Ralford.net

  [Development]

A recent update to this weblog's about webpage mentions that I might eventually release the Ralford.net shell as an alternative to other open source content management systems. Without getting into why the shell may not be ready for that, I've created a wiki entry for taking notes on the considerations to be made when releasing a web application (w).

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  [Development]

I've been toying around with the idea of listing my band's show dates on Ralford.net. The problem is that I didn't want to manually update the wiki every time we schedule a gig. So, I was thinking that if I had an RSS feed of dates from our Myspace page, I could display them on the fly.

The problem is that Myspace doesn't currently support RSS feeds. So I found someone who wrote a PHP script that parses a band's Myspace page and turns their dates into an RSS feed: RSS feeds for MySpace shows.

It wasn't plug and go (since I use an older version of PHP for testing), but with that done, I had a working RSS feed of our dates. Next, I found a website that generates a graphical module to display the RSS feed. All I had to do was become a member of SpringWidgets.com, and create a widget using my RSS feed.

The result is a wiki page that is a mirrors all dates listed on our Myspace page:
Cootie Brown (w).

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  [Development]

After having some trouble with the "alt" attribute with IMG tags in my weblog, I finally turned to Google. Apparently, Firefox (and Mozilla) use the "alt" attribute as a true alternate: to display text in place of an image if the image won't load (see w3schools).

You guessed it - I do 99% of my browsing in Firefox. For mouse-over text to show up in Firefox or Mozzila, use the "title" attribute with the IMG tag:

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  [Development]

Programmers know that lining up code is a must. Fortunately Courier isn't the only monospaced font out there. For those who like their code to line up, here is a list of monospaced fonts:  Monospaced Fonts

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  [Development]

If you're familiar with CSS, you can probably stop reading this post...

Years ago, back before I knew CSS existed, I always used table tags to place elements on my webpages. They worked at the time, but as my projects became more involved, I cornered myself into a number of situtations where table tags were not sufficient for organizing the layout of a page. These days, I almost never use tables. And to be honest, CSS is easier to make a layout the way you want.

So many pages still use tables, but the truth is - tables are for tabular data. If you are still using tables to setup the layout of your webpage, you should really step back and learn about CSS.

A mentor once explained to me that an ideal webpage keeps it's content separate from the page layout. CSS allows the developer to make changes to the style and layout of a page without messing with the content. A great illustration of this concept can be found at Zen Garden, where each webpage uses the same HTML but a different style sheet. If you are new to CSS, like all of us once were, I suggest you give it a try. Below are some resources to get you started:

• Cacading Style Sheets - A webpage at W3.org listing some CSS tools and some browsers that support CSS
• CSS Edge - Eric Meyer explains some handy CSS tricks
• CSS Tooltips - An example showing how to make hovering text boxes with CSS and span tags
• W3C CSS Validator - Does your style sheet conform to the W3C recommendations?
• Zen Garden - Where each page has the same HTML, but a different style sheet

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  [Development]

How should a developer use comments? Are comments useful? Do comments serve the same purpose when many users are involved in a project? Do too many comments cause confusion? If there aren't enough comments, will the code make sense? These are just a few things many developers might question when trying to add comments and documentation to their code.

To avoid unnecessary comments, I try to use variables and functions that tell me exactly what is happening in my code. For instance, when programming in a scripting langugage, if I have a table with user names and corresponding IDs, and I want a function that gets a user name when given a user id, then I'll name it something like "get_user_name_from_id()". It makes my life easier, and keeps me from commenting too much. This goes for HTML form names as well as any object or attribute that is worth remembering. In some cases, my variables and functions describe themselves to the point that even with pages of functions, I can guess the name of a required function 95% of the time. The naming formats have become part of my personal coding standards.

On the other hand, if you have code that is complicated and worth commenting, take the time to do it. It will make you more familiar with your code. The more time you spend thinking about your code, the better chance you'll have of simplifying it, so the commenting probably won't hurt. However, if you notice a complicated chunk of code that seems like it should be commented in multiple pages, functions or includes will probably simplify the code.

And for one final note that shouldn't be forgotten: comments mean different things to different people. It's tough reading someone elses code. So if you are developing with a group of people, take the time to come up with some coding and commenting standards. This will put everyone on the same page, and everyone will know when and how to add a comment that will be useful for the project.

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  [Development]

As stated in the IEEE Standard 12207, quality is defined as follows: "The quality assurance process is a process for providing adequate assurance that the software products and processes in the product life cycle conform to their specific requirements and adhere to their established plans."

A Slashdot discussion on a quality assurance article clearly points out that quality assurance is not a replacement for testing. Quality assurance is just what it sounds like: it gives you that your product will be of high quality. A quality product is , as it is difficult or nearly impossible to prove that a highly detailed software product is 100% error free. However, if a process or method is followed during the a product's life cycle, the product and it its environment will ultimately be controlled, and the chance of introducing known problems will be less probable.

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  [Development]

There is a great post going on over at DevShed about PHP developers and ColdFusion. Some PHP developers don't seem to take ColdFusion seriously and this post is attempting to find out why.

The first scripting language I learned was actually ColdFusion. We messed around with it for a while where I work in an effort to make a database-driven webpage. At the time, I was an intern, and I must say that my code was sloppier than hell. I didn't use many of the available ColdFusion tags and didn't follow "good coding habits". Then one day, my friend Ben introduced me to PHP. I like it because it's open source, and support for it can be found almost anywhere. As a computer engineer, I ran into all sorts of new languages with strange syntax in college, so PHP was nothing new for me. Since I've learned PHP, I've done more work with ColdFusion, and most of my bad habits with it seemed to disappear. I almost feel like PHP has guided my development in a better direction.

My point is that I am one of those PHP developers who generally dislikes ColdFusion. The whole tag thing with ColdFusion doesn't ever work smoothly for me unless I have a stack of reference books next to me. As far as syntax goes, PHP is more intuitive to me than ColdFusion. I have always felt that ColdFusion isn't very strict when it comes to syntax.

Anyway, I think the post over at DevShed is worth checking out. Anyone who uses scripting languages with web development could learn a new thing or two. Most importantly, with a couple of scripting languages under your belt, you can choose the one that works best for your application.

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