Tag Archive / coding

• To All My Co-Workers And Clients:

  I want to apologize for all the bad coding decisions that I have made during the last couple of years. A number of decisions were made with ignorance as the impact they may have made in terms of performance. Some of those decisions may have been made without consideration for the user.

  If I seem out of sort during the last couple of week, it was simply because the changes I need to make will require changing not just code but a mental process. Like anything, this will take more than a fortnight to change. It is a process of renewal and making mistakes and just throwing stuff into the trash bin.

  What I need is some understanding and some patience while this process works itself out.

  Sincerely,
  Ivan Wilson
  Front-End/UI Developer

• Today, I’m Blowing Up My Code

  Seriously. http://twitter.com/#!/iwilsonjr/status/124622801914171392

  This is not a joke.

  If you are laughing at this, I understand. It still won’t change anything.

  Let me explain.

  In 2009, through contact with interaction designers, I saw the coming wave that we now call mobile. That wave moved so fast that it took everyone by surprise. Today, designers and developers are dealing with this via responsive design and other techniques.

  Now, what does it have to do with me. One day recently, I was tasked to revised some code I made in late 2009. Now, it was good by those standards but it has a few faults. Not perfect but usable and everyone was satisified.

  At the time, it was "Job done. Go to sleep."

  But I didn’t.

  (more…)

• Prologue from Chicago

  What does one write about on a two hour plane trip to Chicago?

  coding, mobile, Shadout Mapes, Churchill, and John Lennon

  Important? What does this mean?

  Well, you’ll find out in the next blog entry…

• HTML5 for Web Designers Book Review

  (Originally published on CDG Interactive/Innate blog)

  It’s back-to-school time, so here’s a pop quiz on today’s new buzz word: HTML5.

  1. What is it?
  2. Should I care?
  3. Should I worry?

  Answers: 1) see below, 2) yes, 3) not yet but soon enough

  So, now that you’ve taken the quiz, may I suggest a textbook? Specifically, HTML5 for Web Designers by Jeremy Keith.

  Now, I’ve known about HTML5 for a while (and some of the preliminary work around it). But when I heard about this book, I was curious how much more information could I gleam from its pages about HTML5. Judging by the title, I thought that it would be just an introductory text for web designers (not necessarily for experienced web developers).

  But, I took a chance. I ordered a copy and waited. And the package arrived.

  And when I first opened the box and held the book, the first thing that popped into my head was “Wow, this is a pamphlet!”

  OK, not a pamphlet but a brief, concise book (under 100 pages).

  However, from the very first page, it was evident that conciseness is the intent of the author. What Jeremy Keith does, with good effect, is to give the reader a brief synposis about HTML5, bypassing W3C language. (Alert: W3C documents are so precise, they could turn a cake recipe into a DVD instruction manual.)

  Of course, he starts off by answering what HTML5 is and is not–not a new version, but a much-needed upgrade for building future web applications. This means it not only adds/removes features, but also adds more semantic meanings attached to the current set of tags (important for Internet devices like mobile phone or screen readers.)

  For the remainder of the book, Keith highlights some important features and gives bits of advice for the newly introduced. The best thing is that he engages the reader enough to encourage further study in HTML5, which is not easy. This book could have easily become just another five pound dictionary. Of course, he remarks that there are others more experienced with this and points to some online resources. (As I am writing this, a number of new HTML5 books have popped up in the stores.)

  In the end, the author does what he planned out to do – give a nice gentle push in the right direction towards HTML5.

  Now, if you don’t mind. I have a list of HTML5 books to read.

• UI or UN? The Life of a Front-End Developer

  (Originally published on CDG Interactive/Innate blog)

  Hello.

  My name is Ivan Wilson and I am a user interface (UI) developer for CDG. I’ll be a guest author on this blog, posting every month or so.

  When I first asked about contributing to the blog (and I’m still wondering whether it was a good idea to agree), I thought it would be helpful to explain exactly what I do. After all, outside the tech industry, front-end/ui developers are a somewhat unknown breed.

  
  UI Developers, in Plain English

  UI developers aren’t full-time designers (though I had a three-month stint as one), but the best of us know enough to have a good conversation with the designers. And we can do more with Photoshop than just adjusting the image brightness/contrast.

  We don’t do full-time back-end programming (though I spend the great deal of my career doing PHP programming), but the best of us know enough to make things easier for the programmer and do some programming ourselves in a pinch.

  Basically, we’re like UN interpreters. We know how to speak multiple languages and if we are really good at what we do, very good things happen.
  Like other interactive agencies, CDG develops many dynamic, database-driven sites. My job is to build out the layer that you see and use every day on your computer or web-enabled mobile phone.

  That means I take all the graphics files from the designers, wireframes from the information architects, and build templates in HTML (or XHTML), Javascript, and CSS (stylesheets). I also have to create web-ready graphics from those same files. In some cases, I might even need to break out some Flash skills or work on other interactive features.

  
  “Well, That Doesn’t Seem Too Hard . . .”

  It sounds easy.

  Everything is easy before testing.

  And testing requires…six browsers in two platforms…or more.

  Still sound easy? (I hear a few plates dropping…)

  And it has to look good and function without a hiccup.

  Did I mention all this has to be done before passing it on back-end programmers?

  And if I move a pixel in the wrong place, the designers have pitchforks with my name engraved on ’em.

  High stakes, indeed.

  Yes, it’s definitely like being a UN interpreter.