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HTML5, it’s DHTML all over again

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I watched a video from MIX 2011 called “HTML5 for Silverlight Developers” last night and it was very compelling.  I was all on-board.  I would prefer to not code things in Silverlight and give my clients the caveat—“but it won’t work on an iPad”.  So, I whipped out Visual Studio and started to code.

There is something very cool about being able to code something and not have to wonder if they client has Silverlight installed.  This was awesome.

Except . . . nothing works in a browser below IE9 or Chrome or Firefox or whatever.  IE6 through IE8 didn’t work at all.

I myself am a Chrome user and gave up IE long ago unless a contract requires that I use it. But most corporate environments are a long way from upgrading to IE 8, let alone the latest IE9.

After doing some googling, I found the HTML5 shim which allows things to render properly in IE and the ExplorerCanvas javascript plugin to allow using the canvas in IE.  So, there are work-arounds.  However, these plugins allowed me to do basic things in IE8—but failed in other areas.  For example, with these plugins I could draw a rectangle on the canvas in IE8—but I couldn’t implement the drag/drop interface.

At one point, I had 5 different browsers open and was refreshing each one after making a change to my html.  Ever time, at least one of them failed.  If I tried to cater for a quirk in IE, Chrome would stop working.  When I got it working in Chrome, IE would give an ugly javascript error.

But this is nothing new.

Back in 1999, I bought an big Microsoft book called “Dynamic HTML” which espoused DHTML as the future of the web.  It gave loads of examples on how to create animations and include very cool stuff in your pages.  DHTML was term used by Netscape and IE, but this book focused entirely on Internet Explorer.  When you tried to run your same code in the counterpart Netscape browsers, nothing rendered at all and you ended up with javascript errors.  The book got around the cross-browser difficulties by ignoring all other browsers.  If you worked in a corporate environment and would never code on anything but Internet Explorer, DHTML (or the Microsoft version of it) was great.

DHTML was a broad term (as is HTML 5) and doesn’t belong to company.  You code to a certain specification and each browser (or device) renders that as they see fit.  You have very little control over how it will look unless you code with a plugin like Flash (and now, Silverlight).

I have seen fantastic DHTML animations in IE which only worked in IE.  I can remember seeing stunning animations in Netscape which didn’t work in IE (all using ‘layer’ tags).  I remember last year seeing a cool Arcade Fire video in HTML 5 which worked great in Chrome but not in IE.  There is still no consistency here.

The “HTML5 for Silverlight developers” video was a lot like the DHTML book.  It looks great until you dig deeper.

The reason I’m hesitant to jump on the HTML5 bandwagon (and I reeeallly want to) is Internet Explorers slow adoption of it.  Actually, it’s not Internet Explorer—since they are implementing a lot of new features in IE9, but most corporate environments won’t take up the new browser for at least one or two years.  So, if you put something on the web, you have to think about the large amount of lunchtime surfers who won’t even be able to see your page.  You need to write loads of conditional code just to make sure your down-level browsers can even see a message saying “Not supported by your browser” instead of a javascript “Errors in page” popup.

One thing you should never ask your clients is “What browser versions do you want this to support?”  The answer is always the same—“Well, all of them.”  This is why the IE-only inventions of the past (HTML+Time, background filters, etc) never took off.  This is why a lot of the HTML5 features—as cool as they are—won’t take off either.  We Chrome users don’t carry enough weight yet to move the entire world to the newer code.  If Apple had allowed Flash on the iPad, I don’t think anyone would care about HTML5 at all.

I want to be converted and go back to plug-in-less web development. But so far, HTML5 (or rather, the browser creators) have let us down.

Another update

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Okay, so it’s been, like, months since I posted anything.  I haven’t been neglecting the blog on purpose—I’ve just been working a contract that keeps me pretty busy and training for the marathon.

First, I ran the Reading Half Marathon in March for the third straight year.  This year, my time was 1 hour, 53 minutes and some odd seconds.  I’ve been training a lot, but it wasn’t a tremendous improvement.

