Ed's Tech Tips

Although I first created web pages with graphical WYSIWYG (WYSIAWYG: What you see is almost what you get) editors, I don't anymore. It would appear to be a natural transition to go from a dekstop publishing page layout program like PageMaker to a program like NetObjects, GoLive or DreamWeaver. However, web pages are not like the printed page. Web pages are no longer just about text and images, even when they briefly were, the text size and fonts could be changed and the images turned off by the viewer. Web pages now are much more dynamic. They consist of not only text and images, but audio, video, animation, forms and server side and client side programing that can be written in a combination of various languages, such as PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby, Java, ASP, and Javascript, as well as some others.

For a great resource on learning what happens behind the scenes on a web site, check out W3 Schools.  This site has been online a long time and has always been a great reference for me. It has been kept up to date with the latest technologies over the years and I highly recommend it.

Getting back to web page editors.  I have used a variety of tools, such as, a text editor, a terminal program, a CSS editor and a FTP program. Then I have at least a couple web browsers to see how the page looks. For text editors it depends what operating system I am using. On Windows I use PSPad, the best freeware text editor I know of. It has many features and I wish it was available on the Mac, where I first tried BBedit, but was not crazy about the interface. Mac users raved about it, but I guess they were never exposed to Windows HTML text editors, such as, HomeSite. Smultron, is a open source editor that I often use now. As for terminals the Mac terminal is fine, but on Windows I use Putty. In regards to FTP clients, WinSCP is my top choice for Windows. On the Mac I have used CyberDuck, Fetch and Transmit - CyberDuck is the open source free choice out of the three. I wish there was a version of WinSCP for Mac. As for CSS editors, I could use a text editor but there is no way I can remember all of the options that are available in CSS. On Windows, there is TopStyle which integrates with PSPad and there is a free Lite version. On the Mac, CSSEdit is the top choice.

My method of web design is shared by many that lean more toward the coding and programming aspect of web development rather than the design aspect. Not to say that beautiful web sites cannot be created  without Dreamweaver, they can. The guys at Panic (the developers of the Transmit FTP client), a software development company were designing web sites the same way when one day they had a revelation:

We code web sites by hand. And one day, it hit us: our web workflow was wonky. We’d have our text editor open, with Transmit open to save files to the server. We’d be previewing in Safari, running queries in Terminal, using a CSS editor, and reading references on the web. “This could be easier,” we realized. “And much cooler.”

Their epiphany resulted in a new web development program called Coda which is Text editor + Transmit + CSS editor + Terminal + Books + More. It is not an open source program, but I was so compelled by the the program I bought it (there is a trail version you can test drive) and it has proven to be well worth the money, because it is a real time saver. In one window I have all of the tools I need close at hand. On a 13 inch MacBook, the savings in screen real estate is very beneficial, but not having to switch back and forth between different applications and logging into each is a real time saver. 

While the program has been criticized for not having this feature or that option, you have to look at the sum of it's parts. It does not try to be the best text editor, CSS editor, terminal or FTP program. It tries to take the most often used features and tools and combine them into a single interface. I think they have done a good job. There is some room for improvement, but it is a good accomplishment. I still have to break some of my old habits. I still open a terminal window and a separate browser window before it dawn on me that these tools are built into Coda.  It may not be for everyone, I am sure my workflow would strike some as down right bizarre, but it works for me. I am not going to review the software here, since other sites have done a very job of doing so already, such as, Daring Fireball and MacApper.

By the way, Coda recieved a Apple Design Award for best Mac OS X User Experience. 

CUPS? It stands for Common Unix Printing System and is an open source application. From the CUPS web site:

CUPS is the software you use to print from applications like the web browser you are using to read this page. It converts the page descriptions produced by your application (put a paragraph here, draw a line there, and so forth) into something your printer can understand and then sends the information to the printer for printing.

Now, since every printer manufacturer does things differently, printing can be very complicated. CUPS does its best to hide this from you and your application so that you can concentrate on printing and less on how to print. Generally, the only time you need to know anything about your printer is when you use it for the first time, and even then CUPS can often figure things out on its own.

CUPS is distributed with many Linux distributions and has been bundled with Mac OS X since the Jaguar edition (10.2). Apple had initially attempted to create it's own printer system from scratch, but then shortly adopted CUPS. This past February Apple quietly hired the creator of CUPS and bought the code, but continues to make it available as an open source project. The announcement was just made on the CUPS web site July 11. 

Hopefully, Apple will continue to keep CUPS open. This should be good for CUPS, since it assures financial backing for the project. There was a commercial version which is no longer available, although the reference book can still be bought but they are not accepting any orders while they move from Maryland to California. It is the best system on Linux for managing printers which is done via web browser administrative interface.  It is what is used on our Linux file and print server which runs ClarkConnect.

This may be the last installment in this series, or then again I might continue it. This posting consist of just a few more observations.

First, the explanation of the photo with the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and the Black MacBook. As I mentioned earlier the black MacBook picks up the oils from your hands fairly easily. I did a search online to see what suggestions other users had for cleaning their MacBooks and came across the suggestion to use the Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which I knew was a phenomenal cleaner for hMacBookss, scuff marks, crayon, pencil and pen marks on walls and such. I am not sure how it works exactly. The foam is impregnated with a cleaner. You wet the sponge, squeeze it out and then use it like an eraser. The foam eventually deteriorates and you have to throw it out.

There are step-by-step instructions on MacApper. I tried it and it works wonderfully. The notebook is practically restored to the original flat matte finish. The touchchpad still shows some sheen, but the outside looks like it did out of the box.

My second observation is that Windows XP performs much better on the MacBook than Vista, of course this is probably true of any computer. Vista just gobbles up the resources, you forget that you have a machine with 2 gigs or RAM and one of Intel's latest dual core processors.  XP is considerably snappier. It loads much faster and performs quicker with less RAM. Besides rearranging the menus, changing the appearance (it is prettier than XP) and prompting me for every little thing, I have yet to see why it took 5 years to develop Vista. I could not even install Java via IE. I had to use Firefox to do the job. I guess I could have eventually done it with IE screwing with the different protection levels until I lowered them enough to get the job done, but I was constantly going back and forth, being prompted and reloading the page. It was frustrating. However, although XP is faster, when you initially install it, there are numerous updates and they do not install all at one time. You have to install what is available, reboot and check updates again to only find even more updates. The service pack 2 update takes forever.

My third observation is that I hope that web designers and software developers remember that the 1440x900 wide screen format is a popular display format and that they do not design their pages or applications too tall. I have even bought some 19 inch screens that have the same pixel dimensions, so it is not just my little 13.3 inch screen that is the problem. For instance, the ribbon toolbar in Microsoft Office 2007 is rather thick or tall, taking up a lot of screen real estate. I'll admit it may be innovative and is probably a better design once I get used to it. Items are not necessarily where I expect them to be. The toolbar leaves much less work space for the document, database or spreadsheet that you are working on.

My new MacCase messenger bag finally arrived. I was carrying the macbook between computer magazines in a backpack which was not nearly as padded as the Incase sling bag I was using for the G4 PowerBook and I was not comfortable with the arrangement. I had ordered the MacCase bag when I ordered the computer, but it was on back order for a month. The bag was cheap, $19.99. The outer bag does not have any padding itself, but comes with a zipper-less, padded, custom fitted sleeve that protects the notebook in just about anything you want to carry it in. Th bag has all of the appropriate pockets, even one for a water bottle on the outside. I was disappointed that it did not have the Brightsight interior that was advertised on the MacCase web site, but that might be why MacMall was selling the bag for $19.99 instead of $39.99.