I’m a big fan of the BBC Glow javascript library (as I may have mentioned earlier), so it’s good news that Version 2.0 of the library is available as an Alpha release (the current stable download is version 1.7.2), promising enhanced features, improved performance and even better accessibility.
Performance
Over on the BBC Internet Blog, Glow developer Jake Archibald points out some of the key priorities for Glow 2.0. One of the main advantages Glow has over other javascript libraries is the cross-browser support, but the downside has been serving older browsers at the expense of speed and performance on newer, more widely used browsers. According to the blog, the BBC will be dropping support for some older browser versions (including IE5), and will therefore be able to reduce the amount of ‘common denominator code’ from the core library, and therefore reduce its filesize.
The BBC’s Browser Support Standards are the subject of routine review based on usage statistics. At present Internet Explorer 5.5 gets the Level 2 support with Glow according to the BBC’s Browser Support Standards version 3.7 (partially supported by web browser, where core content must be usable and navigation must work) while version 5 is Level 3 (unsupported).
If version 5.5 is also set to become an Unsupported browser, than that’s a chunk of code from the core library that can be removed…
Accessibility
Jake’s post also mentions an ‘accessibility support list’ which presumably will define exactly which Assistive Technologies and versions it will support with Glow:
‘Accessibility testing is difficult as assistive technology usage stats are unreliable, usually being based on sales figures rather than actual use. However, we intend to create an accessibility support list similar to our browser support list and improve testing strategies.’
Jake Archibald, BBC Glow Developer
This would be of real benefit a) for determining exactly which Assistive Technologies Glow functionality will work with, and b) as a guideline for web developers keen to support Assistive Technology users as to which ones are the most commonly used, and therefore which to test their own web applications on.
The blog post was written in July 2009 and detail of exactly what’s in Glow 2.0 is pretty hard to find. I suspect quite a bit more has gone into Glow 2.0 than was outlined in the post, especially since the BBC have been proactively encouraging users and developers alike to submit their ideas for inclusion.
On that subject, if you want to contribute to the Glow project you should visit their Contributors site. To download the version 2.0 Alpha release – or to try out the current stable version (1.7.2) if you haven’t used Glow before – visit the Glow downloads page.
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