Aja Lapus

Tag: HTML

  • Deprecated HTML Still Taught in High Schools

    I was asked for help by my good friend to assist her nephew on his Web page design project. I first asked him what lessons they have discussed in school, so I could match the level of what the teacher taught to what we would be doing. As usual, it included <html>, <head>, and <body> elements, as well as the tables, anchors, images and lists. I was just disappointed when he said they still use <font> tags for changing the size and color of text, and use the <body> attributes background and bgcolor for placing background images and color on the page.

    Of course, as a standardista, I hated the fact that I am forced to use deprecated elements and attributes on Web pages. So, I decided to make a statement on this blog hoping to be heard (or read) by computer, web design, and web development teachers in any level of education.

    Please, please update yourself on what you know and teach about Web design. HTML 3.2, which you are teaching your depolama students, has been replaced by HTML 4.01 almost 9 years ago. That, in turn, has evden eve nakliyat been reformulated to become XHTML 1.0 in 2000. You should also know that HTML should only be used for structure and CSS be used as its presentational layer.

    Web design and development education standardization is one of the things I’d be pushing for in my Web standards advocacy. Education starts in the school. And, if teachers do not know what to teach their students, no advancement would ever happen. In my humble opinion, this principle of educational advancement doesn’t only apply in Web education.

    We are still in the process of talking about forming a formal Web standards organization in the Philippines. If you feel the same way as I do in this blog entry, and love to fight for Web standards compliance, join us in our discussions to help save the Web and its users—for interoperability, accessibility, validity, and semantics.

  • Not Only WP 2.2 will be Delayed

    You’ve probably read that Matt Mullenweg announced a delay to the WP 2.2 release, which was previously due in 4 days, on your Dashboard already, but it still is worth blogging. As I am creating my new theme—now at a rough estimate of 75% completion after five [half] days of work—I think it would be better to delay the release of AjaLapus.com 4.0 as well.

    New features from WP 2.2, including core Widgets support, integrated tagging system[1] and Atom 1.0 standard syndication feeds, would most probably make me revise my theme a lot more since I am planning to use them anyway. And since I still haven’t tried using nightlies, nor do I have time and patience to install AMP again on either my Linux or Windows installations to test and develop on a nightly, it’d probably be best if I would wait the couple of weeks out for the new WordPress to be released.

    So far, I have the following completion percentages for the templates of the upcoming theme before I delay working on it:

    • Header, Footer, and Single post templates and styles at 100%
    • Homepage, Quasi-static Pages, and Sidebar templates and styles at about 90%
    • Archives [including Tag, Date, Category and Search pages], 404 page, and Page-specific templates at 0%

    And, btw, I’ve already consulted Shari and Lexie about the theme and they seem to like it so far. That was a relief since Shari immediately turned down the first one I’ve made. Well, not that it all depends on them—I really just like positive feedback.

    For those who were browsing yesterday late at night and have been [403] Forbidden from viewing any page, that was most probably be me doing some tests. Ugh. I really need a local LAMP/WAMP installation.

    And, about the issue of ad serving using Google AdSense, I decided to stick to HTML-compatible XHTML Strict since I’ve encountered a FAQ from Google stating that AdSense code within an <iframe> would lead to PSAs or less targeted ads [probably the same case an <object> tag would produce] even though that method was approved by Google.

    So, there you have it—just lame updates. I’m getting busy at school since I’m taking up my Math 321 this summer vacation.[2] I still do hope I’d have more fun before the vacation ends.

    Footnotes:

    1. ^ As Dougal Campbell pointed out, it was pushed to 2.3 milestone—I wasn’t reading the wp-hackers list as well.
    2. ^ If you can’t remember, it’s because of this little problem.

  • Those Little Interconnected Things

    Ok. Now I’ve had my six days of fame.[1] Better get back to the regular blogging programming and routine. 😛 But, let me ask you first: How does a Web event, an impending increase in domain name prices, browser incompatibilities, and advertising limitations result to me having to think of making a new WordPress theme for my site?

    During the time before the 2nd CSS Naked Day, I decided to make a plugin for WordPress that would strip every piece of stylesheet information from a Web page. It was somehow successful given that I was only receiving 50–100 unique visitors a day prior to the creation of that plugin, which in turn made my statistics plugin jump to receiving 200–300 unique visitors a day. In addition to the plugin, Dustin‘s pun resulted to a lot more SERP referrals. More visitors equal higher rankings; my Alexa rank turned from above 3 Million to just above 700 thousand in 10 days.

    Since Text Link Ads consider Alexa as one basis for accepting ad publishers, I thought it would be better for me. And with the impending increase in .com domain name prices, I’m starting to think I really need the money. But, still, I haven’t had ad placements since I’ve reinstalled TLA on my theme,[2] so I think it would be better to go back to [or at least serve it at the same time with] Google AdSense which I have used even before TLA. I was just frustrated that AdSense won’t serve XML-compatible scripts or at least a <noscript> fallback for those who don’t want to or cannot display scripts of document.write nature.

    Since it’s equally hard to modify a theme to contain ad spaces than to make one from scratch, I thought it was better to move to a Version 4 for the site. And because WordPress have deprecated some functions since 2.1, and WordPress 2.2 is just around the corner, I think I’m better off making a new one.

