July 7 2011 Blogger Article - Minima III Example.html

July 7 2011 - Blogger Article - Minima III Example

The Minima III Baseball Scorecard works in all Browsers. At my last post on this development ("Javascript Functions enable push-button colour notation Baseball Scorekeeping": http://internetbaseballscorecard.blogspot.com/2011/06/javascript-functions-enable-push-button.html), I had some troubles with Microsoft compatability - those issues have been resolved. But now there is a new one, and with some sence of relief, I'm happy to report it's not particularly about Microsoft combatability this time!.

The Minima III Baseball Scorecard requires HTML5 compliant Browsers. The reason for this is that the little squares which indicate the Bases around the Infield icon diamond, are only avaliable in HTML5. (Who'da-thunk - a simple box on it's ear - hither-to not in the HTML symbol list?) If your using an older Browser, the square renders instead as an "&" - the first character of the code that produces the symbol in HTML5 (•). The other characters are hidden by the container box I put around it. No worries, the "&" character functions as the button key, it just looks like crap.

Browsers that are HTML5 compliant are IE9, FireFox 5, Google Chrome 5. At this publishing I haven't found out whether Safari has an HTML5 Browser out yet, the Safari Browser that I downloaded last month, renders the Bases like IE8 does. I haven't checked out the Opera Browser yet.

For all you folks who haven't got the lastest browser (especially you Microsoft patrons who need to Buy a new Operating System to run IE9), I've included a screenshot to the right of what the example scorecard looks like in an HTML5 compliant Browser (in this case a free download, Firefox 5 Browser running on a MS-XP 2003 OS)

These Base icons - squares with 90 degree corners, rotated 45 degrees - are much more than just perfectly suited Base icons - they are the Buttons that make appear, pop-up Colour Scoring Menus. Each at-bat box has four Scoring Menus that open when a user clicks on the First Base, Second Base, Third Base or Home Plate icon. They are at the heart of this scorecard's 'Colour Scoring' functionality.

In the example lower right, in order to show the functionality of all the elements of the new scorecard, I've layed out 2 player's at-bat (AB) box rows, 2 innings long, their game stat tables, and a Team Pitching Table.

The reason for the abridged scorecard is that the complete Minima III Scorecard - for 2 Teams, 11 Innings wide, Box Score Table, Pitching Tables - is over 2.5 MB big. That's too large for Blogger, which has a 1 MB/post limit. So you won't see this scorecard used to score games here - The Minima III will require my own web site. (Or is there a free web site application that can handle it? I've noticed a few around - but I haven't done the research yet.)

Check out the finctionality yourself!

When clicked, all the buttons make appear a pop-up menu. In the menu, click on any of the coloured words like "Out", for example - and the first base side of the infield icon turns red - indicating the batter is out at first. Change the colour by clicking on another word. Close the menu with the "X" in the box, bottom right. Click on the textarea box associated with the 1B side of the AB box and type in some baseball scoring notations - like FO7, for example (meaning the batter flied out to left field).

The empty, long, thin box - top left - is where one types in the Team name, right under that, the large rectangle is for the batter's position in the batting order, the player's name and fielding position.

Thw totals tables at the end of each row of AB boxes are fully functional textareas - there are 4 rows so you can total up posible substitutions AB's as well as the starting fielder's sats.

The Lower table has a space to type in the Team name, and a place for 6 Pitcher's names and stats. All the data boxes are live textareas.

mh