2000. But due to the significant legacy of Web content that is some variant of HTML, traditional browser vendors moved slowly to adopt XHTML. This, in turn, has meant little motivation for content developers to adopt XHTML for the traditional desktop environment. Leaders in the Web developer and design communities therefore urged W3C to renew its commitment to HTML…

W3C is pleased to relaunch work on HTML with strong support from its Members and more staff resources (including people and hardware). W3C has tailored the HTML Working Group Charter to enable active participation from browser vendors, applications designers, and content developers, whose joint participation is key to the success of the future HTML.

Read the full article


No huge SVG leaps in Firefox 3

A little while ago I claimed that SVG looks set to be the future of web graphics, after Opera’s announcement that SVG would be allowed as a value in the background-image declaration.

Unfortunately Firefox won’t be doing the same with their next release; indeed, it seems that resources are limited at Mozilla;

With minimal resources available for SVG development, we need to make some tough calls regarding prioritizing development efforts in the Firefox 3 time-frame… This means that SMIL and SVG fonts will not make Firefox 3 with the current development resources, and the earliest chance for adding them will likely be in late 2008.

And a comment on the post confirms that the only way to implement SVG for the near future will be using the object tag. Looks like the future of web graphics is still a little way off.


The capitalized text bug in Safari

A tiny but infuriating bug in current versions of Safari/Webkit is the one which treats any character after an apostrophe (or other special character) as the beginning of a new sentence. Not a problem that’s going to crop up many times, except when you use the text-transform declaration to capitalize a sentence.

Take this example:

It’s Apple’s Problem

Safari/Webkit users should see two capital S’s at the end of the first two words. Not the ideal solution. If you’re very concerned about your Safari visitors, you might end up not using this declaration at all.

This bug’s been identified for a long time – as long as Safari’s been available, as far as I know – and is still existent. Fingers crossed it will be gone when Safari 3.0 is launched.


Newer

Aside

I’ve updated my Speaking page to include more conferences, more videos, and a little on my speaking requirements and preferences. I’m planning to cut down on the number of talks I give in 2014 (twelve is too many), but am always open to interesting offers and opportunities, so please get in touch if you’re organising an event.

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