Windows 7 without webbrowser

Everybody happy?
At the planned introduction on October 22nd 2009. Windows 7 will be delivered without the system-integrated web browser Internet Explorer (’Internet Exploder’ to some). Actually – and so the story goes on June 13, 2009 – no web browser at all will be delivered with this new operating system.

Thus Microsoft meets the demands of the European Union, and especially Euro commissioner Kroes. She has been investigating Microsoft for some time now, and accuses the company of abusing its dominant position in the market. The stripped version of Window 7 will be a Europe-only operating system. This decision by Microsoft will certainly please the vast amount of sceptic Windows-users. After all, they have been complaining for years about Internet Explorer, which because of its integration with the operating system, was able to keep its dominant position quite easily. That and the never ending flood of patches and security updates, makes that this decision by Microsoft will be welcomed by a lot of people, … right?

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2009
13.06
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Every developer his own playground

Almost every web user will be familiar with one or more of the many widgets offered by Google. One of the most famous is probably Google Maps. Google Maps has currently already been implemented on a vast number of websites as a location or navigation tool.

Every developer sooner or later ends up in a situation in which he is confronted with a new interesting technique and/or its corresponding API. This always happens on a moment in time where you simply do not have the time to really get into it, or where you have the time but simply do not know where to start. The books have not yet been published, or they have been published, but you’re not much of a reader; you’re the ‘doing’ type. Nobody will ever do you a favor by getting you a book, … any book.

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2009
22.02
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xHTML strict and opening a url in a new window

If you need to validate your web pages against the xHTML Strict DTD, you will run into some practical problems. One of these problems is that according to this DTD, the target attribute for a-elements is deprecated. So how then does one create links that will open a web page in a new window?

The solution is found in a combination of Javascript and CSS. Basically it’s quite simple: we provide every link that needs to be opened in a new window with a class. Then we use Javascript to track down all these links and assign the appropriate behaviour. Let’s see how this works.

The CSS part

We apply a separate class to all links to be opened in a new window. We may call this class something like ‘newwin’, so we get some indication on its purpose. If needed we may add some visual styling tothis class, but the principal purpose of the class is to identify these links so we can add some onclick behaviour.

<a href="http://www.somewebsite.com" class="newwin">Some website</a>

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2008
12.10
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Google Chrome has arrived

After weeks of buzztalk, it is finally available for download: Google Chrome. A new web browser that technically borrows from Apple’s webkit and Firefox.

Yesterday [September 2nd 2008] at work this was the topic of the day; where to download Chrome. Yesterday evening at  21.09h I found the download location. For now Chrome will only available for the Windows platform.

The first reactions on the news of Google launching a new web browser varied. On one side one finds those who see Chrome as yet another web browser that adds nothing for the average user, but forces developers to expand their testing labour to also cover Chrome. A quote from ZDnet: “Why on earth do we need another browser? One more damn thing to develop exceptions for – AND ZERO value to endusers …’
Others welcome Chrome and claim that compatibity problems should be small provided one adheres web standards. This last claim is probably true as the Chrome engine borrows from  Apple’s webkit and Firefox; engines that have implemented standards quite well. Besides that; major compatibility problems still arise with all versions of Microsoft Internet Explorer, so how could this be an issue with Chrome (?).

Personally I’m asking myself however what the added value might be? And in which area should browsers be competing with each other when the’re currently all growing towards ever better honouring the web standards. Who needs more of the same? 
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2008
02.09
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