The localization client is my first discovery.  It is Drupal module that adds a bar, displayed at the bottom, and helps you translate the terms of the current page.  It performs the updates using AJAX.  I have not tried it yet, but there is a screencast here.  It looks a lot better then the default Drupal translation page.

Suzanne quickly talked about few planned improvements to Drupal core’s multilingual support.  I was happy to hear the removal of the duplication of translated nodes.  Instead, new tables will keep the translations of the variables, strings and fields.  It is quite similar to “Globalize2“, a plugin we can use with Rails. Having worked with many different CMS, I’ve just realized how Drupal is superior to any others I know for building multilingual sites, even before the refactoring planned for version 7.  With Drupal, it is easy and efficient to translate static content but also dynamic content.

I really appreciated my time at the camp.  And more, I got the t-shirt!   Congratulations to the organizers!

So my objectives are:

10km, Marathon Oasis de Montreal : 55 mins
21km, Demi-marathon de Granby : 2 hours

In fact, Windows is not using the default vim file names.  More, they are not located in your home folder.  Simple trick, under cygwin, you can create links to vimrc and vim folder.

Under cygwin, link to _vimrc and vimfiles folder:
cd ~
ln -s “d:/program files/vim/_vimrc” .vimrc
ln -s “d:/program files/vim/vimfiles” .vim
dos2unix .vimrc

replace “d:/program files/vim” with your Vim installation folder

Finally, start vim under cygwin and enjoy !

I started to train my legs and my cardio.  Last year, I got injured  before the Montreal marathon, it won’t happen again this year.  For my legs, I decided to take the stairs instead of the elevator.  So, every lunch time, I walk down 20 levels and 20 levels to come back.  There is around 30 stairs per level, so it’s 1200 (30 x 20 x 2)  stairs every week day.  For my cardio, I started some spinning at home.  I got a bike roller from a friend so I could use my new DeVinci Silverstone SL3.  I do it while watching the Montreal Canadiens games.  The team is playing so badly that my frustration helps me to keep a good rythm.  Thanks guys …

Both of those training where tough at beginning.  But now, I feel that I can start running.  Still, I will start slowly.  So the first runs will be 3.2 km, at least for the first week.  I’m so glad to re-start running.

Wordpress for iPhone / iPod

I think XHTML should be applied on EVERY pages.  The HTML there should represent the data only.   The appearance should be done with CSS.  For me, the use of reset.css is mandatory.  A CSS framework like Blueprintcss could be a lot useful.  For event behavior, Ajax or anything non-HTML, jQuery does an excellent job.

Finally, sure it is not easy to follow this method at 100%. Perfect separation between the HTML and the CSS could be a pain at first.  But at least, if someone has to maintain your work, you follow a standard that someone can understand.

My slides (in french) are available on SlideShare: http://www.slideshare.net/rgiard/xhtml-css-janvier-2009-presentation

My Runner’s world training

Ottawa Race Weekend

http://www.satchmoproject.com/
http://gosatchmo.com/starting-a-new-store-real-world-project-layout
http://djangositeoftheweek.com/oohgabooga/

More information

First, in the open source world, my next targets are jQuery, blueprintcss, Drupal 6, JRuby and Git.

Well known in the Ajax world, jQuery seems to be very light, easy and efficient to find, create and update DOM element. More, it now has UI controls. For blueprintcss, it seems an excellent platform to build a multi-browser compatible site without having to use CSS hacks for this and that. A plus, I know two CSS gurus, Eric Meyer and Jeff Croft, have been working on this framework. In the PHP world, Drupal 6 seems to be the platform I was expected from the beginning. Having work in Drupal 4.7, I was disappointed for the number of bugs and difficulties to have a clear cut between the UI and the code. Since the upgrade to version 6, the installation process is easier and multi-language templates are more easy to create and maintain. Compared to Joomla, Drupal is really a completely CSS themable product.

Next, being a Java and an open source guy, I still worked on ASP.Net projects since a year. I have to admit that the Microsoft world interest me more than never. In fact, it’s not ASP.Net which interest me, but the new products that are coming soon. I am talking about the MVC framework, Entities Framework and Silverlight. I have not read or seen code for now, my sources being co-workers and the podcast from http://www.visualstudiotalkshow.com/. At first, MVC architecture seems a lot similar to Struts in the Java world. I guess I will feel more comfortable in a MVC architecture than with postbacks, view states, controls tree, etc. I mean, I wish MVC is more like the other MVC web frameworks instead of being completely different with its own philosophy … like ASP.Net is.

On the other side, the Entities framework used in pair with LINQ is a ORM. The product seems to be really well thought and designed. With these new products, it seems feasible to have a complete efficient and testable application architecture with only Microsoft products.