Layout design

Paul Boyd wrote in news:454f900c$0$2448$db0fefd9 @news.zen.co.uk:

...

Explore the use of tables, once you're happy save it as a template and use as a basis for your pages.

Out of interest does your host permit/cater for "PHP" ... if so you could re-do your site using tables and use what are known as "includes" for items such as menus, page footers/headers saves an awful lot of programming and despite using "PHP" scripting is very, very easy to do.

If you get stuck I'll be happy to email you some demo code you can hack.

Website design

standards, WC3,

It's far, far easier to do it the other way around, who uses the site is irrelevant (unless you know it's only even going to be used on an intranet), even something as mundane as hard coding a font size into the html source code could cause problems with people who have reasonably good vision if the web author has especially good eye sight and decides that 6pt looks 'cool' - if the same code was being offered in a CSS file the end user can over-ride the their problem with ease...

programming and

Also if one want to develop the site / code locally (in private), on your own system rather than having to upload every page to your hosts server just to see if it works etc., there is a ready build server / database application that can be installed - see

On Nov 6, 10:09 pm, Paul Boyd wrote: bathThe principle is the same, but the detail is a tad different! I was at

You didn't go to the right school ;-) We (comprehensive school) did CS long before model Bs. Started with CESIL on an ICL mainframe, using paper tape entry, followed by BASIC on punched cards. At 6th form we had a few PETs but the few of us who had already done CS O level ran rings round the teachers, LOL.

MBQ

snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com said the following on 07/11/2006 08:25:

Must have been a posh comp :-) The comp I went to is now a "community school". Hmm...

Chris Wilson said the following on 06/11/2006 23:43:

I've just changed away from tables, which I'm very familiar with! The main reason was that I got fed up with having to change each page every time a common element changes (such as the recent change to the page footer, no longer promoting PlusNet as an ISP), which is where frames score.

No. At least it does, but not on the package I'm on.

That does sound the way to go, but without the ability to use PHP, I'm stuck. I can't even use FrontPage with my current ISP and package!

More food for thought, anyway.

template and use

page

frames score.

Sounds like you need php and 'incude' then, change one *text* file, upload it and the job is done without any of the problems that frames cause...

programming and

Hosting is cheap these days, how does 90 pence plus a 9 quid set up fee sound, I wouldn't host a company with them but for development and personal sites it's tempting...

Jerry said the following on 07/11/2006 15:48:

Hmmm....... Tempting indeed.

Paul Boyd wrote in news:4550c14b$0$8719 $ snipped-for-privacy@ptn-nntp-reader02.plus.net:

I can beat that ... I've got two spaces available that I'm not going to use ...PHP, MySQL, CGI, 500MB disk space (or to suit) even FP extensions if I was sad enough to want to use them ... no silly frames, no "added content", access to a secure server ... both free for the asking.

In fact being a generous sort of chap, first two emails to hit my inbox from regular posters to this newsgroup [uk.rec.models.rail] with established well presented model railway [or related] websites can have free webspace as per spec above. Conditions ... you sort out your own domain name, the usual ISP terms apply, no illegal content, stolen copyright, spamming etc AND if you let your website go to rack and ruin you loose the space and I give it to someone more deserving.

Oh and the offers good for a minimum of a whole years worth of hosting (acts of God etc excepting)

In message , Paul Boyd writes

Similar experience to "manatbandq", we did CesIL (marked up punched cards with a ferrite pencil), then later moved on to Basic. "Sir" used to take the cards into the either the city council offices or the Poly (*). (I forget which) on his Harley. Wouldn't have called our Comprehensive "posh" (and that is also now a community college). Younger colleagues (i.e. those born after I left school) can't get their heads around you only getting two chances a week to run your program.

(*) Once, we piled into the school mini bus and went to the next school up the road (4-5 miles). Now they were posh, they had an acoustic coupled modem and a teletype terminal, you type, it produced punched tape, then you could feed the tape into a reader that was connected to the modem. Height of technology that.

Adrian

I suggest you have misunderstood my comment; you're off into code advice again. What you say is quite correct, but it happens after you decide the audience and why they might look at the site. But I don't propose to run a website design course here.

