The Rich Web Experience

Salmon Hot Pot [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Mon, 21 May 2012 11:54:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Details [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Thu, 17 May 2012 10:28:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Perfection [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Wed, 16 May 2012 11:27:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

WTFWG

Tim Kadlec — Tue, 15 May 2012 11:48:00 CDT

This morning, Ian Hickson emailed the WHATWG mailing list mentioning that a attribute that was currently being discussed on the list (srcset) is now added to the draft of the spec. To understand why this sucks, a little background is needed.

Responsive images are a difficult beast to tame: there really isn’t a good solution for them today. As a result, some discussion started on the WHATWG mailing list months ago about what to do. The WHATWG pointed out that the list was for standardizing and suggested it would be better if the discussion were moved into a community group.

So, obediently, a community group chaired by Mat Marquis was started (in February). A lot of discussion took place about the appropriate way to handle responsive images and one solution, the new picture element, garnered the majority of support.

On May 10th, the previously mentioned srcset attribute was presented on the WHATWG mailing list by someone from Apple.

That same day it was recommended to the list that they take a look at all the discussion that had taken place in the community group. A debate about the two solutions ensued.

The feedback from developers was not particularly glowing. To quote Matt Wilcox:

I do not see much potential for srcset. The result of asking the author community was overwhelmingly negative, indirection or no indirection.

It was argued by Simon Pieters of Opera that the srcset attribute would be easier to implement and that as a result, that would help developers:

I think an attribute is simpler to implement and thus likely to result in fewer bugs in browsers, which in turn benefits Web developers.

This morning, the attribute was added to the spec.

I’ve got my own opinion about the correct solution, but that’s not really what’s I think is most troubling here. Note what happened:

Developers got involved in trying to standardize a solution to a common and important problem.
The WHATWG told them to move the discussion to a community group.
The discussion was moved (back in February), a general consenus (not unanimous, but a majority) was reached about the picture element.
Another (partial) solution was proposed directly on the WHATWG list by an Apple employee.
A discussion ensued regarding the two methods, where they overlapped, and how the general opinions of each. The majority of developers favored the picture element and the majority of implementors favored the srcset attribute.
While the discussion was still taking place, and only 5 days after it was originally proposed, the srcset attribute (but not the picture element) was added to the draft.

What. The. Hell.

The developer community did everything asked of them. They followed procedure, they thoroughly discussed the options available. They were careful enough to consider what to do for browsers that wouldn’t support the element—a working polyfill is readily available. Their solution even emulates the existing standardized audio and video elements.

Meanwhile an Apple representative writes one email about a new attribute that only partially solves the problem and the 5 days later it’s in the spec. In case there is any doubt, I’m not blaming him at all for how this all played out. That blame falls on the WHATWG. Whatever their rationale was for putting this in the draft, the method in which it was added reeks of valuing the opinion of implementors over developers.

In the draft of the W3C HTML design principles, they clearly state the priority that should be given when determining standards:

In case of conflict, consider users over authors over implementors over specifiers over theoretical purity. In other words costs or difficulties to the user should be given more weight than costs to authors; which in turn should be given more weight than costs to implementors; which should be given more weight than costs to authors of the spec itself, which should be given more weight than those proposing changes for theoretical reasons alone.

Those levels of priority make a lot of sense to me and it’s discouraging (to say the least!) to see them dismissed in this case. This kind of thing simply cannot happen. It’s tough to get people to voice their opinions to begin with. To find that their opinion holds no weight won’t make it any easier going forward.

What message does it send when developers try to contribute their time, energy and effort to help solve a problem only to have it so casually dismissed?

As Scott Jehl responded on Twitter:

insulting. Not to mention, that it can’t work today. What was the purpose of our @w3c community group?

Insulting indeed. Not too surprising though. After all, we’ve seen this sort of thing before.

Gorgeous view [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Mon, 14 May 2012 19:12:00 CDT

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PhoneGap Starter Project - Productivity

Terry Ryan — Mon, 14 May 2012 12:08:00 CDT

A few weeks back Ryan Stewart posted on his idea for PhoneGap Starter projects. They were designed to take some of the grief out of getting started with various aspects of PhoneGap and PhoneGap Build projects. I've contributed a project based on one of pet peeves with PhoneGap Build: the lack of productivity.

Don't get me wrong. I love PhoneGap Build. I love not having to open multiple IDEs to work on mobile apps. I love working on HTML apps in HTML tools - but you lose a few things in the trade. You lose being able to click one button and have your work available on your device. You miss being able to click and get a pop up that says your work is ready to view on the device.

These things seem small, but having tried to build actual projects in PhoneGap Build, I found them critical. I would go kick off a build, and then have to wait for the build to be complete. I'd open a browser windows while I waited. 20 minutes later, I would cycle through my Chrome windows and remember that I was waiting for a build to complete.

A few months back I tried my hand and solving this and came up with a shell script that handled this for Android. Over the past few weeks, I've added to, improved, and modified it. I now have a solution in ANT that does the following:

Uploads files to PhoneGap Build triggering a rebuild
Polls for IOS and Android to be finished
Downloads ipa and apk files when ready
Installs them onto connected iOS and Android devices
Uses the "say" command to let you know when things are done.

