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CSS and the Forces of Darkness (technical)
Programming for the Version 3.0 prototype of the MAT is going along very well. I am trying something new -- tiering the code based on the CSS standard -- and it's a completely different way of looking at things.
First off, my business and data layers remain unchanged, so this is a look-and-feel workover totally. Having said that, there is still a bit of coding, as I am encapsulating data display functionality in custom web controls. I think I'm also going to encapsulate the javascript inside the .NET code, but I haven't decided yet.
GUI work seems to always take longer than you planned. And it's always something simple, like a background to a button or something, that holds you up. Writing some complex mostrosity of a program? No problem! Making the screen blue? Well hey, that might take a while. Somehow computers always make you feel stupid!
But you learn. That's why I'm convinced that there is a special skill to writing UI, and while I may be a passable imposter, I ain't the guy. I guess my sense of art was damaged by a blow to the head or something.
But my base style sheet is the one I'm using here, on the blog. It came out of the box looking pretty good. What's the old saying? "Bad authors borrow from others. Good authors steal." I'm not above re-using something that looks good. Just goes to show that programmers are basically lazy people at heart.
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