Items in Dec, 2002
Filters: Year: 2002 × Month: Dec × Sorted by date
PHP for the enterprise
PHP5: Ready For The Enterprise? (via Scott) discusses forthcoming improvements in PHP5 and asks if they will lead to acceptance of PHP as a suitable language for enterprise applications. It looks like a killer factor could well be PHP’s improved Java and .NET integration abilities. Write the back-end in Java/.NET and use PHP for the front end—that way you get a powerful web-specific scripting language for the front end of your site. Then if you ever need to change technologies on the back end your front end code can be reused.
[... 96 words]W3C redesign
The W3C have redesigned to use CSS instead of tables (new layout explained here). About time too! It’s a shame the site still looks so, well, ugly. I know it’s a technical site and it doesn’t have to look pretty but it would be a lot easier to convince designers to try out CSS and web standards if they didn’t get instantly put off the W3C by the ugliness of the front page.
[... 90 words]DHTML article deconstructed
Create Pop-Up Notes with DHTML is a disappointing new article on SitePoint which describes a technique for having a yellow Post-It style note appear when a link is clicked. The example given is for a link that shows the un-abbreviated form of NASA—a task better accomplished using the acronym tag. In addition, I spotted the following problems with the article:
The best 404 page ever
The best 404 page I have ever seen. Text reproduced here in case they ever change it:
[... 82 words]Prolog links
For my future reference, here are some useful Prolog sites I found over the past few days while working on my (now complete) Prolog coursework:
[... 160 words]Vampire ecologies
Via Stuart’s latest catchup, a scientific explanation of the Vampire Population Ecology of Sunnydale.
[... 18 words]Java interfaces explained
While browsing through Kasia’s Java Archives I came across this gem explaining why interfaces are such a useful feature of Java:
[... 133 words]YAML
I forget quite how I got there, but the other day I found myself reading about YAML—YAML Ain’t Markup Language. It looks really interesting. YAML aims to be an easily human readable format for storing and transferring structured data—so far, so XML. Where it differs from the IT world’s favourite buzzword is that YAML is specifically designed to handle the three most common data structures—scalars (single values), lists and dictionaries. Here’s a sample (taken from the official specification):
[... 288 words]Remembering passwords
Via Scott, an article with some great tips on remembering your passwords. It includes the following vitally important tip:
[... 273 words]Mark goes XFML
Mark Pilgrim has discovered XFML. He provides an excellent description of the standard, but fails to mention XFML’s most powerful ability; sharing metadata. Here’s how it works:
[... 225 words]Coursework complete
Coursework finished. It still has some niggling bugs but, as a group, we have agreed to stick them in a “known issues” list and forget about them.
[... 27 words]Taking a break
Coursework continues, but I’m taking a quick break to blog the fact that Tony Bowden has changed the CSS style for blockquotes on Understanding Nothing. This may not be earth shattering news, but considering Tony’s blogging technique (entries frequently consist of large blockquotes) and previous blockquote style (grey italic text) the new format makes an excellent blog a great deal more readable.
[... 66 words]No updates for a while
It’s coursework crunch time. Deadline is Thursday, we have an application that works but doesn’t work (if you get what I mean) and it looks like I will be spending the next few days immersed in Java. Fun fun fun.
[... 40 words]