Microsoft has been in the news this week. While any publicity is better than none, the headlines and statements have been particularly scathing:

• Windows 8 is Microsoft’s “New Coke” fiasco
• Windows 8 sales slump is killing the PC industry
• users are confused by Windows 8

Windows 8 was an ambitious project. The OS attempted to merge smart phone, tablet and desktop concepts into a cohesive experience. Microsoft should be applauded for trying something new but, in reality, Windows 8 is two OSs bundled as one.

Tami Reller, head of Windows Marketing and Finance, admitted:

the learning curve is definitely real

Few would disagree. I’ve been using the OS for seven months and, while it feels comfortable now, those initial weeks without a Start button were disorientating. Metro can be — and still is — quirky on a standard desktop PC, but I rarely use Metro apps other than the media player.

If you’re in the industry, you’re paid to use technology for its own sake; learning something new is part of the course. However, for most companies, technology is a tool which helps them achieve business objectives. Unless there are clear commercial benefits, the costs associated with changing that tool and retraining staff are prohibitive.

I suspect people new to PCs actually grasp Windows 8 concepts better than older versions of the OS (clicking Start to shut down was an obvious metaphoric breakdown). Unfortunately, most people have used Windows before; they can understand evolution but revolution is a different matter. Besides, if you absolutely must learn something new, why not try Mac OS or Linux?

Windows Blue

It’s impossible to determine figures but I’d be amazed if Windows 8 sales matched those of Windows 7. Fortunately, Microsoft has listened to user criticism.

Pre-release versions of the next version of the OS, codenamed Windows Blue, were leaked on to the web recently. Microsoft won’t make any public comments, but hinted a preview release could appear in June. Version 8.1 is the most likely name but many of us old hands will think of it as Service Pack 1.

The interface looks much the same, but the leaked OS offers a number of revised features…

An optional Start button
In my Windows 8 review I speculated:

I would not be surprised to see the Start button make a triumphant return

I rarely miss the Start button now I’ve created appropriate taskbar shortcuts and use the keyboard Windows key to access the Start screen. The new logo-shaped Start button will probably do the same as the lower-left screen gesture, but having a button present will reassure many people.

Boot to desktop
Microsoft was criticized for showing the Start screen rather than the more familiar desktop after login. It’s a minor point since launching any standard application will instantly switch. That said, a new “boot to desktop” option will bring joy to many.

Configurable tile sizes
Start screen tiles are currently either “larger” or “smaller”. Even the small size doesn’t permit many icons on a desktop display so a new icon-sized tile will use a quarter of the space. Interestingly, a new super-sized option may also appear which could provide some interesting possibilities for live tiles.

New apps
Many of the existing Metro apps will be updated and a new video editing application could appear.

The OS should also include better SkyDrive integration. I’ve been impressed with Microsoft’s DropBox-like online file storage system and I suspect an increased number of applications will be SkyDrive-aware.

Internet Explorer 11
IE11 is a more exciting prospect although there’s no guarantee it’ll reach the final build. If expectations are correct, the new browser will fill the final missing gaps in IE10 — namely a few minor HTML5 features and WebGL (it’ll be interesting to hear how Microsoft engineers overcame the WebGL “security issues” they identified).

A long-overdue update to the F12 Developer Tools could also appear…

The current tools are adequate but clunky and ugly when compared with Firebug, the Webkit Inspector, Dragonfly or any other Microsoft development software. The company is enticing users back to IE but projects such as modern.IE a solid set of development tools will get developers on-side.

In summary, Windows 8 is changing but don’t expect it to revert back to Windows 7. Time will tell if the updates are enough to convince buyers.

Are you using Windows 8? Do you prefer it? Do you detest it? Do you want your Start button back? Will Windows 8.1 address your concerns?

MySQL — the world’s most-used relational database — will be 18 next month. The first version was developed by Michael Widenius and David Axmark and released by MySQL AB on May 23, 1995. The open source product rapidly gained traction alongside PHP to become an integral part of the LAMP stack.

