Unfortunately, not British spelling-friendly. And needs more services. And fewer bugs.
But otherwise, really well done.
Unfortunately, not British spelling-friendly. And needs more services. And fewer bugs.
But otherwise, really well done.
Here’s a quick tip I picked up from Chris Coyier (the genius behind CSS-Tricks and Digging Into Wordpress).
To help keep variables that contain DOM elements visually distinct from other regular variables, just prepend a $ (dollar sign) to them. Example:
// assign the variable
$div = jQuery('#myDiv');
// Do stuff to it
$div.animate({width: '200%'}, 1500);
This way, you can easily pick out which variables contain DOM elements when viewing code, without resorting to excessive naming conventions (such as divContainer or divDomObject, etc.). Your code stay clean, lean, and easy to read.
Rock on.
Update: sorry, should have pointed out that this idea was inspired by wireframes posted by Anthony Pesce (of the Populous project).
Here’s an idea that I thought might be a useful addition to Edit Flow especially once we add in User Group functionality. The main premise is to have a full-out User Directory accessible by logged in users that provides easy access to contact information for other users on the site. Would probably only be useful for larger groups using WordPress, but I’d imagine would still come in handy for newsrooms and such.
Wireframing is awesome!
Using Mockingbird, a recently launched Cappuccino-based wireframing tool, I was able to whip up some quick UI concepts I’ve been thinking of for the next iteration of Edit Flow. Though obviously not as fast as a hand-drawn sketch, it’s far more convenient when you’re working with other people since you don’t have to get cameras and/or scanners involved.
Mockingbird has a fairly intuitive interface, and most functionality you’d expect from a wireframing/diagramming tool. Best part: no Flash! Check out the result below. It’ll be updated as I make changes to the diagram.
This is the outcome of a couple of hours of Friday night coding after an open call by Chris Coyier over at Digging into WordPress. Here’s what Chris asked for:
Ever look through your list of plugins and forget just exactly what one of them does? I know they have descriptions next to them, but that doesn’t always speak to exactly what you are using it for and why. This plugin would just put a text field in each plugin field you could type some notes in there, theoretically to keep information about why and how you are using this plugin.
And since I was bored (and thought this was a pretty useful idea), I delivered. Plugin Notes is exactly what it sounds like.
Once you install and activate, the plugin adds a link “Add plugin note” that lets you add in a little note next to each plugin. It’s totally ajaxified and full of cool goodness. (Unfortunately, I was a bad programmer and didn’t make plugin gracefully degrade when javascript is turned off. Sorry, folks. Maybe next time.)
Plugin Notes: adding a note is easier than milking a cow.
When a note is added, it shows up inside a little blue box and includes the name of the user that added the note as well as the date and time when the note was added. You also get handy dandy options to “Edit” or “Delete” notes.
WordPress plugin: Plugin Notes - blue boxes make things look pretty.
Each plugin can only have one note. I can imagine there would be cases where multiple notes may come in handy, but those would be rare so I’m passing on that functionality.
The plugin is pretty simplistic, and unlikely to see any future feature additions (unless someone really, really wants one). I’ll keep a watch for compatibility with future versions of WordPress though, so rest easy.
Excited, enough? Grab Plugin Notes (from the WordPress Plugin Directory) or download it from within WordPress.
Note: you’ll need PHP5 and a javascript-enabled browser for the plugin to work.
Words of wisdom from A. Alan Borovoy at my graduation ceremony (University of Waterloo) on Saturday 24, 2009 (paraphrased-ish):
We shouldn’t be trying to make heaven on earth. Instead, we should try to reduce the amount of hell on earth.
Deep.
What the image says…
A couple of fun promotional pieces I made for CupcakeCamp KW. Enjoy. (Oh, and if you’re from the Kitchener-Waterloo region, or nearby — yes, that includes you Toronto — there’s no reason for you NOT to be there at CupcakeCamp KW, which is happening September 19. Sign up, okay? It’ll be delicious, I promise!)
A Banner full of face-stuffing goodness
A poster full of cupcake-counting goodness
This is an assignment done recently for class (ENGL 408C: The Rhetoric of Digital Design). The goal was to “Discuss the design of an online newspaper … Combine the terminology of newspaper design with the observations of social semiotics.” I chose theglobeandmail.com mostly because they recently did a redesign ‚Äî it got mixed reviews (exhibit A, exhibit B, exhibit C, Google the rest yourself!) and from an aesthetic standpoint, I’m not the biggest fan either ‚Äî which gave me quite a bit to talk about.
I’ll warn you that it’s not the best and/or most invigorating piece of analysis in the world; many of my points are either rushed and/or exaggerated and/or unnecessary. It’s not very thorough either; I only touch on various aspects of the site and ignores lots. Plus, it’s an analysis from a social semiotic standpoint which is not the most exciting thing in the world. Simply put, you should probably just pass on reading this. But, I figured I’d throw it on here anyway since some of the points I make are valid and/or interesting.