Confessions of a Web Developer VI
It's been quite a while since I've gotten a few things off of my chest and since I'm always full of peeves and annoyances I thought it was time to unleash:
- Who loses in the browser wars? Developers. Designers. Users. I hope the browser development teams are having fun though...
- Learning jQuery made me love MooTools even more. Go figure.
- For those of you that have loads of trouble with your JavaScript: maybe you need to start looking at your CSS?
- I'm completely humbled by jQuery's drive and organization. They simply know how to publicize, organize, and make their community happy. I really hope to duplicate that effort with the MooTools team.
- The government-issued warnings about not using IE aren't something us developers should get our hopes up about. It's a cute side note but it will have very little impact on the numbers.
- You're crazy if you don't put your quality MooTools plugins on the MooTools Forge. You get quality feedback, website traffic, and bug reports. It's the most valuable tool I've come upon in quite a while.
- As one of the moderators for Script & Style, I ask roundup creators to ask themselves this when they create each post: what value does this post bring? Some roundups are brilliant but others offer little value, like "25 Best jQuery Lightboxes". Ummmm...do any of them work? If so, why do you need to list 25?
- For those of you who really love your job: consider yourselves lucky. Some days can be such a struggle for some of us.
- I'm shocked that some rich company doesn't come and hire the entire MooTools team. A team of brilliant developers that are used to working together....it almost seems like a no-brainer.
- Remember Chrome Frame? Me either...
- The lack of accountability I see from some web vendors is criminal. Taking weeks to make basic updates or charging outrageous sums to fix problems they created. Absolutely shocking.
- I've concluded the IE6 issue that bothers me the most is the lack of transparent PNG support.
- I'd be lying if I said the World Cup isn't a consideration when I think about going freelance.
- Media Temple has treated me very well; both as a sponsor and a customer.
- I've never been a huge fan of pseudo code. I understand its purpose and will see it in extreme purposes but I prefer to dive in and work it out in my head.
- I consider it a gift that I can bring my work home with me. I consider it a curse that I can bring my work home with me.
- I got asked by a client for a counter last week....
You know the drill. This is where you flame me...
“The lack of accountability I see from some web vendors is criminal. Taking weeks to make basic updates or charging outrageous sums to fix problems they created. Absolutely shocking.” – I couldn’t agree more! There are some completely unethical people in our field looking to really screw over those who just don’t know any better.
I’m sure many developers will agree with most of your points this time round, however with that said – you are slagging mootools about a bit too much in this post!
A la your last point, I can go better than that, I had to ‘re-implement’ the tag in js for a client a few weeks ago – made me feel sick!
@Nick Pack: That was the marquee tag, your content escaping/cleanup routine stripped it in parenthesis! – probably a wise decision given what it was!
Duude, you don’t even know WHAT you are talking ABOUT?? Css and JAVASCRIPT are NOT THE SAME THING! There’s a reason one ends with .css and the other with .js!!! More like confessions of an AMATEUR!
:p
@Jeremy Martin: Hahahaha. You got me!
A COUNTER?!
What is that already? ;) I mean… wow… I didn’t though such script still existed… I though everyone were using Analytics tools, such as Google’s.
For the rest… it’s the usual things we deal with.
Gee, seeing how often you update your blog David, I feel ashamed of not finding the time to update mine. Shame on me! :P
@Nickolas Simard: Good job David, Now I’m depressed! ;-)
lol @ I’d be lying if I said the World Cup isn’t a consideration when I think about going freelance.
who you supporting? !
Flying Emirates :P
@David Walsh: Haha, so true about Script & Style (though it also applies to an unbelievable number of popular blogs and round-up sources alike). I pretty much ignore any article that begins with a number for this exact reason, which ends up being a vast majority of what shows up on my RSS reader, unfortunately. I’m also with you on the pseudocode thing!
@David – I got asked to implement a counter TODAY! Good thing I keep my pocket-guide to ‘Derailing any and all requests for hit-counters’ on hand for just such moments! :D
@Chris the Developer: Gimme that guide too! I fear that request may lurks in the shadows around my desk!
I agree with your world cup post. i was freelancing when euro2008 came around. good times…. good times….
“I’ve concluded the IE6 issue that bothers me the most is the lack of transparent PNG support.”
Ditto!
counters is the shit man!!!
The Script&Style comment is on the mark.
I’ve been meaning to ask where’s the Mootools stuff. I (almost) always ignore the blog filler articles “the # best gizmo whats_its_function available”. But even so, Moo Forge, tutorials and such, it seems there are not the same numbers of Mootools examples as JQuery.
Mootools may be better, but the community isn’t as prolific. It’s the best kept secret out there.
I’m with you 100% on the IE6 alpha-transparent PNG issue. I can cope with most of it’s crap, but that drives me insane every single time.
Don’t get me wrong — there are good PNG fixes out there. The problem is that they can be quite taxing to where the user sees the non-fixed image while the VML is being drawn.
I’ll second your sentiment against “roundup posts”. I’ve written 64 articles so far, none which are a list of random things I’ve found around the web. I’ve often wondered what the traffic comparison is for those types of posts vs. others. Another question for you David, how do manage to write a new post every day, and how much time would you say you give to each one?
@Jeremy Martin: I am confused if this was a joke or not and want to find out . . . because if it isn’t then this guy doesn’t know what he is talking about
@Tim: He’s joking. :)
Criminal web vendors who don’t understand that an insanely restrictive web host they insist on using will not work for the project they want to do. Then after the work is complete as possible, they decide to bail on the project and not pay subcontractors.
@Travis Pulley: Collect half up front, *always*.
@Ryan Florence: At least.
Thanks for making me nearly spill soda all over myself with your google frame comment. I think it’s time you did a big interview or something to get all of this off your chest…if only ;-)
Be in touch soon,
Drew
I miss Chrome Frame and all the hope it brought to us naive people that we can tame IE. I’m sad that the mass population don’t care that IE6 is insecure despite mass media publications and I live and die by pseudo code. Taking time to plan out what you are going to do can never be a bad thing.
My favourite out of all your Confessions. I agree with most of them. I wish I could write as much as you do! I hope my blog is someday as respected as yours. Work never ends!
@Rodrigo Flores: *as* respected as mine? I’m waiting for it to become respected.
@Nickolas Simard: there are many counters in the websites, twitter counter, feedburner counter etc.
a client asking for a counter is not a big or fearful thing :)
my blog publishers already have counters however they are against counters. isn’t web2.0 reinventing the web1.0?
counters to twitter, feedburner counters
guestbooks to comments etc.
@Bilal Çınarlı – not a very strong argument: it’s ok to have outdated and useless features because that’s the way the web will go if we make it so…
@David Walsh: It is respected. Believe me :-) You’re doing great job here, sharing many many good knowledge for begginers and… pros ;-)
Cheers!
I agree with one of the commenters..there are a lot of people who are just looking to screw others over who don’t know what to expect.
………….like me :P
Can’t agree more with you, talking about very most of this list. Although, I use PrototypeJS instead of MooTools, respect them both equally :)
I can agree with about half of those points.
I’m sure you’ve heard this, but the only reason I do not use Mootools which in my opinion is more professional than jQuery is because not many people use Mootools so no one really knows it. Of course when I say no one… I mean an average/below-average web designer.
Media Temple has treated ME very well…typos happen!
ROFL @counter
OMG CAN’T BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE STILL EXIST!
I applaud your ability to single out just one of the issues you have with IE6. ;)
“Counter” ;) Funny.
I really agree with this one:
“I consider it a curse that I can bring my work home with me.”
It hard, hard to resist doing that :/