Sun Microsystems obtained MySQL for $1 billion in January 2008. 15 months later, Oracle acquired Sun for $7.4 billion and became the owner of Java, VirtualBox, OpenOffice and MySQL. The takeover caused significant controversy since the world’s biggest commercial database provider now controlled a major open source competitor.

Michael Widenius was particularly critical and released his own MySQL fork under the GNU General Public License from his own company, Monty Program AB. MariaDB is designed to maintain compatibility and be a drop-in replacement for MySQL.

Here’s where it gets interesting: Monty Program AB has signed a merger agreement with SkySQL. SkySQL was formed by former MySQL executives — including David Axmark — when Oracle acquired the database from Sun. The MySQL band are back together!

The new company will continue to use the SkySQL name to support and develop MariaDB. Michael Widenius stated:

The MySQL database is named after my first daughter, My. The MariaDB database is named after my second daughter, Maria. With this merger and my own role in the MariaDB Foundation, I’m ensuring that the MariaDB project will remain ‘open source forever’, while knowing that enterprise and community users of both the MySQL and MariaDB databases will benefit from best-in-breed products, services and support provided by SkySQL. And who doesn’t want the best for their children?

MySQL has a stronger rival. It’s reassuring news especially for those with any concerns regarding Oracle’s plans for the open source database.

See also:

• SkySQL Merges With MariaDB Developers To Create ‘Next Generation Open Source’ Database Company
• MariaDB.org
• SkySQL.com
• MariaDB vs MySQL — compatibility

IE10 brings Internet Explorer closer to Chrome and Firefox than it’s ever been. However, if you’ve visited a geek conference recently, you’d have noticed a proliferation of Macs — which can’t run the browser. That’s a problem for Microsoft…

• A large number of developers probably aren’t bothering to test sites in IE.
• Those who do, often test it very late in the development cycle.
• The inevitable problems lead to “IE’s still awful” comments. While IE10 may cause no more issues than any other browser, the mud sticks.

Microsoft released modern.IE in February. The site offers a page scanner, free virtual machine images, three months’ free subscription to BrowserStack and compatibility advice. However, to celebrate Microsoft’s sponsorship of the Webby Awards, several new features have been introduced today…

Free Parallels and Windows 8 USB Sticks for Mac Developers

If you’re a Mac developer, it can be difficult to justify the license costs for Parallels and Windows. Microsoft has made that decision a little easier for you by shipping free USB sticks with full copies of Parallels 8 and Windows 8.

The catch? There’s a limited supply — so act quickly — and Microsoft would like you to send a $25 donation to your favorite charity. Sounds like a good deal to me.

New Virtual Machine Images

Two new virtual machines are available: IE10 on Windows 7 and IE8 on Windows XP. Both remain free and all VMs are now available for Parallels on the Mac as well as Hyper-V, Virtual PC, VirtualBox and VMware on other platforms.

Scan Sites Behind Firewalls

It’s now possible to install a local instance of the modern.IE webpage scanner so you can test intranet applications or websites which have not yet launched.

Guess what platform the scanner requires…

You’re wrong! It’s node.js. That’s a surprisingly sensible choice which means it’ll run on Windows, Mac OS and Linux out of the box.

The scanner has a number of useful new features:

• deeper scanning with ‘how to fix’ suggestions
• responsive web design analysis
• touch optimization hints, and
• assistance for sites which have blocked Flash content.

Better Internationalization

modern.IE is available in 18 languages including Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese.

It’s good to see modern.IE evolving and Microsoft making life a little easier for web developers. Now, if only we could persuade Apple to release Safari on Windows again…

If you’re one of the 50% of PC users with Windows 7, be prepared for an essential update coming your way. Internet Explorer 9 has been officially retired to make way for IE10. The new browser will be installed as part of the standard Windows Update unless you explicitly prevent it (please don’t!)

It’s an important milestone for web developers. While IE9 was a radical step up from IE8, it was missing features we take for granted in Safari, Firefox, Chrome and Opera: CSS3 gradients, text shadows, animations, transitions, column layouts, flexbox, ECMAScript strict mode, media query listeners, the file API, web workers, local storage, etc. IE10 plugs many of the HTML5 gaps.