- Nigel

decide the

My point was that you only know who is likely to visit the site, you don't know who actually will, a certain 'design' might be acceptable to the likely / intended audience but not to the actual audience. If the code (authoring) behind the 'design' is correct then even with all the 'design' stripped out the site is still usable.

Hi Paul,

I wandered off to your web site to look at the L&Y battery loco for all the right reasons =8^) Very nice! Wish I could do that well! (there don't seem to be a lot of HO L&Y kits)

Looking at the L&Y undeframe, I notice the pickup wires are "L" ended with the sharp point running on the tread. Are you using steel tyres? I've always used either a straight wire touching longtitudinally on the tread, a "V" against the tread or a Rivarossi "U" over the flange, assuming your "L" end would eventually cut into brass or nickel-silver treads.

The straight pickup wires sprung against the treads tend to collect fluff/hairs quicker than other types.

What are your (and other readers) experiences?

Regards, Greg.P. NZ.

Hi Paul,

I wandered off to your web site to look at the L&Y battery loco for all the right reasons =8^) Very nice! Wish I could do that well! (there don't seem to be a lot of HO L&Y kits)

Looking at the L&Y undeframe, I notice the pickup wires are "L" ended with the sharp point running on the tread. Are you using steel tyres? I've always used either a straight wire touching longtitudinally on the tread, a "V" against the tread or a Rivarossi "U" over the flange, assuming your "L" end would eventually cut into brass or nickel-silver treads.

The straight pickup wires sprung against the treads tend to collect fluff/hairs quicker than other types.

What are your (and other readers) experiences?

Regards, Greg.P. NZ.

Greg Procter said the following on 08/11/2006 10:59:

Firstly, the tyres are steel, although I think in practise a brass wire on nickel silver wouldn't do much damage. The reason for doing it the way I did is that the contact pressure is much higher than with a wire resting on the tyre side-on. Think record player needles - the pressure is, IIRC, many hundreds of PSI, but over a very small area. This keeps the pickups on the tyre, and helps cut through any gunk that may accumulate. Having a wire edge-on gives a low pressure with a nice wedged approach, so any fluff or whatever can easily get between the tyre and the pickup, with obvious results. This idea isn't mine - I first came across it in one of Iain Rice's books. The "V" against the tread is a similar principle.

Talking of gunk, that's another reason for using steel. It just doesn't get as claggy as nickel-silver. It seems I only have to look at a N/S tyre, and it gets a black coating of gunk!

And talking of steel, the levels of grip of steel tyres on steel rail are a darn sight better than slippery nickel-silver.

People who have to use text-only browsers or screen-scrapers. Lynx has no frame support (at least the version I have here doesn't).

-- Rod

OK - next question. Why do you use a browser that has no frame support? I'm not saying you shouldn't, just wondering why. Many websites, rightly or wrongly, use frames in the 21st century.

From what I've read of screen-scrapers, BTW, I'm quite happy that they can't get my website. Perhaps I've read the wrong things :-)

I use phosphor-bronze wire for preference as brass, when left for longish periods, tends to oxidise and stop initial current collection/movement which would clean the surfaces.

My locos tend to stay in service for a long time once they're built - I have Gem and K's locos from nearly forty years ago! I just hope Romfords are around in another 25 years as the wear is noticable already!

I can see that.

I've achieved those results =8^], hence the "V" variation.

The rubbing point isn't sharp with the "V" so hopefully doesn't become a cutter on the tyre surface.

I tried all sorts to get to terms with the gunk problem with NS rail. I finally figured that rails, drivers and rolling stock _all_ need to be cleaned first time around. Once that is achieved I keep it that way with a soft cloth on a wiper wagon and the application of a drop of oil on eash rail using the same type of cloth wiper wagon. Since then I haven't had any problems with gunk.

I use weight in my locos to overcome that deficiency - I prefer it to rust. :-)

Regards, Greg.P.

Urgh. CSS is your friend.

Think of tables and (especially) frames as Zero One - yes, you could run your layout with it, but why bother these days?