If you've been working on websites in the last.. hmmm... well if you've ever worked on websites, you'll be familiar with the problem of different browsers behaving differently. If it's CSS, JavaScript or even just ordinary HTML you'll find that each browser has it's own way of understanding what you want it to do.
HTML5 is well underway now, and things are looking up. It's all good, right?

Well, not. Not exactly.

Yes, things are in a much better state. Not just that, but we've also figured out ways to bend the browsers to our will - if() statements to check what JavaScript to use, browser specific <!--[if IE]> tags to fix up the CSS.
We've managed to get by okay. And now with HTML5, we've even got a bunch of new toys to play with. We can embed video without third party plugins, we can render vector graphics natively, and all kinds of awesome things.

There is one small problem though. At this early stage of HTML5 implementations, we're seeing the familiar problem of cross-browser compatibility.
I've recently posted about my use of the canvas element. One thing I had planned to post about there was some of the canvas bugs I've encountered over the last couple of weeks.
That post was getting rather lengthy, so I rewrote it, and have begun writing this one. Read more »

Recently, I have been working on some canvas rendered buttons and other UI elements for a little project. So, rather than downloading an image for the buttons, it can be rendered. One problem I encountered was the lack of rounded rectangle drawing methods in the canvas 2D context.
I decided I'd like to make my job a little easier and add a couple of methods to the 2D context:

• fillRectR()
• strokeRectR()

So, how do we extend the 2D context of a canvas? I'm glad you asked! Read more »

Not having much time to update the site regularly has been a bit of a problem. But sometimes I do manage to find a few spare minutes here and there to play around with tiny projects. Late last week, I was taking a look at my friend Alastair's blog http://www.lazyefficient.com/ where he had published a small post about a password generation service.

So, after taking a look at Alastair's password generator, I decided it'd be a fun little diversion to build my own. Not that I personally use anything like that, but it's more about the joy of coding for me. Read more »

This weeks Three Things Thursday I am presenting three development platforms / frameworks to get you on the path to developing games.

Obviously there is a certain amount of experience necessary to get started with making a game on some platforms, so I have tried to present platforms and frameworks with varying levels of difficulty.
I also wanted to consider that the importance of the publishing platform to getting your game seen, so I've tried varying my choices for ease publishing.
Having to license software so you can develop a game that you are most likely going to release for free, or may not plan to make a living from seems sort of stupid... So, all the things on the list today are free to use (at least, to a point). Read more »

Google has announced something particularly interesting: a new programming language. This must be the week I post about programming languages and tools, (more about that tomorrow).

Google has named the language Go. The reason for this is the impressive compile times. I mean, this thing is fast. I'll be playing with Go some time over the next few months to get some first hand experience with the speed, and some of the interesting features Google have added. But for now, take a look at this video showcasing Go's speed: Read more »