There’s another vital feature in IE10: automated updates. While Microsoft are yet to use it, IE10 can receive smaller incremental tweaks over time. I’m not expecting a Chrome or Firefox-like six-week delivery schedule, but two or three times per year would be significantly better than the current 18-24 month delay.

IE9 is likely to die rapidly especially since system administrators will not experience the upgrade issues which dogged previous versions. It will remain the default browser on Vista but the OS currently holds 6% of the PC market and is dropping fast.

IE6 and IE7 are dead. They still roam zombie-like across certain sectors of the web but, for most of us, the days of IE-specific hacks and fixes are long gone.

The IE8 Problem

Which leaves us with IE8. The browser holds 10% of the market and is the only version available for Windows XP which is used by one quarter of PC users. Many have stated that IE8 is the next IE6 (including me), but I’ve recently revised my pessimistic opinion…

• It depends on the statistics you believe, but competition from Google has changed the market. Chrome can be installed on XP, is advertised throughout Google’s ecosystem and light years ahead of IE8.
• IE8 usage is dropping by 0.5% per month. If the trend continues, it will hold just 5-6% of the market by the end of 2013.
• IE8 may not support HTML5, CSS3, SVG or media queries but it has few of issues we had to deal with in IE6 and 7. Your site will be missing rounded corners and drop-shadows, but the HTML5 shim will fix the majority of layout problems. It may not be pretty, but your site should work.
• IE8 is two versions old. Version numbers rarely matter to developers but it’s an important psychological gap for your clients.

It would have been great had Microsoft released a version of IE10 for XP and Vista but it’s probably not worth the effort. IE8 will die a natural death regardless of Microsoft’s aging OS platforms.

But let’s look at the positives: IE10 does much to catch up with the competition. It’s taken too long to arrive but I hope it becomes the most dominant version of IE within a few short months.

Google has announced they will discontinue Google Reader on July 1, 2013. The company state that usage has declined and they want to focus on fewer products.

I’m stunned. I’ve been using the application daily for several years and even Google states it has a “devoted following”.

Google Reader was launched as a Labs project in 2005. It was a relative latecomer to the news aggregation party and entered a thriving desktop and web-based Really Simple Syndication (RSS) reader market. The free product killed off many competitors including Bloglines (although that was subsequently acquired and revived).

Its demise started in 2011 when Google substituted social features for +1 buttons and disbanded the development team. The product has been neglected in maintenance mode ever since, but it remained one of the best — and only — options for RSS users. Its success means there are relatively few alternatives; NewsBlur has been experiencing server overloads since the news was announced.

Several petitions to save Google Reader running have started at:

• Change.org — more than 50,000 signatures
• keepgooglereader.com — more than 25,000 signatures

The decision to scrap Wave never caused such criticism and at least Google open-sourced the codebase. That appears unlikely for Reader.

Is RSS Dead?

I last discussed the death of RSS in October 2010. The XML-based technology powers many cross-server communications. Search engines — including Google — analyze feeds to aid web and product indexing.

RSS’s role as a protocol-like technology seems assured, but Google Reader’s termination will almost certainly end its use user-subscription service. Admittedly, RSS was too complex for many and never achieved mainstream success; social networks quickly became a more popular way of spreading news.

But it’s a sad day. Let’s hope Google listens to the users — otherwise Reader will disappear forever.

Owing to my rapidly increasing age I’ve used many, many IDEs and text editors over the years. Visual Studio, Aptana, Eclipse, HomeSite, CoffeeCup, Bluefish, Komodo, Vim, Crimson, jEdit, TextPad, PSPad, ConTEXT, PHPEdit, ScITE — I’ve probably forgotten more than I remember. Most annoy me. They often miss features I want or add bloat I don’t need. My current editor of choice is Notepad++: it’s simple, lightweight and very configurable.

Historically, HTML editors have been fairly awful. Many IDEs forced you to create dumb projects, insisted on particular doctypes, or favored deprecated tags. JavaScript editing could be worse: the editor programmers didn’t understand the language so even basic features such as function lists could fail.