I finished the London Marathon in April with a time of 4:35:58.  My only goal on the run was to keep from walking.  I didn’t care what my time was—as long as I didn’t walk.  I walked in the 1994 Honolulu Marathon and I didn’t want to walk in this one.  Well, despite my 21.8 mile training runs, I did succumb to walking after the twenty-first mile.  It was a pretty warm day and I just couldn’t keep it up.  I finished the marathon with a new personal-best (since my 1994 marathon was over five hours), but couldn’t keep running.  Oh well—if it was easy, everyone would do it.  Still, I’m proud of myself.

I’ve been working a Silverlight job for the past six months.  I’m enjoying it. 

I’ve really fallen off the social networking band-wagon.  I’ve tweeted like one thing this year and haven’t posted here, either.  Despite not tweeting anything, I still get new followers every day—this just goes to show how many people are trying to game the system and collect followers by following as many people as they can no matter how active they are.  And I haven’t been on Facebook much, either.  Sometimes it just feels nice to (as they say in the spy movies) go dark and just disappear for a while. 

So, that’s what I’ve been up to—running, working, and not much else.  I’m trying to keep things simple.  I’m happy.

Really long runs

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It’s been almost two months since my last post.  One of my last posts was something along the lines of wanting to write more.  Well . . .

Actually, I’ve been working a lot the past few months and in my spare time I’m doing a lot of running.  I finally got through the London Marathon ballot this year, so I’m trying to take that pretty seriously.

Last week, I did two 9-mile runs during the week before work (and three mile runs on the other days).  On Sunday, I ran 21.8 miles.  The marathon is two months away, but I wanted to see if I could run that far. My distances have been gradually increasing each week, so I’m confident I should be okay on marathon day—at least, if i keep from injuring myself.

My long run on Sunday was the farthest I’ve ever run without stopping to walk.  I ran a marathon when I was 22, but after 18 miles I started to walk and did a half-run, half-walk, for the rest of the race.  They say the important thing is being able to finish, but I’ve always been disappointed in myself for walking.  This time, for my second marathon 18 years later, I will do a lot better.

I’m enjoying the really long runs. A short run (and I consider the 9-mile run to be short these days) are usually over tried-and-true paths which I’m very familiar with.  But the long run has become like a trip.  A few weeks ago, I ran to the next big town over.  This week, I followed a bike path that went through several villages in the area that I would probably never drive through. It was nice.  It took me 3 hours and 8 minutes.

I started experimenting with different things while running.  I tried those sport gels for energy, and they worked pretty well –but they cost a pound a pop.  The first week I tried to eat some of the gel I thought I was going to be sick, but the next week I knew what to expect and, after an hour and a half of running, thought it was tastiest thing I’d ever eaten.  This last week, I shoved a hot-cross bun in the pocket of my running jacket and ate that after an hour.  I never would have thought I could eat and run and the same time, but if someone could—it would be me.

While on the long run the other day, I passed an older guy running.  I thought my pace was slow, but I passed this guy really quickly.  It was in the middle of no-where (no towns nearby), so I assumed he was going a good distance.  I said good morning to him as I passed, but then became very worried about my pace.  I thought I must be going too fast and I would be stuck miles from home limping back.  But it was fine—I completed the whole distance.

I listen to a lot of podcasts and audio books when I run.  The biggest problem with marathon training is keeping your mind occupied.  When you get into a rhythm and stop thinking about the running, it gets almost like a long car trip.  If you can stop from thinking about your legs or how tired you are, you’re fine.  But when you do focus on the pain, it’s difficult to continue.  Music is nice for the shorter runs, but the long distances need something a bit more engaging.

One thing I noticed about these long Sunday runs (I only passed 10 miles about 6 weeks ago), is that once I stop, my legs seize up.  I’m fine while running, but as soon as I finish, within 5 minutes my calves will tighten to where it’s difficult to stand.  Usually, a hot bath seems to loosen them up just fine though.

The half-marathon is a month away.  The London Marathon is two months away.  If I can keep from injuring myself, I should be okay.