site update notes


From early 2014 onwards I collect the most significant update, progress and status notes on this page, to have them all in one place for future reference.

References to relevant articles and notes elsewhere on site are included in monthly notes, so I don't have to write the same information over and over.

To limit what is shown on the page at any given time as the amount of information grows month by month, it is all archived in a circular CSS slideshow, starting with last month's notes.

month by month - year by year

by january 2014:

Only minor changes on live site. Preparing stylesheets off-line for future updates.

earlier notes:

I have written progress, update and bug-discovery notes in one form or another, from the day this site were initiated. Most of them are either baked into, or copied to, this site.

Apart from what is written on appropriate pages in this section, here follows a short list of site design related notes and articles written earlier.

5.9.7 / 4.1.4
by february 2014:
  1. Visuals: created more space between main article area and sidenotes, in response to request for more space to place finger in for scrolling on medium size touch screens.
  2. Browser support: optimized support for IE9+. IE10+ are rendering as intended.
    IE8 specific stylesheet not updated for the last additions/​changes. A few new IE8 specific bugs left to fix – not prioritized.
    Finally decided that IE7 and older should be ignored for HTML5.
  3. CSS: work going on off-line in preparation of site wide upgrade.
  4. HTML: introduced aria-* roles for input used in CSS slideshows and tabbed interfaces – have not covered all pages yet.
5.12.8 / 3.3.7
by march 2014:
  1. Visuals: added section name above site name in header area. Realigned and added/​replaced a few “birds” up there.
    Higher number of visual divider alternatives in use across site.
    Redesigned the “fixed parts” of sidenotes in some Table of Contents pages.
    Tried to improve “discoverability” for CSS slideshow navigation.
    Switched outer background image.
    EOF added to title at bottom of page.
  2. Browser support: optimized support for IE9+. IE10+ renders as intended.
    IE8 specific stylesheet almost complete with last updates for additions/​changes. A few IE8 specific bugs left to fix – none serious and not prioritized.
    IE7 and older totally ignored for HTML5 so far. Lowest priority.
  3. CSS: stabilized the header area. More exploitation of pseudo elements for visual dividers and links. More specific :target. Improved visual divider alignments and “auto-change”. More microtuning alternatives made available, and auto-adjustment in sync with page-width improved.
    CSS forking complete for IE9+. Almost complete for IE8.
    Tuned “sketch-v5” slideshow behavior and navigation for improved cross-site adaptation. (This very archive is controlled by that slideshow variant.)
    Switched background image (and bg-color) on HTML container. Small image stretched to 100%/100%.
    Added selectors for a.intlink to bottom of “special styling (used on compatible.html)”.
    Lowered h1-on-page default. Reduced h1 font-size. Reduced h1 negative letter-space. Increased h1 word-space.=0506.
    Round-img shadow. “no-iph”. Default img in h2-h5.=0506/0129.
    Max'ed microtune ladders.=0121/0506
  4. HTML: XHTML1.0 template is stable as of summer 2011. Used in all site sections.
    HTML5 template is stable as of october 2013. For now only used for later pages in design and blog sections.
    Linked all top-level pages – Home page, Index page, and Table of Contents pages together in an endless PREV / NEXT loop.
    Have yet to update all pages that should have aria-* roles.
5.17.8 / 7.7.5 / 2.5.9 | 110121 + 120506 / 130226 + 110201 + 110124
by april 2014:
  1. Visuals:
  2. Support: killed IE bug 10.
  3. CSS: changed margin-bottom on body to 5em, to make background-image on html stretch all the way down in cases where “fixed” isn't supported.
    Lifted title by -5.5em to go with it.
  4. HTML:
7.7.8 | 110121 + 120506
by may 2014:
  1. Visuals: added signature image to place/date at end of article.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: signature image as ::before bgnd.
    #pane div.clear introduced to open up field with transparent background - see: HTML.
    New class="clear" introduced for h5#addendum. Lock #pane open for "permanently open Addendum".
  4. HTML: <div class="clear"> introduced for #pane.
    class="clear" introduced for h5#addendum.
7.7.9 | 110121 + 120506
by june 2015:
  1. Visuals: Fatter, less glaring, text. New header background.
  2. Support: IE10+.
  3. CSS: Text shadow used to soften text edges.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.2.7 | 110121 + 120506
by july 2015:
  1. Visuals: Added graded transparency to main article sections.
    Fine tuned header foreground and background.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: Section background as 3-stage linear-gradient.
