Test post

I’ve been using Paul Johnston’s MD5 hash generator code for a while now, but I always felt a little weird using it. I knew he wasn’t doing anything nefarious with the text in those fields, but I wanted to put more effort into making sure it was impossible for my passwords to become part of an HTTP request in case the JavaScript had an error.

So I took his code, made a few changes, and put it on my own site. Now I can get my MD5’s without sending the original password out in the clear, without having to worry about using someone else’s site to do it.

I have to admit, I hate not writing things from scratch. I can’t stand those text editors that try to outsmart you, by completing your HTML tags for you for instance. Just about the only thing I can handle is automatic indenting, and even that took some getting used to.

Of course there are a few bits of HTML and CSS files that you are always going to be repeating every time you make a new document. Not only that, but there are a few things that are nearly impossible to remember (like DOCTYPE statements). So, I made a few templates, and I thought I would share them. Not because it’s a novel idea, but because it took so long before I actually thought to do it–maybe I would have sooner if I’d seen someone else do it.

The first two are for HTML files–one for HTML, and one for XHTML. I use the first unless I have to use the second (the explanation for that will be another post).

• HTML
• XHTML

Then I have a “flat” HTML file. When I code a layout, the technique I use to achieve pixel-perfection is to flatten the design file into a jpeg, and then place it in an HTML file that positions the image the same way the final layout will be positioned. Placing it in the background works better than using an image tag for a number of reasons. Once my “flat” file is ready, I put it in a tab next to the actual layout I’m working on. Then I can just flip between tabs to make sure everything is aligned perfectly. Since the designers I work with usually center their layouts, my flat file centers the image by default, but it’s easy enough to change.

Flat

Finally, my CSS template is not much to speak of … a couple comment lines for structure, and a .clear class (which is almost always exactly the same and is annoying to have to rewrite when you need it)

CSS

Hey folks, thanks for reading. I’m starting a blog to share some of the things I learn as I do my work, which is Frontend Web Development (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript). Hopefully someone, somewhere will find it useful. I will try not to post dumb things, but if you know me then you know that that may be impossible.

Alright, this one’s already dumb, so I’ll wrap it up here.