A place to discuss the new web technologies that are being implemented

Krik

Well, hopefully this question doesn't seem too odd. Does anyone know if there is a good place (forums, ect) for web developers that are working with some of the new HTML5 technologies?

For the last several months I have been working with the new features like WebGL, websockets, 3D CSS transformations, Fullscreen API and others. Over and over again I am running into a lack of good information on these new technologies. Now I am usually able to work through just about anything I am just thinking that, one, I could possibly avoid some headaches if I had a place to hammer it out with others, and two, once I get it figured out I am sure others would like to know how also. Now there area tons of places to get HTML CSS and Javascript help and, while they can on occasion be useful, generally such forums/communities are not very well suited for discussing the implementation of technologies, that, in many cases, will only work in beta or alpha browsers versions.

So I figure others here have got to be working with some of this and just wonder if you have a particular site you use to discuss problems with other developers when the documentation is scarce or non-existent?

NogDog

Have you looked at this forum's sister forum at WebDeveloper.com?

Krik

I am aware of it, didn't know it was connected to this site. But since you suggested it I thought I would try registering, unfortunately I couldn't find the security answers. I tried viewing the page in every browser I have (5 majors plus older versions of each plus some beta's, alpha's and nightly's) and never saw the internet.com bar at the top (also looked on internet.com) or the black and red rectangle at the bottom. Also used Firebug to see if there was any content that was hidden, and nothing. They have done such a good job of stopping bots that even web developers can't find the answer. I did also try the forgot password, in case I had ever registered, and I tried every email account I have, and nothing. I'll try a few other techniques later but its looking like registering with them may not happen.

Just to see what kind of activity is on there site I use Google to only search their site, looking for different terms relating to the new technologies. What I found is much like other such sites, there is an occasional post on the various new technologies. Now based on their size (1.1 million members) I would guess there is some knowledgeable people there, so it maybe worth trying them out. However, I should note I have accounts in several different sites, like that one, so if I need to ask a question there are places I can ask. But when I run into unexpected behavior or potential bugs or am working on a very complex work around many times the posts will go unanswered do to the complexity of the issue. And most times I am working in beta or alpha browsers so it gets even more complicated. So I am hoping there is better place to be asking.

NogDog

Don't know about the registration issues (since I registered there many, many years ago 😉 ). I do know they had a big outage the other day, I believe because they were moving to a new host, so maybe they broke something? I'll post something there linking back here in case they aren't aware of it.

PS: I'm a bit of a Luddite when it comes to client-side stuff, preferring to hold off on the new bells and whistles and assorted shiny objects until they are widely supported and other people have figured out the best ways to get cross-browser compatibility. 😉

Steve_R_Jones

The Registration security question at WedDev will be fixed in a few hours. (if i had to guess - by approx 9am EST)

cretaceous

I seem to spend a fair amount of time reading threads on stackoverflow that show up in Google searches.. but am not a member

have you tried it ?
I don't know if it's any good really..

It has the upvote /downvote feature which leads to silly squabbles, but I suppose does push better solutions to top
[then again these systems have a bias that keeps older results at the top]

edit: in fact if PHP builder had an upvote/ downvote feature and a "useful thread" /"not useful thread" feature, then if people searched only "useful threads", 9 times out of 10 there would be no new posts, as everything has been answered already.. though of course that would render the forum redundant...:evilgrin: 😃

Weedpacket

cretaceous wrote:
edit: in fact if PHP builder had an upvote/ downvote feature and a "useful thread" /"not useful thread" feature, then if people searched only "useful threads", 9 times out of 10 there would be no new posts, as everything has been answered already.. though of course that would render the forum redundant...

How about rating threads? Would rating threads help?

cretaceous

it would if people used it!!

Steve_R_Jones

Steve R Jones;10994758 wrote:
The Registration security question at WedDev will be fixed in a few hours. (if i had to guess - by approx 9am EST)

FIXED😉

Derokorian

Weedpacket;10994789 wrote:
How about rating threads? Would rating threads help?

cretaceous;10994790 wrote:
it would if people used it!!

