The Clock PWAReaders of this humble blog on desktop environments or on tablets are aware of the clock that decorates the left hand side of the screen; well, now everyone can have that nice artsy clock on their mobile devices… and no, it’s not an app.
ZoteroWriting articles for De Programmatica Ipsum made me adopt a workflow to read and annotate research papers. Most of the material that I use to write articles for DPI are papers, nearly all in PDF format, some with OCR’d text, some without (particularly older ones).
Retrocomputing Emulators on Your BrowserIn the past I’ve been explaining how to use various emulators to run old operating systems on your Linux box; today, we’re going to use a much simpler approach: just click on a link, and run them on your browser!
Conway in C89Another year, another version of my Polyglot Conway project, this time for C89, also known as “ANSI C”, targeting quite a few compilers of the early 1990s, and some others from our more recent times.
Share Your Terminal Live on the Web With ttydIf you’re in the business of giving demos or talking at conferences, webinars, or other gatherings, sooner or later you’ll have to show your terminal for a demo; in this case, this week’s article will surely interest you: ttyd.
Automatic Dark Mode via CSSDark mode (or dark theme, depending on whom you ask) is a great thing, and major operating systems have adopted it in the past few years as a native feature: Windows, macOS, and Linux desktop environments such as GNOME, Xfce, and KDE have a dark mode built-in.
How to Add OpenSearch to your WebsiteBack in the days of Web 2.0, before Node.js, before Google Chrome, before Angular and Vue.js, the browser was slowly evolving, and every so often a truly useful feature would show up in the web ecosystem. This was the case of the OpenSearch specification, to allow browsers to search on any website.
Remembering SETI@HomeI recently saw a toot on Mastodon about the end of the SETI@Home program… and it brought back memories of the late 1990s.
Java Applets in 2023I’ve explained recently how to display Macromedia Flash movies in 2023, using Ruffle; today we’re going to learn how to run Java Applets in your modern browser of 2023, without having to install Java. Yes, it’s possible.
10 Years of Flat DesignOn June 10th, 2013, exactly 10 years ago, Apple introduced its non-skeuomorphic, “flat” design idiom, together with iOS 7… and since that moment, for a whole decade, many users have collectively struggled to use their devices properly.
Macromedia FlashFor about 4 or 5 years, roughly from 1999 to 2004, Macromedia Flash was a big part of my career. I started making Flash movies for fun around 1998, but by 1999 I was already making them as part of my day-to-day job.
GaMMADigging in my archives I found a backup of my personal home page from 2000 to 2003, and through a little work of archeology and restoration, I made it work in our modern world of 2023.
The Oldest Web Pages I've Made Still OnlineExploring old backups I came across the links to the oldest websites that I’ve made, between 1997 and 1998, as part of my work at FIS, 25 years ago.
MatomoIn the past few weeks I’ve been making quite a few changes to this website. Some are visible, some less. Among the visible ones, I removed the downloadable PDF files feature, which were taking a lot of space and weren’t really that useful.
BootstrapI love Bootstrap. No matter which web frontend framework I try, I always end up returning to it.
Server Side Rendering FTWI am, I have been, and forever will be a big advocate of server-side rendering. I think it is an essential way to build dynamic web content. I believe in this adamantly, feverishly, strongly, and relentlessly.
Javascript AnimationsAround 1998, Macromedia Dreamweaver allowed developers to create animated web pages using 100% generated JavaScript code. This was before we were told about the good parts of JavaScript, before script.aculo.us, and without the need for Flash players or Java applets of any kind.
Firefox ExtensionsEverybody uses Chrome, but I don’t; Google is too powerful already, no need to feed the beast anymore. At most, I have a copy of Chromium installed, as a last resort. Because I’m a faithful Firefox user, and of course I install many extensions in it. Here are some of those that I systematically add to every computer I use.
