The following is a test of this page of unstyled, generic markup performed in 81 browsers. I used browsercam to take screen captures, then imported the resulting captures into Photoshop. In Photoshop, I zeroed out the top/left coordinates of the HTML canvas (not to be confused with the Canvas element,) and then set the Opacity on each layer to 10%. For the second visualization I simply turned on the difference blending mode at full opacity.
Why? I thought it was an interesting illustration of why we use reset style sheets. There’s almost no consistency in the way these browsers handle even the most generic markup.
The following is what we use to lay down the most common text styles. This is honestly more than we usually need, but it helps ensure we don’t miss anything when real content is flowed into a design. I thought it might be useful for folks to use in their own projects.
I’m going to be posting a series of notes on the production of my first HTML 5 demo page. I’m doing a presentation on it at work (to be shared here, of course) and I want to capture my thoughts as I have them in the process of producing some fully formed HTML5 content.
One of the things I’m looking at with interest is the new Video element. Anything that simplifies embedding video on a web page gets a thumbs up in my book. Read the rest of this entry »
That said, as you would imagine, I very rarely use the WYSIWYG features. I mostly use the text editor and the site management features (including Subweaver, a handy SVN inetgration.) Occasionally, however, I do open it in WYSIWG mode and very often I’m surprised at how well that editor actually handles things.
One is to finally do some meaningful Python work. I’ve been sniffing around Python for a couple of years now and still don’t have any real experience with it under my belt. Hopefully I can change that this summer.*
The other, more on-topic goal is to absolutely devour HTML5. I’ve had my eye on it from the dawn of the whatwg, but I’ve missed the recent opportunity we’ve been presented (in the form of browser support) to play with some of the new toys in a hands-on manner. That’ll change this summer.
Lost in the past few years of IE6 based stagnation (and ensuing developer angst) is the fact that the Internet Explorer team have come up with some pretty cool enhancements to the way we build web sites over the past ten plus years.
So, while we’re cheering on Firefox’s growing market share, hesitantly eying IE8 and waiting for the ugly stepchild of the browser landscape, IE6, to finally die a painful (and hopefully immediate) death, I thought I’d lay out some of the innovations introduced by Internet Explorer to remind us of relatively positive days gone by*.
As a fun exercise, while you’re reading this, compare these innovations to the black hole left in the web development world by the long and terrible reign of IE6. It’s an interesting juxtaposition of help vs. harm. Here’s hoping future versions of the browser continue to trend closer to the “help” line as IE7 has and IE8 appears to be doing** Read the rest of this entry »