The next installment in my “Minima” series of themes is finished. I know, I’ve been using this theme for quite a while, and no theme is ever really “finished,” but it’s mature enough now for a write-up. It runs on a similar platform as Minima Code Block, using the same Object-Oriented approach. I’ve still got to do a few aesthetic changes to make it semantic and accessible. But, I’ve come so very far with this theme, and I just had to tell you about it.
First of all, I changed my Document Type to HTML 4.01 Strict, rather than using the default XHTML 1.0 Transitional that we see so much of today. The reason behind this is simple: I’m not “extending” anything on this site (it’s not an XML document). And I don’t want to have an XML site, either. Internet Explorer is currently incapable of deciphering XML, so it simply shows the document tree. [Opera 9 seems to choke on it, too. -Ed.] Check out my XML Sitemap for an example of what this looks like. Plus, there’s the argument that passing XHTML as text (which would make it work in Internet Explorer) is not only semantically wrong; it’s harmful. There’s more to be found on this subject in the Bibliography below.
Another big change I’m really fond of is the styling of the paragraphs. I’ve been reading Natalie Goldberg’s “Writing Down the Bones” pocket edition. That book has given me so much insight into writing. But it also gave me the idea for the styling of my paragraphs. Normal paragraphs in this theme act just like normal ones. Paragraphs with class="first" get the drop-cap first letter and the all-caps first line, and paragraphs with class="post" get indented. It works that way in most browsers; only one or two, as far as I can tell, get it wrong.
And then, of course, there’s the header. That graphic was kindly lent to me by Ana Susanj. I cropped it to be consistent with the Golden Mean, and I added the word “Orchid” in Chinese to the bottom-left. I’m quite happy with the way that image turned out; I knew I wanted an orchid, and when I happened upon Ana’s photograph of this flower there was no question that this was it. This was the flower for my site. I immediately shot an email off to Ana requesting the use of her photo on my site, and I was overjoyed when Ana wrote back and said yes! There was no way I could have taken a picture like this myself; I’m simply not that good, yet.
I’m pleased with this new theme; it’s nice to look at. Some may argue that black text on a white background is hard on the eyes, but you can’t please them all. And I’ll probably never get this theme to the point that it’s AAA Compliant, either. But I can do the best I can. And I’ll continue to polish it until it’s time for another change.
~Jonathan
Bibliography
- Why passing your XHTML page as
text/htmlis wrong - How to make your site return valid HTML (it’s a simple, two-step process)
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On September 10th, 2006, at 10:18 am
On September 10th, 2006, at 2:17 pm