Sounds of silence

So I know the blog has been a little quiet recently. Long weekend in NYC (where I knew it was a *bad* idea to try and do work), prepping for OPML camp (which I'm still way behind and it's this weekend), working on the 'meta' grazr issues (now that it's a company) and one particular Grazr code issue are to blame.

In the intervening time some cool things happened:

  • Sam Ruby talks about making his code create validating OPML but he specifically mentions that now it works better with Grazr!. Very cool.

  • Steve Rubel linked to Grazr and calls it 'nifty'. Thanks Steve!

  • Amy Bellinger is using a Grazr box on her OPML blog to display a feed from a separate comment message board page. What's particularly cool is that on each page Grazr acts as a 'window' to the other page linking the context across the two pages. It's my turn to say 'nifty!'. I appreciate all of the feedback Amy has given me about Grazr.

  • Tom Morris has an idea for using Grazr to 'kill myspace' by creating a better way for independent bands and artists to self promote using OPML. I don't know if it would kill myspace but I love the idea. When I get a chance I intend to add the mode that Tom talks about. Maybe we can talk about it this weekend.

    • So now onto the Grazr code issue. Alpha 9 still languishes in 'preview' state because of the new Grazr loader. There's actually a good reason why I haven't released it yet. In the spirit of continuous improvement ala web2.0, the only 'unchanging' piece of the grazr code is intended to be the loader, and more specifically the actual include text to paste into blogs and templates. That way, as Grazr changes, the same loader merely loads the new version of the code 'auto upgrading', as it were. I *really* don't want to have to ask people to change the script include in their templates or HTML after this release.

    While it seems like a simple enough problem, it gets hairy when you want the same loader code include to be able to load separate Grazrs on a page. Then you run into the problem of content management systems (like wordpress) mangling inline code. Sprinkle in the latest 'bug' I found that occurs when someone embeds a Grazr in a DHTML object (lets say Grazr in a Grazr or perhaps a 'collapsing' sidebar window). Stir all that together with the ugly stick of browser incompatibilities and it's enough to really drive you crazy. I have a new solution that I think seems to satisfy all of the requirements but I'm still testing.