Jens Meiert

handheld Media Type, RIP?

Website authors don’t use handheld as it’s barely supported; mobile device suppliers don’t support handheld because it’s barely used. This is kind of the situation I think we’re facing, and it’s problematic …

¶ June 30, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Let’s Make The Web Faster

Two weeks after my last outcry regarding slowness on the web there’s the more proactive response: Google launched code.google.com/speed, nicely labeled “let’s make the web faster” …

¶ June 24, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Maintainability Guide (Beta)

Maintainability is important in order to deal with change. Good maintainability makes change easier yet avoids change that is not necessary, and good maintainability also makes change more affordable …

¶ June 17, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Intermission: Speed

“The size of the average web page has more than tripled since 2003. From 2003 to 2008 the average web page grew from 93.7 KB to over 312 KB, some 233 %. During the same five-year period, the number of objects in the average web page …”

¶ June 10, 2009, filed under Web Development, User Experience.

CSS: The Maintenance Issue #1 and How You Can Avoid It

The biggest – as most unnecessary – maintenance issue in web development is, as my recent research shows, style sheet naming and integration. It might come surprising, but what happens in practice is that web developers do use inadvisable style sheet names and inadvisable ways to integrate …

¶ May 27, 2009, filed under Web Development.

The Result of Maturity Is Simplicity

“Finally, it doesn’t lack some irony considering that web design gets often enough protected by the credo ‘the end justifies the means’ and pragmatism’s paid homage to. The question is whether you’re talking about sick, sanctimonious pragmatism or …”

¶ May 26, 2009, filed under Web Development, Design.

Notes on XML, Elements, and Attributes

Contrary to what one might expect, I’m not necessarily bringing in much XML design experience with my occasional contributions to the HTML 5 specification. However, the design of markup languages is something I consider beneficial for my job as a web professional as well …

¶ April 23, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Notes on Maintainability

To bridge Easter holidays and my upcoming trip to the W4A conference in Madrid, here are some small but mighty bits regarding maintenance and maintainability …

¶ April 14, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Why CSS Needs No Variables

No, this is not an April Fools’ joke: If you follow web development fora, magazines, blogs, and W3C’s www-style, CSS variables or constants seem to be one of the top features web developers are asking for. Following a concept written by Daniel Glazman and Apple’s Dave Hyatt …

¶ April 1, 2009, filed under Web Development.

The Stupidest Style Sheet Name Ever

This might irritate some people, however one of the last names you might want to pick for your style sheet is “style.css”. Why is “style.css” such an inadvisable CSS file name? The main reason’s maintenance. There’s quite some probability – and as we all know, web development is a lot about probability – …

¶ March 25, 2009, filed under Web Development.