Killer AppsThe D programming language lacked a “killer app” to break through. Another brilliant language suffered from this situation, objectively deserving a much better fate than the one it had; Smalltalk.
Internet Explorer 4The news recently splashed the demise, disappearance, and final “good riddance” of Internet Explorer. I remembered the first time I encountered the beast. In 1997, Internet Explorer 4.0 was soooooo good compared to anything else, it was hard to believe.
Elixir and Phoenix FrameworkI’ve been learning a bit about the Elixir programming language lately, and for that I created a small app using the Phoenix Framework.
Things That Define Big Software CompaniesLooking at the software industry, it appears that most big companies usually share more traits than they would like to admit. Take for example their products: at any given time, big software companies all had at least one product of various similar categories, roughly grouped in three big areas.
Polyglot ConwayMy personal project during the pandemic was Conway, a project providing implementations of Conway’s Game of Life in as many programming languages as possible.
First Web App in RustMy exploration of Rust continues; this week, I rewrote a Python Flask application I use for demos at work.
AJAX Before TimeIn 2002 I moved back to Switzerland, and found a first job as a developer in a company making a super expensive product nobody needed. It tanked one year later for well known reasons, but in the meantime I got to see the most complex codebase I had ever met, in this case in JScript.
Using Phonegap as a Mobile App PlatformThis report will provide an overview of the challenges and opportunities brought by PhoneGap when building cross-platform mobile applications for touchscreen smartphones and tablets.
Announcing my second book: "Sencha Touch 2 Up and Running"This is the official announcement of my second book, “Sencha Touch 2 Up and Running”, available for sale in print and in DRM-free electronic formats (PDF, ePub, Kindle, etc.). This book is my humble attempt to provide an easy path to learn the basics of Sencha Touch 2.1.
Cross-Platform Mobile Web Application Development Training in LondonWe are very happy to announce the first edition of the Cross-Platform Mobile Web Application Development Training in London!
Announcing my first book: "Mobile JavaScript Application Development"Today I’m announcing my first book, “Mobile JavaScript Application Development”, available for sale in print and in DRM-free electronic formats (PDF, ePub, Kindle, etc.). The book is adapted from the mobile web app trainings I’ve been giving in Zurich and South Africa, about JavaScript, HTML5, jQuery Mobile, Sencha Touch and PhoneGap.
Formation de Développement d'Applications Web Mobiles à GenèveAprès le succès des éditions de Zürich et Afrique du Sud, nous sommes ravis de présenter la première édition du cours de développement d’applications web mobiles à Genève, en français! Le cours est organisé avec la précieuse collaboration de Bertrand Dufresne, organisateur du groupe JS Genève.
Announcing EERV cal, an iPhone, Android and Web Application!We are ecstatic to announce the general availability of the EERV cal mobile application, created with Sencha Touch and PhoneGap, and available as an HTML5 web application, and also on the App Store and the Android Market!
Article in CominmagThe October issue of Cominmag includes an article in French by akosma software about the new shape of the mobile market in Switzerland, check it out! And you can read it online too!
Mobile Development with jQuery, Sencha and PhoneGap, 15-17 November 2011Invisible GmbH and akosma software are thrilled to announce their latest collaboration: a three day training about mobile web app development using jQuery, Sencha Touch and PhoneGap!
"jQuery Mobile: multiplatform mobile webapps" by Maximiliano Firtman!Invisible GmbH and akosma software are thrilled and excited to present the talk “jQuery Mobile: multiplatform mobile webapps” by Maximiliano Firtman at Hub Zürich on Friday, October 21st at 18h, with the sponsorship of /ch/open.
A Shift In The Market Towards Mobile Web AppsMobile apps are hardly something new these days. Mobile app stores are ubiquitous, and download and “number of apps” stats do not matter anymore. “Mobile First” is now, more than just a guideline, simply the way business work.
Integrating iOS Applications with Backend REST ServicesA couple of hours ago I finished my presentation at JAOO, a discussion of what I’ve learnt about integrating REST services in iOS apps while creating the iPhoneWebServicesClient project at Github.