Fortunately, the situation has improved and NetBeans 7.3 has been released with full support for HTML5, CSS and JavaScript. The cross-platform IDE now includes an HTML project wizard which allows you to select popular boilerplate templates and JavaScript frameworks:

There’s a lightweight internal server, embedded WebKit browser, Chrome integration and responsive web design facilities:

CSS styles can be edited directly or changed within the Inspector-like rule editor:

The JavaScript editor has been rewritten to include better code completion, jQuery support and pattern recognition:

There’s also a new debugger which can analyze code running in the internal browser or Chrome. You can apply breakpoints on lines, when a DOM element changes, when events are raised and when Ajax requests are called. Very useful:

Finally, there’s a great browser log which displays exceptions, errors and warnings as they occur:

Don’t forget that NetBeans also provides first-class development facilities for PHP, Java and C/C++. If you’re into that sort of thing.

It’s great to see client side browser technologies finally receiving the tools they deserve. I’m going to give NetBeans another look … will you?

NetBeans is available for free from netbeans.org.

The six-weekly Chrome and Firefox updates appear to have become synchronized to within a few days of each other. But you’d be forgiven for not noticing. That said, as well as the 22 plugged security holes, there are a number of new features in Chrome 25 which will stir the juices of developers everywhere…

The web speech API

Do you have a feeling of déjà vu? I’m not surprised — Webkit added speech recognition almost two years ago and it appeared in Chrome 11. However, it was fairly basic and did not implement the W3C speech API. This provides far more control so you can react to speech events and process the phrases accordingly, e.g.

if (webkitSpeechRecognition) {
	var recognition = new webkitSpeechRecognition();
	recognition.continuous = true;
	recognition.interimResults = true;
	// speech events
	recognition.onstart = function() { ... };
	recognition.onresult = function(event) { ... };
	recognition.onerror = function(event) { ... };
	recognition.onend = function() { ... };
}

Google has created a demonstration page which illustrates a basic text entry box, but expect to see voice-driven techniques used to control web applications and games soon. For more information, refer to the W3C speech API specification and an introduction tutorial at HTML5Rocks.

Evil Extension Eradication

Do you have Chrome extensions you don’t remember installing? Google helpfully provides facilities and documentation which allowed anyone to silently install an extension without your consent. This nasty behavior has been removed in Chrome 25 and the browser now implements Firefox-like add-on detection.

CSS Media Override

You can now emulate different media devices in Developer Tools — click the Settings cog, followed by Overrides. The facility allows you to test print and other stylesheets without needing to change code, using Print Preview or other convoluted methods:

While you’re in developer tools, try using the new console.clear() method to clean the log.

Windows App Launcher

Google has ported this Chrome OS feature to Windows. The launcher is experimental and must be enabled by setting Show Chrome Apps Launcher in chrome://flags/. Restart Chrome and you’ll have a new — and fairly ugly — icon in the taskbar:

I’m not totally convinced by the App Launcher; it’s just as easy to start Chrome and select an icon from the apps screen. Someone, somewhere will like it, though.

Full History Sync

It’s now possible to synchronize your entire browsing history between devices rather than just the URLs entered in the address bar. It’s another experimental feature — set Enable full history sync in chrome://flags/.

Chrome’s come a long way and it’s difficult to believe the browser is less than five years old. There are some nice new features in version 25, but a number of dubious additions have sneaked in. Keep it clean, Google!

Hyper-V is a native hardware-assisted virtualization platform provided in Windows 8 Pro and Windows Server 2008 R2 and above. In essence, a Virtual Machine is a PC emulation running on your PC. You install VM software on your physical host machine, then boot up and install any number of guest OSs. Popular VM software includes VMware, VirtualBox and Microsoft Virtual PC (which was used to power XP Mode in Windows 7).

VMs are essential for web developers:

1. They allow you to test alternative browsers such as historical versions of IE or Linux installations.
2. You can set up development servers such as Linux with Apache, PHP and MySQL on a Windows development PC.

VMs are hard disk images so they can be backed-up, cloned and moved far easier than a real PC. In addition, most VM software allows you to make snapshots so you can test software or configurations and revert back in the event of catastrophic failure.