    I then thought of the need to create a theme served only with Content-Type: text/html, since Windows Internet Explorer 7 also has no intention of accepting true XHTML. But, I’m having doubts of doing so since I’ve been a fan of XML rules[3] imposed on HTML since the time I’ve learned them. I’ve also read articles on how to use AdSense with true XHTML pages.[4] So, I would most probably stick to my current content negotiation scheme.

    I’ve actually started making a template with a Web 2.0-ish theme a week ago based on some tutorials I found on the Web. Although, upon showing it to Shari, she told me it was a bit too bright. So, I guess it would have to be redesigned since I don’t want my handful of regular readers straining their eyes, and to be looking at [or rather getting distracted by] the design more than they do at the content of my articles.

    So, I guess you just have to wait for the next version of this site. I am finally going to a pool to swim tomorrow, so don’t expect it to be that soon. *excited* 😛

    Footnotes:

    1. ^ April 1–6 recorded ~2500 hits from human visitors only—more than half of what each previous month’s worth of page views even without Bad Behavior blocking robots.
    2. ^ Maybe because of the irrelevant keywords? IDK. I just hope not.
    3. ^ Must be well-formed, lowercase, etc. Therefore, cleaner and more readable.
    4. ^ One from Keystone Websites, and another from CSSplay thanks to Sir Regnard.

  • To lead, you must follow

    I brag a lot about my web site … not about heavy-loading images — I cannot create them; not about flashy scripts — I don’t even want to look at them; and not about colorful design — I KISS. But, I brag about my source code, more than fifty percent of which you cannot see.

    Ok now, here’s more of the bragging part: I use valid markup on all my source code — even the stylesheets. I just can’t figure out why other web designers brag it along with their flashy web sites but after you’ve clicked on their “Valid XHTML” link or button, hundreds of errors come shooting out of the validator saying, “Stop! Please stop!”

    Ok, that was a bit exaggerated. I was the one saying those. 😆

    Practice what you preach.

    I cannot blame those people using pre-made or borrowed templates for having those validation links. But for those who make their own templates full of errors, proprietary tags and tag attributes, please do not tell me or anyone that you know HTML, because you don’t.

    Hey, I’m concerned. The Web wasn’t supposed to be filled with junk as you can see almost everywhere. HTML was supposed to be clean. But, yes, it is not. Now, if you want to participate along with thousands of other web standards advocates, please don’t just tell us you’ve got valid markup, show us.

    A law has been implemented and numerous standards recommendations[1][2][3] have been made but, sadly, it seems that only a few people acknowledge them.

    Ignorance is evident almost everywhere you look or surf. Most of them are personal sites ang blog sites, but even IT or tech sites, which should be promoting these standards are not following them.

    Standards-compliant code must be the standard. It must be a trend. It must be a habit. It doesn’t mean it is good if it just look good.

    True beauty comes from the inside.

    I almost came to linking those web sites I’ve been ranting about all day long (actually, “all entry long”) but I think I’d just have to make them realize it on their own. I really wouldn’t want to hurt anybody — I just want to heal the Web. 🙂

    Please take note that I’ve been ranting about web designers with validation links on their site that is full of errors, and not people who just make web sites they don’t intend to validate.

    Footnotes:

    1. ^ [XHTML1]XHTMLâ„¢ 1.0 The Extensible HyperText Markup Language (Second Edition)
      W3C Recommendation 26 January 2000, revised 1 August 2002
    2. ^ [CSS2]Cascading Style Sheets, level 2
      W3C Recommendation 12 May 1998
    3. ^ [WAI-WCAG]Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0
      W3C Recommendation 5 May 1999

  • Neophyte

    After learning so much HTML and CSS, I felt like I was ready for something more, something dynamic. I became interested in server-side scripting (one is PHP) but was unable to learn it myself because of its natural complexity compared to markup languages. I know its tag starts with <?php and ends with ?> but nothing more except for the obvious if-else statements. I think that is one reason I joined TomWeb for they told me beforehand that I need to learn ASP (another server-side scripting language) from their 35-hour (plus) training.

    I’ve been blogging and making websites for so long. I already knew WordPress long before the time came that I was able to use it. I have been using Blogger for those months without WordPress that its very people-friendly interface made everything a snap for me. But like what I have said earlier, I need something more than just HTML. I happened to be a self-proclaimed technophile, now I know I still have much to learn. When I was trying to utilize every feature of WordPress after I had it installed, I bumped in to something familiar and unfamiliar at the same time — PHP.

    This new domain I’ve bought is a very good experience for me. It helps me develop my interests and, of course, my knowledge about things going around the Web. It also rekindles my interest in self-studying PHP. Well, I don’t know any more reason why it is a very good experience; I just don’t want to terminate this paragraph so soon. 😆

    So, yeah, I am a technophile and a neophyte at the same time. I hope you have no problems figuring that out. I, for one, have none. 🙂

    I think this would be a good quotation: Everyone has to begin somewhere, so… begin.

    And, by the way, I have finished the primary template for this web log. I just haven’t finished its comments part. And since I so love comments, I will postpone template change until I figured out how its PHP code works so I could put it in the new template. 🙂