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That Y2K feeling
Feb. 12th, 2005 10:05 pmIt's been a while since I've been a programmer, and in fact my skills were in hot demand back when everyone was frantically trying to upgrade ancient applications to make them Y2K compliant. And that was so long ago, in computer terms, that there is a new generation of programmers who have no idea what the Y2K panic was all about. Sigh. It's not just my knees that are getting old.
Anyway, last month I volunteered to update my RWA chapter's website. A friend suggested that the website maintenance would be greatly simplified if we redesigned the site using cascading style sheets. She sent me a sample css file and html template to modify, and that's where things went wrong.
First I spent two hours this afternoon and all I had to show for my efforts was a lovely box on a purple background.
Grr. Argh. Time for dinner and rethinking the problem.
After dinner I powered up the computer and took myself back to programming 101. The kind of programming I learned back in the old days, when you picked up an application written ten years previously by someone who hadn't bothered to insert comments or produce documentation. In this method you make one change, save the file, and see if it works. If successful, you go on and make another change. If the change fails, you go back to your saved copy and try a different approach.
Step by step I managed to beat the first file into submission. And once I had that file the way I wanted it, the other seven pages were a snap. Still not quite convinced that the purple flower motif is the best way to go, but my tastes tend to run to black text on a white background, so what do I know?
In other news...
Writing: 1580 words today. Lady Ysobel contemplates the many uses of pretty boys.
Watching: Have tapes of Battlestar Galactica and am waiting for![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
yeep to find time for a marathon so we can catch up on what we've missed. Medium continues to hold my interest, and I managed to catch a great episode of House this week.
Anyway, last month I volunteered to update my RWA chapter's website. A friend suggested that the website maintenance would be greatly simplified if we redesigned the site using cascading style sheets. She sent me a sample css file and html template to modify, and that's where things went wrong.
First I spent two hours this afternoon and all I had to show for my efforts was a lovely box on a purple background.
Grr. Argh. Time for dinner and rethinking the problem.
After dinner I powered up the computer and took myself back to programming 101. The kind of programming I learned back in the old days, when you picked up an application written ten years previously by someone who hadn't bothered to insert comments or produce documentation. In this method you make one change, save the file, and see if it works. If successful, you go on and make another change. If the change fails, you go back to your saved copy and try a different approach.
Step by step I managed to beat the first file into submission. And once I had that file the way I wanted it, the other seven pages were a snap. Still not quite convinced that the purple flower motif is the best way to go, but my tastes tend to run to black text on a white background, so what do I know?
In other news...
Writing: 1580 words today. Lady Ysobel contemplates the many uses of pretty boys.
Watching: Have tapes of Battlestar Galactica and am waiting for
yeep to find time for a marathon so we can catch up on what we've missed. Medium continues to hold my interest, and I managed to catch a great episode of House this week.