I want my website to work on any device you happen to have around, not just the top 99% of the stats, but also the other 1%. Your 486 with Opera 3.62? Come on by. iPad 1? You're welcome. You are allergic to JS? You still have the basic features. JS is pepper and salt, used sparingly and best left up to the diner. Netscape 3.04 Gold is on oldversion.com, runs on Wine without any issues (ironically not on Windows 10), and there's no reason not to test with it. So does Opera 3.62. Both are decent browsers capable of doing most things a website needs. And yes, that means supporting HTTP, not just HTTPS. Are you really that worried about your blog being mitmed?
Write HTML Like It's 1999
181–190 of 191 posts
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#182After reading the title, I thought I would see a proposal to use mostly tables instead of divs for designing websites again...
I still use tables. Always when I need to position things relative to each other and have them squish properly. I tried really hard to use/like divs but they are not helping me most of the time.
What I'll call 'table layout' can be done via CSS on any tags, you don't need to use `` elements to make use of the 'table layout' you like. Lately CSS has added two new 'layout' modes you might like even better: Flexbox, and CSS Grids. Both of these take the ideas from table auto-layout, using constraints and content to help size things.
Separately from how you want things to look (CSS), you shouldn't be putting content into `` elements that aren't the sort of thing you'd put into a spreadsheet. That's not using HTML well. Keep in mind you can still use the table layout with other tags via CSS. Always wrap your content in the most-fitting tag HTML has, then worry about the layout after :D
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Aria attributes aren’t enough to make an element accessible. You still need to set up listeners for keyboard navigation, you need to make the element focusable, you need to remember the aria attributes for labeling, etc. Chances are you are going to miss some of these. Better use a battle tested third party library for these, or—better yet—the native ` `. Edit: Radio buttons are not hard to style[1]. Just use `appear…
Yes, the First Rule of ARIA Use is first for a reason. [0] Also for styling, visually hiding the and using a custom radio-like icon with its associated can be a decent option. Use a CSS selector like this to "check" an icon with the label: #radio1:checked + label::before [0] https://www.w3.org/TR/using-aria/#rule1
Yes the `input[type="radio"]:checked + label::before` selector was for sure used a lot in the past for greater browser compatibility.
But in 2019 I think it is safe to style the radio element directly along with vendor prefixed `appearance: none;` possibly inside an `@supports` rule so that IE users will fall back to the native style while users of modern browsers get a custom style.
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm interested in hearing what is proprietary about wasm? It's a standard[1] implemented in most browsers. [1]: https://www.w3.org/TR/wasm-core-1/
You can't see the source code which I think is a huge step backward.
I think that ship sailed a long time ago. With transpilation, minification, and source mangling, the JavaScript ecosystem is largely opaque when trying to view sources anyway.
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
Ever tried to use your pages with a screen reader? It's quite an interesting (and potentially maddening - screen readers are power-user tools, and quite difficult to get into if that's not how you normally operate) exercise.
I tried doing this once, and I wasn't even able to install the damned thing. If you've got any advice or instructions on how to get started with a screen reader for testing purposes, I'd be really interested.
On Windows I tried NVDA and the demo version of JAWS. Installation worked without issues for me, and I looked for tutorials on how to use them/put up the keyboard shortcut overview. Sorry I can't point you to anything more specific right now.
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
While the spacer.gif made me really nostalgic, this is one of the things I don't miss. However, layoutwise HTML is at the moment much like it had been in 1999: The basic structure with banner, nav, main, footer is much like the standard frameset, if there had only been role/landmark-markup for frames, and CSS-grid in its basic form is much like table-layout (less those Daliesque "poles" for positioning). Where there…
> However, JS is "a bit" more powerful and has grown out of `document.write()` Wasn't innerHTML still settable back then?
InnerHTML arrived as a proprietary IE 4 feature and IE 4 launched in 1997, so yes. In Googling to double-check, I came across this little incompatibility: https://gist.github.com/jakearchibald/4489851
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#187The author is arguing for semantic markup, but prior to HTML5 the concept barely existed. Everything was kludged together. Site layouts were tables. Later divs/spans ruled. Eventually sanity reigned and semantic elements were introduced. So while I don't disagree with what they're saying, the title is a bit of a misnomer. >[Don't] create tables built out of custom div elements Tables aren't responsive. Those fancy di…
> The author is arguing for semantic markup, but prior to HTML5 the concept barely existed Not really. The concept existed and was well known in many developer circles (e.g. List Apart Issue 268 from 2008 http://alistapart.com/issue/268/ ).
HTML5 was honestly the opposite. XHTML and XHTML2 were born of a desire to have stricter, more semantic markup. But we live in the shitty timeline where XHTML2 died and we got HTML5 instead.
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#188My God that page is beautiful. Over half the vertical space is content without me touching anything. No banner bar asking me to install some bullshit mobile app. No 800-pixel panel at the bottom telling me what a cookie is. No incredibly obnoxious warning that I only have one more free article before the wisdom of the ages is lost to me so I'd better cough up five bucks.
Agree. Is it a Jekyll theme or some totally customized template?
Just FYI - I've open sourced this Jekyll theme: https://github.com/bradleytaunt/taunt-jekyll
Re: Write HTML Like It's 1999
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
+++ I'd like to throttle the first person who ever decided that if the window width would not 'comfortably' accommodate their vision of the page, certain elements would just DISAPPEAR. Like GONE. When you have to zoom out to make hidden elements (not just hanging off the edge, as in never drawn) appear... someone has been naughty.
Just a week ago I wanted to factory-reset an old router before dumping it. Because my modern laptop doesn't have a LAN-connector, I used my old Eeepc with a 7" display. Everything worked just fine until I was on the page where I was supposed to press the 'Confirm' button for the factory reset. It just wasn't anywhere and I was wondering what I was missing. So I started to dig into the framesets and finally found a fr…
> my modern laptop doesn't have a LAN-connector
I thew a head banging spittle-fit when laptops no longer carried RS232 ports. Then my boss handed me a 'modern' laptop without an Ethernet port. The theme seems to be, let the things evolve forward with LSI/VLSI/ChipsetBuiltins until the port costs a mere 19 cents... then drop it... to save 19 cents.