Webb-DHTML

Farewell

2008-12-11T19:59:00.002-07:00

It has been great getting to know all of you! This has definitely been the most challenging class I have taken so far. I also enjoyed the first half of class very much, but wish we had spent a considerably bigger chunk of time with JavaScript.

As for roadblocks, there have been many this semester. I am not sure that I have gotten over them at all, I still don't understand JavaScript like I know I should. I want to spend a lot more time working with this, and hopefully before I forget the things that I did understand. It's amazing how you can compare what you typed to the textbook many times and be sure that you have typed exactly the right thing-but still have typos. They don't jump out of me like I hope they will one day. I guess things like this comes from experience.

As for where do I think this will end? With as fast as things change, and new things are developed, I don't think this can end. Everything we have learned has been built on top of things we had previously learned and will be a part of our future as long as each of us is in the computing world-even if it is just as a user. But who can go back to just using the internet-knowing what we have learned? Part of each of us will always look at something new on the net and think "I wonder how they did that?" and then we will look.

I wish all of you the best of luck in your studies, and whatever comes next for you.

Events

2008-12-01T03:03:00.002-07:00

These event are really interesting, and it is neat to discover the things we can do with them. I think it is fabulous that the author has a ready made library for us to adapt and change to make things work. But how do they work? When I read through the chapters, it sounds to me like I know what the authors are talking about. Then I try to use what they are talking about, and I am no longer sure that any of it made sense. This is definitely something that will take more practice.

I did run into problems. I got through most of them by studying the examples in the book to see what I had different. A typo will drive you crazy for hours:) I still haven't finished the background colors, but it's time for me to take a break from all of this.

Events are important because websites are no longer about displaying information for the users to stare at. Users want to be able to interact, make changes, see neat tricks. They are a great way to show even more individuality on a page.

DOM

2008-11-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

Reading through these documents and chapters reminds me of my years of bartending. A lot of my customers were the locals that would come in after their shift to unwind. They were all very friendly, and it always made for interesting conversation. But as I got busy with paying jackpots and such, they would tell their stories to each other. When I would have time to go back to listen in, there was very little I could understand. Because they weren’t telling me the story, they would use the language they were more comfortable with. I did learn a bit over the years, so here and there I pick out something I understood. Sometimes I could string several things together and at least have an idea about what was so funny. But usually I just ended up scratching my head as they laughed at my attempt to follow along.

These standards are important for venders. If they want people to use their product, they need to make sure it works correctly with anything their customer might want to look at. They all have their differences, and the more they follow standards, the easier time web developers will have using the browser.

It is important to follow the standards for DOM because it will allow you to use scripts on many documents in many browsers with less chance of errors and problems. DOM is not only used by JavaScript, so following recommendations ups the chances for all items you add to a site playing together nicely.

I don’t love it yet. So far I am at dull headache with it, but it is starting to make sense. Hopefully it will continue to make sense as I try to use it. I am not overly hopeful on that though.

2008-11-04T21:11:00.000-07:00

When I was in high school, I took a BASIC class. It was highly entertaining to watch my teacher try to figure out what I had done to get my programs to work. I had not taken algebra before that class, so I had different answers than my classmates all of the time. Well, that class did me a whole lot of good, I never used it again. But it was fun at the time. JavaScript has been, um, confusing. I definitely need to do more work on this section. I haven’t thought too much yet about how I could implement this, other than to make a hit-counter. I am sure as I figure out what I am supposed to be doing-I will have more thoughts about how it will be useful. Until then, I will just have a headache.

In this day and age of nick-names and acronyms for everything, coupled with my lack of experience in this area, I always assumed Java was short for JavaScript. Shows how much I have paid attention to the computer world. Anyway, I would assume that that is the same way other people have confused the two.

According to Wikipedia, scripting language is a programming language that controls a software application, and embedded in the application with which they are associated. In other words, they don’t run by themselves, they run with other software. I am sure that I will get to know JavaScript much better in the near future.

