Important Notice About Internet Explorer 6
The Preamble
As the web matures and operating systems continue to forge ahead we are constantly at a crossroads in our work, between modern techniques and backwards compatibility. Our products are not nearly as advanced as they could be and this is primarily because we must also consider how to make our RapidWeaver themes render on older browsers.
But consider this for a moment — the ONLY browser that gets backwards support is Internet Explorer. We ensure the proper functioning and relatively good rendering on three versions of Internet Explorer (IE 6, IE 7 and IE 8). We do this with no other browser; not Safari, FireFox, Opera or Chrome. In all modern browsers we support only the most current versions.
The reason for this is simple. There is no reason or excuse not to be using the latest version of these aforementioned modern browsers. None. So why then do we excuse Internet Explorer users? Some say that other browsers may not be allowed in the corporate workplace or that those who are stuck on IE 6 don’t know any better. I think it’s because we don’t give them any incentive to do so.
Why upgrade to the latest version of Internet Explorer when the internet looks just fine the way it is in IE 6?
We have been enablers for those who are unwilling or supposedly unable to update their browsers, bending the web backwards to make it look just right in a 9 year old browser!
Just last week, Google announced that support for Internet Explorer 6 on their web apps will be phased out by March 1st. This is great news, as the number and stature of those web services that are choosing to take this path is increasing by the month. Already sites like YouTube, Digg and many others have begun to issue warning to users of IE 6 that they need to upgrade to a newer browser to take full advantage of their services.
We would like to follow suit.
The Announcement
As of August 27, 2010, Internet Explorer 6 will officially be 9 years old, and that is old enough for us. So on that date, seyDoggy Systems and seyDesign Themes will be discontinuing all support for Internet Explorer 6 (IE 6) and focussing only on Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) and 8 (IE 8).
The Reasons
The biggest, most important reason is that Internet Explorer 6 poses a serious security risk to all who use it — including those of us who have to test our products with it. With the recently exposed exploits and Microsoft’s continual insistence that users should leave IE 6, we see no reason why we should expose our own systems to such threats anymore. We are just as vulnerable to IE 6 exploits as the rest of the world and if Google can be effected by such exploits, so too can we.
And then there is the matter of how IE 6 looks. Internet Explorer 6 is nearing 9 years of age… the web was a different place back then. IE 6 is incapable of performing many of todays web tricks and common standards. It renders the web horrendously and the hacks and workarounds required to make web pages look half ways decent can some times take as long to develop as the page itself.
This is neither fair to us as developers or you as end users who would like to see the latest and greatest the web has to offer, not some dumbed-down in-between stage of the web that looks ok in all browsers.
Usage
According to StatCounter, IE 6’s market share has dropped to below 15% worldwide* — that’s more then 6% lower then its contemporary, IE 8, on the worldwide stage. If more people are using IE 8 then IE 6 then I see no reason to slow that trend down and will gladly assist IE 6’s timely demise by any means necessary.
As IE 6 users find it increasingly difficult to take part in many web services and find that the web looks more and more hideous as 2010 rolls on I suspect those still on IE 6 will migrate to newer versions of Internet Explorer (or other modern browsers) faster and faster.
* North American figures show that IE 6 sits at just below 6% while IE 8 has earned a whopping 27% market share.
Summation
While I can certainly understand that some of you may have reservations about us ceasing support of IE 6 in August, we can assure you that this is the best way forward for us, our end users and the web as a whole. It is time to move on from browsers built in another decade and focus on the future. It’s time that we focus on standards compliant, forward thinking browsers that enhance the web and not cripple it.
We may meet with some trepidation over our decision to stop supporting Internet Explorer 6 and in turn you may decide that our products are not for you. This is a calculated risk that we feel is necessary for the future of our company and the continued quality of our products.
We hope others in our industry will follow our lead as we have followed those before us. We feel this is the only way for the web to move forward.
11 seyDesign Themes Are Now Open Source
To heck with spring cleaning, we’re going for mid-winter cleaning and chucking out a bunch of old stuff that’s been sitting around collecting dust… well… not chucking out, per say… just giving it away for free now!
That’s right, we have added 11 more themes to the “Free” pile to bring our collection of open source themes to a count of 14.
These 11, newly open sourced themes will continue to be supported for another year. They include: dogPress, Fade, Neato, OS, RetroFilm, Tagg, Tuo, TW001, TW003, TW005 and TW006.
When we open source our themes, we’re spreading the love to you, so please, if you make a better, cooler version of these themes, be sure to share them back with us. These works by seyDoggy are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
NEW FREE THEME: seyDoggy Holiday09
It’s almost Holiday time and I am sure a lot of you are scrambling to get your Holiday cards out. Or perhaps, like me, you don’t send cards, in favor of a more environmentally approach… like a web card! That’s exactly what I was creating yesterday when it dawned on me… why not make this a RapidWeaver theme for all to enjoy! So I did.