It takes the form of an ANT build file, some properties, and 2 shell scripts. I've posted the whole thing as PhoneGap Starter Productivity on github. As far as I know this will only work on OS X, which I hope isn't a huge problem for anyone, and I'm willing to collaborate with someone to make them more cross platform friendly.

Also I feel it's important to note, that while these scripts mean you don't have to use the IDE to accomplish these tasks, you still have to have Xcode and the Android SDK on your machine to use them.

Tillandsia [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sun, 13 May 2012 17:22:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

D2WC Next Week

Terry Ryan — Wed, 09 May 2012 13:33:00 CDT

Next week, I'll be speaking at D2WC, a designer/developer workflow conference in Kansas City, Missouri.

I'll be talking about Using PhoneGap Build to simplify your mobile development life. One of the great things about PhoneGap is that it allows you to use HTML JS and CSS to build your applications, but you still have to use native tools to build your apps. PhoneGap Build helps immensely with this, but you make some productivity sacrifices. This session will show you how to maximize your work, and touch as little of the IDE as possible.

First time for me at this conference, but from what I understand it's a great conference that tackles a specific topic: getting development and design to work together better. Great goal, really looking forward to it.

D2WC
May 16-18
Kansas City Marriott Country Club Plaza
4445 Main Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64111
USA

Sample postcards of some of the winners of the I

Aaron Gustafson — Mon, 07 May 2012 16:29:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Union Station lobby [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sun, 06 May 2012 12:19:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

The first time I heard @CountingCrows live was on a bootleg recording from a bar in Boston in 1993. The show at the Ryman was world away from that modest beginning. [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sun, 06 May 2012 00:03:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Adam Duritz of @CountingCrows [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sat, 05 May 2012 23:59:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Repetition [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sat, 05 May 2012 18:34:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Lamp [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sat, 05 May 2012 16:39:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

New standing desk setup [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sat, 05 May 2012 06:37:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Hunting for a roller mar. [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:11:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Heidelberg Speedmaster [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Thu, 03 May 2012 10:02:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Press check for the 3rd printing of Adaptive Web Design [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:56:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

BDConf:focus on Responsive

Tim Kadlec — Thu, 03 May 2012 09:46:00 CDT

If you’ve gone to a BDConf (more on the recent Orlando event very soon!), you know we keep the focus pretty tight: web design and development for beyond the desktop. No native discussion, just web. We thought it would be fun to get even more focused. So on June 4th in Minneapolis, we’ll host the first ever BDConf:focus on event and do a deep dive into responsive design: all day, all responsive.

The lineup is amazing. Seriously.

Dave Rupert, lead developer at Paravel, co-host of the ShopTalk podcast, and creator of awesome tools like FitVids and FitText, will get the day kicked off with a four hour workshop.

After lunch, Mat Marquis will get the afternoon started with his presentation, “Next Steps for Responsive Design”. Mat worked on the Boston Globe project and heads up the Responsive Images Community Group for the W3C, so he’s got some hard-earned experience to pull from. He’s also a seriously funny guy.

Then, Kristofer Layon will present “The Minimal Viable Web”. Kristofer is the author of two books, most recently the excellent “Mobilizing Web Sites”. I love how practical and pragmatic that book is and I expect his talk will keep the same tone.

I’ll close the day with a new talk for me, “Creating Responsive Experiences”. I’ve been on a kick for awhile now that I think responsive design has to be about more than just layout, and I’ll try to make my case (and back it up with a few examples).

It should be an awesome day! The venue, Open Book, has a cool feel to it and we’re going to keep attendance low—you won’t be lost in a huge ballroom of people.

There are still passes available. If you want to make the trip (and you do!), code ‘KADLEMN’ will shave $100 off the cost of registration.

I hope to see you in Minneapolis—it’s going to be awesome!

Funkas Tillgänglighetsdagar 2012

Aaron Gustafson — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:17:00 CDT

A few weeks back, I flew to Sweden to deliver a talk on progressive enhancement for mobile devices at Funkas Tillgänglighetsdagar. I thought I’d share my slide deck from the talk in case you’re interested.

Featured on the SlideShare Homepage [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Tue, 01 May 2012 13:34:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

It is an honor and a priviledge. Thank you SlideShare!

Please Vote

Alex Russell — Tue, 01 May 2012 06:30:00 CDT

If you’re a web developer, please vote in Paul Irish’s poll on browser support. The larger the population that votes, the more we can trust the answers, and the data is critical to making sense of how we collectively think about browser support. Go now. It won’t take long, I promise.

Awesome birthday present from @kellymccarthy. [Flickr]

Aaron Gustafson — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 11:06:00 CDT

Aaron Gustafson posted a photo:

Don’t Sell Out Your Users

Aaron Gustafson — Tue, 24 Apr 2012 08:17:00 CDT

Most sites have exhaustive Privacy Policies detailing what information they collect and what they may do with it, which is why I find it bizarre that many of these same sites have chosen to hand over their users’ browsing habits to third parties such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google without considering the implications.