Aww, man! Not another lame blog entry…
on the issue of HTML vs XHTML <!DOCTYPE>! Not only are there ten billion articles the same, it's a really annoying topic, isn’t it? Ha! Well, I must admit, this most recent time I’ve come across another myself, I decided to read it, and I did gain a little insight into this issue which I hadn’t previously known. Read on… (if you can stomach it)

Why? Why! Why Do I Care About DOCTYPE!?

DOCTYPE selection, as a topic of study, hasn’t been in my focus for quite some time, but not because I have discounted its importance. I’ve been satisfied with the knowledge I gained years ago, when I first became aware of the emphasis on a change in the role of the webmaster, from authoring HTML markup for publishing web content, to a priority on authoring what has come to be known as Standards Compliant XHTML. The term, Standards Compliant refers to a particular standard of excellence in HTML source code; a diagram for proper HTML tag semantics, written as a recommended guideline for web content authors (i.e. code that will produce no errors when presented to the World Wide Web Consortium's tool for the validation of HTML source structure and semantics).

What is a DOCTYPE?

Regard yourself a web developer, and never heard of a DOCTYPE? If you care about your reputation, you had better do some more research at the W3C before you publish anything else on-line.

The DOCTYPE is, literally, the tag which should appear first (typically) in an HTML document. It is used to signify what is to come in the content of the document body. If the author wishes for his or her content to be properly interpreted by a user agent (e.g. a web browser), then it is necessary to declare the DOCTYPE. It is beyond the scope of this web log entry to discuss the specific details of DOCTYPE declarations, as there are several options available to content authors, each meant to enhance the interpretation of content by a user agent (that is, the software which will ultimately read the document content). More information about DOCTYPE declaration is accessible from the global authority on the subject of WWW content, the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium).

What's so Difficult about DOCTYPE Selection?

In practice, not everyone who authors web content is responsible for selecting a DOCTYPE. For example, an author might use a service such as [ read more ]

What Others are Saying about DOCTYPE:

Below, I’ve quoted an article I stumbled upon recently. The article focused on the question of whether to use an XHTML or an HTML DOCTYPE. [ read more ]

• Dubost, Karl and Thereaux, Olivier., et al. “the Way of Web Standards”. Web Standards Do [a W3C web log], Rev. July 15, 2007 1:00 AM. Available at: http://www.w3.org/QA/2007/07/the_way_of_web_standards.html
• [the author's username at csscreator.com] Hugo. “DocTypes: HTML or XHTML, Which is best ?” CSS Creator. Rev: 2005-07-26 16:10. http://csscreator.com/node/8878 (Accessed: 2008-04-07)

According to my observation, and a relatively limited knowledge of Opera’s ability to accommodate user customization^†, the original All-in-One Save-to-Simpy Bookmarklet, written by Benjamin Reitzammer, requires some special configuration to result in an identical functionality in Opera, as B.R. has meant for Mozilla.
The following summarizes, in my own words, the intended function of this handy tool– itself bourne to integrate into an existing web service (therefore, increasing it’s neato-factor by default) — so you might better understand why i’m excited about my own little discovery: Reitzammer’s Add-to-Simpy Bookmarklet is programmed to add a new Bookmark to Simpy.com (i.e. to save an http:// URL to a user-account at Simpy.com), including any user-defined tags to be associated with the URL page content (a.k.a. labels), and a user-defined Note for the content itself (optional, but easily via any selected text within the page content itself).
 
To learn the specifics of using the Super-fast Add-to-Simpy Bookmarklet with the Mozilla browser, please visit Reitzammer’s web log for the original text.

What makes it easy, and fast is that the user need only type into the address bar, replacing the page URL with the tags / labels he or she wishes to associate with that page, and hit the Enter key (as if to say ‘save it now!’). The URL is magically added to the User’s Simpy.com hosted bookmarks account when the javascript within the Bookmarklet is executed; at the moment the Enter key is pressed
If you followed my paraphrased description, above, you might realize that the URL is saved, along with the tags entered into the address-bar, all without ever leaving the page itself– and that, my friends, is what makes this little bit of javascript-genius so very cool!

