Gary Edwards's Library tagged javascript →  View Popular

Javascript has a major advantage of being (likely) the most installed programming language in history. It’s experiencing a renaissance lately where people actually learning it, not just copying code found on someone’s website. ECMAScript Harmony will bring some much needed fixes to the language (although I think ECMAScript 4 would have been a true game-changer for the web). Regardless, until we have more mature tools for sever- and DB-side javascript, Javascript is really a browser language (and faces an army of entrenched programmers who’d rather use some other language).

To the second argument, I say: Javascript is an amazing language, but you can’t declare it off limits to people who prefer other languages. Programming is about choice. On the server we get to use whatever combinations of web server, database, programming language, and development environment we like. Not so for the browser. We’re stuck with Javascript whether we like it or not. We can’t stay away from it, we can’t use something else. Everyone who dislikes working in Javascript is perfectly justified because he has no other avenue. When all browsers support and are prepackaged with VMs for many languages, I’ll be the first to sound the clarion: if you don’t like JS, get the hell away from it. Until then, you’re stuck with us and we’re stuck with you.

To the third: again, it’s really all about to choice. If you prefer Javascript keep using it, make it better, steal ideas from other languages, and seed the community with new ideas of your own. Nobody will complain about a better overall development community. If you’d like to see Red in Python, PHP, C#, or language X then steal Jesse’s code. Red was a herculean effort on Jesse’s part. I know he’s worked on nothing else for two months and future ports of Red to other languages will benefit from this effort.

wonderfullyflawed.com/...l-ruby-runtime-in-your-browser - Preview

javascript ruby Openweb

There is a never ending debate about which platform is best: Android, iPhone, Palm, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile, or Symbian. But what if the correct answer is … JavaScript? Is this a joke? Not according to an open source project named PhoneGap.

www.linux-mag.com/...1.html - Preview

phonegap JavaScript

Modernizr is a new library that detects various HTML5 and CSS3 features and lets you know so you can use them: Enables the writing of conditional CSS and conditional JavaScript! The JS tools just keep coming.

ajaxian.com/...rnizr-html5-and-css3-detection - Preview

JavaScript HTML5 CSS3 HTML+ Modernizr JS-Libs

This library contains six of the most useful JavaScript tools available for today's website. The beauty of this library is that all of these tools can be used together, extended, configured and styled. In the end, you can have hundreds of different widgets and new personal ways of using the library.

flowplayer.org/index.html - Preview

jQuery CSS JavaScript Javascript-library

Lots of links and articles for using Ajax, JavaScript and CSS: Chris Coyier and David Walsh. Tutorials galore. Also collection of stylesheets to download

scriptandstyle.com - Preview

ajax css javascript christopher-coyier tutorial

Michael Hickens has been writing about Google Wave and how it will forever change the Web. In a recent article he took on the incredible WebKit - HTML+ phenomenon, tying in the surge of WebKit marketshare at the edge of the Web with dramatic changes taking place across greater Web.
<br>

From Michaels article: .... "I recently described how Google's Wave, a collaboration tool based on the new HTML 5 standard, demonstrated the potential for Web applications to unglue Microsoft's hold on customers. My post quoted Gary Edwards, the former president of the Open Document Foundation, a first-hand witness to the failed attempt by Massachusetts to dump Microsoft and as experienced a hand at Microsoft-tilting as anyone I know......"
<br>
The year 1998 marked the end of the browser wars, the end of Netscape, and the beginning of Microsoft's anti-trust woes. It also marked the beginning of XML, and the end of HTML, with the W3C leaving HTML, CSS and SVG to rot. What a year.

<br>
Today we find the landscape considerably changed. Instead of a browser war between Netscape and Microsoft, ending with the triumph of an IE monopoly, today we have a browser race. And IE isn't a contender, having been pretty much abandoned by Microsoft once they had Netscape in the dirt.

<b>
The introduction of XML 1.0 in 1998 ushered in a new era of customized XML schema's for all kinds of data exchanges. The Web came alive with data flows from disparate databases and transaction systems that were never designed to talk to each other. The noise across the Web, private and public, was deafening.