Hyper-V has a number of benefits including speed, multi-core processor support and booting to VMs (users can use a guest VM as their daily OS so they can’t trash the host). But the main advantage is that VMs operate in the background. There’s no need to start the software; it’s always running and controlling your booted guest OSs. Similarly, there’s no need to open or connect to the guest OS desktop — if you’re running a development server, you can simply transfer files like you would to any other device on your network.

So let’s look at the basics of using Hyper-V. I’m using Windows 8 but Windows Server is similar.

1. Enable Hyper-V

From the Windows Control Panel, select Programs and Features followed by Turn Windows features on or off. Check Hyper-V and all platform and tools sub-components. It’ll take a few minutes to install.

2. Configure Hyper-V Defaults

From the Start screen (or Win+Q), run the Hyper-V Manager. You can change the default settings in Action > Hyper-V Settings.

3. Create a New Virtual Machine

To create a new VM, select Action > New > Virtual Machine…. Enter a name for your VM and select a different file location if necessary:

Now enter the amount of memory you want the VM to use — keep it as dynamic unless you want to specify a maximum:

You can now create or use an existing hard disk image and specify a maximum size (it will grow as the VM requires more space):

Finally, you can choose to install an operating system from a physical drive or ISO image:

Hit Finish to complete the wizard. You can now boot your VM (click Start in the Actions pane) and install a guest OS. Remember this occurs in the background; to view the desktop, click Connect… in the Actions pane.

Note that the VM will not be able to connect to a network yet — you may wish to configure that first so updates can be downloaded.

4. Connecting to Your Network

Connecting to the network is slightly unusual compared to other VM software. Hyper-V creates a virtual switch device which is subsequently used for all host and guest connectivity. Under the right-hand Actions pane, click Virtual Switch Manager…. Select External and hit Create Virtual Switch.

Assign a name (Virtual Switch is as good as any), select the real network adapter used for networking on your host OS, and hit Apply. The dialog can then be closed.

Now, right-click your VM and choose Settings… (or click Settings… under your VM in the Action pane). Select the Network Adapter tab and ensure Virtual Switch (or whatever you named it) is selected.

Reboot your VM and, with luck, you should have network connectivity.

Network Troubles?
Many people experience networking problems with Hyper-V guests — I did. A separate hardware NIC adapter is recommended, but this is impractical for most desktop and laptop PCs. If you can’t connect or connectivity randomly drops, try the following remedies:

1. Configure the guest OS to use a fixed IP address.
2. If it continues to fail, disable TCP Checksum Offload and UDP Checksum Offload in your physical NIC adapter settings (they may have slightly different names).

5. Connect to Your VM

As mentioned, you can click Connect… in the VM’s Action pane to view the desktop. Alternatively, you can use Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Connection tool much like you would with any networked Windows device.

Hyper-V offers some great features which will benefit web developers. Do you have any interesting uses for the platform?

A variety of code playgrounds have appeared during the past couple of years. The majority offer a quick and dirty way to experiment with client-side code and share with others. Typical features include:

• color-coded HTML, CSS and JavaScript editors
• a preview window — many update on the fly without a refresh
• HTML pre-processors such as HAML
• LESS, SASS and Stylus CSS pre-processing
• inclusion of popular JavaScript libraries
• developer consoles and code validation tools
• sharing via a short URL
• embedding demonstrations in other pages
• code forking
• zero cost (or payment for premium services only)
• showing off your coding skills to the world!

The best feature: they allow you to test and keep experimental snippets code without the rigmarole of creating files, firing up your IDE or setting up a local server. Here are seven of the best …

JSFiddle

JSFiddle was one of the earliest code playgrounds and a major influence for all which followed. Despite the name, it can be used for any combination of HTML, CSS and JavaScript testing. It’s looking a little basic today, but still offers advanced functionality such as Ajax simulation.

CodePen

The prize for the best-looking feature-packed playground goes to CodePen. The service highlights popular demonstrations (“Pens”) and offers advanced functionality such as sharing and embedding. The PRO service provides cross-browser testing, pair-programming and teaching options for just $9 per month.

CSS Deck

This may be named CSS Deck, but it’s a fully-fledged HTML, CSS and JavaScript playground with social and collaboration features. It’s similar to CodePen (I don’t know who influenced who!) but you might prefer it.

