IMHO, the comment function should work like this:
write a text as usual and then highlight the text using the mouse/keyboard and click on bold, italic or link.
Bold and italic shall surround the highlighted text with the related bbcode tags. The link button shall open a input-promt where the user can insert the hyperlink and the highlighted text will get surrounded with the additional "code".
If nothing is highlighted, it may work as it is implemented in the current beta version.
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Member since:
2006-01-26
The "live" preview shall be on-the-fly (with a short timeout after the latest textbox 'onchange' event) and to implement such feature shall be a piece of cake.
"No more than 8192 characters are allowed" ... says the comment info text beneat this comment textbox; why exactly 8192 chars? Average joe is not interested in such detailed info 
.. but a count-down feature like the "submit conversation" might be useful (instead).
There is a (small) bug in the live-preview of "submit conversations". There is a link withs points to a conversations which don't exist and an error shows up.
An hint for the "Your Account" (right) sidebar navigation names. The links shall be labeled without the "your" infront, which would increase readability. The visual layout might look even better if the "*" chars get replaced with a similar symbol using a transparent gif and using CSS to apply it.
I have read that the OSNews staff has been working hard to support most browsers around the globe. That's a nice thing.
Please keep in mind that 'still' about 40% of all internet users use Internet Explorer 6!
( http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp )
And Internet Explorer up to version 6 don't support transparents PNG files ... except you add a few lines of CSS to add a special (DirectX powered) filter. Please consider using transparent GIF files or adding about two extra lines of CSS for IE 4-6.
If there are any questions, I will try to answer them.
btw. I just found out what's the URI of OSNews v4, there has been a link to it in the following news entry content ;-)
http://www.osnews.com/story.php/17439/OneCare-Fails-Second-Virus-Te...
Member since:
2006-01-26
I have taken a look at OSNews v4 ajax.js file and found a lot of code redundancy. I know it is a beta 'release' and several things might change, etc.
Nevertheless, just in case you haven't heard about:
Using browser switches is not a "best practise". Better test most functions which might cause problems, if it work on the client, if not provide a fallback solution. I am speaking about code line 1 to 15 (just in case), labeled "AJAX init".
The following functions "swRSS", "bookmark", "recommendThis", "starOn", "starOff", "suggest", "chkUsername" and "m" can be replaced by just two functions and one switch-case to avoide code redundancy and improve maintain time and cost (and of course file size).
If someone is interested to alter the ajax code, please have a look at the following page:
http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/AJAX:Getting_Started
... especially "Step 3 - A Simple Example" explains everything and is probably THE way to go.
It means one ajax function does everything, and one "helper" function does the right task, with a switch-case.
I want to point to the following code line which will help you a lot of troubles in future:
httpRequest.onreadystatechange = function() { alertContents(httpRequest); };
... "alertContents" is the helper-function and "httpRequest" is the HTTP-request ... bingo it is just that easy ;-)
If someone at OSNews think, there is no need to alter anything, that's fine, it's your code. I was just trying to provide some feedback (beta phase) and be a bit helpful.
If someone has questions about it, please feel free to ask.
btw. I have been using "AJAX" for a lot of applications since 2002 (back then it was trident and gecko 'only') and I know what I am writing about.
Member since:
2006-01-26
http://www4.osnews.com/images/login.gif looks weird on e.g. (in Firefox 2, without logged in):
http://www4.osnews.com/post?n=45edb910&t=conv
The comment-textbox shall be a bit more integrated to the comment view of a news-entry.
Clicking "reply" shall show a textbox below the "original" comment. The submit process could be implemented using AJAX form-"POST".
A little bit of javascript code shall do the job:
http_request.onreadystatechange = function() { helper(http_request, action, objid); };
http_request.open('POST', url, true);
http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded");
http_request.setRequestHeader("Content-length", parameters.length);
http_request.setRequestHeader("Connection", "close");
http_request.send(parameters);
... "parameters" are the textbox value (and titel-value) put together in urlencoded format, like this:
parameters = "titel=" + encodeURI(document.getElementById("commentbox").innerHTML);
where "commentbox" is the ID of the comment textbox and "helper" is the helper function.
... as mentioned above, just a suggestion.
Member since:
2006-01-26
"-" (voting down) is not well implemented and simply don't work with IE 6.
An javascript error occur, after clicking on "cancel" on the first (of many, as the ajax.js says) messagboxes.
"preferences" usability issues?
Picture change function:
MsgBox says 'If you follow this link, you will lose all information in this form.' ... :S
I though I would have to input all account data again (email address, pwd, etc.), but it was not the case, more later.
"Your current account picture is:"
... the same as before (at least the preview) and no link backwards is available.
No data bits got lost and the picture was online, good. I was able to find back by clicking on "* Your preferences" link located at the sidebar.
http://www4.osnews.com/topics ... looks especially in IE 6 a bit "unsorted".