<br>
There was however a few notable attempts to encode document based content in XML, with OpenOffice ODF and MSOffice OOXML taking center stage. Unlike the excitement and extraordinary Web capabilities that surrounded XML data schema work, XML documents veered away from the Web. By design, ODF and OOXML are incompatible with the language of the Web. But given the legacy of client/server dominance powerful "end-user-facing" desktop office

industry.bnet.com/...-fight-starts-with-smartphones - Preview

openweb michael-hickens webkit ge HTML5 HTML+ CSS3 JavaScript google-wave iphone android

Recently the Rocketman and i have been arguing about webkit/Chromium DOM capabilities and limitations; like the failure to fully implement CSS3! Especially missing is support for CSS3 page layout / page break innovations. I realized that i didn't have a good understanding of browser DOM - client side issues, and came across this interesting post from Dave Ward concerning DOM and jQuery. <br>\nThe core issue behind my discussions with the Rocketman have to do with creating a DOM view from OpenXML and ODF documents, and then passing that view to the webkit/Chromium engine. So we weren't all that interested in cross browser support or in how IE8 handles DOM-JavaScript. Dave Ward however not only provides a good discussion about DOM-JavaScript and the importance of jQuery as a force of interoperability, he also points out that Microsoft supports jQuery - including direct support within Visual Studio!<br>\n\n<i>".....Though JavaScript itself is a great programming language, the document object model (DOM) can be a web developer's worst nightmare.  The DOM is a method through which browsers expose an interface allowing JavaScript code to manipulate elements, handle events, and perform other tasks related to a document within the browser.  While almost every browser implements an ECMA standard version of JavaScript, their DOM implementations are inconsistent and quirky at best.  In fact, if you've had bad experiences with client-side programming in the past, it's likely that the DOM was the true source of your frustrations, not JavaScript itself.  This is exactly the pain point which jQuery addresses....</i><br>\n\n<i>..... "Officially supported by Microsoft - For many Microsoft developers, this official blessing is the clincher. Not only will Microsoft begin including jQuery with Visual Studio, but it is part of the default ASP.NET MVC project template. What's more, Microsoft Product Support Services has already begun offering support for jQuery."....</i>\n\njQuery abstracts the DOM away, allowing you to focus o

visitmix.com/...opers-Should-Know-About-jQuery - Preview

jQuery DOM ASP.NET JavaScript webkit_Chromium Platinum Glimmer

Chris Walker provides some interactive demonstrations of the powerful webkit-transforms that are placed in CSS. So, what can we do with all this magic? Well, the culmination of the Chris Walker demo is a Mac OSX style Dock menu, using no Javascript...<br><br>

<i>".....Yes, that’s right a bulging docked menu, with no javascript.
Just so you remember, there no javascript in the demo. Check out the Javascript free <a href="http://thechriswalker.net/osx-dock">OSX Dock Menu Demo</a>.<br><br>

This demo actually proves an important point Tom Yager made earlier about Ajax; Will JavaScript inconsistencies break the Web? <br><br>
<b><a href="http://weblog.infoworld.com/yager/archives/2009/03/taking_ajax_lit.html">Taking AJAX literally makes lousy Web apps</a></b>: <i>"As little as possible should be the rule for JavaScript, which must play a supporting role to CSS and HTML"</i>.

Tom concludes that it's best to follow the WebKit model, putting everything possible into first CSS4, then HTML5, and then JavaScript. I would argue that the proliferation of JavaScript libraries is a good hedge against the non interoperable future Yager warns of. But hey, why stop the guy when he's on a roll. CSS4! I guess the webkit-transforms have been officially christened. Thanks Tom.
<br><br>
~ge~

thechriswalker.net/...ions-the-osx-dock-example.html - Preview

webkit webkit-transforms webkit-animations CSS4 JavaScript HTML5

InfoWorld's Tom Yager makes the case for the WebKit visual document model over AJAX. The problem with AJAX as he sees it is that it's JavaScript heavy. And that breaks precious Web interoperability. He makes the point that if something can be done in CSS, it should. He also argues that WebKit is the best tool because the document model is that of advanced HTML5 and CSS3.<br><br>

"... These [WebKit] browsers also share a stellar accelerated JavaScript interpreter that makes the edit/run/debug cycle go faster. They are also the only browsers that deliver on CSS4 and HTML5 standards (with some elements that are proposed to the W3C standards body). Sites that are visually rich may start sprouting "best viewed with Safari" banners until other browsers catch up. The banner would also let users know that your site is optimized for iPhone....."<br><br>

