May 15, 2008
Google Maps API for Flash
Google has announced that you can now use their Google Maps API inside Flash components. Previously Google Maps was only available through a JavaScript API. Judging from the demo included with the announcement, this API opens up the door to exciting new possibilities.
Official Google Maps API Blog: Introducing the Google Maps API for Flash
Posted at 8:33 AM in Web Development
May 14, 2008
Free PDF book: The Photoshop Anthology
For a limited time, SitePoint is giving away free PDF copies of their book The PhotoShop Anthology: 101 Web Design Tips, Tricks & Techniques. [Download link]
Posted at 12:47 PM in Web Design | Comments (1)
May 13, 2008
Web standards awareness among CF developers
I've been a ColdFusion web developer now for almost three years. During this time, I've attended two major ColdFusion conferences: CF United in '06 and most recently cf.Objective() of this year. While thinking about the sessions that I attended at cf.Objective() an interesting observation came to me: there doesn't seem to be much talk in the CF community about "web standards." And by web standards I mean things like plain semantic HTML, CSS styling, unobtrusive JavaScript, accessibility, and microformats, etc. Prior to joining the ColdFusion community these topics were all the rage among the various web development blogs I followed. But for some reason they don't seem to get nearly as much attention among the CF bloggers and conference speakers.
I've been thinking about this the last couple of days and have come up with a few possible reasons why there doesn't seem to be much focus on web standards in the CF community:
- The majority of CF developers are blissfully ignorant of web standards, or
- Since web standards are backend agnostic, CF developers rely on the general web development community for web standards information, or
- Now that it's been 6+ years since web standards entered the spotlight, the majority of CF developers are already well acquainted with these concepts and techniques and have already mastered them. Therefore further discussion is not needed, or
- Most CF developers are primarily backend coders. They spend their time coding CFCs, business logic, and data models, etc. Someone else does the frontend code for their applications so they aren't directly concerned with web standards.
If you're a ColdFusion programmer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the issue. Particularly, I'd like to know:
- If you fall within one of the groups listed above and if so, which one(s).
- On a scale of one to five, what is your level of knowledge and expertise with web standards?
- Do you rely on the CF community for the majority of your web standards information/knowledge/training, etc or does it come from the general web development community as a whole?
- As a CF programmer, would you be interested in more conference sessions and/or blog articles devoted to web standards?
Please leave me a comment and let me know!
Posted at 8:19 AM in ColdFusion | Comments (5)
