After some real testing on real production websites I’ve made some fixes and a few additions to the Mainframe CSS framework. What is it ? Read the release post for a bit more information here.

Changelog:

• New: The .hidden class
• New: Photoshop PSD & PNG templates for the fixed versions of the layout
• New: Documentation & changelog
• Updated: Updated the demo page
• Fixed: Some bug fixes with strong tag & cleaners
• Fixed: Lists were not showing up correctly (reset bug)

Please note that I’d love to have some feedback on this. My gmail is bibakisv@… Don’t hesitate to drop me a line with your observations and ideas. Thank you.

Without further delay here is the link to…

Download Mainframe CSS framework 0.2

One of the problems that came up with the rising dependency on Google and SEO in general is the use of www. On the one hand there is no reason to use www anymore. 100% of modern browsers use the HTTP protocol by default so you don’t need to specify that you need to access the web part of a domain. It makes your site’s address larger and harder to remember, more ugly, less likely to fit alongside a logo. Also many suspect that it has an effect on your keyword density, therefore harming your search engine rank just a little bit. On the other hand most of the users still keep the old habit of typing www.site.com in the address bar.
Read the rest of the post »

I just completed an early version of a CSS framework which I think can ease a lot of the pain in modern web design. It’s name is Mainframe. The key features are

• CSS reset: all things are reset to what should be the “defaults”. This includes fonts, borders, margin, padding and others.
• Some Internet Explorer specific CSS bugs and annoyances are fixed
• Mainframe uses “spacers“. Clear classes with a bottom margin. Very convenient
• Some classes you can use to display errors, warnings and information boxes in a stylish way. I call these “AJAX helpers” because that’s what I use them for.
• 3 predefined containers for your content. 12 columns at 960px, 16 columns at 960px and a fluid one at 100% of the page width. PSD files for graphic designers are under development.
• The 960 grid system.
• It is free to use and modify under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Download Mainframe CSS framework 0.1

Mainframe uses code from YUI Grids CSS & the 960 Grid System.

Just got back from a small journey to Scotland. I’m selecting photos from a huge pile of 1500. Till I got the full wallpapers set ready enjoy a small iphone wallpapers pack. Download here.

One of the biggest challenges in web development is making multilingual websites. The easy part is having common functionality across all available versions. The hard part is making sure you don’t have blank spots. And that means that if you got an English-French website, you shouldn’t have French words appearing in the English version and vice versa.
Read the rest of the post »

I just modified a great GDM theme for my Linux box. Without further delay here is the download link.
Download

One of the most annoying stuff for CodeIgniter developers is to include a header/footer/etc part in each and every view. CodeIgniter out of the box does not include template support (in the sence of a Joomla template or Wordpress theme). I have created a small library to assist you in using “templates” in CodeIgniter.

Download

Download Templates for CodeIgniter 0.1

How to use

1) First copy the file MY_loader.php to your application/libraries folder.
2) Check the example folder to see how a template should look like.
3) Simply do:

$this->load->template('template_name', $data);
$this->load->view('view_name', $data);

The template loading is done in pretty much the same way as the views loading. However please read the comments inside the MY_loader.php file. It takes one minute and you’ll get the whole picture about how you can pass $data arrays containing variables.