Humm. Did you catch that? CSS4!!! I guess he's referring to the WebKit penchant for putting advanced graphical transitions and animations into CSS instead of relying on a device specific or OS specific API.<br><br>

Placing the visual interface instructions in the documents presentation layer (CSS4) is a revolutionary idea. The WebKit model will go a long way towards creating a global interoperability layer that rides above lower device, OS, browser and application specifics. So yes, by all means let's go with CSS4 :)<br><br>

weblog.infoworld.com/...taking_ajax_lit.html - Preview

webkit web-applications web-design Safari Chrome Tom-yager Ajax JavaScript

"The Bespin project, which aims to develop a browser-based IDE, has attracted significant attention in the Web development community. Ars looks at some of the buzz around Bespin and the project's innovative use of the HTML canvas element.........."

Good stuff here. The Bespin project started off as a JavaScript code editor written in JavaScript, but the really exciting part looks to be the innovative use of the canvas element and the JavaScript API for drawing. There is also the development of using Bespin as a Web page editor using the new canvas text rendering API! One of the advantages Flash has over WebKit is the proliferation of SWF based IDE's. Silverlight will similarly have an excellent collection of IDE's. There are no WebKit - Canvas based IDE's today, but Bespin will perhaps change that. I can also imagine that many of the Flash based IDE's like Swifft tools and my favorite, "SwishMAX", could provide multiple vector graphics; including Canvas!

Note that Adobe is scheduled to discontinue all support for SVG this coming March of 2009, moving everything to the proprietary SWF.

arstechnica.com/...encourages-experimentation.ars - Preview

webkit canvas svg javaScript bespin

Good article discussing the rapid advance of a WebOS for Web Applications based on the WebKit JavaScript model. Author focuses on Apple's SproutCore - Object C framework, but provides a very broad scope of discussion. Interesting stuff concerning the relationship between JavaScript, the SproutCore Framework, and Ruby. I found the link to this at the ReadWriteWeb story, "The Future of the Desktop" ........
"Desktop web applications offer the convenience of desktop applications and the interconnected power of web applications. This article looks at what they are, how they may evolve and focuses on Sproutcore, an open source framework for building them:

The Internet is still evolving and the familiar struggle over who will control the platform of future web applications is still ongoing. Companies like Microsoft and Adobe provide platforms that build slick web applications but their aim is to dominate with proprietary systems that will effectively replace the browser. On the other side you have Google and Apple who have developed or support open web standards for developing web applications.

If the proprietary companies win, future web applications could be locked into their systems and the incredible innovation that has driven the web to date may begin to falter.

rapidappsgroup.com/...-applications-using-sproutcore - Preview

desktop webos webkit sproutcore javascript ruby

Given the increasing number of platforms supporting Javascript + HTTP + HTML5, it's not inconceivable that "write-once, run anywhere" might come closer to fruition with this combo than Java ever achieved.

Here's how this architecture plays out in my mind. Javascript is the core programming language. Using a HTTP transport and JSON data format, components in different processes can perform RPCs to one another. HTML5 features like local storage and the application cache allow for an offline story (the latest build of Safari on iPhone supports this). And of course, HTML + CSS allows for a common UI platform.

adamac.blogspot.com/...evolution-revolution.html - Preview

WebKit html-css-svg html5 javascript iPhone

the obvious conflict of interest between the standards-based web and proprietary platforms advanced by Microsoft, and the rationales for keeping the web's client-side programming language small while the proprietary platforms rapidly evolve support for large languages, does not help maintain the fiction that only clashing high-level philosophies are involved here.

Readers may not know that Ecma has no provision for "minor releases" of its standards, so any ES3.1 that was approved by TG1 would inevitably be given a whole edition number, presumably becoming the 4th Edition of ECMAScript. This is obviously contentious given all the years that the majority of TG1, sometimes even apparently including Microsoft representatives, has worked on ES4, and the developer expectations set by this long-standing effort.

A history of Microsoft's post-ES3 involvement in the ECMAScript standard group, leading up to the overt split in TG1 in March, is summarized here.