It’s not much, doesn’t have many feature and it’s not supported… but it’s free! Who can argue with free? They say Christmas is a time for giving. I say they’re right!
seyDoggy Holiday09 is a very basic RapidWeaver theme designed for a basic holiday greeting to your friends, family, colleagues, clients or customers. Holiday09 includes just a few options to get you going — Width (600px to 1000px), Navigation Hide/Show for a very basic, single level navigation system and Sidebar Right/Left/Hide.
Holiday09 is free and open source (with attributions) under this license. Do what you like with it but remember where it came from and give credit where credit is due. Holiday09 is also provided AS IS. We will not be supporting this theme. It’s pretty basic, doesn’t include much and isn’t likely to cause any issues. That said, should you find any issues, feel free to let us know, just don’t expect a solution right away.
Theme Modification With CodeCutter
For some time now Chris from Varsis Studio has been working on a new RapidWeaver utility to allow users to quickly and easily modify the CSS in their themes. The idea was born out of my frustration with trying to support user modified themes. I asked Chris if he could make an application that could help users modify their themes the right way — in a non-destructive manner — and in such a way that users could keep their mods even after the themes developer updates or upgrades that theme.
Here is a quick look at what Chris has come up with. It’s code named “CodeCutter” for now. If you like the idea, please get on board and take the alpha out for a spin and help Chris get this application closer to completion.
The Video Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello, this Adam from seyDoggy.com. I want to give you a brief introduction to an exciting new application in the works at Varsis Studios. This new application is a RapidWeaver utility that will allow users to modify the style of their themes in a non-destructive manner and will also allow users to retain those modifications through future developer issued updates.
Theme Editing Today
Lets first look at how themes are modified today:
Hack the Theme
[00:00:25] The most common, and arguably most problematic way to modify a theme is to open the themes contents and edit the style sheets within. The success rate will often vary since the modifications placed in one file may or may not be overwritten by another file further down the line.
[00:00:41] If you look at these results you can see my font changes made to the blockquote were effective, but the color changes were not recognized in the blockquote, the h1 tag or the link.
Modifications done this way can cause a lot of damage to theme and may create havoc for the developer when supporting it in the future. In fact, lots of theme developers will not support modified RapidWeaver themes.
Custom CSS Box
[00:01:11] The second, more ideal approach is add custom css to RapidWeavers own CSS field. This will result in the most successful style modifications but they are not carried over from page to page, making it necessary to copy your custom css to each page in your site.
CodeCutter method
[00:01:32] So what’s the solution? Varsis Studios has come up with a way to browse your themes CSS code, modify it and save it to it’s own style sheet directly in the theme. The application is code named CodeCutter and is a RapidWeaver utility with one purpose in mind, to help you modify your themes the right way. Lets have a look.
[00:01:49] Upon opening Code Cutter you’ll notice some familiar buttons. Let’s start by selecting the theme we wish to modify.
[00:01:58] Notice how the left-hand column gathers all of the style sheets used within the theme. It does so in the order that they appear on a published site. This important for recognizing the style sheet hierarchy. You can either browse through each sheets entire contents, or by expanding the sheet you can chose each selector individually.
[00:02:17] Once you have found the selector you wish to change, simply click the “Add To CSS” button, and your selector is now copied to the lower panels. This is where your custom CSS sheet is created.
Make some changes… and those changes are reflected in the theme preview.
[00:02:39] Remember how those styles I added directly to the themes contents didn’t work? Notice that there is nothing getting in the way of them working in Code Cutter. Also notice that the changes now effect every page in your site.
Always in Sync
[00:02:59] But here is where the real power of CodeCutter comes into play. All too often users will modify a theme only to have those modifications deleted or overwritten the next time the developer updates their theme. CodeCutter is smart enough to sync your changes back up if it detects that you customizations have been lost!
[00:03:30] And here is the other beautiful thing about CodeCutter; remember I said it’s non destructive? This means that CodeCutter doesn’t modify your themes built in style sheets. This makes it easy for developers to still support their own themes. Your theme modifications can be found in a single, easy to identify, CSS file. This makes it quick and easy to rule out, or remove your modifications all together. Getting to the root of the problem is now as easy as flipping a switch.
Wrap up
[00:03:59] I hope you’re as excited about CodeCutter as I am. It has a way to go still and Varsis Studio is looking for testers to help make this app become a reality. If you are interested in getting involved please visit dev.varsisstudio.com
What version are you using?
Something that you might get asked when inquiring about support issues for your favorite RapidWeaver theme or plugin is, “What version of Product X are you using?”
That’s not always easily answered if you don’t know what you are doing or where to look. RapidWeaver plugins can offer up such information in the plugin browser in RapidWeaver if you happen to have RapidWeaver open, but there is no such mechanism for themes.
If you wouldn’t mind a little help grabbing the version details of both RapidWeaver plugins and themes, we have authored a possible solution on our parent blog. It’s a little bit of AppleScript that should make the acquisition of your product version numbers a little simpler.
