Two Ways To Identify An Idiot Web Developer

[clintonG]

I can't tell you how frustrated I get when going to a web developer's
website and observing he or she is an idiot that has not grasped
the most fundamental element of usability: page title naming conventions.

1.) You know you are at an idiot's website when there is no page title.
Listen up idiot. Give every page a name using the HTML <title> element.

2.) When naming your page do not put the name of your website or your
company 'after' the page title text. The name of your website or your
company name should be placed 'before' the page title text. Assuming
the idiot has at least provided a page title consider...

Incorrect Page Title Naming Convention:
I Am An Idiot And Here's The Proof - IdiotWebDeveloper.com

Correct: Page Title Naming Convention:
Smart Web Developer - How to Avoid Being Identified As An Idiot

The correct page title naming convention is correct as it provides a
meaningful description of the contents of the page and the order of the
page title text 'after' the developer's website or company name allows
the developer's pages to be sorted as a group when saved as a Favorite.


--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[John Haynes]

One way to identify a WEB DEVELOPER from a WEB DESIGNER, the web designer
worries about stupid <title> tags while the WEB DEVELOPER concerns himself
with buisness logic and leaves <title> tags to the look and feel guys.......

 

[Curt_C [MVP]]

1) that's not a web developer's(aka web programmer) role, it's a web
designers(aka layout/graphics/wording) role.
2) see #1
2b) isn't that what a QA dept is for?

:}

 

[Curt_C [MVP]]

heheheh see I'm not alone in this one :}

 

[clintonG]

Maybe when working in a cube as a corporate serf but I think it fair to
say that most web development is being conducted by what can best
be described as 'Uber Geeks' who are responsible for all tiers be they
working in 'departments' or not.

As for the context of 'developers' I can also then add that the naming
conventions I see for file naming and other such contextually related
resources are also usually FUBAR. I see 'developers' fail to understand
simple naming conventions all the time.

Noting I am speaking of something very specific here, what does it take
to get people to understand the value of relying on the file system to sort
and organize resources when doing so provides such useful results?

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[Kevin Parkinson]

Clinton:
I find it unfortunate that you get wound up about such petty
matters; that you would get all frusterated and see me as an idiot if I
didn't have a page title or my page title was "MyDomain.com - Home" instead
of " Home - MyDomain.com". I do agree that there are many good things about
naming conventions, but I hope you are not lose any sleep overother
people's naming habits .

Kevin Parkinson

 

[David Jessee]

Man, that's just being petty.

....and for the record (many people would do well to remember this), there is
no "correct" convention for anything. All that matters is (1) You're
consistent and (2) you effectively communicate the information. The RIGHT
way (whether its naming conventions, development methodologies or
application frameworks/architectures) is the way that lets you effectively
fulfill the client's needs.

 

[John Haynes]

Unemployed, disgruntled???

The fact that you posted in the first place was a bit absurd but acceptable,
however, the subsequent posts reveal that you are either extremely petty or
are jealous that an "idiot" developer would be getting work while you are
unemployed.

Now as for "Computer Science" tell me one thing in ASP.NET/Web development
that has an association with Computer Science. Last I checked ASP.NET and
web-dev is more along the lines of Business Systems Analyst/Development. Are
you rewriting compressions algorithms? Are you writing compilers? Are you
writing your own distributions of Linux OS? I think not? That is called
computer science! Computer Scientists are the architects that build the
legos that us developers use to put applications together. It appears to me
that your last 20 years have been spent as an elementary school English
grammar teacher. Your lucky you didn't post this tripe on Slashdot.

Perhaps you should work to improve the quality of your own work and not be
concerned with the quality of others. There can't be a reason that everyone
else is so "Wrong" and your so "Right"

Disgust,
John....

 

[clintonG]

Your concluding rationale is exactly what the point is. Those failing to
use the inherent capability of the file system to sort resources which by
default also groups similarly named resources together are not
effectively fulfilling the client's needs.

For at least the 20 years I have been introduced to and involved
with Computer Science the methodology has been noun-verb
grammar. The subject of the sentence must be included and in
its proper place or the sentence is considered to be malformed
or a fragment and thus incoherent. In this context what we see
is a complete abscence of title text or an adjective-noun grammar
of the type 'title text - personal identifier.'

The only cogent argument I have heard suggested the reason people
use converse file naming in this context 'title text - personal identifier'
is due to the fact that the Windows menu used to recall a Favorite
only allows a fixed number of characters to be displayed when one is
attempting to retrieve a Favorite. Thus, the rationale suggests that
'title text - personal identifier' makes reading the title text easier as
the
arguement presumes to suggest that doing so displays more meaningful
text. Fallacious assumption if you ask me.

