Re: Fwd: [wgo] i18n && skin

[Ricky Zhou <ricky zhou gmail com>]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Simone Deponti wrote:
> Uhm, if you are referring to Ricky's mockup, I think I solved point one
> and two. It's in the svn (although looks way worse due to my really poor
> abilities at image editing, will fix that asap).
Actually, I've been agonizing over this problem for a while.  The main
problem is the method that I use to style the selected tab
(padding-bottom: 2px to override the gray border).  Although I'd
experimented with a float-based bar, I've found that I'd either have to
change the source order undesirably (to use float: right on <li>) or add
an additional div (just for the bottom gray border).  With all inline
elements of course, it's impossible to control the top/bottom padding to
get the desired effect (line-height won't work either).  Anyway, I think
the problem that I faced will show up once the bar/current tab effect is
added.  (This is a general difficulty with right-aligned horizontal
navigation).

- -- End Reply --
And now for a "short" and possibly controversial rant:
Disclaimer: This is really my first time working on such a large
project, so I may be completely misguided in the following paragraphs.

As a separate (probably more important) note, I'm kind of surprised at
the current way that the skin is being implemented.  In my experience,
I'm used to following a pretty organized process, especially when
working within the confines of a CMS:
1.  Determine structure of the content (this seems to be done already)
2.  Finalize the semantic markup for the pages.
3.  Style the HTML, create images, etc.
At this point, 2 and 3 seem to be mashed together, which makes it
difficult for multiple people to work on the CSS, as the HTML will
probably be changing frequently.  Additionally, some components of the
CMS's default template (such as the numerous wrapper divs, layout table,
and semantically incorrect header tags) will be annoying to get rid of,
especially when removing them breaks something.  Overall, I'd propose
that the semantic markup is completed first, and then all the default
CSS is removed, leaving us with a clean slate to work with.

(I've only gotten a bit involved very recently, so I hope it isn't too
late to take this cleaner path).

Although this may sound like a large overhaul, it really shouldn't be
too bad, since we don't have very much preexisting work to be locked
into at this point.  I've already created a mockup with semantic HTML,
with somewhat workable CSS (with images/XCF files) that can be
immediately dropped on and edited.

In conclusion, I think that completing the markup first would make
maximal use of all volunteers, as teamwork would be greatly simplified
once web designers have a stable markup as a base to work off of.

Thanks,
Ricky
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (GNU/Linux)

iD8DBQFFb2PqiXbZ7NjlUcARAktbAJ9VZSU1JBxuxLzGsIoP9dTpAWflOgCeNmfH
PnelISE5n3YatjjstvXSro0=
=wwQ6
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----