Software As She’s Developed

Mahemoff’s Podcast/Blog - Web, Programming, Usabilty from the Author of ‘Ajax Design Patterns’ (AjaxPatterns.org)

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Shindig Architecture: Java Gadget Server 2 - Servlets

February 26th, 2008 · No Comments

More raw Shindig notes. This time, looking at org.apache.shindig.gadgets.http. See Shindigging tag. I'll structure them just a little more this time. Main Servlet BasicHttpContext.java - data struct for country/language/locale GadgetRenderingServlet.java - The servlet that accepts gadget spec URL and prefs, and outputs the gadget content (typically in an iframe). Delegates heavily to GadgetServer, in order to get a [...]

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Tags: Links · SoftwareDev

Widget/Gadget Containers: What are they good for?

February 4th, 2008 · 3 Comments

Ajax, AjaxPatterns, Gadgets, OpenSocial, Shindig, Web, Web 2.0, Widgets Background Widgets are small "mini websites", typically self-contained blocks of content, on a larger web page (with Ajax Design Patterns, I referred to them by the nom du jour Portlets). They are used in a couple of ways: Embedded in a normal web page. For example, my [...]

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Tags: SoftwareDev

Where Do Widgets Come From? A Look at Widget/Gadget Content Types

February 1st, 2008 · 1 Comment

Ajax, AjaxPatterns, Gadgets, Google, Web, Web 2.0, Widgets Background A while back, I walked through a Google Gadget I made called Digg Roundup, which simply shows Digg headlines and can be customised on topic and popularity. In my quest for an uber-simple tutorial, one thing I skipped on was content type, the subject of the present muttering. [...]

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Tags: Links · SoftwareDev

Dynamic Favicon Library Updated

January 31st, 2008 · No Comments

Ajax, AjaxPatterns, Favicon, HTML, Javascript, Web, Web 2.0 I updated the favicon library a while ago, for a couple of projects I haven't released for various reasons. Anyway, Phil asked me about it, so I thought it's a good time to package it up and release it properly. And in the process wrote up Taking Browser [...]

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Tags: SoftwareDev

Taking Browser Tabs Seriously

January 31st, 2008 · 7 Comments

I've just updated my favicon library, which I first wrote about here. I'll explain more about the update in a separate post. For now, I want to talk about browser tabs. Browser tabs were introduced by Opera. Then Firefox adopted them a few years later, as did Safari. Then Microsoft stepped into the '90s with their [...]

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Tags: HumansAndTech · Links · SoftwareDev

Choose Web

December 10th, 2007 · 6 Comments

I recently learned about a team which had adopted a proprietary Windows application to do agile (Agile [TM]) project management. Eeek! Wrong at so many levels, but I'm going to focus on the web vs desktop angle. In an ideal world, there would be multiple UI platforms available for any application. e.g. do your project management [...]

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Tags: SoftwareDev

OAuth-OpenID: You’re Barking Up the Wrong Tree if you Think They’re the Same Thing

November 10th, 2007 · No Comments

OAuth is not Open ID. They have a different purpose. I've been playing around with OAuth a bit in the past couple weeks and have a grip on what it's aiming to do and what it's not aiming to do. To start with, here's what OAuth does have in common with Open ID: They [...]

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Tags: HumansAndTech · SoftwareDev

CSS Coding Style and the Unbearable Tendency for People to Adore Whitespace in their Source Code

October 22nd, 2007 · 7 Comments

CSS coding style doesn't get a lot of play. Most people are happy to stick with the convention of one property per line, like this: PLAIN TEXTCSS: #score {   background: yellow;   width: 12em;   border: 1px solid orange   padding: 2em;   margin: 3em 0;   display: none; } I, for one, can't stand that style. I'm heavily biased towards information-dense coding [...]

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Tags: SoftwareDev

Actually, the mobile web really does suck

September 27th, 2007 · 3 Comments

I access the web via mobile on a daily basis, but that doesn't mean the mobile web is fine and dandy. Publishing 2.0 says the mobile web sucks, Russell Beattie disputes it. His arguments don't make sense - the mobile web is getting better, but still sucks. 1) 3G is slow? Get a better 3G phone [...]

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Tags: SoftwareDev

There is no alt tag

June 25th, 2007 · No Comments

It's an attribute as in <img alt="this is an *attribute*, not a tag"> and not <alt>, but 603,000 matches on Google (which apparently means about 750 pages) use the term "alt tag" along with countless other people, including me on occasion.

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Tags: HumansAndTech