Johan writes of JSON feeds, which sounds like the nifty idea of making your data available as a chunk of JavaScript that can be easily used by anyone. Apparently del.icio.us already does this. The beauty of this is that, since web developers are already writing in JavaScript, they can just include your chunk of JavaScript in their own web applications and do something cool with it. No parsing of XML or other encoding formats required. Read the rest of this entry ...

§219 · January 31, 2006 · JavaScript, Software, Technology, Web · Comments Off on JSON feeds ·


I've been writing a bit of PHP, SVG and JavaScript. Creating nested XML nodes with a procedural language can be a pain, PHP is no exception here. I wrote a quick PHP function to help with my SVG node creation. Read the rest of this entry ...

§218 · January 28, 2006 · PHP, Software, SVG, Technology, Tips, Web, XML · 2 comments ·


It's hard to keep track of all the new things happening with Scalable Vector Graphics lately. It's being used for all sorts of projects ever since the Firefox 1.5 browser was released.

Eclipse just released a SVG Viewer and Editor as part of the "Buildap" tool (a "Visual Component Based Development framework"). They say it can be used from within Eclipse or as a standalone download. It is based on Batik. Looks like I should spend some time learning Eclipse.

§217 · January 25, 2006 · QuickLinks, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · 4 comments ·


Looks like Treebuilder is back online with a nice new interface. All the games and SVG experiments are in-place. Some nice SVG icons/artwork too. No entries in his blog yet. Welcome Back, Holger.

§216 · January 25, 2006 · QuickLinks, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Holger Will Returns ·


Via Rafe Colburn. Google has published an interesting webstats survey they did in December 2005 on how developers use HTML.

What raises the eyebrows for me is that the result graphs of the survey are all published in SVG and they do not provide any alternative raster images. If they are trying to widely publish their results, truthfully it's not the best way to convey their information, but perhaps there is a message here? Google also specifically recommends using Firefox 1.5 to view the results. This is the first time I've heard of Google endorsing the use of SVG (I'm not counting Google Analytics, since that was really Urchin Software). I wonder if we'll soon see a version of Google Local using SVG to draw the route paths, markers, etc for Firefox and Opera ?

I like the Google Code page. The atmosphere is very casual and open, and it really gives you the feeling that Google is chock full of people who are very interested in seeing the web advance (looking at HTML 5, using SVG, etc). In general, Microsoft blogs attempt to do the same thing but they don't come across that way (usually are very tight-lipped about what future specifications they might support in their products, for instance).


§215 · January 25, 2006 · QuickLinks, Software, SVG, Technology, Web · Comments Off on Google Survey Uses SVG ·