If it’s not my code, then what’s my point?

Okay, okay– it’s a bookmarklet, right? The guy likes the bookmarklet, and he’s raving about it. Got it.

However, if i didn’t write the code, then why am I trying to write about it as if I actually have something to say? Because I’d like for the Opera users out there to have equal ease of use of Simpy.com (my personal favourite service of its kind). In order to use Reitzammer’s javascript, as he intended it for Firefox, the Opera user must take a different course in order to acheive the same effect.
It is my intent to explain precisely how to utilize– to the same end– Reitzammer’s bookmarklet, within the Opera 9.x context

I believe it may be useful to the reader to understand a primary difference I’ve recognized between the Opera bookmark properties, and those of Mozilla.

---

The following JavaScript code is embedded in Reitzammer’s Add-to-Simpy Bookmarklet for Firefox (and Seamonkey). It has been modified here, for ease of reading, in that I’ve inserted line-breaks. As a rule, any Bookmarklet or Favelet should be coded without the use of line-breaks for the purpose of maintaining consistent execution by the user-agent, sans confusion which might occur as caused by the instance of a natural line-break in javascript code.

javascript:q=location.href;e = ”+ (window.getSelection ? window.getSelection() :document.getSelection ? document.getSelection() :document.selection.createRange().text);
p=document.title;
window.location.href=
‘http://www.simpy.com/simpy/LinkAddSave.do?.doneURI=
‘+encodeURIComponent(q)+’&tags=
‘+encodeURIComponent(’%s’)+’&href=
‘+escape(q)+’&title=’+encodeURIComponent(p)+
‘&accessType=1&note=’+encodeURIComponent(e).replace(/ /g, ‘+’);

NOTE: Any bookmarklet code– that is, code meant to be executed arbitrarily by the browser through some method other than parsing an html page, must be written on one-line ONLY. ANY line-breaks (LF/CR) may be interpreted as the end of the code, thereby executing only some of your intended function (e.g. It functions such that the user need only type a Keyword into the browser’s address bar, proceeded by a set of user-defined tags [a.k.a. labels], and then hit Enter to execute the JavaScript expression. )

So that it functions as intended, to use the Simpy Bookmarklet in Opera, the Opera user must be aware that Opera Bookmarks do not have a Keyword attribute. However, the Opera Search Engines do have a similar functionality. Access the Opera Search Engine tab through the Opera Main Menu: Tools > Preferences > Search. Take note that each Search Engine has an associated Keyword.

By clicking Add under the Opera Preferences, Search tab, we can add the Simpy Bookmarklet JavaScript into the Address field (instead of the expected Search URL). To obtain the bookmarklet JavaScript, simpy right-click on the bookmarklet link at the Author’s web site (above), and select “Copy Link Address”. Be sure to give this ‘Search’ item a Name, and associate a new Keyword with the new item, such as simpy (by default, ’s’ is already taken by Yahoo! Shopping, so ’simpy’ as Keyword may be easiest to remember).

Once you’ve saved your new Search Engine item (the Simpy Bookmarklet), you can access it just as the author intended, by typing your Keyword in Opera’s address bar, and following it with relevant “Tags”. NOTE: unlike the author’s tutorial which uses a space as delimiter for the tags, you must separate your Tags using a ‘comma’ punctuation, or the tags will be saved as one big clump or words.

Now go out and do all the research you want, using your new Simpy Bookmarklet to add any interesting, useful pages to your Simpy account, quickly and easily through your favourite browser, Opera! Be sure to go back to your Simpy account after your first few tries, to verify that your bookmarklet is functioning properly. If so, then congratulations to you!
Add a Simpy Bookmark : Bookmarklet for Opera. Bella Pazzo: Purezza nel Sognare. Sabarese, J. Rev. 2008-01-19. Available at http://my.opera.com/jsabarese/blog/simpy-bookmarklet-for-opera (Accessed: 2008-02-22)
Note: The Author of the cited text is… ‘Me’ (your NoviceNotes.com author!). I merely included the reference to avoid confusion, or question of legitimacy.