Mobile Devices

2008-10-12T23:57:00.002-06:00

Web design has become a very visually appealing art over the years, especially with the increase in bandwidth. Designers are using graphics freely along with their content to spruce up sites. I think one of the biggest challenges of mobile internet users is keeping the site interesting, but plain enough to be viewed. Being able to use the internet on mobile devices is a still very new. It is just starting to get very popular and is available on just about any phone you can pick out. There aren't any set standards yet, so trying to get your site available on all devices is about impossible. But keeping them in mind while developing a site is important. Not all devices support a mobile style sheet, but it is probably one of the best ways to get your site viewable. Hopefully over the next few years, device manufacturers will become more consistent in their mobile browsers to help make a designers job a little easier.
When creating a mobile style sheet, keep similar things in mind as when creating a print style sheet. Leave out any unnecessary graphics, and keep styles to a minimum. This leaves the site looking very plain, but those sites with lots of graphics are often not able to be loaded on a mobile device.

Accessiblility

2008-10-04T13:05:00.006-06:00

A wonderful page for finding out more about accessibility is the W3C. There is so much information here it could keep you busy for weeks, if not months.

Accessibility is a very important issue to take into consideration these days. If you want anyone, with any disability or equipment to be able to view your site you, will need to take steps to ensure they are able to.

The W3C talks about the importance of creating One Web. They define this as: “One Web means making, as far as is reasonable, the same information and services available to users irrespective of the device they are using. However, it does not mean that exactly the same information is available in exactly the same representation across all devices. The context of mobile use, device capability variations, bandwidth issues and mobile network capabilities all affect the representation.”

They also talk about how many designers take into account the need to keep your site accessible by those who have disabilities, but not by people using mobile devices even though the challenges are very similar. For example, a user with a disability may be unable to use a mouse, and a web-enabled phone also may not have mouse (some have little roller mice, like the Blackberry). It would be wise to make your site navigable with a keyboard (or keypad) besides the mouse.

They also have an article Quick Tips to Make a Accessible Web Sites which has some very good and easy to understand information about things every designer should be doing to keep their site accessible.

There is Web Content Accessibility Guideline 1.0 that was established by the W3C in May 1999. They are currently working on WCAG 2.0, and hope to complete it this year. The W3C also has an extensive list of tools that you can use to help you make your site accessible.

Analyzed websites

2008-09-21T21:17:00.003-06:00

The Times News site is one I use from time to time. I don’t like this site overall. I think the navigation is too small for those who aren’t the steadiest with a mouse (I find a lot of people get upset about not being able to click where they want). I understand that the newspaper makes money from its advertisers, but I am overwhelmed with advertisements when I log on to this site. I find that when I read the newspaper I read a lot more of the stories than if I look at the site. That is good for me-it’s a huge time saver. But most website’s are trying to get you to spend some time there. There is a lot of information on this site, and it is ever-changing. I wouldn’t want to be in charge of doing the updating, that is for sure. I noticed that it is styled with tables, and not much CSS. I had to direct input this site for the Validation Checker, and it did not pass. It had 132 errors and 35 warnings.

One site that I ran across years ago and thought was entertaining, is authorJK Rowling’s website. I had never run across one quite like it. I think it does a very good job of keeping visitors at the site for a while. It is a very graphic site; all you see at first is pictures, many of which are links. Since she is a children’s book author, a majority of visitor’s at her site are kids and I am sure they find the activities more entertaining than any information the site contains. She does also have a diary section to talk with her fans, and news of upcoming events as well. It is a very slow loading site, and it is not always easy to figure out how to get back to the main page. But overall I like this site. This site is designed using tables, as well. The only CSS I noticed was to style font. When I tried to validate this site, it did not pass either, with 20 errors and 27 warnings.

I am batting a thousand when it comes to tables. I picked another author site, this time Diana Gabaldon. All styling with this site appears to be done with tags. I think this site is easy enough to navigate, but I am not thrilled with the color choices. This site is definitely more information driven than JK Rowling’s, but Diana’s books are geared towards adults. I think both sites took time to think about who their target audience would be. In the Validation Checker, this one failed as well with 24 errors and 20 warnings. I had this many once, and found when I closed a tag I had missed almost all of the errors went away. So sometimes it is just a simple fix for these sites. I noticed a couple of the errors were tags that were not open; I just wonder how many errors would go away with that fixed. Most of the rest of the errors were “there is no attribute ***.” I think this site could validate with a little work. Of course it would be nice to have it styled CSS to make any changes and updates easier.

