For the last few weeks there's been a lot of buzz about IE8 and how Microsoft intended to make IE7 the default display as not to break existing websites. Recently Microsoft decided to go ahead and render IE8 as itself and many seem to be relieved. I am still skeptical...

I've been meaning to blog on this topic, but I honestly haven't had time to keep up with all the online chatter about it and hence was unsure I should bother. Perhaps what I have to say has been said before? Oh well, I'm going to say it anyway...

What I haven't yet seen talked about is the possibility that a dot release -- or even a full version -- of IE may be incompatible with a website, leaving the web developer wanting to 'skip' it somehow.

The proposed "version targeting" would allow someone to declare the site's compatibility with a specific version of IE so that it would render as that version, despite what the user had installed on their system. For example, the user has IE 15, but the web developer declared IE 7. The IE 15 user is stuck looking at an IE 7 site.

That seems to be the common example that raises all sorts of concerns about the web, user experience, standards and what have you. But what if...

What if IE 9 renders my site perfectly, but IE 9.1 doesn't. IE 9.2 is also perfect. Fixing IE 9.1 would take 40 hours of work and my client doesn't want to do it. Shouldn't I be able to skip IE 9.1 somehow?

Please don't try to tell me that sort of thing doesn't happen. It's happened to me with other software. (Safari being one and QuickTime being another.) So it is fair to say that Microsoft could release a version (be it major or minor) of IE that I don't want to support.

All users shouldn't be forced to the lowest browser supported by the site. In my mind, users should get the highest browser supported. That is, a browser experience that is equal to or the next lower supported version than what they have installed.

Let's pretend I have a list of versions I support on my website that looks like this:

7,8,9,9.2,9.3

Let's say the user has 9.1 installed. I don't support it, they should get the 9 experience.

How does version targeting propose to handle such a situation? Is it something anyone has even though about or discussed? I don't know, and if Google knows it hasn't pointed me there yet.

So therefore I blog, in hopes to spark some conversation be it in my blog's comments or on other blogs.

I have few other odd-ball ideas around this topic but I'll start with this one and see where it goes before revealing more of my wacky thoughts...

Joseph Lowery, and Eric Meyer both have new titles avaialable at lynda.com!

Joe's newest book, Dreamweaver 8 Beyond the Basics is available for sale in the lynda.com store. Check out the three free sample movies from the CD, including one that covers Spry. Spry is the latest big buzz word in the Dreamweaver community. If you haven't checked out Spry yet, Joe's movie is a good place to start.

A few weeks ago, Eric spent some time in Ojai recording CSS Site Design, which is now available in the Online Training Library™ and coming soon on CD-rom in the lynda.com store. There are several Free sample movies available, including the following:

• What is CSS? 5:34 11.8 MB
• Design tour 2:38 4.9 MB
• Installing the Web Developer toolbar 4:34 9 MB
• XHTML essentials 3:55 3.1 MB
• CSS essentials 5:17 4.1 MB
• Embedded style sheets 2:20 4.7 MB

Earlier today I received this anonymous comment under my previous post:

Yesterday's presentation was my first time presenting using Breeze Live. It seemed the presentation was well received despite that I wasn't as collected in my thoughts as I usually am. Had the hours prior to the session not been so hectic, I'd have been more "together". Although friends present said they couldn't tell anything was wrong, it still affected me to a small degree.

To do a Breeze Live presentation, it is recommended that you have a second computer set up in the meeting as a guest. This computer is used to see what your audience sees so that you can account for delays.

So I turn on my desktop and the mouse is busted. I run out to Circuit City to pick up a new one. I get back, restart, and my keyboard doesn't work! I have a required login, so I can't even get logged in. I try everything, finally resorting to an old keyboard from another computer (that won't start either and can't connect to the internet). Luckily, it worked!

Now it is nearing time for me to join the meeting. I have to be hardwired (as oposed to my wireless connection) during the presentation. I switch over and my entire internet connection dies on the network. I'm frantic by now, thinking I'm not going to make it. With some sound advice and calming words from Dan, I rebooted the router and after a couple of minutes the internet came back up. Phew!

Once I'm in the meeting, I am looking around for the special Presenter controls and I'm not finding them. I buzzed the moderator and didn't get a reply. I'm in the room only as a guest, uh oh. I try to send a message to her, and accidentally send it to the whole meeting...D'oh! Amy called me, and got me hooked up just in time.

I didn't have my usual couple of minutes to collect my thoughts and get in presenter mode, but it went fine. After a few minutes, I was alright.

It's tricky doing Breeze Live, and next time it will be much easier. There is so much to pay attention to. You have to watch the other monitor to be sure it is updating for the audience. You need to remember to click a few buttons (wish it were just one) to share the screen. You have to remember to then switch back to slides. All the while you are supposed to try and ignore the chat window that's whizzing past you. Then your other computer goes to screensaver and you have to wake it up so you can make sure what the audience is seeing is the same thing you're talking about.

As overwhelming as it was, I loved it. I know I could give the same presentation again much better, and hope to have the opportunity to do so. Even if I do a different one, now I know what to expect with Breeze Live and it will go much smoother next time.

