I’m not a particular fan of Apple and its products. It’s mainly the religion-like fanatism of (some) Apple users that triggers my allergy against this brand. And also considering that Apple is more and more displaying behavior that was once the reason to ban Microsoft for other religious fanatics, it will definitely take some time before I’ll be an Apple friend. However: the below presentation of an interactive book on an iPad, has convinced me that tablet-pc’s with touch controls have a future. Check it out or go to ted.com for more great ideas.

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?

EU itself is ‘not amused’

Not everybody is happy however. And the first to come forward is now the EU itself. That is a surprise. What’s going on here? The EU now is afraid that a less usable operating system will hit the market, because it will be lacking a web browser. The EU has expected an operating system in which the user would be offered a choice at first use. It currently seems like this is not going to happen.
Of course, offering the user a choice would be the right way to solve this. I feel however that a choice, any choice, should be based on proper and complete information. How thought through can a decision be when the user is confronted with a situation that shows a row of radio buttons, the above one representing a choice for Internet Explorer. Not unlikely that this radio will default be checked. The majority of users probably won’t even recognise the names of alternatives like Chrome, Safari, Opera and Firefox.
I guess that in a ideal world every web user informs himself on the different alternatives for web browsing and the pro’s and cons of each of these alternatives, before installing anything. After all, we are still lightyears away from a pc that is fully idiot, hacker and real-world proof. By the way: has anybody already found that website which compares the different browsers in a way that the average user can understand?

The only hope for those who seek ‘integration’

Outside of Europe Microsoft will continue the course it has been pursuing for years. So there still is some hope for those who seek an operating system with an integrated web browser. Just go shopping in the US, China, Russia or any other country outside of the European Union. Note that it will probably be difficult to get hold of a Dutch version though.

The alternatives

For those who don’t already know the alternatives; here’s the shortlist.

• Microsoft Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Google Chrome
• Apple Safari
• Opera

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.

In such a situation one  needs an environment in which you can experiment at your heart’s content without running the risk of ruining something. An environment in which it is always possible to return to the original situation. An environment which allows you to re-use, extend and change relevant code. We now have such an environment.

Mid January Google introduced its ‘AJAX playground’; the place for freely playing and experimenting with all kinds of functionality Google has been offering for some time now. The place for getting acqainted with the underlying code, for ‘stealing’ code, and – foremost – for gaining an understanding of the multiple Google API’s.

Visualisation

The playground offers opportunities for freely playing around with attractive and often more usable ways of displaying data. Not only does the API offer easier, more attractive and dynamic data display. The API also offers you more interactive data display, for instance in socalled ”Motion Charts’. With these one may display data in a way in which dependencies and developments become more obvious using sliders and animation. Next to all this the Google API offers multiple ways to enhance interactivity in tables.

Google Maps

A frequently used API is of course Google Maps. It is hard nowadays to imagine a web without Google Maps. The playground shows some of the possibilities Google Map offers. Of course you may play around with alle the parameters and methods on offer.

Google Earth

Perhaps less used, but definitely not less interesting, is the API involved with Google Earth. To use this API, one needs the  Google Earth Plugin installed on its computer.

Javascript libraries

The Google API’s can be quite easily integrated with existing libraries like jQuery, Prototype, Dojo etc. The playground makes the first steps in this area easy to take.

Code ‘jatten’

Through the ‘Code Menu’ in the upper right corner of the interface, you are offered multiple ways of reusing and adapting source code to fit your own demands. Because the playground interface has its limitations, the export functions are a great way to take the examples and code to your own local development environment.

Conclusions

Google definitely reaches out to the development community with this ‘AJAX playground’. Businesses could definitely profit from what Google has on offer with all these API’s. The playground is a nice way of discovering what it exactly is that Google offers.

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>

The Javascript part

We include a function in the head of the document that makes it possible to open a url in a new window.

<script type="text/javascript" src="openstrict.js"></script>

We see the following when we look at the file ’openstrict.js’.

function looplinks(){
   var links = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
   if(links){
      for (var i = 0; i < links.length ;i++){
         if(links[i].className == "newwin"){
            links[i].onclick = openstrict;
         }
      }
   }
}
function openstrict(){
   window.open(this);
   return false;
}

The function ’looplinks()’ is called at the end of the xHTML document. This function looks up all links in the document and checks whether a link has a class ‘newwin’ added to it. If so, an onclick event is defined for the link. In this onclick event, the function  ‘openstrict()’ is called.

The function ’openstrict()’ catches the clicked element and uses the value of its href attribute to open this url in a new window, using the Javascript method window.open. We add the ‘return false’ statement to prevent opening the url in the current window.

The last thing left to do, is calling  ‘looplinks()’. We do this by placing the following just before the closing body tag.

<script type="text/javascript">looplinks();</script>

That’s it. No rocket science, valid xHTML Strict and an easy way to open links in a new window. Tested under Windows  in IE6, IE7, Firefox 2 en 3 and Safari 3.1.

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? 
 

First impressions

I just installed Chrome. The first impression is definitely positive. It’s looks reflect simplicity and a focus on functionality. No bells and whistles for this new kid on the block. It starts in a second.

One feature that will definitely please a lot of users is a startpage showing thumbnails of recently and frequently visited websites. Besides that one may configure the startpage in a number of ways. There’s probably one to your liking. For developers Chrome default comes with colored source code, a javascript console and a javascript debugger; things you may also find in Firefox.Through a built in taskmanager any crashed tab may be closed when needed. The built in ‘stats for nerds’ inform the diehard user on things like memory use of every browser instance and tab. This includes other browsers when active.
Interesting is a new functionality built into the adress bar. As soon as you start typing, Chrome suggests websites and possible searches. For the average user this may lead to confusion however. It would have been nicer had this been offered as a configuration option. 

Added value

So Chrome has some tools for developers that compare with those offered by Firefox. But Firefox currently also offers a world of addons to further enhance it. These addons are currently not available for Chrome. Other than that: Chrome offers functionality that we also find in the Beta 2 of Internet Explorer. This includes the independently  functioning tabs, and ‘incognito’-mode. One thing that still is not available in IE8 however is a better way to manage your bookmarks. Then again: we’re still looking at Beta 2.

So despite the fact that Google now offers a sympathetic browser with Chrome, the question remains whether Chrome adds some essential feature, which makes it stand out from the rest of the browser base.
An absolute plus however is the  fact that  the sourcecode is released to the community.

All in all a nice start for this new kid on the block. Let’s give it a chance and check back in half a year or so and discover how Chrome has developed technically and in terms of functionality. Let’s also see how this browser is welcomed by the community of developers.