Source: TheSimpleDollar.com

At first, there were widgets – standalone mini applications running on Opera’s core. Widgets brought games, tools, news. Later, when Unite was introduced, things got more serious. Unite was small revolution that advocated a shift from server centered web to user centered one. Unite allowed to create a webserver inside browser that could be used to share files, stream music, chat and much more.

Both technologies were praised by Opera’s loyal community, but in my opinion never made a as big impact as extensions for other browsers although the ideas behind were pretty ambitious. When third solution for extensions was introduced (quite friendly framework for extensions written in html5), it was a matter of time when its predecessor will become obsolete.

On 24th of April Opera announced sunset of unite and widgets and voice which makes me a bit sentimental but I totally agree and understand. Parts of Unite and Widget technology will be reused to fuel further innovation in Opera Labs and ending support of these platforms will also free up resources for whatever projects they’ve prepared for devoted users.

Opera is know for their innovative ideas and also for their stubbornness. It is good to see, that they are capable of constructive self-reflection and that they want to respond to what user really want and use.

One more reason to keep Opera as my primary browser.

Red Wine HD Wallpaper by ~solutionall on deviantART

Mini Dunes by ~Zim2687 on deviantART

The Vineyard by =IrvingGFM on deviantART

SpringTime Wallpaper by =Martz90 on deviantART

Stone Evening by ~solutionall on deviantART

Nature wallpaper by ~NickchouBG on deviantART

1. Responsive.is: online testing tool for your responsive or responsive-wannabe designs
2. My HTML/CSS coding style by Harry Roberts: Harry Roberts shares his coding style and practices. Good read for HTML/CSS coders.
3. Why We Shouldn’t Make Separate Mobile Websites: article explaining why separate websites for mobile devices are not that great idea. While I mostly agree, I am not sure this can be generalized.
4. 30 Fresh Free Fonts for Your Designs: 30 free fonts
5. Valentina typeface: An antique Spanish didone typeface

Inspired by Samuel L. Ipsum I realized, that this techno-bable would make a great placeholder text. Unfortunately I had some free time and… So, behold! My Star Trek lorem ipsum generator.

Paragraphs are predefined and handcrafted from ST: TNG tv show dialogues. I spiced it up with two extra options: you can choose whether your text should start with legendary “These are the voyages…” and if you want, you can end it with some Borg stuff.

Let’s take a look at some heavy duty methods first.

#1: Watch out for iterations

Iterations of design or function can really mess up the CSS. Artifacts (unused selectors, definitions that are commented out, test values) will make your code harder to understand and read. This may result in you trying to do a quick change or a dirty update just because you don’t have time to understand what’s already in there. And the mess piles up.

Stop doing quick changes/additions to your code and do instead a refactoring when updating styles.

#2: Remove legacy stuff

Legacy code can enlarge CSS quite much so make sure you are not keeping something, that isn’t needed anymore. Ideally use some sort of comment or flag to mark what is this or that lecagy stuff about and when it can be removed.

#3: Remove fallbacks

Just like legacy, fallback solutions for older browsers have their expiration date. Once you stop supporting something (e.g. IE7) run trough your code and remove all exception, extra selectors (with browser specific class or selector structure) and other hacks and tweaks.

Low level stuff

Once you done everything humanly possible to make your code clean and effective, you can try some old school and low level ways to decreased the size:

1. Shorthands: this is captain obvious one, but even after years of coding I still find myself forgetting about advantages of shorthand CSS when my brain is floating in code iterations.
2. Replacing 0px with 0: as far as I know this replacement will work flawlessly
3. Gradient optimization: gradient definition was constantly evolving but today both gecko and webkit follow the w3c syntax. be sure you stop using more complicated older versions (unless you need to support older webkit browsers)
4. Removing last semicolon: it is not needed, so why keep it
5. Hex optimization: #ffffff to #fff. No-brainer.
6. Compress: remove unnecessary white spaces, comments and line breaks. It will save you a lot

Example

To give you a better idea of what can these little tweaks do I prepared a piece of the same code in regular and optimized version:

.class {
    padding-top: 0px;
    padding-bottom: 0px;
    padding-left: 0px;
    padding-right: 0px;
    background: -webkit-gradient(linear, top, color-stop(0%,#1e5799), color-stop(100%,#7db9e8));
    color: #ffffff;
}

.optimized-class{padding: 0;background:-webkit-linear-gradient(#1e5799,#7db9e8);color: #fff}

See?

Automate low level optimization

Tips above are easy to keep in mind and execute when you are working alone (unless you are lazy like me), however if you are working in team you cannot count on everybody remembering everything. So take your time a create a build script (e.g. for apache ant) that will take care of that low level optimization for you.

Wood texture #1

Wood texture #2

What is the Adobe Shadow?

Here’s the official description:

Adobe® Shadow is a new inspection and preview tool that allows front-end web developers and designers to work faster and more efficiently by streamlining the preview process, making it easier to customize websites for mobile devices.

And now you know everything.

Again… what is the Adobe Shadow?

Higlights of first Labs version of Shadow are following:

• Device pairing: Shadow allows you to connect any device (or devices) capable of running AS client to you desktop computer by scanning common network for Shadow service. Connection is authorized via code pair (reminds me of bluetooth).
• Synchronized browsing and refreshing in sync with your computer: Once connected, your device acts as some sort of player displaying content of your main browser (with Adobe Shadow extension) taking into account device specific code (e.g. media queries). When you change tabs, device changes them too. When you refresh, device refreshes too. All of them.
• Perform remote inspection and debugging so you can see HTML/CSS/JavaScript changes instantly on your device: Perhaps the best feature is a possibility to open debug console (on your main computer) targeting device you choose. This means, that you can tweak the code just for the selected device and see the change instantly.

Video is better than text

If you still can’t wrap your head around this just watch solid video introduction of Adobe Shadow by Bruce Bowman.

For more info visit http://www.adobe.com/go/shadow

Whats new then?

1. Ragnarök – new HTML5 parser
2. ECMAScript 5.1
3. Orientation Support
4. For Android only, support for
   camera use in the browser using the same, newer,
   getUserMedia syntax as Opera desktop Labs.
5. CSS3 radial gradients and the fabled
   -o-double-rainbow.
6. CORS (cross-origin resource sharing).
7. For Android only, hardware-accelerated
   WebGL for all things 3D and web. With WebGL on mobile, it’ll be even easier to make and distribute games that work cross-platform.
8. Improved Speed Dial of Opera Mobile (e.g. unlimited entries)