Simplistic r5 Cleans up Links Behaviour
Simplistic has been updated yet again to address some errant code that had found it’s way into the colour tag css file. By removing this code, links will now behave as originally designed.’
Learn more here. Download the free update installer here.
Note that these update installers are now created in Snow Leopard OS X 10.6. If you are running OS X 10.5 and have trouble updating your theme, please let us know.
THEME WEAVER’s TW005 has been brought over to seyDesign
By the spring of 2007, THEME WEAVER was looking for another basic RapidWeaver theme to offer the public. TW005 was billed as a simple, yet versatile theme for RapidWeaver, offering a clean, subtle backdrop that wouldn’t overshadow your creativity or your content. TW005 comes with professionally crafted “Headbands”; additional header graphics you can drop into RWmultitool Lite to create a look that’s all your own.
Formed in late 2006, THEME WEAVER of Mississauga, Ontario, is the RapidWeaver theme development wing of print studio, PUMP Communications/Presentation Plus. Guided by Adam Merrifield of seyDoggy/seyDesign fame, THEME WEAVER successfully produced 10 new themes from January 2007 to February 2008 and issued updates through to October 2008.
Today, due to time constraints on both parties, it’s been decided that THEME WEAVER themes will be distributed and supported by seyDesign. Keeping them as originally intended will be the primary goal, but in some cases, enhancements and embellishments have been made where ever the opportunity has presented itself.
Features at a glance:
- Rwwmultitool Ready
- 8 Custom headers
- Graphic enhancements (“Headbands”)
- Sidebar Positioning
- a little Color Control
Links:
Learn more about TW005 (Designer).
See the live preview
Download the update.
NEW THEME: THEME WEAVER’s TW002 from seyDesign has ExtraContent!
THEME WEAVER’s sophomore RapidWeaver theme, TW002, was initially thought to be well suited to the corporate and commercial sectors. With a little seyDesign magic, however, we think we’ve transformed this once limited theme into a versatile RapidWeaver template capable of fitting the needs of just about any industry.
Formed in late 2006, THEME WEAVER of Mississauga, Ontario, is the RapidWeaver theme development wing of print studio, PUMP Communications/Presentation Plus. Guided by Adam Merrifield of seyDoggy/seyDesign fame, THEME WEAVER successfully produced 10 new themes from January 2007 to February 2008 and issued updates through to October 2008.
Today, due to time constraints on both parties, it’s been decided that THEME WEAVER themes will be distributed and supported by seyDesign. Keeping them as originally intended will be the primary goal, but in some cases, enhancements and embellishments have been made where ever the opportunity has presented itself.
Features at a glance:
- ExtraContent
- RWmultitool ready
- split navigation
- full color options
- width control
- font size
- font family selections
NEW THEME: THEME WEAVER’s TW001 comes to the seyDesign lineup!
We are proud to bring you the first of ten themes from THEME WEAVER that will all soon be under seyDesign’s care. Originally marketed as a RapidWeaver theme for the medical sector, TW001, THEME WEAVER’s January 2007 entrance onto the RapidWeaver theme scene, was a clean and simple theme. True to it’s original form, TW001, under seyDesign’s flag, maintains a simplistic approach with a few of todays enhancements, like color options.
Formed in late 2006, THEME WEAVER of Mississauga, Ontario, is the RapidWeaver theme development wing of print studio, PUMP Communications/Presentation Plus. Guided by Adam Merrifield of seyDoggy/seyDesign fame, THEME WEAVER successfully produced 10 new themes from January 2007 to February 2008 and issued updates through to October 2008.
Today, due to time constraints on both parties, it’s been decided that THEME WEAVER themes will be distributed and supported by seyDesign. Keeping them as originally intended will be the primary goal, but in some cases, enhancements and embellishments have been made where ever the opportunity has presented itself.
Features at a glance:
- Rwwmultitool Ready
- 10 Custom headers
- Sidebar Positioning
- Comprehensive Color Control
We’ve gone and hired us some help!
It has been a long time coming. We’ve been in need of help around here for quite some time and we have finally taken that step forward. It’s one thing to have a small legion of contract contributors to the seyDesign team like Varsis Studios, Vortex, Med Designs, etc… But when it comes to actually running all the operations around here, from customer support, to press releases, site upkeep, product development and product launch… for that, there is, for the most part, only me.
But today is different. Today I am very proud to announce that Chris Cifonie of DEVi8.design and the designer behind the very popular DEViANT RapidWeaver theme is now an official, part-time employee of seyDoggy. Over time Chris will be taking on the role creative director/webmaster but for now Chris’ primary role is to create the beautiful theme styles and the gorgeous demo sites for each product.
There is no question about it, Chris has a killer design style. If there was any doubt, Chris was the guy behind the Med Design Bubblegum styles. We’ve never received as many positive comments on our theme styles as we did with Bubblegum so clearly Chris has the touch.
We are looking forward to Chris’ help in the coming months. This now frees us up to work faster, harder and move forward with newer designs and greater updates. So welcome aboard Chris.
