Blog – The Architect’s Log

In 2005, Netdrafter consolidated our programming services and settled on the use of just one advanced programming language to enhance regular web site HTML and interact with databases. The language we chose: PHP.

From the PHP.net web site: “PHP is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly.” (more…)

When you view a web page for the first time your browser downloads all the various page elements (images, text, etc.) to your computer’s hard drive. This is known as “browser caching.” The next time you visit that same web page, your browser first looks in it’s cache and displays the stored copy rather than downloading everything again. This makes web browsing much quicker. For example, if you press your ‘back’ button to a page you just visited it will appear almost instantly, without having to download all those images again.

Since web pages often change, it’s a good idea to refresh your browser window and clear your browser’s cache regularly. (more…)

I get a queasy feeling any time I see a business using the Comic Sans font in their advertising – especially online. It makes me wonder what, or even if, a graphic designer was thinking when they chose this cheesy, “over utilized for the wrong reasons” type face. I guess most choose it because it looks “fun”, is informal, and is non threatening in it’s curvy nature. (more…)