October 30, 2007 | Comments: (0)
My old friend and Windows Magazine colleague John Ruley is in Guatemala for a month on a medical mission at San Lucas Toliman. Before he packed to leave, he asked me if I could recommend any books on Web design.
I came up with two at the time: Head First HTML and Designing Web Navigation, both from O'Reilly. I'd add a third one if he asked again today: High Performance Web Sites. Enjoy.
Posted by Martin Heller on October 30, 2007 12:48 PM
June 06, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Google Gears: Standing the Smart Client on its Head
You may have noticed by now that I'm not the go to guy for breaking news; I'm more the guy who takes it apart and figures out what what it means for developers. Even if I wasn't crazy busy last week when Google Gears was announced, and then away for a long weekend for my college reunion, it still would have taken me awhile to explore it enough to talk about it.
I see Google Gears as a Smart Client stood on its head. What Microsoft calls a Smart Client is basically a desktop Windows application designed for intermittent connectivity to a server. Google Gears is basically a browser application designed for intermittent connectivity to a server. In both cases, you get full functionality when you're connected, and may have reduced functionality when you're disconnected. A Smart Client application is likely to have a richer interface and better performance than a Google Gears application, but it's also likely to require more work to develop the Smart Client.
Google Gears is implemented as a browser add-on for Windows and Macintosh computers. In Internet Explorer, it installs as an ActiveX control, a Browser Helper Object (BHO), and a Browser Extension. In Firefox, it installs as a Firefox extension. It displays a menu item for settings in both browsers.
Gears has three major modules that you can call from JavaScript: LocalServer, Database, and WorkerPool. LocalServer gives you a local cache for resources that you'd otherwise serve from the Internet. Database gives you a local instance of SQLite with a full-text search extension. WorkerPool lets you run JavaScript in a separate worker process so that it doesn't block the UI. A fourth module, the Factory, is used to instantiate all the other Google Gears objects.
Now, if you're the sort of person who thinks that ActiveX controls, Java applets, and other forms of "mobile code" are a security risk, then you should avoid Google Gears as well: it's just another ActiveX control and BHO. There is a certain amount of protection built into the system: for example, Gears does ask for opt-in permission before it lets a site write to your local hard disk. It also implements a same origin policy. But it can't possibly have industrial-strength security, and I suspect that you shouldn't use it for sensitive information without additional defensive layers of security.
The bottom line: Google Gears looks like a reasonable way for a developer to turn a pure Web application into a browser application that can also run disconnected from the Web. It's clearly at a beta level, but in my brief examination it seems to be fairly solid.
Posted by Martin Heller on June 6, 2007 06:00 AM
May 01, 2007 | Comments: (0)
At Microsoft's MIX07 conference, the keynote was mostly about Silverlight. What is Silverlight, and why should we care about it?
Officially, Silverlight "is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web." In other words, it's a browser plug-in that enables a subset of the capabilities of the Windows Presentation Foundation over the Web. It was previously called WPF/E.
From the user's viewpoint, to enable Silverlight, you download and install a 1.4 MB plugin, and then you can view Silverlight content in IE, Firefox or Safari. From a developer's viewpoint, once you have the tools installed, you instantiate Silverlight by including some JavaScript helper files from your HTML, and then you can display and script XAML files in your Web pages.
Microsoft cites four key benefits of Silverlight:
1. Compelling cross-platform user experiences
2. Flexible Programming Model with Collaboration Tools
3. High-quality media, low-cost delivery
4. Connected to data, servers, and services
Two versions of Silverlight were announced Monday: the V1.0 beta, and the V1.1 Alpha. What's the difference? The diagram below summarizes what's in each release:
.png)
Again, why should we care? If you're a cynic, Silverlight just looks like Microsoft's answer to Flash. But if you like the idea of XAML-based display, or the idea of programming in managed code, then Silverlight offers a compelling model for programming the Web client.
Posted by Martin Heller on May 1, 2007 12:38 PM
April 27, 2007 | Comments: (0)
Two books live on my desk when I'm working on Web pages with client-side scripting: David Flanagan's JavaScript: The Definitive Guide, 5th Edition (O'Reilly, 2006, 994 pp., $49.99, ISBN 978-0-596-10199-2), and Danny Goodman's Dynamic HTML: The Definitive Reference, 3rd Edition (O'Reilly, 2007, 1307 pp., $59.99, ISBN 978-0-596-52740-2).
They're both huge books, and their content overlaps substantially, but they both keep earning their spots. I reach for Flanagan if the question in my mind is primarily about some aspect of JavaScript, and for Goodman if the question is primarily about some aspect of HTML, XHTML, CSS or the Document Object Model.
Flanagan has two tutorial sections. Part I explains core JavaScript, and Part II explains browser DOM scripting. I read them once: they were nice. I don't think I have looked at them again since the latest edition of the book arrived.
It's the reference sections of the two books that I 
return to over and over. Flanagan Part III is a complete reference to core JavaScript 1.5 and ECMAScript version 3. Flanagan Part IV is a reference for client-side JavaScript. It's notoriously difficult to write sophisticated cross-browser JavaScript: Flanagan helps you figure out what to do when, for example, an area is outside the DOM Level 2 standard and implemented differently in IE and Firefox.
Goodman Part I is a Dynamic HTML reference, with five subsections: HTML and XHTML, DOM, Events, Style Sheets, and core JavaScript. Part II has cross references to attributes, properties, methods and events. Part III has tables of color names, HTML character entities, keyboard event character values, editable content commands, HTML/XHTML DTD support, and a cross reference to Mozilla-based browser version numbers.
Posted by Martin Heller on April 27, 2007 06:00 AM
TOP STORIES
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
- Remote Access: Maintain Security and Decrease the Burden on IT
- Beyond AntiVirus: Symantec Endpoint Protection
- What Every Enterprise Needs to Know About VDI
- Monitor the core and troubleshoot the access layer
- Disaster Recovery in Minutes
- Protecting Microsoft(R) Applications