Rating responses is a lot different than rating a whole thread. For example, I may think Weedpacket has a great response that people should definitely see if they have problem X but cretaceous you were way off base but the first one to respond. Knowing that people have little to no attention span means rating something up because it was solved is not helpful if its solved on page 2 (because most people will just make their own thread by post 3, let alone post 15)

Krik

Steve R Jones wrote:
The Registration security question at WedDev will be fixed in a few hours. (if i had to guess - by approx 9am EST)

Thanks, I half hoped that posting the issue here would help, I'll try registering again.

cretaceous wrote:
I seem to spend a fair amount of time reading threads on stackoverflow that show up in Google searches.. but am not a member

I do have an account there (same username as here). It is interesting how they are always at the top of search results. However I find their method a bit frustrating. I like trying to help people with the web development problems, as time allows. And when I reply to a question in many cases there is fair amount of time put into the response. On their site if you take more than 10 minutes your the 30th answer. Worst yet if anyone (not just the person asking) doesn't like your solution they will vote it down. It bothers me to no end when I get voted down for a solution that works, admittedly some are not very pretty answers, but sometimes the questions are that off the wall.

Not to disparage a rating system but I do see some flaws in it. Maybe with some careful planing it may be useful.

bradgrafelman wrote:
If people read threads at all or even used the search feature at all, a lot of issues would resolve themselves.

That is true. However I would note that recently I have come to understand why they can't find the answer from previous questions. I think it was about the middle of last year I started tutoring a guy in C++. I didn't want to just be giving him the answers and I wanted to teach him how to use the internet to solve problems and not always to have to rely on me. We used skype screen sharing a lot and several times I sat there and watched him find the answer in a forum and because it is to far disassociated from his specific situation he couldn't see the answer.

Best I can figure there is mindset that must be developed to be a programer and to be able to find solutions in answers that are not related to your specific problem.

bradgrafelman wrote:
However, their client-side boards seem a lot more active than the one here at PHPBuilder

I just registered there. When I get done here I have already got a good initial question lined up to test the waters. I am seeing some strange behavior with the Fullscreen API. So hopefully someone has seen it and will give me some ideas on what is going on. Its so far of the beaten path it will likely give me a good idea as to how deep the knowledge of their active members runs.

In case anyone is over there my username is Krik. Someone used "KRIK" to write one post in 2006 in which he mentions he trying to do something with dreamweaver. I feel half embarrassed to use that handle/username now.

Weedpacket

Krik wrote:
Best I can figure there is mindset that must be developed to be a programer....

You could have stopped the sentence there 🙂. I suspect a lot of posting is by people who don't have that mindset and/or have no interest in developing that mindset; the forums are the first place they go for a solution to what they want. And I mean before trying to determine how difficult it is to implement what they want (e.g. "how do I select all records from a table that are less than a week old? The table has a date column."). Programming is difficult enough when you do have the mindset for it: I find it hard to comprehend how anyone could cope without it.

Krik

I find it hard to comprehend how anyone could cope without it.

That gave me a good laugh, it reminded me of several discussions I have had over the years. I have been around computers for almost 25 years and have know a lot of people from different areas of the industry. If you get to talking at any length with project managers, hardware guys, ect (non-programmers) the discussion will often lead to them expressing some difficulty in understanding programmers.

Of course as I think about it how many people do you know that could write out an explanation in code? And that reminds me of a joke:

A programmer’s wife sends him to the grocery store with the instructions, “get a loaf of bread, and if they have eggs, get a dozen.” He comes home with a dozen loaves of bread and tells her, “they had eggs.”

http://www.1stwebdesigner.com/inspiration/programming-jokes-comics-videos/

Krik

bradgrafelman wrote:
For example, the last time I saw a parse error question that had a resolution not previously discussed in the stickied 'Parse error: syntax error' thread was... oh that's right, never.

Speaking of parse errors ... http://www.phpbuilder.com/board/showthread.php?p=10994858#post10994858

It was first for me.

dalecosp

As a recovering BASIC user, I greatly resent that remark :p

😃 😃 😃 😃

Maybe that error text should be altered:

$error=str_replace("N",'',"T_DNUMBER");