The history of ECMAScript since its beginnings in November 1996 shows that when Microsoft was behind in the market (against Netscape in 1996-1997), it moved aggressively in the standards body to evolve standards starting with ES1 through ES3. Once Microsoft dominated the market, the last edition of the standard was left to rot -- ES3 was finished in 1999 -- and even easy-to-fix standards conformance bugs in IE JScript went unfixed for eight years (so three years to go from Edition 1 to 3, then over eight to approach Edition 4). Now that the proposed 4th edition looks like a competitive threat, the world suddenly hears in detail about all those bugs, spun as differences afflicting "JavaScript" that should inform a new standard.

weblogs.mozillazine.org/...en_letter_to_chris_wilson.html - Preview

es4 es3 javascript brendan-eich microsoft

Microsoft opposes the stunning collection of EcmaScript standards improvements to JavaScript ES3 known as "ES4". Brendan Eich, author of JavaScript and lead Mozilla developer claims that Microsoft is stalling the advance of JavaScript to protect their proprietary advantages with Silverlight - WPF technologies. Opera developer "Haavard" asks the question, "Why would Microsoft do this?"

Brendan Eich explains:

Indeed Microsoft does not desire serious change to ES3, and we heard this inside TG1 in April. The words were (from my notes) more like this: "Microsoft does not think the web needs to change much". Except, of course, via Silverlight and WPF, which if not matched by evolution of the open web standards, will spread far and wide on the Web, as Flash already has. And that change to the Web is apparently just fine and dandy according to Microsoft.


First, Microsoft does not think the Web needs to change much, but then they give us Silverlight and WPF? An amazing contradiction if I ever saw one.

It is obvious that Microsoft wants to lock the Web to their proprietary technologies again. They want Silverlight, not some new open standard which further threatens their locked-in position. They will use dirty tricks - lies and deception - to convince people that they are in the right.

Excellent discussion on how Microsoft participates in open standards groups to delay, stall and dumb down the Open Web formats, protocols and interfaces their competitors use. With their applications and services, Microsoft offers users a Hobbsian choice; use the stalled, limited and dumbed down Open Web standards, or, use rich, fully featured and advanced but proprietary Silverlight-WPF technologies. Some choice.

my.opera.com/...ghting-microsoft-the-good-guys - Preview

js javascript es3 es4 microsoft MSIE

Review of JavaScript Apps and developer approaches for the iPhone. JiggyApp, WebTouch, JSCocoa, and PhoneGap are mentioned. WebTouch is very interesting in that it involves a WebKit instance such as that used by wiki-WORD. It's really simple and gives you a good entry point into the world of hybrid HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Objective-C/Cocoa development.

ejohn.org/...iphone-javascript-apps - Preview

js javascript html-css iphone cocoa object-c webkit

Must read: "This blog post is part of a new, semi-regular series called Fixing the Web. The goal is to highlight these issues, identify potential solutions, and have a dialogue. I don't claim to have the answers for the situation we are in. However, I do know this -- if there is any community that potentially has what it takes to solve these issues I believe it's the Ajax and JavaScript communities, which is why this is a perfect place to have these discussions.

To start, I see four areas that are broken that must be fixed: ..... "

codinginparadise.org/...fixing-web-part-i.html - Preview

javascript html-css ajax w3c

AJAX in Java = no javascript. Also known as Direct RiA

www.zkoss.org/demo - Preview

RiA Java JavaScript Dojo

ZK is Ajax Java framework without JavaScript. With direct RIA, 200+ Ajax components and markup languages, developing Ajax/RIA as simple as desktop apps and HTML/XUL pages. Support JSF/JSP/JavaEE/Hibernate/.., and Ajax script in Java/Ruby/Groovy/Python/.. Zul Editor, integrating with the popular Firebug web development tool, is a Firefox add-on for developing Ajax applicaiton with ZK. -

sourceforge.net/...forum.php - Preview

js JavaScript

Fun demonstration of rich JavaScript Library

www.zkoss.org/userguide - Preview

js javascript tutorial

When building out a site designed specifically for the iPhone, your hands are no longer tied with the typical browser constraints (<cough>IE</cough>). Mobile Safari -- the browser used by the iPhone -- supports CSS3, 24-bit tranparent PNGs, and custom CSS animations.

www.viget.com/...vigetcom-gets-iphone-ized - Preview

webkit javascript html-css-svg CSS3 iphone