For several years, I have been using the PostScript page description
language to create graphics for my web pages. I use a text editor
(GNU emacs) to write the code and a gv window to display the
resulting image; gv updates the display every time the file
changes.
I recently entered a logo I created on the spur of the moment into a contest for a local MeetUp group. I was surprised that mine was chosen.
I cleaned up the code and posted it here along with examples of possible variations to the WebCentric logo.
About this site
This site is really several sites. Each of my areas of interest has its own section, from chess to cryptic crosswords, and computer programming to solving anagrams.
These sections have been developed at various times over the last 12 years and reflect my expanding knowledge of web design and coding. My very first web pages (1996 Canadian Closed Chess Championships) seem incredibly primitive now.
Some sections of this site are not finished (and some may never be); others need updating, both for content and for accessibility and design. Much new material is being developed on my site at woodbine-gerrard.com
Some older pages use tables for specifying the layout; newer ones use Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). This home page and the section on the Unix shell are examples of my current coding style. New pages are all constructed with valid HTML4.01 and CSS2.
The dynamic content, on pages such as the WordFinder and Toronto Transit schedules, is generated by CGI shell scripts.
The Interactive Dishwasher
a.k.a. The Kitchen Sink
Miscellaneous jottings
by Chris F.A. Johnson
Firefox 3.0 – first impressions
With the failure of the download site for the much ballyhooed Firefox 3.0 on release day, I waited until the next afternoon when I was able to download it very quickly. I unpacked it into my home directory and ran it with './firefox/firefox &'.
The window opened with the tabs I had open in my last session. Then things began to go downhill.
Next and Previous page buttons?
The first thing I noticed was that my next page and previous page buttons had disappeard from the toolbar. No problem, I thought; I'll just put them back. I opened the toolbar customization window, but they were not there. Where have they gone, and more importantly, why have they gone?
There are still 'back' and 'forward' selections in the pop-up menu with mouse button 3, but they don't have any mechanism for showing a list of pages in either direction. They are not as useful as the old buttons.
And when I revert to FF 2.0.0.14, they are now gone and unavailable. It's a good thing I do a daily back-up of the .mozilla directory and can revert to the earlier configuration.
After receiving some help on the alt.html newsgroup, I discovered that the button is available, somewhat changed, and I now have it on my toolbar. (FF3 had moved it from my normal location and on to a toolbar that I don't use and was not visible.)
Location bar history
The drop-down history list on the location bar used to be a long scrollable list. Now it is a fixed number of items: 12. That's far too few.
Bookmarks
First, the bookmarks menu.
In older versions of Firefox, I was annoyed that I couldn't remove the 'Bookmarks Toolbar' entry from the menu. Now, there are two additional items, 'Recent tags' and 'Recently Bookmarked' that cannot be removed.
These additional sub-menus increase the length so that scrolling is required to get to all the items. I want the menu for what I want, not for what Mozilla thinks I should have.
OK, the 'Recently Bookmarked' sub-menu somewhat mitigates the problem, but I would much prefer to have everything on screen, and create my own sub menus to categorize them.
Setting a bookmark
After pressing Ctrl-D, the window that opens up is neither movable nor resizable. I cannot move it to a more convenient location, nor enlarge it to a more usable size.
Conclusion
There are, no doubt, many improvements, but from the moment I loaded Firefox 3.0, all I have found are things that are done worse than before or are missing altogether. I hope that I find some improvements before I give up on it and go back to 2.0.0.14.
