Comments on: Comments on 9380

Post number 9380

icathing — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 08:57:57 -0800

Clippings is the GPL-ed code behind IHT's news-clip feature, which has been discussed on MetaFilter before. This is very cool code and I think any site with many front page links could benefit from it. Serendipitously found at smokinggun, which is not the smoking gun.

By: ericost

ericost — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 09:01:06 -0800

John Weir is a genius.

By: fooljay

fooljay — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 09:47:17 -0800

Must be an IE thing...

By: icathing

icathing — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:10:11 -0800

It's an IE/Netscape 6/Mozilla thing.

By: riffola

riffola — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:20:39 -0800

It's also used by Three.Oh

By: Avogadro

Avogadro — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:32:32 -0800

There are times like this when I really don't have anything to say, except that this is beautiful. (Well, I do have somthing else to say over here.)

By: aladfar

aladfar — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 10:36:41 -0800

John Weir truly is brilliant. Incredible that he's making this code availble to everyone like this (though it was always possible to steal it - which a guy at my old firm did once). I've not heard much about him though. Clearly, he's a web design and architecture heavyweight - anyone know more about what he's worked on, etc?

By: foist

foist — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 11:09:15 -0800

thanks for this post. I've used IHT's clipping thing for months as an example to clients and friends of what you can do with good, clean, professional code. I wish their was a way to paypal Weir a beer.

By: scottandrew

scottandrew — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 11:19:55 -0800

It's clean work that demonstrates what can be done with a standards-compliant browser. Pages are becoming applications. My only tiny nitpick is I can't take my clippings with me when I leave the site! Maybe someone will hack together a version that kicks links over to an IE/Mozilla sidebar. Either way, it's great for sites that have a lot of daily content and links. Weir's also got cool bookmarklet tools and demos, be sure to check them out too.

By: fooljay

fooljay — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 11:50:12 -0800

It's clean work that demonstrates what can be done with a standards-compliant browser. I use Opera is one of the most standards compliant browsers on the market and I get nada, zilch zip...

By: icathing

icathing — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:45:33 -0800

From the comments in the source:

Clippings only work with DOM browsers. Opera at this point does not have enough of the DOM to support clippings.
There is little or no feature/browser compatibiliy checking in this code, so use wisely.
The code has been tested on IE 5.0, 5.5, 6.0 on Windows, IE 5.0 on Mac, and various versions of Netscape 6.0 and Mozilla.

So I guess Opera's standards compliance is more in the realm of HTML and Javascript then the DOM.

By: Apoch

Apoch — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:56:41 -0800

I use Opera and have problems with Javascript anyway. I'd switch to something else, but I like the way Opera handles multiple windows. Any other browser out there do it the way Opera does?

By: scottandrew

scottandrew — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 13:31:52 -0800

fooljay: you're right, I should have written "DOM-compliant browsers." Opera has great standards support for HTML, CSS and JavaScript but they only support a tiny subset of the DOM.

By: ry

ry — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 13:59:55 -0800

IHT really is an elegantly designed and programmed site. I can't sing its praises enough. I just wish they had an online crossword puzzle...

By: normy

normy — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 14:07:15 -0800

Indeed, what's been done at IHT is a real shot for the DOM and a great advertisement for intelligent use of browser scripting. I've always suspected that the 'debate' about web standards-compliance (including the XML DOM) will become redundant when people wake up to what can be done with a little good design and planning using these technologies. For that to happen, we need a few more competent developers doing just that and getting the product of their labor out there in the mainstream. Kudos to Mr Weir. The good news is, it's happening. For example, the software company I work for is embracing DOM compliant thin-client, XML based GUIs, and I'm sure we're not the only ones. <aside>Opera: Are they developing further DOM support? I love the browser but this keeps me from using it regularly.</aside>

By: fooljay

fooljay — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 14:53:05 -0800

normy, unless you frequent some really on-edge sites, Opera shouldn't be holding you back. I've used OPera now for a few months and have only rarely run into sites which had problems. Less than 1% easily. Usually they aren't compelling enough for me to open up IE...

By: nedrichards

nedrichards — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 15:12:46 -0800

Opera is a quality browser. especially on the Symbian paltform. God buy yourself a Psion series 7 or netBook, an IR mobile and check it out wirlessly. It's small footprint is a godsend for mobile working. Theres some stuff that it still handles increadibly dodgily, like the DOm and some javascript (try to login to excite with Opera for EPOC). They have that great mouse gestures, windows and a fun downlaod manager. Almost as good as Mozilla 0.9.2 my curreny day to day. There's really little need to use IE any more if you don't want to. IHT is very fun, and finding this code is really great. A really, really good link. Thanks.

By: ericost

ericost — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 15:16:26 -0800

As a developer, Opera's lacking DOM support keeps me at arm's length from an otherwise fantastic browser. And early versions of Opera 5 have quite buggy javascript implementations, which makes it an especially difficult browser to script for even when you try to stay within its level of DOM support. But man is it fast at launching and rendering pages.

By: lotsofno

lotsofno — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 16:54:32 -0800

ah, the mouse gestures in opera! it's so akward whenever i switch to IE when I'm not at home, and i quickly do the right-button click, left-button click to go to the last page, and nothing happens.

By: lagado

lagado — Tue, 31 Jul 2001 19:11:40 -0800

Clippings were created with the intent to allow a user to browse data, such as headlines, and select articles for later reading. Current methods of navigating a web site force users to follow one path, unless the user opens different paths in multiple windows. This is not an elegant solution. But one that works perfectly well.