Before you follow the link below, I hope you’ll take a moment to think about your answer to the following questions:

• Are you looking for a full-featured Integrated Development Environment for building your next PHP web application?
• Do you need real-time MySQL support, with the ability to view and modify your table data?
• Would it be convenient for you to edit, compare, and– in general– maintain any remote files while working on your project, through a built-in FTP client?
• Could you save precious development time if your multiple FTP locations were managed along with your several projects, and you could connect in one click to the correct server every time you open a project?
• Do you often find that the size of your projects, files, includes, classes, etc., require an advanced PHP debugger / PHP profiler for locating a bit of problem code?
• Do you like the idea of compiling your own library of code-snippets, or scripting your common actions through your editor– not with macros, but by scripting the Editor Object component itself– so you can insert bits of code and control the placement of the cursor, or perform multiple regular expression actions on a file– all with the click of a button, or keyboard access key combination?
• Are you more comfortable with an editor GUI which gives you full control over the placement of its various panels, toolbars, and buttons?

If you answered ‘ Yes! ’ to any of those questions, then hurry over to tsware.net and download PHP Coder 2008 (available for Windows). At the time of writing this entry, the software had just been released in its first beta state. The software is fully functional, however– and promises to be a lead contender among the other PHP Debugger IDE’s.

…be mindful to maintain some balance of content to focus on a variety of sub-topics: consistent enough to fit under the umbrella description of the greater text, yet not to stray so far from the readers’ expectations as to be regarded as a collection of disjointed and gratuitous ramblings…

Hello. Welcome. I’d like to take this moment to officially thank you, the loyal NoviceNotes^™ readers, for stopping by today. I sincerely hope that you continue to visit NoviceNotes.Net regularly (or if you prefer to consume knowledge in a more concise manner, perhaps you’d rather add my RSS Feed to your list of syndicated content). I’m delighted that you find something useful in my writing, but I must confess that I’m not particularly proud of my most recent contributions. Reading through NoviceNotes.Net today, I realized that, over the past few months, I’ve authored several consecutive Notes on nothing more than software reviews.

Please don’t misunderstand that I would regard such commentary on the quality of Software to be of lesser value to the reader, for example, than a tutorial article which might describe how to use the JavaScript XMLHttpRequest Object, for I would not bother to write about Software if I didn’t feel it had potential for being put to good use by you, the occasional passer-by (or as a future reference for myself). On the contrary, I believe the reader can benefit a great deal from the Author’s narrative on software, as such articles might lead the reader to find a new way to enhance his or her own productivity, or at best might introduce a tool which performs precisely some sought-after function in the area of server-side scripting, graphic design, CSS design, or any of a virtually endless list of taxing applications which the reader has been hoping to find can be made more manageable by this or that software described in a review. I’m concerned not about the importance of the material I’ve covered lately, but rather the importance of maintaining diversity of content, and whether there is an adequate balance of weight to keep the boat afloat.

So, you may consider this to be an article about articles; some writing about writing. When an author makes the bold leap from tinkering with a personal / private web log / on-line journal of random ‘stuff’, to attempting to contribute to a public resource like NoviceNotes^™, he or she should be mindful to maintain some balance of content to focus on a variety of sub-topics: consistent enough to fit under the umbrella description of the greater text, yet not to stray so far from the readers’ expectations as to be regarded as a collection of disjointed and gratuitous ramblings.

It is the latter that I wholeheartedly mean to avoid when I set out to add content to NoviceNotes.Net. I do not care to write for writing’s sake. It is much easier that I may sleep, knowing that I have done my best to contribute something to my neighbors’ understanding. I look forward to publishing my next article. If you’re a WordPress Novice and are eager for a few tips and tricks on how to make the most of your blog software, or if you’re a new web hosting account owner using cPanel software for the first time, then don’t miss my forthcoming article, tentatively titled:
A First-time WordPress User Setup and Administration Guide. Don’t touch that dial!

