I think I can create an “Echo feed”:http://www.intertwingly.net/blog/1506.html. Looking at how MovableType handles construction of its RDF feeds I should be able to do it – lets just hope MovableTyps tags provide enough information. If its as easy as I think I may even create a version that follows “Simon’s suggestions”:http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/07/02/theVerbosityOfEcho for a less verbose format as an additonal feed.
I’d like to use acronyms properly. The textile plugin makes it relatively easy for me to enter them, I simply have to specify them in the form @CSS(Cascading Style Sheets)@ to the to display properly. However I use the same acronyms time and time again – it would be nice if a new MovableType plugin (or even the current Textile plugin) could store a list of know acronyms and insert the code as required…I might post this on the “MovableType boards”:http://www.movabletype.org/support/, chances are someones already done it! Either than or I might have to dig my “Perl”:http://www.perl.org/ books out of storage again.
Over at “evolt.org”:http://www.evolt.org/ “Peter-Paul Koch”:http://www.evolt.org/user/ppk/380/index.html has an “in-depth article”:http://www.evolt.org/article/Browser_Wars_II_The_Saga_Continues/25/60181/index.html giving a good overview the current state of the browser market.
The article reiterates some points I’ve seen a few people making now, specifically with regards to the alleged state of the layout engine in IE 6:
Why is Microsoft unwilling to fix the CSS bugs that everyone’s been asking it to fix for ages? I think it’s not unwilling but unable to do so. Explorer’s code engine cannot be updated any more.
Sooner or later, browser makers run into the limitations of their programs. Their large libraries have a tendency to grow fat and hard to change, especially when they must incorporate functionalities that weren’t foreseen when the original program was written.
PPK has IE 7 being released in a couple of years at best. I think he is being optimistic. IE 7 may well arrive earlier, but the idea of MS investing in a layout engine rewrite for a product which whoever you speak to already has a minimum of 90% market share? Unless of course they port the “Tasman layout engine”:http://www.xml.com/pub/r/76 from MacIE…..but that is looking “increasing unlikely”:http://tantek.com/log/2003/06.html#endofmacie.
He also picks up on what I believe is one of the real reasons AOL picked up Netscape in the first place – namely that it didn’t want to be held to ransom by MS for use of IE in the AOL software – Netscape was used as a constant threat hovering over any negotiations between the two companies. Does anyone else find it a strange coincidence that soon after MS and AOL “sign an agreement”:http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,59039,00.html that states AOL can use IE royalty free for seven years that they also quietly put the Mozilla project out to pasture? Of course, they “chuck them a bone”:http://www.mozilla.org/press/mozilla-foundation.html in the form of some continual funding in the knowledge that should they need that particular bargaining chip again they won’t have to go looking too far.
PPK dismisses Opera a little too quickly:
The future looks distinctly bleak for Opera. Nonetheless, it has time and again shown its resourcefulness and flexibility. Despite all prophecies of doom it still shows no signs of retiring from the race. It may survive, even though it has to be content with being backup Viable Alternative.
Here he completely ignores Operas increasingly good mobile browsers – perhaps the biggest growth area in terms of browser usage. If the use of mobile devices continues to take off you could well see Opera becoming a serious contender, or at least a browser worthy of consideration.
To visit family in (currently rainy) “Whitstable”:http://www.whitstable.org/. I may get some blog-related things done, but don’t count on it! I’ve also just recieved a package by courier from “Clarke’s bakery & provision shop”:http://www.sallyclarke.com/ in kensington – it’ll make for better train food than the normal soggy sandwhich at “Victoria station”:http://www.speel.demon.co.uk/other/victoria.htm!
Thanks again to “Simon Willson”:http://simon.incutio.com/ for a “great bit of JavaScript”:http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2002/12/20/blockquoteCitations that automatically creates clickable links for @
@ @cite@ attributes, making my life a little easier once again. I really should send him a thankyou email….
Reading Simon Willson’s “blog”:http://simon.incutio.com/, I have been struck by the usefulness of his “related entries”:http://simon.incutio.com/archive/2003/04/25/relatedArticles links displayed alongside each post. Simon uses some custom PHP + MySql code to generate these links. I wanted to do something similar with Movable Type, and found the “Related Entries plugin”:http://www.kalsey.com/2002/07/related_entries_plugin/ which can automatically generate related entries based on categories, and also (as an “undocumented feature”:http://kalsey.com/2002/12/related_keywords/) keywords. Depending on my plans for the rest of the week I’ll try and get this working
“FindBugs”:http://www.cs.umd.edu/~pugh/java/bugs/ is a Java tool which aims to find possible bugs in your code. I use “Eclipse’s”:http://www.eclipse.org/ own code checker and the Eclipse “Checkstyle”:http://checkstyle.sourceforge.net/ “plugin”:http://eclipse-cs.sourceforge.net/ for this purpose, although it seems that Findbugs may pickup some things these tools don’t, such as:
- Places where a null pointer might be dereferenced
- I/O streams that are opened, do not escape the method, and are not closed on all paths out of the method
- Methods that can return null instead of a zero-length array
- Using the == or != operators to compare String objects
I might try runing it on my code base and see if it picks anything up…
Seems I’m going to have to pull my finger out at setup Trackback for the site at some point – whilst I’m at it I’ll add Category views too.
Finally – thanks in no small part to the “Markup Validation Service”:http://validator.w3.org/, and to Brad Choate’s Textile plugin which handles those pesky & and £ characters for me. Now I just have to remember to keep those @CSS(Cascading Style Sheets) validation is next!
My excellent Rega Planet CD player has given up the ghost – or at least it now seems unable to play a CD for more than a few seconds. It looks like I’m restricted to the Planar 2, Internet Radio and my iPod…..at least until I can contact a local Rega dealer. I will of course have to resist the urge to upgrade to the new Jupiter 2000.
magpiebrain 