What ultimately prompted my thoughts was the article Web 2.0 Needs Adobe by Tom Yager. His discussion is very flattering for Adobe, although ColdFusion isn’t mentioned anywhere. Neither is it mentioned in Cringley’s equally flattering article An AIR of Invisibility. There’s a reason for this. They’re focusing on the user interface of apps, which is really what defines the perception of how responsive and powerful an app can be. Fretting about ColdFusion getting the back seat is like fretting that your favorite athlete wasn’t nominated for an Oscar; it wasn’t really up for consideration.

So, user interface. Now that’s something to fret about. Many of us don’t like to think about the UI, and that has to change! User interface has always been important when users form their impression of an app, and that high priority is applying more heavily to web apps as they begin to vie for user acceptance with their heavier desktop brethren.

Most ColdFusion developers are using HTML for their user interface. An industry migration will hopefully migrate that median toward AJAX-enhanced HTML or Flex interfaces for web apps, and of course AIR for desktop apps. ColdFusion won’t be going anywhere, as our internet connectivity is always going to need a server-side component.

So how are we to react to these articles’ evaluations of AJAX and Flex? In a way, they are depicting JavaScript (and thus AJAX) as a dinosaur with wings. It is powerful, it got a shot in the arm with the popularity of AJAX, and it can do amazing things. But it’s still a “dinosaur”. It is old technology trying to keep up. Enter Flash and Flex. The new kids on the block. They’re more modern–but they’ve had time to mature–and they just out-perform AJAX in what they can accomplish. Now tack on thoughts about how much AJAX functionality Adobe has put into CF8. What’s the point if AJAX is inferior to Flex? What does it all mean?

It’s a big internet out there. Various scenarios call for various solutions! Whereas it is a good idea for us as ColdFusion application developers to learn Flex and start using it when UI needs call for it, the ultimate point is that we start improving our UIs from plain HTML. Start putting more effort into the user interface. We’ve had it easy in the past when simpler, less sophisticated interfaces were accepted on the web, and that time is coming to an end as the web pushes forward as a viable application platform.

Is it urgent that we start learning Flex? I feel that AJAX and Flex will be sharing the web application space for a long time. Yes, Flex and Flash might be Adobe’s ticket for bringing web apps to the next level, but their commitment to AJAX is very clear. That is evident in the AJAX support in CF8 and AIR. Learn Flex if you can. If it’s just too much for you to handle right now, AJAX is a fine step–more palatable and familiar for HTML developers–that will let you focus on the more important point: Improving your app’s user interface.

Here is an example of a function that could duplicate the slowdown in IE. It could be attached to the onkeyup event of the username field. It will provide immediate feedback by altering the class name of the field's container when criteria are met (in this case, the value being greater than 7 characters in length). Your CSS and HTML can then determine exactly what that feedback will look like.

As it turns out, the slowdown in IE is due to a general slowdown that IE experiences anytime the class name of the element is changed. It may be unnoticeable if it happens once, but when it happens on every key press, it is noticeable. The slowdown only occurs, however, when the class name is changed, not when the value is referenced. So the easy solution is to compare the existing value to the value you want to set, and only assign the class name if it is different.

You might change the function above to look something like this.

This will theoretically improve performance in all browsers, although it is relatively moot in Firefox, as it doesn't experience the same level of slowdown. But for IE, this tweak in your code will make a noticeable speed improvement.

When my hand is on the mouse, a middle-click on a link will open that link in a new tab. Great, very convenient. What about opening a new tab to enter a new URL? I just learned that double-clicking on the blank space in the tab area will open a new blank tab! How convenient is that?

Before, I would right-click on the tab area and click "New Tab". This double-click is much more convenient when your hands aren't already on the keyboard.

What was the main motivation for the new site design? Microsoft IE 7. Thanks Microsoft, your new browser completely choked on my old WordPress theme. It's for the better, though, because it moved me to action, and this new design is awesome!

I came this close to dropping WordPress and going with BlogCFC. Not so much out of a dislike for WordPress, but due to discomfort with PHP and WordPress templates in general, compared to thorough knowledge of ColdFusion. Alas, I stuck with WordPress for a few reasons: (a) It forces me to tinker a bit with PHP. It's a good thing. (b) WordPress has a billion themes, and I'm picky at how my site looks. (c) BlogCFC just feels a bit too plain sometimes. This is not an insult to Ray's fine work.

So here I am, with a fine theme called "Scary Little" by The Scary Little Monkey. It features some fun JavaScript effects, a great stylish look, and let's not miss the AJAX-driven search, which is great fun!

I've tweaked it a bit to include my tags (aka categories) in the menu navigation and to make pages (not blog entries, but the CMS pages) fill the whole site width, with no side menu.

Future tweaks I hope to get to: (a) A new header graphic that is flash-driven to incorporate just a tad of stylish animation, perhaps even an occasional image change; (b) Tabs at the top of the header, for moving between the different major website sections (I'll expound in a moment); (c) Either a better editor or tweak the default editor.

The site will be expanding. It is not going to be just a blog. Some ideas I have for expansion (probably about in order of seriousness): (a) A front-end site for my freelance development work; (b) A Trac-driven projects page, to be used with my freelance work; (c) Finally set up my "Land of Nazin" story blog! (d) An Apple Computer history wiki site. Yes, I know there are some out there, but I want to make one that is really nice. After all, I'd enjoy the process of making it since I enjoy reading about it.

Stay tuned!

Please read: Zero-Day Firefox Exploit Sends Mozilla Scrambling.

It was laughable when Microsoft suggested that people remove Microsoft as a trusted publisher for installing software on IE. Unfortunately, Mozilla's situation is no less ludicrous, suggesting that users disable JavaScript, and Mozilla's update sites are redirected to stop exploit code from targeting the vulnerabilities. What a mess.

Truly it can be said now that Firefox is no panacea to the web security world that some people--perhaps with skewed perspectives--might have thought.

Respected companies like Mozilla and Apple are not some think tank giants with impervious code. They will be making mistakes just like Microsoft has and does. As long as they scramble to fix the security flaws and work hard to avoid future ones, I'll continue to have respect and confidence in them, because they'll be doing more than Microsoft does.

Please read: Internet Explorer improvements come to light.

For the first time, my impression of Microsoft's plans for the IE 7 update is promising. In the past, Microsoft promised increased but incomplete support for CSS (including CSS2). Whereas this is a good thing, such a promise left unclarified promises nothing but necessary changes in code to reinstate compatibility with IE in our websites.

But a recent comment on IEBlog by Chris Wilson added: "Our first and most important goal with our Cascading Style Sheet support is to remove the major inconsistencies so that Web developers have a consistent set of functionality on which they can rely."

If this is what they mean when they promise increased but incomplete support for CSS, then I am completely fine with that! My concern is Microsoft fostering an atmosphere where developers constantly have to baby their sites to maintain compatibility with IE. However, if IE were to work similarly to all other browsers, then this concern vanishes--for the moment.

Granted, such a promise is only genuine if a stream of updates is promised to maintain compatibility. In other words, another long hiatus from IE updates would leave us in a state no better than we are at present.

What Microsoft will do remains to be seen.