In all fallacies there is a basis of fact followed by an illogical
conclusion
and while I do find the 'readable Favorites' arguement alluring it still
obviates the objective of fulfilling the client's needs because it breaks
the
file system's inherent function to sort and group file resources.

If people wanted to create title text correctly they would adopt the
'personal identifier - title text' convention. If consideration is to be
given to the fixed number of characters displayed by a Windows
menu, the personal identifier could and perhaps should be a form
of something akin to Hungarian notation or an acronym or other short
personal identifier. If brevity is needed so as to avoid imposing what may
be an inordinate number of characters in the recalled Favorite there is no
need to remind the client that they are attempting to retrieve a Favorite
from
'My Overtly Lengthy Corporate Brand Name Inc.' other than that need
that is imposed by marketing idiots.

The Windows OS persists tool tip text when retrieving a Favorite using
the Windows OS menu. Unlike the tool tips displayed in a browser those
displayed by the OS persist and will remain displayed until a new event
takes
precedence.

If the client really needs a long and winded corporate brand as contextual
information he or she can observe 'branding' by reading the tool tip where
the domain name is displayed. Maybe its also time for those developing
Longhorn to consider this user interface issue and perhaps include the
ability
of reading meta data from the file that can be used to provide a better
description of resources stored on the file system.

Finally, what seems to be missing (other than common sense surrounding
this issue) is that we as users attempting to retrieve Favorites do so
needing contextual reminders. Those reminders are the personal and
perceptual identifiers such that I or you could easily recall and associate
the
specific resource with its source of origination from whom we have
established a sense of reliability and credibility regarding the actual
content we are hoping to retrieve.

Many analogies can be useful but one of speaking on the telephone
seems to be very apt. For example, when calling somebody we are
taught to say 'hello' followed by 'this is so and so' followed by 'I
am calling about.' This is classic 'personal identifier - title text'
structure
and it has been adopted as convention for good reason.

Surely when retrieving a Favorite regarding for example subject matter
about ASP.NET security you would prefer to return to the page(s) that
were crafted by someone whose writing and documentation has already
been perceptually established in your mind as that which you find credible
and well done? In the tactile environment we have turned corners, coffee
stains on paper, written notation and other artifacts to remind us. In the
virtual world we have descriptive text and the file system. Hello?

To be a tad abstract here I am saying the base class for perceptual human
understanding is that which has members that establsih precedence and order.

The 'title text - personal identifier' structure breaks the file system and
it
convolutes human understanding. I also have examples of this in another
context related to accessibility and screen readers which is another
subject but directly related to the way convention and usage are understood
to be useful and desireable objectives if in fact fulfilling the client's
needs
is our primary objective.

The whole notion of the semantic web relies on this type of common
sense and practical thinking. I hope taking my time to argue the merits
helps others understand. While I can stand the scrutiny of argument to
ignore or dismiss the argument all together suggests there is a 3rd way to
identify an idiot web developer.

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[clintonG]

No Kevin, the only people I see as idiots are those that meet
the requirements as stated in the last sentence to my first reply
to David Jesse which follows this thread.

In fact, that reply to David has several reasons why this rant
should be understood as less of a rant and more of an argument
whose time has come. Specifically with regard to the Semantic
Web which as a developer I presume you are or should be aware of.

I really need a blog. Wasting my contribution to mankind posting to
the newsgroups is not good for posterity. ;-)

--
<%= Clinton Gallagher
A/E/C Consulting, Web Design, e-Commerce Software Development
Wauwatosa, Milwaukee County, Wisconsin USA
NET (e-mail address removed)
URL http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/

 

[John Haynes]

bwahahahahah......ROTFLMFAO

I think you could add hypocritical. From May of 2001 to just the other day,
Mr. G's own page has been 'Untitled':
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/myLan.htm

 

[Kindler Chase - nCubed]

Unemployed, disgruntled???

The fact that you posted in the first place was a bit absurd but
acceptable, however, the subsequent posts reveal that you are either
extremely petty or are jealous that an "idiot" developer would be
getting work while you are unemployed.

I think you could add hypocritical. From May of 2001 to just the other day,
Mr. G's own page has been 'Untitled':
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/myLan.htm

 

[David Jessee]

Its like I have a knight in shining Htpertext, defenging my frail Nerd
Honor.

bwahahahahah......ROTFLMFAO

I think you could add hypocritical. From May of 2001 to just the other day,
Mr. G's own page has been 'Untitled':

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.metromilwaukee.com/clintongallagher/myLan.htm