Resources for Web Development Students @ Robin’s Blog

I never really worry about having multiple versions of Internet Explorer on one computer, I have a computer lab with 38 machines at work. At home I have an XP box with IE 6, an XP laptop with IE 7, and a Vista laptop with IE8. Unfortunately, my XP box with IE 6 is suffering some hardware issues and I’m [...]

A common question in class is “how do I overlap images and still see the background?” The answer, you use some type of transparent image. Traditionally we used a transparent GIF, but the quality isn’t so great. PNG has really become the preferred image format for transparency. PNG 8 gives you a transparent image, but you may see some white [...]

As you start to build your own Web sites you will more than likely come across a few CSS browser bugs. You ma y encounter the “float drop bug”, the “3 pixel jog”, or the “IE double margin float bug” to name a few. Before you pull your hair out with frustration, read the articles below which contain many of [...]

Google has introduced a new Web browser, called Chrome, aimed at wresting dominance of the browser market from Microsoft’s Internet Explorer. The move takes the Google-Microsoft rivalry to a whole new level. If Google succeeds, it will be a big deal, with major ramifications for the future of the Web. But just how good is Chrome? How does it differ [...]

Yesterday in class I mentioned the new CSS unit using CSS: The Missing Manual. This will be a required book for all new students entering the program and an optional book for students who are currently enrolled. I have to say that this is an outstanding book on CSS. It is an excellent introduction to CSS and also a great [...]

A collection of 40 CSS layouts is now available at Layout Gala. This is a wonderful collection of templates that you can use to get started when you’re building a CSS based web site. I mentioned how useful cheat sheets were yesterday. Here are a few cheat sheets that you may want to print and add to your class resources. [...]

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that we would be installed Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview on the instructor workstation. Unfortunately, it didn’t happen as quickly as I had planned. It is installed on the instructor workstation now, so have fun checking your sites in this new browser!

It’s the day we’ve all been waiting for! After five years without changes to the rendering engine that defines (and limits) what the Web can do, Microsoft has released IE7 Beta 2 Preview for download by developers everywhere. If you have anything to do with the design and layout of a web site, you need to download this and get [...]

Yesterday I encouraged you all to read the article Fixing Browsers: Bugs and Hacks by Lorelle VanFossen. Lorelle was kind enough to share another article she wrote, Views of a Web Page. In this article, Lorelle describes in wonderful detail the testing process used when building a web page. The article discusses developing and testing for various screen sizes, handhelds, [...]

Checking Sites for Consistency One of the really tough parts of web development is getting your site layout consistent in multiple browsers on multiple platforms (Windows (98, 2000, XP), Macintosh, Linux, etc.), with different resolutions when you’re using CSS. You must ensure that your site looks good in various versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, Netscape, Mozilla, Safari, and Konqueror [...]