Code Style: Site log, November 2000

In this section

The Code Style site has evolved by gradual refinement and accumulation of features and content. This review is part of a fully backdated site log and archive that sheds light on when, why and how particular features were implemented.

This log is sometimes updated several times per week, sometimes with a long overdue backlog of items. Many log entries refer to the Code Style Java package that delivers the servlet services and utilities used to manage this site.

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27^th November 2000

Added a seventh example to the projection media test pages to try and work around mutual Opera 4 and IE4 incompatibilities, unsuccessfully.

25^th November 2000

Found that Internet Explorer 4 incorrectly renders styles declared in an @media projection{ ... } block, so reinstated a separate link element with the media="projection" attribute, which it does honour. Internet Explorer 3 does not recognise the media attribute and may render projection styles for all media, so projection styles are applied via an @import rule. Added IE4 notes to existing projection media test pages and started to tabulate support in browsers for a future article.

18^th November 2000

Adjusted .Content and .Sidebar declarations in CSStandardImport.css which were apparently over-sized for Netscape 6, to prevent the sidebar being pushed beneath the content area. Reduced the .Content width property to 74% and specified margin: 0; to minimise its overall width. Also specified border: none; for .Sidebar to remove an unexpected lower border.

.Content{
  float:            right;
  width:            74%;
  padding:          0% 1%;
  margin:           0;
  border-left:      outset thin #CCC;
}

/* Round cornered sidebar */
.Sidebar{
  clear:            none;
  float:            left;
  width:            22%;
  color:            #000;
  background:       #CCC;
  margin-right:     1%;
  padding:          0;
  border:           none;
  font-family:      arial,
                    helvetica,
                    sans-serif;
}

Also adjusted the sidebar menu list declaration since Netscape 6 doesn't seem to inherit the padding property from .Sidebar and gives a more compact default line-height property:

/*
  Netscape 6.0 doesn't seem to inherit
  padding from .Sidebar, so ...
*/
UL.Menu{
  padding-left:     0;
  margin-left:      1.5em;
  margin-top:       0.2em;
  line-height:      1.2em;
}

17^th November 2000

Developed a generic article feedback form include file using the  variable in a hidden field to reference all current articles, changing several files to .shtml format where necessary. Also edited and re-arranged the structure and naming of some older demonstration pages for inclusion in the main site. Set up new individual Links & Resources pages to link to, rather than include directly in content pages, and moved the included files down into their own directory. Changed all includes to .shtml themselves ultimately for more modular organisation of links.

14^th November 2000

Completed the first draft of Apache JServ on Windows 95. Amended CSStandardImport.css to prevent {margin-right: 25%} properties being compounded in nested lists and added a terminal style pre element class:

/*
  Pull-in margin-right to float images
  and box-outs there
*/
.Content P, .Content OL, .Content UL{
  margin-right:     25%;
}

/* But don't compound the margin */
.Content OL OL, .Content UL UL{
  margin-right:     0;
}

PRE.Terminal{
  color:            #FFF;
  background:       #000;
  border:           ridge wide #999;
}

12^th November 2000

Developed new directory structures for DOM1 drop-down menus article and respective stylesheets and script files and added a link to the Javascript section home page to the offline sidebar include file. Added an error report form to the custom 404 error page, developed the custom 403 error page to give an example of how it's configured on Apache and created an include footer which does not show the URI of the error documents. Also changed more include file headings for external links to <h2 class="Rule"> and the file names used.

4^th November 2000

Changed standard style include file to specify a single linked stylesheet CSStandard.css which uses @import declarations to hide "unsafe" styles from Internet Explorer 3 and Netscape 4. An external Javascript now writes a link element that references a simple stylesheet, CSNN4Standard.css, exclusively for Netscape 4.

Loading all screen styles from a single file appears to improve problems previously encountered with Opera 3.62 collapsing the content area float over the menu panel, but occasional paragraphs with no margin space between them can be seen.

Set up some test pages starting Projection media test 1 to demonstrate some backwards compatibility problems and a workaround for limited support by Opera 4. Also added a brief custom 403 error page, forbidden, for such directories where no index file is present and Options -Indexes is set.

Previously on Code Style

These backdated pages record detailed changes to the Code Style Web site since July 2000, when development first got underway. Some pages may refer to documents or features that have since changed or are no longer part of the site, but the archive is checked to ensure there are no dead links.

Site log, origins to present

Month: Year:

For a summary overview, see the annotated site log contents.

November 2000 on Code Style