Torn Elements

I love Google Chrome. It’s a great light weight browser I’ve been using since version 1. My only complaint has been the fact it sticks out like a sore thumb on my desktop. Even on Windows7 you still get that ‘blue’ theme look. (Yes, I realize you can skin Chrome, but lets face it – the themes for Chrome suck big time.)

Today the first updates for Ubuntu 10.04 came down the pipes. Amongst them was an update for Google Chrome. (I run version 5 from the Dev channel) Thinking nothing more of it, I applied the updates and rebooted my machine.

When I came back and started Google Chrome and almost fell off my chair! It actually ‘FIT’ my desktop theme!

As you can see, not only is the desktop colour scheme FULLY supported, but the system icons are also in use.

It looks very nice on my desktop now. Like it belongs there.

Thanks Chrome!

Software Google Chrome, Web Browsers

As if it weren’t bad enough we have to make exceptions and workarounds for every version of Internet Explorer out there, but as it turns out there are some differences between the two flavours of Internet Explorer which now exist: The standard 32bit and the newer 64bit.

Over the last several days I’ve been pestered by this infamous error from IE:

Message: HTML Parsing Error: Unable to modify the parent container element before the child element is closed (KB927917)
Line: 0
Char: 0
Code: 0
URI: <removed – not relevant to topic>

In a nutshell, a flash slideshow module I’m using in Joomla was throwing this error, then refused to load anything further on the page. I should also note that this particular site is Error Free and works fine with ALL OTHER BROWSERS!

The first thing I searched for was the Knowledge Base reference. Gotta love Google. I found a solution and workaround rather quickly. I’ve always loved quick fixes.

Off I went to my next task thinking this issue was behind me. No so. Seems anyone using the 64bit versions of Internet Explorer are still experiencing the above error. The workaround(s) only seem to fix the 32bit versions. I’m still searching for a solution.

The specifics of the error are not the issue I’m pointing out here. Nor is the Web Site.

The point of this post is that we, as Web Developers, now have a new layer of Web Site testing to consider. Not everything at the 32bit level is going to work for users of 64bit browsers. This issue has shown me that. I’m also assuming this situation could go the other way as well. Things that work in 64bit may not work in 32bit.

I can guarantee you that for each new browser version we’ll be doubling our testing efforts.

I can also guarantee that after reading this post you’ll be running around to all your Web Sites for additional testing. (32bit and 64bit)

Let me know if you find any surprises.

Web Development Web Browsers, Web Development

As much as I’m trying to get away from FireFox, addons like this keep me coming back!

This morning I woke to an email from SitePoint announcing they have released a great little tool for FireFox’s FireBug addon.

FireScope integrates code referencing to Firebug.  (Click for larger view)

Besides the search box, there’s some handy information here. The above shows information on the BODY tag, including it’s W3C status and browser compatibility. This allows you to instantly know if special consideration for certain browsers may be in order. 

It’s funny… I’ve only seen the ‘buggy’ reference applied to IE in all the code I’ve looked at so far.

FireScope also offers code examples for elements. (Click for larger view)

Likely not a big deal for the pros, but I can see something like this being very handy to the newcomer to coding. Personally, I find myself doing a fair bit of referencing. This will make that aspect of my job much easier.

There are more features I haven’t played with yet. You can read about those on the FireScope page at SitePoint.

Great job guys!

Software Web Browsers

After a huge falling out with FireFox over memory usage, I was once again in the market to try another browser. I’ve been around the net for some time now and have found that all the other major market share browsers have ticked me off in one way or another.

Be it page rendering problems, high memory usage, processor bog downs, or just PITA interfaces, they’ve all let me down.

I’d looked at Chrome briefly during it’s very short Beta period. As impressed as I was I simply dismissed it as too early for full time use.

Out of Beta now, it was time to give this browser another look.

It’s really very good! After 2 solid days of running Chrome, I don’t see any of the issues which always seem to plague me with other browsers. Normally by now I would have had to shut down and restart other browsers for one reason or another. It appears that when you close a tab in Chrome, you actually get ALL the memory it was using back. Amazing!

The only essential thing keeping me from switching to Chrome full time is it’s lack of developer tools. I’m talking about tools like FireBug for FireFox and the like. Until Chrome sees tools like this I will be forever tied to using FireFox for development. However, I’m hoping good things will come from Chrome V2 in regard to this.

I realize there’s a console in the Developer options of Chrome but it lacks FireBug’s ability to edit CSS and other elements on-the-fly. I rely on FireBug heavily as it’s fantastic for fine tuning layouts, styles or just quickly inspecting how other sites achieve effects. (Yeah, I’m a big ol’ snoop! )

Chrome seems to be light and efficient which is perfect for ol’ FrankenPuter here. Hopefully that will remain in version 2.

If you’re running a slower system like me, then definitely have a look at Google Chrome. Your computer will thank you.

Software Google, Web Browsers