JS Bin

JS Bin was started by JS guru Remy Sharp. It concentrates on the basics and handles them exceedingly well. As far as I’m aware, it’s also the only option which offers a JavaScript console. Recommended.

Dabblet

Another early playground, Dabblet started life as an HTML5/CSS3 demonstration system by Lea Verou but it’s recently received JavaScript facilities. It looks gorgeous and has one killer feature — browser CSS prefixes are added automatically. There’s no need to enter that -webkit, -moz and -ms nonsense yourself.

Tinkerbin

Tinkerbin is an alpha release and one of the simpler options here. It may not offer features above and beyond the alternatives but it’s attractive and functional.

Liveweave

Liveweave is slightly unusual in that it places your HTML, CSS and JavaScript into a single file. It’s not possible to share your creation, but you can download the result and store or open it locally. It’s ideal for quick and dirty private experimentation.

I guess I missed your favorite?…

RIP Presto. Opera has announced they are dropping their own HTML rendering engine and switching to Webkit — the one used in Chrome and Safari.

The company had already declared similar intentions for Opera Ice; a new mobile browser with a minimal interface. However, today’s announcement affects all mobile and desktop editions of the browser. There will be a gradual transition as Presto is phased out.

Business Logic

The Opera project started in 1994 and required its own HTML parser — there were few other options. In the early part of the century it became the best engine as Microsoft’s Trident stagnated and Netscape died.

The situation has evolved in recent years and, from a purely commercial perspective, switching to Webkit makes sense. Opera may have 300 million users, but their market share has been dropping and stands at slightly over 1% according to the latest StatCounter statistics. While I doubt Presto is at fault, adopting another rendering engine frees resources and allows the company to concentrate on the browser interface, features and marketing. Webkit is open source, so Opera can still influence its development and direction of web standards.

Of course, Opera could have selected Gecko, Trident or any other project, but Webkit is the leading engine on mobile devices and the only option on iOS (Apple do not permit third-party apps which can execute code such as JavaScript).

Fewer Development Headaches?

Many developers will applaud Opera’s decision. Testing should become easier and, from today, there’s little point using -o- prefixes in your CSS and JavaScript. Ironically, Opera had already adopted several -webkit prefixed properties to enforce compatibility for developers who refuse to acknowledge other browsers.

A Small Step Closer to the Monoculture?

It’s a shame to see Presto die. Perhaps I’m being over-sentimental, but it’s a powerful engine and Opera has been responsible for several innovative HTML5 features. It may have struggled to keep pace recently, but Presto differentiated Opera from the competition. I hope Opera doesn’t become just another Webkit clone.

Admittedly, this news would have been considerably more worrying had Microsoft or Mozilla adopted Webkit. We still have three major HTML5 engines but the browser world has lost a little of its color today.

The days of using separate applications for development and browsing are coming to an end. It’s possible to edit source files directly within Chrome and save the result to a local file. Even better — changes can be applied immediately without refreshing the browser.

This technique should work in recent versions of Chrome although, currently, it’s only possible to edit and save JavaScript files. HTML and CSS are almost certain to be supported eventually, though.

Step 1: Launch Developer Tools

Open Chrome, load a page from your local file system/server and open Developer Tools from the Tools menu or press Ctrl+Shift+I / Cmd+Shift+I. Navigate to the Source tab then either click the Sources icon or hit Ctrl+O to select your JavaScript file:

Step 2: Edit Your Code

You can now jump straight in and edit your code. Chrome also offers a useful function list to help you locate the right line — press Ctrl+Shift+O / Cmd+Shift+O:

Step 3: Save the File

Hit Ctrl+S / Cmd+S to save your changes. This updates the file in memory and applies the changes immediately. Note however, that code won’t start again so changes to initialization variables won’t be affected.

To save the changes to the original file, right-click the editor and select Save or Save As…. Once done, you can refresh the page and the script will restart.

Step 4: Undo Your Mistakes

Did your update cause chaos? Right-click the editor and select Local modifications…. The lower pane displays all recent changes and allows you to revert back.

Chrome’s Developer Tools may not be a replacement for your current IDE or editor, but they’re very useful if you’re working on another PC or just require a few quick and dirty edits.

