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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Reverse chronology
Site log backlog, 25th August 2008
Completed May 2008 site log entries and archived April 2008 with minor updates to contents pages. Items include new stub article format for premium content FAQ answers, new text ad FAQ and sponsored link FAQ sections.
FAQ menu table fix for IE6, 23rd August 2008
Set auto width on the FAQ section menu table to make it full width in Internet Explorer 6 and explicitly set zero margin-right and padding on the lists. Also added non-breaking spaces, , to the "how to" phrases in FAQ titles to keep together.
.MenuBox table {
clear: none;
width: auto;
}
.MenuBox ul, .MenuBox ol {
padding-left: 0.2em;
padding-top: 0em;
padding-right: 0em;
margin-top: 0em;
margin-left: 1.5em;
margin-right: 0em;
}
Introduced local navigation boxout to the text sample pages through the AbstractSample superclass and TextSample type. Commented out sponsorship link in the ImageSample class and minimised in TextSample. Also expanded the range of local navigation links in the local navigation boxout to include the font survey results and individual FAQs in the section.
Optimised and standardised layout of the sponsored link service and text ad service pages with new sponsor benefits boxout. Made the sponsorship and text ad boxouts more compact and succinct. Added more sponsors to the banner format examples.
Added the latest site log entries and archived those for February 2008 and March 2008, including items on the new site logo, enhancements to the product order form servlets and expansion of the Linux font survey sample.
Site log backlog for April, 15th August 2008
Site log entries to the end of April 2008, including JTidy development notes, text ads FAQ and sponsored link FAQ.
Font stack builder prototype, 6th August 2008
Created a working draft FontFamily class and FontStack servlet class, plus servlet configuration for development environment. Basic implementation of font stack probability calculations with up, down and remove controls, generic font family selector and font selector. Uses snapshot data from the top 40 fonts from the Windows font survey, Mac font survey and Linux font survey, with static instances of all font families.
Added new working draft style rules for new FontStack servlet to the persistent style sheet, CSPersistent.css. This sets button image widths and floats them all to the left of each other in the font stack row:
.UpDownButton {
width: 21px;
height: 13px;
clear: left;
float: left;
}
.RemoveButton {
width: 26px;
height: 26px;
clear: none;
float: left;
}
And standard livery style sheet, CSStdLiveryCommon.css, to set a lilac background to the generic font family table row.
.Generic td {
background: #EEF;
color: #333;
}
Added Excel content type to root level .htaccess file to support font stack builder prototype.
AddType "application/vnd.ms-excel" xls
Updated the site log with a backlog of entries to March. Corrected pre element markup in Code Style CSS article.
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
For a summary overview, see the annotated site log contents.