Web development perceptions

2008-08-31T20:36:00.002-06:00

The internet has grown to be so huge; it is hard to imagine one developer affecting it at all. But when I thought about it for a minute, I realized the world is huge, and I do not know a lot of people or change the lives of thousands of people. But I still get up everyday and live my life, learning and contributing to family, work and school. I do my own part to improve my life and that of my family. And the world is made up of billions of people doing the same. The internet is no different. It is made up of individuals making their corner of space how they think will benefit them most, and working to grow their “community.” It is up to each person to get out of it as much as they want to put into it. If they learn all of the current technology and keep up with the times, they won’t be forgotten when everyone else moves on.

I do believe the current challenge (besides the security issue brought up in other blogs) for all developers at the moment is accessibility. There are so many different browsers these days, you can’t begin to know what to expect. Not only are people using different browsers on their computers, but more and more people are using PDA’s and internet capable cell phone. And as amazing as these new devices are, they don’t have the same capabilities (or screen size) as a computer. My husband is always griping about trying to check something on his phone and it can’t load. The developer who makes his site usable by these devices will have faithful users who will be able to log in wherever they can find a signal, which is getting to be more and more places.

As far as what I see for the future of the internet? We already carry it around with us, communicate with loved ones in real time, and can “visit” far away lands. It already sounds like a fairy tale come true. It changes quickly, and doesn’t stop for anyone. I don’t know what it will bring, I am just trying to prepare to hang on or get bucked off.

Welcome to my blog!

2008-08-27T19:08:00.001-06:00

Hello! I am Janina Webb, and hopefully there will be some familiar *faces* in class this semester. I have been going to school part time for years now, and hope to finish my associates degree in Graphic Design in a year and a half. I took HTML last semester, and had a lot of fun. I had no idea what to expect from web design, but I have found it fascinating and am looking forward to learning more. I think a lot of people who use the web everyday don't realize just how much work goes into designing a web site. I think this has been a wonderful way of getting to know everyone, and seeing how they grow as class goes on.

I have been married for nearly 14 years now. My hubby runs his own welding business to keep him busy (and dirty, I might add). I have two children, ages 13 and 11. They are both boys, so my house is usually very noisy and overrun with sporting equipment. This year they are in less sports, due to an accident. Last May my oldest son broke his elbow in 8 places, so he is unable to participate in most sports at the moment.

I am a pricing associate for Sears, which means I go through all of the clothes; marking the clearance and setting up merchandise. It is not a bad job, but not something I see myslef doing for a long time. I decided not to go back to Jackpot for substituting this semester because of the price of gas, and also because I am taking classes on campus this semester, so I would only have a couple days a week down there, anyway.

I grew up in South Dakota, and moved to Twin Falls the first time about 13 years ago. We stayed for a year or so, and then my husband took a job in the Bend, Oregon area. About 11 years ago we moved to Buhl. I didn't want to live here when I first saw it, I wanted to live in Twin where it is bigger and busier. But it didn't take long for Buhl to feel like home, and I am really glad we are here.

I recently decided that I want to ride in a century ride next year, which is a hundred mile bicycle race. It is the Mount Rushmore century ride, not far from where I grew up. I have a lot of training to do. Riding my bike in the Black Hills was easy for me when I lived there, but after 14 years of not riding I have found it is not so easy to get back in the saddle. But I am determined that I am going to do this, and am trying to recruit all of my family to join me. My sister and husband have agreed, and I am hoping my dad will join us as well. I also need a good bike before then, and can't decide if I want to get a road bike or a mountain bike. I have always had a mountain bike (when I had a bike, that is), and enjoying being able to ride trails that I couldn't ride if I got a road bike.

This summer has been very quiet for us, we are all just working and helping my son with his physical therapy. I am glad to get back to doing schoolwork. I am one of those weirdos that enjoys learning, so I don't mind that this is a field where I will be learning continuously. My dad took a computer class when I was little, and he always likes telling the story that the teacher was talking about the "newest thing out in computers is the 5 1/4 disk" and my dad raised his hand and said "no it isn't, they have 3 1/2 inch disks now" as he pulled one out of his pocket. I feel like I am behind on technology, even though I grew up with the computer. I have always used one, but only in recent years been interested in how they work, how to fix them, and how to design web pages. I enjoy working with computers a lot, and I think this is an awesome field to be going into.