Internet Explorer development has always been tougher than it should be:

• There are five versions of IE currently in use and at least three need attention.
• IE6, 7 and 8 have sparse support for modern web standards.
• Only versions 9 and 10 support HTML5 and they’re behind competing browsers.
• Only one version of IE can be installed and run at a time.
• IE is only available for Windows.

Admittedly, a proportion of developers find it easier to blame the browser than fixing issues, but creating cross-browser compatible sites remains a struggle even when you retain an unhealthy knowledge of legacy IE workarounds.

Fortunately, Microsoft appears to regret the pain they inflicted on web developers over the years. modern.IE is a new Microsoft resource to help test websites and applications on the major versions of Internet Explorer. There are several free features which will interest all web developers regardless of their preferred platform or browsers…

Webpage Scanner

Scan a webpage is an analysis tool which generates a report of known compatibility issues such as:

• standards/quirks mode
• out of date libraries
• missing CSS prefixes
• reliance on browser plugins
• browser detection code
• responsive web design practices

There are a number of IE/Windows 8-only suggestions but, even if you have no interest in adding these, the report still provides useful information which will help you locate and destroy bugs.

Free Virtual Machine Images

If you’re testing a specific version of the browser, IE emulators and the F12 Developer Tools do not necessarily highlight all the problems. Ideally, you need a dedicated PC or Virtual Machine installation.

modern.IE’s virtual tools provides free VM images for Hyper-V, Virtual PC, VirtualBox and VMware on Windows, Mac and Linux:

• IE6 on Windows XP
• IE7 on Windows Vista
• IE8 on Windows 7
• IE9 on Windows 7
• IE10 on Windows 8

The OS images range between 1GB and 7GB so ensure you’ve got enough disk space available. Look out for a Hyper-V tutorial coming on SitePoint soon…

Free BrowserStack Subscription

BrowserStack provides dozens of desktop and mobile browsers on virtual machines which can be accessed remotely via your browser. There’s nothing to install, manage or configure — just log on, choose a platform and load your site. The service also provides tunneling facilities so you can test applications hosted on your local PC or network.

Sign-up at modern.IE and you’ll receive a three month BrowserStack subscription for free.

Compatibility Advice

Finally, there’s 20 tips for building modern websites which contains simple best-practice advice for maximizing compatibility.

The more cynical among you will claim this mess was of Microsoft’s making and modern.IE should never have been required in the first place. However, at least the company has recognized our testing problems and provided a number of practical solutions.

New year, new browser. Mozilla released Firefox 18 on January 8, 2013. You may have received the update already but, if not, click the menu then Help > About Firefox > Check for Updates. Alternatively, head over to getfirefox.com and download a fresh copy.

Firefox has been evolving rapidly and, like Chrome, there are fewer major changes between versions. However, there are a number of geeky new toys in version 18…

New IonMonkey JIT Compiler

According to Mozilla’s benchmarks, IonMonkey offers a 26% JavaScript performance improvement. I’m less convinced it will result in a noticeable real-world speed boost but it’s an impressive claim.

@supports Support

@supports is a native feature detection facility for CSS, e.g.

@supports (text-shadow: 0 0 5px #000)
{
	.blur-text
	{
		text-shadow: 0 0 5px #000;
		color: transparent;
	}
}

In essence, Modernizr-like JavaScript style detection is no longer required. It’s an experimental feature and must be enabled by setting layout.css.supports-rule.enabled to true in about:config.

(Note that @supports was available in Firefox 17 but I didn’t post an article about that version — there was little to report!)

CSS Flexbox Layout

Without going into too much detail, the new CSS3 Flexible Box Layout Module allows you to arrange elements which behave predictably at different screen sizes. There’s no need to use media queries or complex floated blocks.

It’s a little too early to use the feature; only Opera 12.1+ implements a good level of support without prefixes. However, you can try it in Firefox if you set layout.css.flexbox.enabled to true in about:config. For more information, refer to Using CSS flexible boxes on MDN.