• What is Geany?
• Geany for Windows
   & Cross-Platform Compatibility
• GTK+ Runtime Library
• Feature Highlights
• File Explorer Plugin Setup
• Obtaining and Installing Geany for Windows

---

Windows users who are looking for a great, solid, fast, and intelligent source-code editor: your search may end here. Geany, an increasingly popular package in the Linux world due to its versatility in programming language compatibility, and straightforward interface, this text-editor / IDE which happens to be an outstanding PHP / XHTML Web Application Development Environment, is now available to you.

I Dream of Geany

Linux users may be familiar with Geany, an open-source project (which, like SciTE and Notepad++ for Windows, is based on the source code editing component, Scintilla), but Windows users have probably not been exposed to it on any large scale.

Regardless of limited advertising campaigns, and mass distribution channels, Geany is indeed available for Windows, and is in fact designed to be Platform Independent. Because Geany is built using only the GTK2 (a.k.a. GTK+) toolkit, the end-user needs only the GTK+ runtime libraries to run Geany. If you work in source code on a daily basis, and are looking for a fresh tool, Geany may be the editor you’ve been dreaming to find.

G.T.D. with GTK: Cross-Platform

GTD : a Buzzword: “ Getting Things Done ”
The idea of installing the GTK+ runtime environment in order to run Geany is not unlike the requirements of so many popular .NET applications which require Windows users to install the Microsoft .NET Framework before the .NET dependent software will function. A fairly well known, advanced Image Editor, the GNU Image Manipulation Program, or the G.I.M.P., for-short, is powered by GTK. If you’ve installed it on your Win32 system, then you probably remember being told of the GTK prerequisite. In fact, if you’ve installed the G.I.M.P. on your system, you should be able to install Geany, no sweat, straight away. Don’t get anxious– you can download Geany as regular ol’ Windows .exe setup file, conveniently bundled by the Geany developers to include their recommended version of the GTK+ platform.

I invite any programmer working in the Windows environment to try Geany– especially if you’re a web developer who uses PHP and (X)HTML. Geany, unlike its many lightweight text editor brethren, provides intelligent automatic code folding, syntax highlighting, and intellisense proposals for language syntax (e.g. type mysql_ and Geany will pop-up a list of PHP’s built-in MySQL functions as a proper-syntax reminder tool. In Geany, not only do you benefit from the sort of features previously only boasted by so many Pay-ware releases, but just by using it, you’ve become a member of the friendly and helpful, Open Source Software Users Community, There is a remarkable synergy between the users and the developers– to the ultimate benefit of the end-user’s experience in a far superior tool for the job at hand. But, don’t take my word for it. Go get your own! (Update: Feb. 18, 2008: at the time of writing, Geany has recently released a new version, so please pay close attention to changelogs, and instructions guiding you where to find the very best version for your PC environment.

Get Your Wish:

If you’re unfamiliar with code-folding, or intellisense programming language syntax proposal, then get your hands on the latest copy of Geany, and try some simple PHP, CSS, JavaScript, and / or HTML editing just to experience the enhanced editing environment from those features alone.

Geany is FREE to use (as well as open source), and more than worth the effort of downloading and installing to give it a try. As I stated earlier, when you obtain your Windows - Geany setup.exe file, be sure to find the downloadbale Geany package which is marked as being bundled with the GTK runtime. If you’re successful with that bundle, then you’re ready to install– so there’s no need to hunt through separate sites in order to download the GTK+ Runtime separately. However, I have provided various links to more information on Geany, the Geany Manual, and about the GTK+ Toolkit in general (a.k.a.: GTK2, GTK, GDK, GIMP Runtime for Windows).