To make it short it looks more like a weird tag-cloud, than anything else. It looks as it was supposed in Firefox 2 and IE 7.
It might be your intention not to make it especially compatible with IE 6 as Microsoft already released IE 7 and trys to push it to WinXP installations too.
Member since:2005-04-01
An javascript error occur, after clicking on "cancel" on the first (of many, as the ajax.js says) messagboxes.
I don't have IE6. Can you provide me the errors? Opera and Firefox should give you some detail.
MsgBox says 'If you follow this link, you will lose all information in this form.' ... :S
I can make this clearer. Ultimately, you will lose unsaved changes.
... the same as before (at least the preview) and no link backwards is available.
Sure there is. In the sidebar. But I can add another.
It uses plain, standard CSS for organization. Do you have a screenshot of what "unsorted" looks like?
Thanks for the feedback.
Member since:2006-01-26
"-" (voting down) is not well implemented and simply don't work with IE 6.
An javascript error occur, after clicking on "cancel" on the first (of many, as the ajax.js says) messagboxes.
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/6205/osnewsv4bugs02ff9.jpg
... basicly it's the same error that another user pointed out earlier in the "conversations" forum, and you answered that you fixed it ..., well maybe for gecko but not for trident/jscript (aka IE).
http://www4.osnews.com/topics ... looks especially in IE 6 a bit "unsorted".
It uses plain, standard CSS for organization. Do you have a screenshot of what "unsorted" looks like?
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/4672/osnewsv4bugs01oa8.jpg
Member since:
2006-01-26
Member since:2006-01-26
Member since:2005-04-01
Member since:2006-01-26
Member since:
2005-04-01
write a text as usual [...] Bold and italic shall surround the highlighted text with the related bbcode tags
There is no *efficient* javascript (that I can write or find) that can capture text from a textarea. I don't want to load a huge javascript like tinyMCE. I can select text on the page, but not from inside a textarea. If you have a script that does this, please pass it along.
No, we don't want to use event handlers like onkeydown or onchange, and furthermore, I tend to find as-you-type previews to be extremely annoying and distracting. You're right, it would be easy to do, but we're not going to do it.
I will fix all the preview links. Thanks.
Increases readability according to whom? I am undecided on this one. "Bookmarks" is not particularly descriptive - whose bookmarks?
Yes, I know about, and intend to add, the ActiveX scripts to allow transparent PNGs and just haven't yet. I'm not overly concerned about it though. We are aiming for a technical userbase.
All scripts are unoptimized as of yet. My goal is easy code maintenance though, since we have a tendency to change things often.
That's not going to happen right now. Maybe later.
Okay, more in the next comment.
Member since:2006-01-26
There is no *efficient* javascript (that I can write or find) that can capture text from a textarea. I don't want to load a huge javascript like tinyMCE.
TinyMCE is too bloated, it is good for admin backend, but not for frontend.
I can select text on the page, but not from inside a textarea. If you have a script that does this, please pass it along.
One solution would be like this examples:
http://javascript.internet.com/page-details/highlighted-text.html
Just capture the selection and then insert the captured text only after the user clicked on the button.
Increases readability according to whom? I am undecided on this one. "Bookmarks" is not particularly descriptive - whose bookmarks?
"Account"
* Profil
* Comments
* Starred Stories
* ...
Have you heard that Microsoft removed the "My" of all "my documents", etc. folder names, just for the same reason. The "my" is not needed, and just make it harder to find the right menu entry.
A user trys to scan the menu entries, and probably read only the first word of each row to speed the process up a bit. If the user try that technique on OSNews v4 he/she only reads "your", "your", ...
I know that it's my account, because he don't think I have access to other accounts
Member since:2006-06-03
I think that Frik sounded a bit critical in many of his posts, and that your code is yours to do as you please with, as long as it works in the end 
.
However I agree with him on this one, the enless list of 'your' prefixes is just fluff. The context is determined by the title: 'Your Account' and it just takes longer to have to read then discard all the 'your's in the list.
Member since:
2006-01-26
The "quote" function doesn't work as expected.
The quote text shall be in the textbox by default or the "import" button shall work correct.
Currently the "reply text import" button import bogus text (too many
IE jscript just shows an error message.
Hint: test the script in Firefox 2 (using debug console) and in IE 6 or 7, if the script works fine in IE and FF than it will probably work fine in Safari and Opera too.
I think OSNews v4 have at least two (if not three) different "forks" of the comment function code.
Every comment submit looks slightly different, plus it behaves different and has different bugs/glitches.
Why not use one comment code and use it for the whole website?
Live preview:
The live preview shall like this, onchange event of the textbox call a function which contains a clearTimeout() and a timeout(), after the preview function will be called.
Every onchange event clears any old timeouts which haven't run to zero yet.
window.clearTimeout(active);
active =window.setTimeout("commentpreview()", 10000);
... timeout is set to 10 seconds
Member since:2006-01-26
There shall be a comment edit function which is active for e.g. 10 mins to allow the user to fix spelling mistakes, etc.
