Tales of a Designer » Functionality

Internet Explorer 7 is Finally Here

John Phillips — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 15:04:22 +0000

Finally, we see the official release of IE7 hit the internet. Now, my first thoughts are that this is good, but the more I think about it and read other people’s opinions, the more it makes me wonder how good this really is. Now of course we are glad that Microsoft finally gets the idea that they need a more safe, standards driven engine under the hood. But will they keep at it?

It’s good that IE7 has more CSS support, however, I fear that Microsoft will release this version, and then leave it at that, without continuing to update it. CSS is only advancing, and I can only hope that Microsoft wants its browser to keep up with the times and not let it turn into another IE6 fiasco. I just hope that Microsoft isn’t putting on a front, and that they actually care about the advancement of web standards.

Another concern that I have, is what happens with IE6 now? Back in April when I first tried out one of the early beta versions of IE7, I was no longer able to use the previous version. And because of the fact that I have to develop for the new version, how will I be able to make sure my sites work in IE6 and before. I think it’s out of the question to stop developing for them so early because of the heavy usage of them still, but there has to be a solution to this issue. It’s about time to see if my sites all work in IE7, and if not, it might be a long weekend.

Right now this release is just got download, and not yet inside of the XP update, so I am hoping that people begin to latch on and upgrade their browsers. This will be very interesting to observe between now and the end of the year, and see how many people make that change.

This new version of IE7 finally has tabs! Welcome to the party Microsoft, you’re still behind. Aside from that, the browser is supposed to be alot more secure, can read RSS feeds, and the UI has gotten a much needed upgrade.

To say that I’m excited about this release would be an over-statement, because it adds yet another browser to develop for. But it’s good to finally see Microsoft take a step in the right direction. Being a designer/developer, it seems that I have no choice but to download this latest version, but I will still stay loyal to my beloved Firefox. I can’t see IE7 being better than Firefox, but only time will tell.

Would You Leave Firefox?

John Phillips — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 17:35:36 +0000

Firefox has been the browser of choice for millions of people, especially with designers and developers, mainly because of the CSS support that it has. It’s no secret that IE6 can be an absolute headache to develop for. But it seems as though Microsoft might actually be doing something right with the release of IE7 being right around the corner.

Now, Microsoft is quite good at screwing products up by releasing them before they are actually ready to be taken out of beta. But, in my opinion, IE7 might be one of the most important products that Microsoft will rerlease. The web is huge now, and it’s obvious that Microsoft finally deciding not to be naive about it.

What makes this release of IE7 so nice, is that they are marking this release as a “high priority” and will be included in a critical Windows update. So the current users of IE6 will be force fed the update, which is great. It makes me wonder how fast, if at all, this will phase out IE6. Hopefully fast, because I don’t think many developers would complain if they no longer had to take IE6 into account when building sites. And though it may not be perfect to the extent that we would like it, at least Microsoft is realizing that some things really need to change about that browser.

I am sure that the new IE7 will have tons of new features aside from web standards stuff, to make browsing alot better and customized, but there is no need to get into those features. But I wonder if IE7 will be that good of a browser to regain some of the people that made the switch to Firefox. I can’t even name how many people I alone have gotten to use Firefox, and everyone loves it. So I am thinking that IE7 better do some amazing things with the browser to top the comfort that Firefox users have with their browser.

Of course I will give IE7 a go, although I really don’t have a choice being a designer and all, however I am very skeptical to think that it will be that good of a browser to make me leave Firefox as my browser of choice. I can’t even imagine how much more I would customize my browser because it basically has everything that I need. So do you think IE7 will be that great to leave Firefox in 2nd place?

Comfort Level

John Phillips — Mon, 22 May 2006 16:54:22 +0000

About a year and a half ago, when I created my first blog site, I loved it. At that point, I wasn’t too familiar with the complete functionality of what blog sites could actually offer. But once I started getting into blogging, and more or less studying other blog sites and CMS’s, then I became extremely curious on how much I could actually get out of a site. Once I learned that, the blog site that I was using simply was not enough, and I started to write less.

So what I’m wondering is, how comfortable do you have to be with your own site to want to contribute to it often? This was a question that just randomly popped in my head, but I think I know how that happened. Over that past year, I have been also maintaining a personal blog, and just as of last week, it functions the way that I’ve always wanted it to function. Even though I don’t have a finished design for it yet, I still love the site, and almost feel like I want to write everyday. Why? Because it feels comfortable contributing to a site that works exactly the way I want it to.

I can’t say that I’m 100% to that point with this site, but I can say that I am not too far away. Over the next few months I plan on playing around alot with this Movable Type to learn it a little more and try integrating some different features into it. I have only been using Movable Type for a couple months, so I’m no expert quite yet. But the more I learn the system, the better I will be at making the site function the way I want it to. It would also help if I was a programmer.

For the past [almost] year, my personal blog site has been powered by WordPress and I can say that I feel completely comfortable using it. On top of that, I just upgraded it to the latest version, and I think I like it even more than I did before. So this is going to be no comparison on which CMS is better, I just need to learn Movable Type the way that I know WordPress, and then I will be throwing tags around in no time in order to shape it into the beast that I envision.

So again, does comfort level with your site play a roll in how much you actually use your site? If your site doesn’t function the way that you want it to, will you use it as often as you had planned before you created the site? I think it plays a roll for me. Maybe it is easier to write for a personal site, who knows, but I will get to the level that I want with this site, then I will judge.