Something that I forgot to say when, a couple of posts back, I talked about updating this blog, is that that I have removed comments. No-one used them anyway [thanks Matt], but that wasn’t the reason. I found the implementation in Pivot to be most strange—Technically, all these pages are templates, and there aren’t enough of them to cover the different instances. This means that the same template is used at different moments. And the effects can be most strange. I also spent hours redesigning inline comments and posts that used iFrames, getting it all in css instead of tables [yes, Virginia, it is possible] only to find that the code didn’t display the iFrames in Safari, using a popup window instead. Now I happen to know that the iFrame code in Safari imitates IE6 implementation, so this is obviously a leftover from a previous version of Pivot and a beta of Safari. But as that is the browser I use most of the time, it meant I wouldn’t be able to see and use my neat CSS implementation.
Instead I have added an e-mail address. In case you have something to say.
I have now spent about four days, completely revising the design of this little blog. I’m still getting used to it; ‘it’ being both the design and the tool—Pivot—that I use to do all of this. We will see how things go…
Warning: these pages have been verified on my usual browsers, Safari as well as Firefox and, even though I say it myself, they show up pretty nice in both. I have just remembered that I also have a version of Camino on my drive, but as this and Firefox both use the same rendering engine, what passes in one, should also work in the other…
Please note: I have checked the pages in neither IE Mac [and even less, IE PC], nor have I seen fit to take it for a ride in such as iCab, Opera, Konqueror or even Omniweb. If you do see problems in your favourite browser, please let me know, but be warned, if the problem is in your browser, I don’t intend to break my code for non-standards compliance—Thanks, and Move ForwardTM.
So why change?
Good question, my poor tired hands and wrists also ask. There is the issue of standards compliance, but there are, in fact, two major answers:
- the old version was flawed, the navigation didn’t always work, the code was not optimised, the search and archives haphazard, as I had just hacked into the default themes available for Pivot, without necessary understanding. [To that extent, redoing everything for Kim’s pages was a great help.]
- and I wanted to get more of the newsprint or old-printed feeling to the place.
This version also sees the final arrival of the little power factory drawing up in the top right-hand corner. It has been hanging around for years. Sometime I might take the time to explain where it comes from.
There is also a new section called Paris. I will be reclassifying some old material on this, but my objective is to try and write around 1000-2000 words every two weeks or so on things that have been happening here in order to give those you are not—or no longer—here, the feel for the old place.
There are other changes in the pipeline; I would like to add a photogallery section, as well as bring some older material online. But for the moment, I need to sleep.