    Header background-image scaling depends on window size. Header foreground consists of individual blocks of generated content spread out in a certain order to go with window size.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.3.3 | 110121 + 120506
by march 2016:
  1. Visuals: Alternative Addendum appearance.
  2. Support: Ignoring pre-IE10 versions.
  3. CSS: #fatfooter declared as alternative to #pane.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.4.1 | 110121 + 120506
by july 2016:
  1. Visuals: Minimal changes in lineup.
  2. Support: Switched to windows 10.
  3. CSS: no change.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.6.0 | 110121 + 120506
by august 2016:
  1. Visuals: new site title - - on slightly adjusted header.
    Otherwise minimal lineup changes.
  2. Support: dropped stylesheets for IE8-.
  3. CSS: fine-tuned elements for text-only zooming.
    Header foreground consists of individual blocks of generated content with fixed and auto-sizing images that are rearranged for wider windows and resized text.
    Upgraded tools for check of element lineup, #id extraction, and browser support.
    Upgraded dedicated print styles.
    Introduced .overlay and .remove classes for images.
    Upgraded .st::before on headlines from float to block.
  4. HTML: Introduced headline/paragraph grouping for improved print.
8.6.3 | 110121 + 120506 + 110302
by september 2016:
  1. Visuals: side-paddings on column-containers create new content-alignment.
    Main column lines up right, stretches left.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: ongoing adjustment.
  4. HTML: no changes.
8.6.5/6 | 110121 + 120506 + 110129
by october 2016:
  1. Visuals: testing new header backgrounds in main sections.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: ongoing fine-tuning.
  4. HTML: negative tab-index on a couple of local links.
  5. Others: preparing other private sites with same layout.
8.6.7/8 | 110121 + 120506 + 110129 + 150703
by november 2017:
  1. Visuals: header background animated with overlays.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: keyframes moved to separate stylesheet.
    Alternative 'revision list' using data-.
    Text-shadow on headlines strengthened.
    Headline/image overlay positioning fine-tuned.
    Page-by-page column adjuster in place.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.7.2/3 | 110121 + 120506 + 171110
by december 2017:
  1. Visuals: observed layering failures (z-index) with text-on-image overlays.
    Added “seasonal” layer for header area.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: fixed all found layering failures.
    Added min-height to overlay images.
  4. HTML: no change.
8.7.2/8 | 110121 + 120506
by september 2020:
  1. Visuals: added more vertical flexibility at page level.
    Have tested several variants, but landed on the same old with only minute changes.
  2. Support: no change. (IE10+)
  3. CSS: Added a bunch of options for use on individual pages.
    On-site-search button hidden. Have not found a good replacement for the defunct Google search.
  4. HTML: no site-wide changes.
8.9.0 | 110121 + 120506
by january 2021:
  1. Visuals: SSR kicks in at 642, up from 502.
    Improved 'print', mainly affects Chromium based browsers.
  2. Support: no change.
  3. CSS: Designer bug: padding limitation for paragraphs rewritten to avoid affecting '.ha-' classes in SSR.
    @mediaqueries updated to reflect new SSR/2-col breakpoints.
    Print styles updated.
  4. HTML: no site-wide changes.
9.0.2 | 110121 + 120506 + 110129

NOTE: some content is hidden from (mainly) older browsers because they simply can't handle it.

Amount of details varies greatly from month to month, mainly because there isn't always much to write publicly about regarding my site design. More interesting to write about life in general, web design issues and coding, music related stuff, or touch onto more personal matters now and then.

update of archived updates

However strange it may sound, update notes are updated in whatever order I see fit, and for however long I find necessary.

Updates will continue to flow in, until all updates in a month that do, or will, affect the design significantly, are registered. May also go back and update older update notes – mainly with references and such, at any time.

private goes public

What started out as a very private archive, has become a public one. Although not intended originally, it works fine this way. I do not expect many to actually read this design note archive page, but a selected few may find something interesting here.

If for nothing else, some in the profession may like to find out how one designer works compared to others, and, who knows, this page maybe can help some in that.

Of course, the entire site can be regarded as an archive in a sense, just like all other web sites. And when the site one day goes down, this design note archive will disappear with it. That is as it should be … nothing lasts forever.

sincerely  georg; sign

Hageland 08.jan.2014
last rev: 11.jan.2021 advice upgrade advice upgrade navigation