Sorry, I forgot to add this to the last one.

If you want to use AJAX, then it is definitely worth your time checking out http://alexbosworth.backpackit.com/pub/67688

Having tried to avoid ranting about the “web 2.0” nonsense that is being thrown around the web and USENET at lot these days I have finally had to succumb to the temptation and rant a little.

If you have an even passing interest in web design, and you haven’t had your head buried in sand for the last twelve months, you cant have missed the hype surrounding how Web 2.0 technologies (mainly AJAX) will be the future of the web. Internet (and to a lesser extent general PC) magazines have been falling over themselves to hype the “new” way of doing things (even though the XMLHttpRequest it hinges on is ancient) and websites which have adopted the web 2.0 mantras are pushed remorselessly. (Flickr, del.icio.us etc.,)

Now, generally speaking here at Why Dont You we are more than happy to adopt (pointless) new technologies just for the sake of it. I mean, we even use Ubuntu… 🙂 However I cant help but think the Web 2.0 obsession is getting out of hand. It’s “poster child” is AJAX and, while this is useful, there are massive limitations to its implementation. Add to this the potential learning curves involved and round off with the browser problems (what happens if the client doesn’t have a JS enabled browser…) – all of a sudden it seems that this is actually a niche technology.

If you are designing a cutting edge site, geared to impress other web designers with your jedi-like editing powers then go for it. Web 2.0 your site to death.

If however, you are designing a site for the general public then steer clear. When people are trying to do their online shopping they dont want fade in / fade out effects. When people are using the browser provided by their ISP along with whatever net-paranoia software they can get their hands on, all that finely crafted event-driven JS vanishes. This is the sad reality of the internet, away from the excitement of web magazines. People want websites which function. All the glitter that Web 2.0 / AJAX provides is (IMHO) pointless.

Most sites (and most designers) have enough trouble getting their sites to work in two different browsers when it is plain HTML and CSS. Add in the new platforms we are constantly being told are “the way forward” and it just seems that Web 2.0 is all hype and no function.

For thoese who have converted, some decent enough AJAX sites are:

• http://www.ajaxian.com/
• http://www.ajaxmatters.com/
• http://ajax.sys-con.com/
• http://www.w3schools.com/ajax/
• [Blog] http://sourcelabs.com/ajb/archives/2005/05/ajax_mistakes.html
• [Blog / Toolkit] http://twilightuniverse.com/resources/code/sack/
• [Spoof article about why AJAX sucks…] http://www.usabilityviews.com/ajaxsucks.html

Enjoy.

I know I have complained in the past about the poor standard of web design “IDE” software (see the sulk about NVU for more) and sadly in the intervening week very little has changed.

This is a shame because I really do like linux and much prefer working on the SuSE machine to any of the others. (I will try not to let this become another anti-Ubuntu rant :-)), I am sure that if anyone could proprerly reproduce the functionality and capabilites of Dreamweaver for the *nix platforms they would be on to a winner.

However, until the day when nirvana arrives, the best alternative I have come across so far is Bluefish. (http://bluefish.openoffice.nl/) While this doesn’t have the capabilities (ie. site definitions and inbuilt ftp etc) that dreamweaver offers it does provide an excellent set of text editing functions. It deals with a variety of formats including C, HTML, PHP and SQL. It has good, useful, syntax highlighting and is generally an excellent bit of software. I really cant recomend it enough!

Sadly this software is only available for POSIX compatible operating systems because, from what I have seen of it so far, it would be great even on a Windows PC.

While there still isn’t (currently) something I can use to totally replace DW and the Windows PCs, this is certainly “the next best thing.” If you know of any other good *nix web design IDE / HTML editors please let me know.