Jens Meiert

Diagnostic Styling Reloaded

Eric cultivated the concept of “diagnostic styling,” meaning using CSS to reveal specific problems within an HTML document. I myself have been working with diagnostic style sheets for quite a while, be it for general quality assurance or to track down specific semantics or maintainability problems …

¶ August 1, 2009, filed under Web Development, Accessibility.

WDR #3: Optional Tags, Unquoted Attribute Value Syntax

The Web Dev Report, issue #3.

¶ July 29, 2009, filed under Web Development.

Microformats, Key Flaws

I like the idea behind microformats, but I’m still not convinced of the way that idea is brought to life. I see three major flaws that appear to make microformats stand in their own way. Being somewhat distant to the microformats community …

¶ July 16, 2009, filed under Web Development.

XHTML, RIP

Let’s finish off this week of morbid post titles: The XHTML 2 Working Group is expected to stop work end of 2009. “Today the Director announces that when the XHTML 2 Working Group charter expires …”

¶ July 4, 2009, filed under Web Development.

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 …

¶ 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.