a GTK+: Note - If you have problems with Geany, or other GTK programs running on windows, due perhaps to an Entry Point error in libglib-2.0-0.dll, then I recommend you definitely come back and check out the GTK links I’ve compiled as a GTK+ Quick Reference, below. You might begin with the following: Wiki Entry on Gtk4Win32 . (it’s definitely a random, G-find, but it looks like a good starting point for anyone to set forth in troubleshooting. Why? because this guy (college stud. apparently) has well documented, thorough notes, easy to understand explanations, etc., for each of the steps before during and after installation of GTK for windows. Also– other uses have jumped on and provided their own “How to install GTK+ / GTK4Win”.
In my first experience with Geany: I had already installed– for no real reason– the GTK+ runtime environment. It was just sitting on my sys– so, when i did Geany, i d/l the bundle w/out GTK, and Geany was up and running just as right as rain. I mention this variable as– it has been, thus far, the only time if had ZERO probs w/ the Geany meets GTK 4 Win32 - whole install -to- effective use process. Admittedly, I add, this very addendum is the result of my own research on how deal with the DLL problem, as Geany, CSSED, and gimpSHOP (all GTK+ Platfrom depended) have ceased working, when GTK, i believe, was updated upon CSSED installation.! GRRRR. but, this is how we learn!, so it’s all good! … see? and now you too will know.

Geany Plugins: the File Explorer panel

Having downloaded and installed the brand new release of Geany, 0.13, at face value, I didn’t recognize much of a difference from the previous stable release, 0.12, until I took a look at the tools menu to find the Plugin Manager option. With the added functionality of the user-contributed plugins, Geany has proved to have everything I need in a development environment. After installing the plugins of my choice, I noticed no loss in Geany’s remarkable startup speed, and it maintains its solid stability.

Selecting Plugin Manager, I was delighted to peruse the available options for my new Geany plugins. In particular, i wanted to see how I might tweak the File Browser itself. The File Browser panel (which can be placed on either side of the main editor window) seamlessly integrates the ability to browse your local filesystem, without a need to obscure your workspace by launching an Open dialogue. Reminiscent of the Windows Explorer folder tree, the File Browser plugin works great– no quirks there!

Whatever your chosen directory, the File Browser gives you access to those files without ever leaving your editing environment by integrating itself as a third tab to Geany’s existing multi-functional side-panel. Without any plugins, Geany’s sidebar has two tabs, giving the user a view of the symbols of the active document (e.g. variables, classes, user-defined functions, and other code-specific dynamic data laid out in a hierarchical, sortable tree view), or to browse through a list of all files opened currently in the editor (a handy feature for large projects).

Forever experimenting with software, I wanted to know what options might be available via right-click (a.k.a. via alternate mouse button). I realized that Geany was not quite Windows-friendly when it came to performing actions in this manner. Geany’s output window, another multi-functional area of the GUI, told me that the path to Nautilus did not exist. Nautilus, you ask? Nautilus is the name for GNOME– the windowed, graphical desktop environment that’s standard to many Linux distributions, like Ubuntu and Fedora.

Knowing that Geany was looking for Nautilus, based on the feedback it provided me in its command-output / status window, i decided to look for the appropriate setting for entering the path to explorer.exe on my system. Turns out, the plugin developer planned for this need already, and it’s so easy to configure!

The Geany File Browser plugin can be configured to point to your preferred filesystem explorer without the need to edit any configuration files! (doh!) Take a look at the second thumbnail here to see where, and what I entered. The dialogue shown in that thumbnail is found by selecting options from File Browser, in the Geany Plugin Manager dialogue (first thumbnail shown above).

Why Get Geany?

Web Developers:
If you are sick of bloated IDE’s which leave you waiting for what seems to be an eternity, loading a thousand bells and whistles before you can begin your work; if you want to put aside old Mr. Slow Boots for a solid, intelligent editor that’s not too lean on features, then I urge you to drop what you’re doing and download the latest Geany release. Use the links below to learn more. Go to the Geany Official Homepage to get your copy now!

Related Links:

• Geany : Official Home Page
• Geany : Documentation (Latest SVN)
• GTK+ for Windows Runtime Environment
• Scintilla / SciTE : Official Project Page