Especially, as the comment submit is on a seperated page, someone else may have already posted about the very same thing, and it would be great to adjust the personal comment short after submitting it.
Member since:2005-04-01
You do realize this is a BETA version of the site, right?
The main site has an edit function, but the conversation code does not yet. It's not a bug, it's a feature I haven't put in yet.
I appreciate your feedback, but you have to give me some time to complete the code before you report missing features.
That said, I will look into any parsing errors.
Member since:2006-01-26
It looks like a new "locally integrated menu" will make it into Unity, starting with version 5.6.0. There's basically no information about the new locally integrated menubar, except for two bug reports which link to some custom Unity, Compiz, Metacity and Light Themes branches so to see "LIM" in action, I've compiled all these branches and here's the result. The "locally integrated menubar" can be displayed on the panel (for maximized windows) as well as in the window decoration (unmaximized windows). But it's not displayed on both in the same time.
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Today Samsung AV product lead Chris Moseley had comments about Apple's rumored entrance into the television marketplace that sound eerily similar to that which Palm CEO Ed Colligan's said a few years back about how Apple's ability to simply walk into this market and figure it out like they had managed to do after years of research.
What your interface communicates to users can be just as important as what your software does, writes Fatal Exception's Neil McAllister in discussing the latest edition of the 'Microsoft Manual of Style,' a style guide aimed at designers and developers who create Microsoft software, as well as those who write about it. 'The gist of much of Microsoft's advice is that a user's relationship with computer software is a unique one, and it's important to craft the language of software UIs accordingly,' McAllister writes. 'Occasionally, Microsoft's recommendations verge on the absurd. For example, you might not think it necessary to admonish developers to "not use slang that may be considered profane or derogatory, such as 'pimp' or 'bitch,'" but apparently it is.'
"It's tough being a journalist, especially if you're covering technology and living in Silicon Valley, because it seems as if everyone around you is getting fabulously rich while you're stuck in a job that will never, ever make you wealthy. What's worse is that all these people who are getting rich don't seem to be any brighter than you are and in fact many of them don't seem very bright at all. So of course you get jealous. And then you start thinking maybe you could find a way to cash in on this gold rush. But how do you make gobs of money when your only marketable skill involves writing blog posts?" Absolutely brilliant down to the last letter. Coincidentally, I hold no shares, interests, or anything, in any company whatsoever. I'm a freelance translator by day. Not that anyone cares, but hey, full disclosure and all.
"A hybrid solution that takes the best parts of iOS's one-by-one acceptance and Android's expressed and obvious intents seems like a proper model here. In fact, Apple has many of the pieces in place elsewhere." This is a big issue. Nor Android's model (just list a bunch of confusing permissions), nor Apple's model (individual modal dialogs for each permission) is particularly workable - I doubt regular users check them on Android before installing an application, and in the case of iOS, Apple didn't think it was necessary to secure the address book, so every application has access to it without alerting users. Justin Williams proposes a hybrid solution.
"Although current discussion of the Linux desktop tends to focus on the disharmony around Unity and the GNOME shell, the true revolution on the desktop is taking place out of sight of users. The Wayland display server is expected to reach version 1.0 later this year, and is seen by many as the long term replacement for the X Window System, with real potential to improve and transform the performance of the desktop for Linux users."
Mozilla has announced plans to integrate its Firefox web browser with Metro for Windows 8 - including Gecko. "Windows 8 contains two application environments, 'Classic' and 'Metro'. Classic is very similar to the Windows 7 environment at this time, it requires a simple evolution of the current Firefox Windows product. Metro is an entirely new environment and requires a new Firefox front end and system integration points. The feature goal here is a new Gecko based browser built for and integrated with the Metro environment. Firefox on Metro, like all other Metro apps will be full screen, focused on touch interactions, and connected to the rest of the Metro environment through Windows 8 contracts." I haven't checked - does Microsoft allow different rendering engines?
"One of the things that the GNOME design crew have been focusing on recently is creating a new approach to application design for GNOME 3. We want GNOME applications to be thoroughly modern, and we want them to be attractive and a delight to use. That means that we have to do application design differently to how we've done it in the past.""This is the first real release of Wayland and Weston. Wayland is the protocol and IPC mechanism while Weston is the reference compositor implementation. The 0.85 branch in both repositories is going to be protocol and interface stable. We have a series of protocol changes on the table before 1.0 but this branch marks a stable point before we jump into that." Change is coming to the Linux world. And yes, I get the irony of using this particular icon, but it's the closest I could find.
Well, this is good news. "Germany will not sign an international anti-piracy treaty, despite having already agreed to it in principal, government sources in Berlin said Friday, February 10." with Germany on the side of reason - for now - we're a huge step closer to stopping ACTA.
