Website: 2008

Our 2008 Website

During the 07-08 season, this website was entirely redesigned. The site layout was revamped along with the code that manages all of the content on the site. The many nested tables that formed the old layout were removed and replaced with more semantic code. The useful and entertaining content from the old site was preserved and restyled so that it fit the new look.

A Site Based on Acronyms

Most technologies, languages, and frameworks used in web development can be identified by using a short acronym - some are rarely referred to without using the acronym. Any of the following acronyms might be heard in a conversation involving one or more of the developers describing the site:

• XHTML - eXtensible Hypertext Markup Language - This XML-based language is used to structure most of the content on the site and is rendered by your browser.
• SQL - Structured Query Language - A language used to fetch entries from our database. For database management, we use MySQL.
• sIFR - Scalable Inman Flash Replacement - A text-replacement technique developed by Shaun Inman that allows the site to dynamically generate headlines that use fonts that a user's computer may not be able to provide.
• RoR - Ruby on Rails - A web framework based on the Ruby programming language. It interacts with the database and files on the host server and generates the XHTML sent to the browser.
• JS - JavaScript - An ECMAScript-based language used to change the appearance or behavior of the page after it has been rendered by your browser. It is especially useful in our sIFR implementation.
• CSS - Cascading Style Sheets - This language helps to prevent the site from looking too bland. The position, size, and color of the elements on each page are determined using CSS.
• AS - ActionScript - The ECMAScript-based programming language used in Adobe Flash Player. The rich fonts used by sIFR are displayed using ActionScript.