mark.anderson
Latest Articles by mark.anderson
Getting Ready For HTTP 2.0
February 18, 2015, by mark.anderson
HTTP is the underlying mechanism that runs the web. It is the language spoken by browsers and web servers to communicate, download webpage elements and upload user data. The version we currently use is 1.1, a specification that is now almost 15 years old... Read More
Rethinking the CMS in the Mobile Era
May 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
One of the overlooked heroes of the web is the Content Management System, or CMS. The very early days of web authoring produced the concept of the CMS. A new application type used to curate online information in powerful and intuitive ways... Read More
Fixit – Viewport meta tag
March 21, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has a viewport meta tag in the header. The viewport meta tag lets you modify the virtual viewport applied to the page and to target those modifications to particular viewport sizes. In effect, it instructs the browser when and how to zoom a page to achieve optimal rendering. Better rending within the browser improves user experience and allows webpages to dynamically adjust to different device types... Read More
Fixit – Image Maps
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page make use of image maps. While image maps are a convenient development shortcut, they are not considered mobile friendly. The additional weight of embedding links in images increases transfer time and rendering speeds. Additionally many mobile devices do not provide ample means to use image maps to users... Read More
Fixit – File minification
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page makes use of excessive whitespace. Whitespace in markup, CSS and JavaScript files tend to make them more readable. However the extra data adds significantly to transfer and processing times. Minification is the process of reducing whitespace in files to an absolute minimum. In many cases filesizes can drop by over 30% through minifcation, thus speeding up content delivery and processing... Read More
Fixit – Applets
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page make use of applet tags. Applets, by and large, require specific pplugins to be installed at the browser level. While this may be possible in some instances, and for some device browsers, the majority of plugins are not mobile friendly and their use is strongly discouraged... Read More
Fixit – Inline JavaScript
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page make use of inline JavaScript code. Requiring the browser to pass markup for JavaScript code slows processing and makes web applications increasingly brittle. Moving all JavaScript code to dedicated JavaScript include files provides a clean seperation of markup, style and code... Read More
Fixit – Styled Markup
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has styled markup such as basefont, center, font or u. These style markup tags are considered dated and require additional processing time to render. Best practice dictates that all style related information should be contained in CSS files and not be included in amongst markup... Read More
Fixit – Inline Styles
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has any inline style directives. Inline styles are both harder to maintain and require additional processing time so are not optimal. All style directives should be in dedicated CSS files instead... Read More
Fixit – Empty Image
January 14, 2014, by mark.anderson
This test determines if your page has any empty image tags (image tags with no 'src' attribute or an empty 'src' attribute). Leaving image tags empty require processing that is ultimately wasted. When image tags need to be dynamically created this should happen with JavaScript programming... Read More