Unprefixed Page Visibility API

The Page Visibility API determines whether a webpage is visible. You can therefore detect when the browser is minimized or the user switches tab and react accordingly, e.g. stop a video playing, cancel automatic slide animations, slow down Ajax polling requests, etc.

The API has been available in Firefox since version 10 with the moz prefix. Firefox 18 joins Opera 12.10 with a standard prefixless implementation.

WebRTC Support

WebRTC — Web Real-Time Communication — provides native browser capabilities for VOIP, chat, video chat and file sharing without the need for plugins. The preliminary implementation can be enabled by setting media.peerconnection.enabled to true in about:config but you’ll need to wait a while longer for a reliable API.

Miscellaneous Updates

Not impressed so far? What about:

• faster tab switching
• improved image scaling
• window.devicePixelRatio implementation
• MozTouch events replaced by W3C touch events
• Retina display support on Mac OS
• the window.navigator.battery API has been implemented on Mac OS
• search suggestions on Firefox for Android
• improved phishing and malware detection on Android
• hundreds of bugs have been squished

Finally, animated theme fans (are there any?) will be disappointed to hear that the feature has been removed. Mozilla discovered performance issues as image sizes increased to accommodate various screen resolutions and Retina displays. If you can’t use Firefox without animated themes, install the Personas Shuffler add-on.

Firefox may have lost a few users to Chrome during the past year or two, but Mozilla has not lost their motivation. The browser is fast, stable, looks great, offers excellent development tools and standards support. Try it again — Firefox 18 may surprise you.

Windows 8 may initially frustrate and confuse you but many familiar features are lurking beneath the glossy Metro/whatever-you-want-to-call-it surface. Fortunately, Microsoft has provided a number of keyboard shortcuts so you can avoid all that swiping nonsense on your desktop PC.

Starting Up

There’s no need to perform any complex gestures — just click the mouse or tap a key and the login password or image will float into view. Hit Win+L to lock the computer again.

Launch Applications

Hit your keyboard Window key to reveal the Metro Start screen. If the application’s not there, use Win+Q to view and search through all applications.

If all else fails, navigate to the old Start menu folders using File Explorer (Win+E):

• C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu
• C:\Users\<your-name>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu

Locate the shortcut, right-click and select either Pin to Start, Pin to Taskbar, or Send to > Desktop.

Alternatively, the old Run dialog can still be launched with Win+R. Alt+Tab switches between applications.

Finally, the Windows key plus a number from 1 to 0 launches the corresponding pinned application on the task bar. Use Win+Alt+a number key to open that application’s jumplist.

Window Hotkeys

Need to close a desktop program or Metro app? Alt+F4 has been supported for as long as I can remember.

Application windows can maximized and minimized using the Windows key in conjunction with the up and down cursor keys. You can dock windows to the left or right-half of the screen using Win+left and Win+right respectively.

Peek at the desktop using Win+D and tap it again to re-view your active applications. Alternatively, Win+M minimizes all windows and Win+Shift+M restores them.

Finally, if you’re using a tablet device, Win+O locks the screen orientation.

Power User Hotkeys

If you only remember one hotkey, make it Win+X. It displays a menu of useful options such as regularly-used Control Panel settings, Disk Management, Computer Management and the Command Prompt.

Other hotkeys:

• Win+C — display the Charms menu
• Win+I — the Settings charm
• Win+H — the Share charm
• Win+K — the Devices charm
• Win+W — settings search
• Win+P — the second screen bar
• Win+Z — displays the Metro App bar
• Win+PrtScn — saves a screenshot to the Pictures folder
• Win+Break/Pause — display the Control Panel System dialog

Shutting Down

Navigating to the shut down option is slightly ludicrous — move the mouse to the lower or upper right-hand side of the screen (which is awkward on dual monitors), then click Settings followed by Power then Shut down. Ugh.

Here’s an easier option: shut the laptop lid or press your PC’s power button.

Who knew? You can change whether Windows shuts down, sleeps or hibernates in the Control Panel Power Options. Click “Choose what the power buttons do” link in the left-hand pane.

Have I missed your favorite Windows 8 hotkey or tip? Useful ones please … switching to another OS or downgrading to Windows 7/XP isn’t necessarily practical!