[development] Re: [CS dev] Help with a CivicSpace Theme Layout... (Read it, you know you want to! :)

[Trae McCombs]

On Sat, 2005-11-12 at 10:10 -0500, Liza Sabater wrote:
> Hey Trae,
> 
> I'm being a bit lazy here but ... for Mac people, can you post a  
> screenshot of what it looks like on IE? I am assuming you mean MS/IE  
> not Mac/IE, which is not being supported AT ALL by Microsoft.

Right, well, I am not supporting IE for Mac, as you said, neither is
Microsoft.  There are other better and free browsers for OSX [ Firefox /
Safari ]

> Which brings me to one request : CivicSpaceLabs (that means you ;)  
> ought to offer the option right off the bat to include in the theme a  
> browser sniffer so that people with older browsers can default to a  
> 'downgraded' version of the theme. I cannot stress how important it  
> is for us to move people to Firefox and this should be the way to do  
> so. Please remember that a lot of NGOs don't get new equipment.  
> Usually grassroots NGOs and educational NGOs get donated equipment  
> with outdated software. Let's just educate people to the best options  
> they can have by pointing to the obvious: If you want a better  
> browsing experience, go Firefox.

Pardon my ignorance, NGO?  
I do understand about donated computers and low end systems as I've
worked with groups in the past on issues dealing with Digital Divide
problems.  

The thing is, the more we backwardly rig our websites to work with old,
outdated, buggy, insecure browsers, the more problems the web will
continue to have.  My personal feelings are:  Firefox is free, download
and install it.  Or grab another free browser, or if you want to use
Microsoft products,  upgrade to IE6.  

I think we, web developers, spend too much time trying to fix a website
so it works on Some browser from 1994.  I say make sure your CSS and
HTML is validated, and work from there.

> Also, and I almost forgot about it, where is Longhorn? There is a  
> looming development and design disaster for a lot of NGOs if Longhorn  
> proves to be as much as a pain in the ass as it's predecessor --no  
> matter how standards compliant they're claiming to be.

Don't even get me started on IE7. :)

> This is a huge issue that ought to be address through the development  
> of these themes. It's really not just about how pretty the site is  
> going to look off the box. CivicSpaceLabs should consider addressing  
> the pressing need of saving the already strained resources and man- 
> hours of NGOs and grassroots organizations lost to theme debugging;  
> especially once MicroSoft unleashes it's new OS and browser from hell.

I would actually be all for some sort of browser detection thing if it
worked 100% where it educated people to grab a standards compliant
browser.  But then again, we'd be also telling IE people to get a clue,
and most people aren't for that.  *sigh*

Again, I'd love to have you hang out with us on #cstheme on
irc.freenode.net where we can discuss this and other issues to help make
the CStheme better.

Thanks,
Trae

> / liza
> 
> 
> 
> On Nov 11 2005, at 09:45 PM, Trae McCombs wrote:
> 
> > Ok, so let me post a wee bit of information.  Please check this URL  
> > out first:
> >
> > http://civicspacelabs.org/home/CivicSpaceTheme
> >
> > This will, or should, bring you up to date on some of the terms I'm  
> > going to be using below.  The CivicSpace Theme (CST) is using some  
> > new concepts in themeing.
> >
> > Anyway, my question currently is this.
> >
> > The Federation Layout looks fine on Firefox, but for some reason it  
> > isn't working in IE.  Meaning, it doesn't match it's thumbnail.  If  
> > you simply compare both browsers, and notice how FF looks and IE  
> > doesn't then you should see what's wrong.  I can't figure out what  
> > is causing it.  Someone suggested #content, however that only  
> > changes the internal body.
> >
> > Here is the site where I am currently working on things, and the  
> > Federation Layout is selected at present:
> >
> > http://demo.civicspacelabs.org/home/
> >
> > Also, this may be of some use.  It is the Plan of action, or guide  
> > we are trying to use for the CST:
> >
> > http://civicspacelabs.org/home/CivicSpaceThemePlan
> >
> > Please, feel free to join me on #cstheme on irc.freenode.net and  
> > discuss any of these issues.  I do look forward to your help.
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Trae
> >
> > PS. Kieran (Amazon) says I can blame him for this [and any and all  
> > further silly questions I have -- oh wait, maybe he didn't say all  
> > of that exactly. :)]
> >
> > -- 
> > Trae "occy" McCombs || http://occy.net/
> >       Founder - Themes.org // Linux.com
> >     CivicSpaceLabs - http://civicspacelabs.org/
> >
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> >
> >
-- 
Trae "occy" McCombs || http://occy.net/
      Founder - Themes.org // Linux.com
    CivicSpaceLabs - http://civicspacelabs.org/