Comments for ArtzStudio

Comment on jQuery Performance Rules by Alex

Alex — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 13:32:31 +0000

Thank you for the great tips! But I have a problem with “Leverage Event Delegation”. I am building a RIA and I am using Drupal with jQuery for that. I have a big table (really big … with around 10k cells) and also big cpu performance problems on old computers (P3s and P4s … client’s computers that I can not decide change them). I am almost sure that this problems are from the binding of different events to each cell (hover, click and dblclick) and I tried your approach to this. My problem mainly is with hover. I tried to bind hover event to the parent (the table which contains the tds) but when I hover a cell it toggles only once and it does not toggle back when the mouse is leaving cell’s region. I know for a fact that happens because I bind the action to the table and not to the cell so the browser will act when I hover out of the table and not the cell. What would your approach be to this problem?

Thanks,
Alex

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by Thierry Koblentz

Thierry Koblentz — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 03:06:20 +0000

@ArtzStudio your method enhances my solution regarding transparent images as you use the image to push the text down while I am hiding that text behind the image. Slightly different, but it solves a real problem. I’ll use that

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by Chris Blouch

Chris Blouch — Thu, 06 May 2010 15:00:26 +0000

@Michelangelo – While there are techniques for discerning whether someone has AT (assistive technology) running on windows making use of the MSAA (microsoft active accessibility) API or high contrast mode, this question quickly moves into the realm of consumer advocacy and privacy. Most AT users do not want to self-identify as having some kind of disability or have us probing their system to find out. It’s a tough nut because we would really like to know so we can make stronger arguments for supporting AT in our products, but privacy does and should trump this desire for personal user data.

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by fwolf

fwolf — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:41:53 +0000

Ok … tested my hover idea, and looks like it works (except IE _OF COURSE_, but I havent tested out the absolute position-method yet, maybe that one does)

cu, w0lf.

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by fwolf

fwolf — Thu, 06 May 2010 06:02:06 +0000

@ArtzStudio + Pat: About the hover problem – I think it should still be possible to get this done [without] using Javascript. At least, for any tag that encloses an image tag, ie. in the standard case that would be an linked image (a + img tag).

In said example, that should be something like

h2 a:hover img {
top: -300px; // the hover state is starting at a height of 300px
}

cu, w0lf.

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by Thierry Koblentz

Thierry Koblentz — Wed, 05 May 2010 23:33:12 +0000

@ArtzStudio Thanks. It’s pending…

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by Richard - web accessibility testing

Richard - web accessibility testing — Wed, 05 May 2010 19:18:54 +0000

I can see why you remove the alt text in the example heading you give, but I think it is important to emphasise that alt text should be present where the image has informational meaning that isn’t otherwise presented as text. For example in the case of buttons disappearing from Google video, if these were changed to an image sprite then it wouldn’t solve the accessibility problem because the individual buttons need to have alt text of “previous” and “next” or similar. A single sprite image wouldn’t be able to identify this.
I do think that sprites can be used in some circumstances, but rarely in the case of informational images, in which case the problem of the image disappearing in high-contrast mode is no longer a problem.
The only situation I can think of where an html sprite image might work is if you had the same information repeated across the different parts of the image (so only one alt text is needed), e.g. a form submit button that was portrayed in different fonts or colours on different parts of the page.

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by ArtzStudio

ArtzStudio — Wed, 05 May 2010 18:54:10 +0000

@Thierry – Done, I meant in no way to infringe on any patents you may hold

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by Thierry Koblentz

Thierry Koblentz — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:42:55 +0000

@ArtzStudio
I cannot find a contact form or link on this site, but I wanted to tell you that I kind of expected you to mention in your article that there was “prior art”. After my first post, I thought you would acknowledge that in the article itself (as we know, most people do not read comments).
Thanks.

Comment on Foreground Sprites – High Contrast Mode Optimization by ArtzStudio

ArtzStudio — Wed, 05 May 2010 14:00:45 +0000

@Mike – While I agree with you, our challenge is ensuring our IE7 and lower users (50% of our audience) get a faster experience than our competitors and image sprites help us towards this goal. They can also make skinning and maintenance easier when used effectively. That said, I need to look into MHTML, a solution for Data URIs in IE6/7 that Stoyan blogged about here.

@Michelangelo – I don’t have stats but will ask someone from our Accessibility department at AOL to chime in. I have to think Zoomtext is more popular based on the youtube video I posted above. It does appear to display background images.