Originally, the tutorials mentioned here, were going to include the 960 grid system.  After some thought weighing up the benefits on convenience, performance, future updates etc, I have decided this will not be used for the main site.

I will still do tutorials on designing & prototyping using the grid system but that is as far as I will go.

So what’s wrong with the grid system?

As a developer who is trying to build a site that performs well, write tutorials from real experience and allow myself to easily apply updates in the future things have had to change.

• The grid system has a lot of CSS I will not personally be using in this site.  Granted I COULD remove this, but I could also create what I need myself.
• Future updates…well I intend to actually improve the site as time progresses.  The design will evolve as more content in introduced to the site, 960 may not even be wide enough, however, the problem comes when needing to adjust column widths.  Using CSS on its own, you adjust the width of the 2 columns and your down.  Using the grid system, you need to go through the HTML adjust class names.
• Without using the grid system I am also able to create another tutorial for site layouts.  The grid system is fairly self-explanatory and will be covered on the prototyping stage.
• Fluid or expanded columns.  By default the 960 grid system does not support fluid layouts, there is a branch for fluid and elastic layouts, but at this stage I am not entirely sure how or what I want to achieve with this.

Over the last few weeks, Django contributors have been working hard finding and fixing bugs from 1.2 Beta 1.  The RC release has been set at around May 3, and final release May 10.  There are a couple of patches still to be completed, more here.

That being said, it also means that I am only a few weeks (hopefully) from completing one of my sites, mentioned in my last news post.  Although the site is not yet finished and there is still quote a lot to do, a lot of the code is in place, so I can start writing the tutorials.

A design is being completed and finalised by a friend of mine.  He doesn’t yet have his own site, but when he does and if I remember, I will add a link.  Things that will be used in this site;

• Django 1.2
• jQuery 1.4.2
• 960 Grid System – Probably not
• Fat Cow or famfamfam icons

This is the first site I have coded using the 960 grid system (although 2nd version) and this is also the first design Oli has done using it, if he gets some time, hopefully he will get me a quick post explaining some of the design process.

Also, Facebook connect code has been completed……for Django 1.1.  Although there should be no need to change much, there maybe some things I change, ie use of the new Messages framework.  This will be decided in the near future.