Thanks to all who attended for being there, especially the Cartweaver customers who joined us. It was nice to see so many familiar names present. The thanks and grattitude was overwhelming. Thanks again to those who sent private chats and email. You're all so very kind!

Of course, thanks to Dan for helping me out -- both with the internet connection and fielding questions during the presentation.

If any of you have any feedback, I'd be happy to hear it as it really helps me to do better in the future. I'm really looking forward to doing this again.

Get your mind out of the gutter people... :-) Last week I released a new extension, Strip List Whitespace, which fixes a bug in Internet Explorer on the PC. The download response to this extension has been utterly amazing. I think it is because this is one of those "must have" type of free extensions. There are other ways to remove the whitespace, but it all comes down to personal preference, and this happens to be mine.

I also updated Strip <?xml?> Tag, which removes the XML prologue which throws Internet Explorer into quirks mode. The update was to fix a bug found only in Dreamweaver MX 2004, that kept the extension from running if the document was currently in Code view.

They're both on my Free Extensions page, so you can read more about them there. As always, they're only available for download from the DWfaq Store, where I host all my free and commercial products.

Happy 28th birthday Dan! :-) Be sure to call your parents and thank them ;-)

Macromedia has announced Studio MX 2004. Naturally I'm most excited about Dreamweaver MX 2004. :-)

Alright, let's hear it; how do you like my stripes? Would you like me to have a style changer? Do you want to submit your own theme? Tell me what you think by adding a comment. I'm listening...

Tables are evil :-) Nah, not really... Not when they're used for tabular data at least. However if your clients aren't ready for standards, then there's no point in doing it economically speaking.

I've been to a lot of keynotes, well about 5 or 6 at least... and Eric is impressive. We're all awake, nobody dosing off. He's not preaching table-less design at all like one might expect. Instead, he's talking about standards-oriented design, keeping the code lean and clean. If you use a table for layout, avoid nesting tables excessively, spacer GIFs, and HTML elements for styling.

I'm liking this because though I've been pushing for XHTML and table-less designs whenever I can, I do realize that the audience and other factors must be considered before making that design decision.

Had a great time working on some top secret stuff in San Francisco from the 14th thru 18th. (Try not to draw too many conclusions about why we were there.<wink />)There are some pictures in the gallery if you're interested.

While there, we visited Macromedia twice. Billy Ray took us for a long walk up many hills to have sushi. Well worth every step to get there. Billy also took us on a tour of Macromedia, which is spread out over 3 buildings. Our first visit was Thursday and there were hardly anyone left. Apparantly they all went to go see Matrix 2. Didn't anyone tell them we were coming? Oh, the nerve. :-) So we returned on Friday and met many of the Macromedians we exchange email with or see on the newsgroup, including John Dowdell, George Fox, Heather Hollander, Chris Valliquet, Donald Booth, Jeff VonWard, and Scott Unterberg. (Please excuse any mispellings!) It is always nice to put names and faces together.

Only bad thing about the trip was that my laptop died on Saturday night so I didn't get much done after that happened. Luckily Dell will be here by tomorrow (hopefully) to fix it. Meanwhile, I'm stuck on my desktop...

Wow, what a night. Matt (my cousin "Nasby", a radio DJ in Palm Springs) and I were up almost all night working on the new layout and it is looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself... I think I got to bed at about 3:30am and was up by about 8:30. Been working on the site all day. Can't wait to get it finished and online!

I also forgot to mention that there is an update for Strip <?xml?> Tag now, version 1.5.0. This version is to fix it so that the xml declaration is removed from PHP files, which it was not set up to do in version 1.0.0.

Merry Christmas!!! I didn't have time to get JavaScript Assistant ready for Christmas delivery, but I do have one extension to treat you with. Strip <? xml ?> Tag is now available from the DWfaq Store, free! Happy Holidays, and keep your eyes open for JavaScript Assistant coming soon.

I don't know if it has always been available, but I didn't see it when I first looked... I just discovered there is a W3C Valid XHTML 1.1 image available. Though my doctype has always used 1.1 here at DWmommy it had a 1.0 image. Kind of funny when I think about it like that...

I'm absolutely determined to keep each page of this site XHTML strict. In doing so, that means that a form tag cannot have a name attribute. Well that just messed me up! I'm not worried about older browsers at all, which means I can use document.getElementById(). Unfortunately due to my typlexia I was using getElementsById()(notice the extra s) and was having no luck so I moved to getElementsByName(). (Yes Elements is supposed to be plural there.) I didn't get very far at all after a couple hours so I finally posted on the Dreamweaver newsgroup. Massimo jumped in right away and got me back on the track of getElementById() (and that's when I realized my earlier typlexia). I was still stuck, and it took the guidance of Danilo to get the last bit finally working. More typlexia was part of the cause (as usual). Anyhow, thanks to the help of Massimo and guidance of Danilo, I now have the popup calendars working on the archive page. Now if I can just get the SQL working right on that page...