Category Archives: Tools

Pears: Create your own pattern library

Posted on February 8, 2012 by Dan

At work, we have what we call our module library, which is an interface with which to browse (and edit) the snippets of code and style (we call them modules) that we use to make up our site. They’re not … Continue reading →

Posted in Tools, User Interface, Wordpress | Leave a comment

Getting XML data into Symfony, automatically.

Posted on November 3, 2009 by Dan

The problem We have a complex XML file with many different node types, etc. supplied by a third party via a URL reference. There’s an initial dump, and then an incremental update every couple of weeks, with additions, deletions and … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Tools | 4 Comments

Google Chrome

Posted on September 2, 2008 by Dan

Google have today released their new web browser, Google Chrome, in beta. Man is it fast!!!! I’ve been using it this evening and it really flies. While it supposedly uses more memory than other browsers, this use of extra memory … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Gadgets, Tools | 1 Comment

Goodbye .clearfix, old friend.

Posted on July 17, 2008 by Dan

You all know the old ‘floated elements inside a container cause the container to collapse’ problem? Well, up until recently, I’d always just called on an old friend, .clearfix, and he’d sorted it out for me. I met .clearfix three … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Link, Tools, Web Standards | 2 Comments

Does developing in .aspx produce bloated code?

Posted on July 4, 2008 by Dan

This started out as a comment in response to Robbie’s question on my previous post, but thought I’d turn it into another post: So is it that they are written in aspx which makes them bloated?. Well, I guess that’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Commentary, Design, Tools | 2 Comments

Web site performance

Posted on July 3, 2008 by Dan

Last week I read Steve Souders’ High Performance Web Sites. While I already have a fairly good understanding of site performance, having completed a fairly extensive performance analysis of tvnz.co.nz a few years ago and being familiar with Yahoo!’s YSlow … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Commentary, Design, Tools, Web Standards | 5 Comments

Download Day: Firefox 3

Posted on June 18, 2008 by Dan

Need I say more? Go and get it!

Posted in Link, Tools | 1 Comment

The Mac arrived yesterday…

Posted on June 5, 2008 by Dan

…and so, as is obligatory, here are the unboxing pictures: It’s in the box on the left. Ohh Ahh! The box within a box. Pretty polystyrene Even the handle is smiling With all the bits And there it is. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Gadgets, Tools | 1 Comment

A MacBook Pro

Posted on May 29, 2008 by Dan

I’m still doing it all holiday-like here in Switzerland. I try to make time to leaf through the usual blogs, but I’m really starting to hanker for a bit of work, which is good, because I start my new job … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Tools | 1 Comment

Frameworks. CSS and otherwise.

Posted on November 19, 2007 by Dan

Jeff Croft hosts a hornets’ nest of a debate over the use (or not) of frameworks in web development. It may pay to first read his previous post on this topic. And probably Jeff’s article on frameworks that he wrote … Continue reading →

Posted in Coding, Link, Tools | Leave a comment