Dezeen Watchstore Web AppAnother day of announcements at akosma software: this time, a fruitful and fun collaboration with Zerofee to create a dynamic visual identity for the Dezeen Watchstore, and their Dezeen Watchstore iPhone & iPad Web Application (best viewed with Safari on iOS, iPhone & iPad!).
Webtuesday: Mobile App FrameworksI had great fun yesterday at Liip‘s offices, during the monthly Webtuesday meeting. The presentation, which consisted in a high-level overview of mobile web application frameworks and platforms, gathered around 20 people, and the conversations and discussions (and the beers) after the talk were great. I hope that everyone enjoyed the evening as much as I did!
HTTP Headers, Web Apps and Mobile SafariI found today that Mobile Safari, the browser bundled with the iPhone, has a very strange and annoying behaviour when it comes to web apps. In fact, when you “install” web applications with the <meta name=“apple-mobile-web-app-capable” content=“yes” /> tag in the “Home Screen”, the USER_AGENT header sent to the server is different to the one sent when you access the same app manually using Safari..
iPhone Apps without Objective-CYes, it’s possible. Even if Objective-C is one of my preferred programming languages, in any case I think it’s worth mentioning that, 2 years after the official iPhone SDK has been announced, the iPhone development landscape has really grown up, and many, many different options are available today. This article provides a very high-level enumeration of some options I’ve found on the web, but I’m sure there are even more alternatives around.
Basic vs DigestIn the series of highly boring posts ;) here’s another one; in this case, a simple explanation of two different authentication protocols available in the HTTP standard.
Django Architecture ApproachesI’ve just had a very interesting conversation with my colleague Marco about different approaches to the organization of code inside a Django application.
Browsers' Multiple Connection SettingsI’m not such a “power user” when it comes to web browsing, and having good connectivity both at home and at work helps forgetting about tweaking the maximum number of TCP connections in my web browser. However, I can think of a two cases where the establishment of multiple connections might bring great value to the power user: first, multiple file downloads. Being able to download several files at once might be really helpful in some situations. Secondly, in the case of complex web pages. When web pages contain different elements, the required download time goes up (which is often the case: images, sound, video, Java applets, Flash animations, JavaScript files, stylesheets, etc., are ubiquitous nowadays).
Web Development is Software DevelopmentI have been developing web applications since 1996, and I still do a fairly large amount of web development nowadays. During these years I have seen some common misconceptions and myths about web development, that ultimately have a direct impact in the usability of the system. I will outline these in this article, providing at the end my opinion on how to achieve a proper QA process.
Google EverywhereIt all started with the search engine. I think it was sometime back in 2000, while I was working in Argentina.
Do-It-Yourself, Now and ThenBeginning 1998, nearly 9 years ago, I created this tool at my former employer’s site. It allowed customers to create their own web page, for a small fee, using all the interaction available at the time of Netscape Communicator and Internet Explorer 4. You could type some text here and there, choose some (awful, really) colors, and publish your page in a couple of minutes. A good number of people used it until 2001, when I left the company. Since then they’ve changed the graphic style of the page, but as far as I’ve seen, nothing else has changed. They have even left the 1998 Netscape and Internet Explorer logos…
New WebsitesBack in Switzerland, I’ve resumed my activity of website design and development. Here are some websites I recently helped put online, check them out:
My Job at FIS International Co. Ltd.On october 1997 I joined the team who made possible the publishing of one of the largest databases about fishing, aquaculture, seafood processing and vessels’ trading on the Internet, the Fish Info Service that can be reached with any browser at www.sea-world.com.
Une Balade Sur Les Meilleurs SitesArticle paru au V Magazine, le magazine du Nouveau Quotidien, le 22 novembre 1996, après le dossier ‘Internet: les questions que vous n’osez plus poser’, par Gabriel Singrist