Warning! Growing Pains Coming
I've indicated in various places that I am in the process of implementing themes. These will allow you to customize the appearance, and to a certain extent the functionality, of Listology. You'll be able to completely overhaul (or eliminate) the header and left navigation bar. You'll be able to put navigation elements on the right. You'll be able to create custom boxes that automatically display custom search results, or that slurp up a list and process it item-by-item for output. You get the idea.
To do this, I'm taking baby steps towards a break with the past. I'm slowing phasing out (where possible) Listology's table-driven layout in favor of CSS (cascading stylesheets). While the layout transition will be gradual, the appearance transition will be quick - The FONT tag will die a quick death, for example.
I plan on testing these changes to make sure they look good on Opera 6.0, Internet Explorer E 5.0, and Netscape Navigator 6.2. I will only be testing under Windows. If somebody wants to donate a Mac, I'll test under Mac too. :-)
So what's the big deal? I only guarantee mediocre results Netscape Navigator 4.x. So, if you use that browser, you might start noticing gradual but annoying deterioration. First, the SPOILER tag might stop working, then the margins will start to look a little off, then borders will disappear from around boxes. You get the idea.
I'm sorry if this is upsetting. Unfortunately, if I continue catering to NN 4.x, it will greatly limit the flexibility of themes for the majority of users that run a more modern browser.
That's the plan anyway. Not done yet. You can voice objections (or heap praise) here.
Jim, thanks a million for shedding the light of Opera over me! I downloaded the browser last night, and I am absolutely in love!
I really appreciate you turning me on to this!
Shalom, y'all!
L. Bangs
You're welcome! It's nice to have another convert. I haven't been able to uninstall my other browsers yet, because occassionally (although rarely) I run into a site that only works for IE. The only Listology-specific Opera annoyance is that the "highlight to read" aspect of the SPOILER tag doesn't work. It's all just black. So I highlight and then copy/paste to notepad when I want to read a spoiler. see what I mean? Welcome aboard!
Jim sounds very good and neccessary but NEtscape 6? Yikes do you get thet thing to work? I installed it on one of my machines and I found it so annoyinng I had to uninstall. It kept wanting to take control of everything on the computer. It is kind of like the new Real One Player. It does much more damage than any changes they put in place.
All these companies who have gotten their butt kicked by Microsoft figure if it worked for Microslime then it can work for me...I dont think I am going past NEtscape 4.77 until someone tells me it is safe to go forward...
Netscape 6.0 was a mess. They never should have released it like that, and they really scared away alot of would-be upgraders. Netscape 6.2 is a much better release, and so far it hasn't been intrusive at all (of course, I do a "custom install" where possible and uncheck all the unnecessary components). If I didn't think it was a viable upgrade path from 4.7x, I would definitely continue to give 4.7x my full support.
But I do have to include a big disclaimer . . . While I've taken it for a test drive and I've tested apps under Netscape 6.2, it is NOT my default browser, so perhaps it doesn't hold up under everyday workhorse scrutiny.
Personally, Opera 6 is my browser of choice. It is my default browser, and aside from the occassional site that it doesn't *quite* render properly, it's great. It's quite fast, loads quickly, has standards-support at least as good as anything else out there, and has a multi-window interface that, now that I'm used to it, I don't know how I lived without (I love being able to right-click on my "daily" folder, click "open in background" and have each site in the folder spawned to a new background window while I continue to work in the foreground window). I definitely recommend checking it out if you're sick of the antiquated NN4.7, and don't want to support Microsoft's browser monopoly.
Sounds good to me, Jim!