Topic: Legit weirdness, the hype, and popcorn..

Popcorn is to help those who will scratch their heads over this riddle
keep cool and remain patient

Are you with me here?

Good. Soooo..
the wonders of search engines have led me to the page of
"the one whose name should not be spoken"

Now that's a weird webpage, to begin with, but the code seems legit. Or? I am pretty lost about major changes in web technologies since
the early days of xhtml : what's hot? Which new things do I have to learn?

In advance thank you for pointers-a-plenty, the more, the merrier.

not sure about what you "have to learn", but I saw this in the source code.

// Webpage published in memory of troubled child InI - R.I.P
			// ==========================================================
			// The old site is still here and will be available again. 
			// For the time being, the heart of Carina
			// Is shining on the index page, and
			// Shall remind us of the energy of	
			// A driven being. It is a tribute to his
			// Raging will to reach outstanding
			// Goals. May this page be a lasting tribute to
			// Our beloved young programmer,
			// Now lost. Formerly known for his wit,
			// Anticonformism, sometimes lashing out at nothing,
			// Vile at his worst extremes, talented at his best,
			// Inexplicable yet hard to forget. And his moto : aim for the
			// Stars, and maybe you'll reach the sky.
			// ==========================================================

Anyone else here find it a bit...strange?

Later,

C:\

,) I find it rings quite true when speaking about *that* virtual guy.

..And, you got the indent wrong, or it somehow got messed up by the code tags.

But back to the serious question inside it all - as I did some research.

What's up with HTML 5, which versions of XHTML and CSS are currently in use, what's up with things like Ajax, Flex, Silvershite
and the likes?

Btw, it IS weird for certain, as the thread title says.

quote:

---

Popcorn is to help those who will scratch their heads over this riddle
keep cool and remain patient

---

So what's with the patience? Can't you see Waldo?-)

(Edited by argo navis on 12-26-2007 09:24)

i think the only thing to do is keep an eye on W3.org on the HTML5 thing. There seem to be some new tags and some new attributes to existing tags.

One new attribute to an existing tag that I found out about is this : for the a href tag, there will be a new attribute called "ping". This new attribute will be used mostly for ad selling. it will send back a ping request to the host telling that the ad was clicked....doesn't sound real private does it?

CSS2 seems to be widely accepted with browsers however, there's always going to be a hack involved on certain browsers.

Ajax is certainly taking its position among web sites. Python and Ruby seem to be taking off quite well as well.

Actually I'm not really the person to ask since I pretty much quite doing anything with "web development" except for a hobby, but I always like to express my opinion

Later,

C:\

Thank you.

Actually, I'd say : let's keep an eye on the Semantic Web, comprised of different technologies
as described in that article - the web's "architecture" is trying to emulate a neural system to a degree.

Interesting.

Other than that, good to know about the CSS2 and xhtml bits.
Other than that, Ala's preview of HTML 5 is something to keep an eye on as well.

Other than that, there is a commercial battle ahead between Ajax frameworks,
Adobe Flex, Microsoft silvershite (that one is ugly - tried, laughed, uninstalled),
OpenLaslzo, and JavaFX (I like).

All of these have advantages and shortcomings, all of these focus on delivering some tighter integration between
rich content, smart clients, and fast server/client interaction, within a given development framework.

JavaFX is nice because it allows easy description of web GUI : the language is simple, for features it depends on the web start application deployment architecture,
for content it depends on web services and the likes, so check the demos, some really are nice (OpenGL components in a web interface).

OpenLaszlo, I haven't tried, it sounds great in terms of respecting web standards.

Silverlight, well, I guess if you like .Net... but it really does not bring anything new, and the resulting "sample applications" are so bad it hurts
for most of them. Time will tell.

"Ajax" philosophy is still the pillar, and Flex seems to really deliver nice things.

Drifting a bit from a pure "what's new" discussion, I'd like to (re)introduce Adobe JSeclipse.
Now that one seems like a nice development tool for js.

And I think we have the outline covered. Details about a "semantic web" and a test browser for "HTML 5" are next.

just to throw in a bit more of my 2cents. I really don't like the idea of making it necessary for the end user to have a million different "run-time" files to look at a web page, so I would have to say...Java(FX) out.

I think you can get great results from JavaScript and a Serverside language like PHP and the such. There are a bunch of great JavaScript libraries out there that make the Ajax calls a bit easier. This is not cost to the end user.

HTML5 will be in a "working model" long before a browser will take advantage of it. There are still browsers out there that still can't render CSS2 correctly.

So I say (in no specific order):

1. (x)HTML
2. CSS
3. JavaScript
4. XML
5. Server side language (PHP, Perl, etc...)
6. Ajax (which if I knew JavaScript, it might not be as difficult)

That is really all *I* think you would need to know to be a web developer. Throw in some solid PS skills and you should be able to do just about anything. Correct me if I'm wrong or if I am generalizing that too much, but it just seems that those 5 (and really only 4) things are what you would need to do to be a "web programmer" of sorts.

Of course you would have to know them pretty damn well to get a well paying job of course.

<edit>
ok...XML added
</edit>

Later,

C:\

(Edited by CPrompt on 12-27-2007 16:01)

Yeah, your 2 cents plus my 2 cents plus some 2 cents should make a fortune

Seriously, I get your point and think you are right about the core meaningful competencies of a web builder, BUT!
1) I would add xml to the mix, along xslt and xpath - see Semantic web resources above.

Silverlight, the Flash plugin AND the Java VM all are runtimes, and third party components - but the JavaVM takes time to start, still.
The benefits that go with this cost are increased possibilities compared to Flex or Cumberlight (infinite actually) - I am willing to cope with
VM loading time in my daily internet usage, yet I understand other users would not.

All in all, the +trunk+ you suggest is ok for today BUT DEFINITELY NEEDS SOME UNDERSTANDING OF XML in addition.

The rest is more about tomorrow, and tomorrow is coming quick in information science - so for myself, as it is a question
of adding "fresher skills" to my core education and experience of software development, I will study all the things I have mentionned above to a degree,
and try for myself those I consider the most interesting ones (Ajax, Flex and JavaFX).

..2 more cents in the bucket