Technical question about DG directed to Ray_der_Phan

"I also understand that it's one helluva job to undertake. DG was so antiquated a few years back. Was happy to see the 5 image integrated last year. Much needed. Now I'm happy to see it's attempting to become current. But not to the point of upsetting the community."


Hi, Ray_der_phan, I'm curious about your observations at a technical level. I'm a programmer, and so am familiar with the choices between customized tools vs higher level tools (I'm talking about the methosds used to build the site... not the end result. And I'm having senior moments about the correct terminology). But I'm not familiar with web development. I've always liked Dave's Garden because of the sensitivity to the user's point of view, but, of course, when it gets too big for them to handle all the problems, the problems make me crazy (like the searches and the Garden Showcase). Fortunately I've never tried to mess with fonts and unusual display hardware. What I'd like to know from you are more areas where it is/was "antiquated." That is, where solutions are now available from higher level tools (which would, of course, require a total re-write, and I'm pretty sure, would force us to give up a bunch of stuff we really like.) This is just curiosity for me. I'm not suggesting that DG undertake the re-write.

TIA
LAS

Excerpts from http://www.printmag.com/imprint/10-reasons-rethink-your-website/

"Websites don’t last forever. Without consistent upkeep, sometimes they barely even make it three years! The rapid change of web technology can overtake what was once state-of-the-art and reduce a website to a quaint relic in pretty short order, which is why it’s so critical to realistically consider the “shelf life” of your website when you first build it."

"If your website was built five years ago, there is a very good chance that some aspect of it is dysfunctional or perhaps even completely invisible to many of today’s web users. Conversely, if your website was built within the last year or so, it’s likely that without a lot of patience and work, it doesn’t function properly or look right in older browsers, even though many people still use them. Actually, looking at browser optimization in the reverse—in terms of optimizing today’s sites for yesterday’s browsers—might be a more helpful way of illustrating this point.

Browser optimization used to be the greatest lament of the web developer, as significant differences occurred between versions. But general web standards ushered in a time of comparative stability—one during which a three-year-old website could conceivably still work and look great on the latest version of Firefox. Today, even with at least four big players in the browser space, that stability is undermined by the continued use of Internet Explorer 6. Released almost a decade ago in 2001—2 years before the first version of Safari, 3 years before the first version of Firefox, and 7 years before the first version of Chrome—IE 6 is like the ant of web browsers. It’s not smart, but it’s a survivor and has managed to spread … everywhere. (I wanted to compare it to the Borg, but the resistance of developers everywhere is not futile!) But back to the problem: Because IE 6 does not support CSS version 2, web developers have to create hacked versions of websites’ CSS files that divert from web standards in order to ensure that they function (fingers crossed!) in IE 6. This kind of thing is like time-traveling back to the 10th century with all the equipment to create a mini electrical grid just so you can plug in a lamp. So if we have to do all this work to get current websites to work right on outdated browsers, you can see why a website created when they were current would be a busted eyesore today!"

"The growth of the mobile industry is unprecedented and will certainly impact your business even in the next few years. Since Apple’s mobile platform devices first launched, more than 120 million people have signed up for service. Apple expects more than 100 million iPhone subscribers alone by the end of 2011. By 2012, an inflection point is anticipated at which time the number of active smartphones will exceed the total number of personal computers in the world. Soon, mobile will no longer be a peripheral web platform. It will be the primary one. In the meantime, the technological change within the mobile space is in rapid flux. Without beginning the process of acclimating your web presence to the mobile platform now, you are likely to experience a much more difficult transition later."


Also found this 2009 article and discussion of "Browser font scaling" to be a good backdrop to the issues encountered by many of us as DG upgrades.

Hey, thanks! That's really helpful. What's CSS?

CSS is cascading style sheet
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascading_Style_Sheets



Here is the link I failed to provide on the 2009 article "Coding Horror: Two Types of Browser Zoom"
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/2009/01/the-two-types-of-browser-zoom.html

coleup,
I know nothing about computer programing, but "Coding Horror: Two Types of Browser Zoom" seems to me to be part of the problem here. They are tying to fix text sizing, when the entire page needs to resize, just my uneducated opinion.

Wow! What an education! Thanks! I had no idea what they were up against, only that it seemed really, really haphazard. But now the problems here make sense.

I've had to buy a new computer every 3 or 4 years just to run the programs I'm used to using. The last new one was because Apple stopped supporting Millenium when they introduced iCloud, and I need it, both for iPhone and iPad. Instead of iCloud freeing me from PCs, I had to buy a new one just to set it up. I have barely used it since.

So yes, the mobile world is taking over, even though many people here will never succumb. What a nightmare for programmers! Amazing that anything works at all!!!