March 15, 2004
Style Switcher Implementation
There seems to be a few requests regarding to how the style switcher is implemented, so this entry will serve this purpose - detailing how I implemented the style switcher on the Movable Style site, including samples of source code that you can use for your own site.
The internals of this style switcher is actually quite simple, but it requires PHP running on the server side for it to work. Here are some objectives that I had when I first started:
- Minimal client side (java-)scripting.
- Works on every page.
March 02, 2004
Frequently Asked Question
Recently Movable Style has attracted quite a few visitors (current at around 200-300 unique visitors per day), and sorry if I have not updated the site or respond to your comments. I have been busy - just moved to a new place that needs lots of work, wife expecting a baby in July, lots of demand at work, working with new students at church, etc. I will try to answer some of your questions this entry, and hopefully when I finally have more time on hand (if ever), I would go back to work on more styles.
Continue reading "Frequently Asked Question"January 16, 2004
Dual License for Movable Styles
Thanks to suggestion from Eaden, cascading style sheets on Movable Style will be dual licensed. Currently it is licensed under Creative Common Attribution 1.0, which requires everyone who uses of MT styles created by me to give credit to me. That includes all the styles listed except Movable Type default styles (copyright Six Aprt) and Lovingrey (copyright Wavez). Now these styles can also be licensed under GNU Public License 2, so that it can be modified and included into another weblogging tool, like PHP/Smarty based BBlog.
Complicated? I think so as well. I am by no means a license expert, and I have never heard of GPLing a CSS file. But somehow this arrangement makes everything works nicely - the author of these styles get his credit, yet these styles can be compatible to applications that suffer from this GPL virus. Oh I mean applications that stand for the true spirit of Free Software.
January 09, 2004
Lines with a Modern Look
I have just created a new style that utilises position: relative to move the display of date to the side of the blog entries. Adding borders of different width, and I am trying to give it a modern look. Most of the time is spent on getting it to work on Internet Explorer, which makes funny rendering when I started adding some paddings. At the end, I figured that it is better to use margin than padding, in cases where both of them create the same effect, as somehow IE calculates the position better with it. Or better, just switch to Mozilla to gain much better web surfing experience.
Apply Modern Lines style
Another thing is the style submissions. Although I took one and published it previously, but I have decided that I'll dedicate this site for the styles that I have created. It is just getting too hard to keep track (and doing quality control on all the variations) of all the styles you guys have submitted. Plus all the confusing copyright issue that I need to deal with. Thank you if you have emailed me your style sheet! But I think I am not aiming to build a styles repository from the beginning. I'll rather to keep this place a small collection of styles of my own.
December 18, 2003
Lovingrey
We have the first style submission yesterday. Wavez modified my Purple Orange theme, and created a dark-grey'ish Movable Type style called "Lovingrey", and have requested to be included here.
Apply Lovingrey style
I do like to take more submission, especially original styles :)
November 12, 2003
Enter The Matrix
Here's a new Movale Type style that I've created with an image from the Matrix Reloaded poster.
Apply Matrix Code style
I noticed that it is the first dark style (white on black) that I've created for this site. The main <body /> element has a background image faded into black across the top, and the content/container pane also has a similar background image at the bottom. With the title elements, there's a transparent 8-bit PNG file that masks out every other pixel to create that "shaded" effect. Too bad that Internet Explorer does not have the alpha support in 32bit PNG files.
October 26, 2003
Style with Mac Stripe
I have been trying to come up with a style that assembles the look of Apple's operating system, but has found it quite difficult without modifying the template file, as the UI is quite graphical intensive with lots of images pasted here and there. Maybe it is just my CSS skill not mature enough...
At the end, I decided just to ripped the original "Clean" style of Movable Type, and then applies the background stripes in varies places, and call this new style "Mac Stripe"
Apply Mac Stripe style.
Hopefully I won't be followed up by a email from the lawyers from Apple...
