tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588Sun, 19 May 2013 12:15:13 +0000thisoperatortoolsjavascriptasynchronousdebuggingnewswebpitfallbugdefaultsmy-projectsfunctionsmethodtypeslibrarygetting-it-wrongbrowsersnon-codingt-sqlexceptionscreativitybeautifulinheritancecssscrollbarsconfigurationpluginclassmaintenancecontributelinkperformancev8FogBugzgoogle-codeclosuresupdateranthumorapachephilosophicalvirtualboxmathideaevent-handlerschildrenspecificationnamesmysqljavaloopsengineeringsystem-administrationpatternsarraysajaxfalse-dichotomyscopeOperaecmascript5PrototypeS3script-tagslinksgaetipprivatepatentsvarregular-expressionsgoogle-plusmetajqueryanonymousoff-topicsql-serverwelcomeirritationssqlhackshtmlreferencehistorymnemonicdesignoperatorsframeworktestinginternet-explorerubuntumythsgrumbleVS.NetgoogleNifty Snippets^TM of code, techniques, and information focussing on Ajax, web scripting, and engineering.http://blog.niftysnippets.org/noreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)Blogger87125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-9092955113385630926Sat, 18 May 2013 18:01:00 +00002013-05-18T19:01:46.110+01:00cssVery unusual post today, folks: I'd like to ask you to help me find something. Several years ago, I found a blog post by a woman whose name I can't remember where she (incredibly) created a tabbed interface in an HTML page using nothing but HTML and CSS — and it didn't rely on the :checked pseudo-selector. It even worked in IE6 (not that I care about that these days). The way it worked was by http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/9nWmNpo6_oE/help-me-find-something.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)4<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/9nWmNpo6_oE" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2013/05/help-me-find-something.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-5505074525096683185Wed, 15 May 2013 16:27:00 +00002013-05-16T09:31:34.065+01:00javascriptpatternsprivateJavaScript famously lacks private properties on objects. The next version will have them (more on that below), but we can have most of the benefits of the upcoming improvement right now (without resorting to the usual hidden variables in the constructor), even on older engines. In this post, I look at what's coming, and what we can do now. "But wait," I hear you say, "Don't we already know how tohttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/nrxceOT3Ztw/private-properties-in-es6-and-es3-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/nrxceOT3Ztw" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2013/05/private-properties-in-es6-and-es3-and.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-6163449082441361004Wed, 13 Feb 2013 17:40:00 +00002013-02-13T17:40:07.917ZnewslinkbrowsersOperaOpera has decided to switch to using WebKit and V8 for for all new products. First they'll start with a product for smartphones (since as they say, many mobile-facing sites are only/best tested on WebKit anyway), and then Opera Desktop and other products will follow.By my count, that leaves us with three major rendering engines (WebKit, Gecko, and Trident), and three major JavaScript engines (V8,http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/gC65V-ydVqU/opera-switching-to-webkitv8.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/gC65V-ydVqU" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2013/02/opera-switching-to-webkitv8.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-6294557667935070472Sat, 29 Dec 2012 12:20:00 +00002012-12-29T12:21:23.186ZS3newslinkMore interesting news from Amazon: Now S3 supports static website hosting on the root of your domain. So in addition to http://www.example.com you can now have http://example.com. This comes warm on the heels of their having added CORS support in August and redirections in October. The directon is fairly clear, eh?http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/C1aSSjkSA5A/amazon-s3-adds-root-domain-support.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/C1aSSjkSA5A" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/12/amazon-s3-adds-root-domain-support.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-7889057508937397512Tue, 18 Dec 2012 13:43:00 +00002012-12-18T13:47:52.548ZrantdesignYou want my feedback on your website? Here's my feedback: Website "feedback" popups are irritating and intrusive.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/089aBkoamLA/website-feedback-popups.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/089aBkoamLA" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/12/website-feedback-popups.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-1881892301352508677Fri, 09 Nov 2012 09:49:00 +00002012-11-09T09:50:34.477ZdesignweblinkscssI've always used points (pt values) for sizing fonts on web pages, e.g.:body { font-size: 12pt; }Those of you who know me know that I'm a developer, not a designer (in the web designer sense; I design systems, but that's different). I couldn't visual-design my way out of a paper bag. (Okay, maybe that's a bit harsh.) I don't think I'm a one-trick pony, but I'm definitely much more left- than http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/XlijcXyWnSo/font-size-units.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/XlijcXyWnSo" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/11/font-size-units.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-3076102803177243625Wed, 31 Oct 2012 15:44:00 +00002012-11-01T08:22:27.750ZtestingwebEarly this month I was checking out blitz.io and although it looked like a cool tool (and fun), the pricing model stopped me looking at it too closely, for reasons I explained to them:Hi folks, Was just checking out blitz.io, which looks really cool (and fun), but I was stopped pretty early on by the pricing. I don't understand why the length of a rush is tied to the number of concurrent usershttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/8UhMHR93LSc/blitzio-updates-pricing-model.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/8UhMHR93LSc" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/10/blitzio-updates-pricing-model.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-4113348548699234882Wed, 24 Oct 2012 04:32:00 +00002012-10-24T05:41:03.093+01:00javascriptajaxasynchronousI see questions like this one a fair bit: The author has written this code (and is apparently using jQuery):function Obj() { this.id = 0; this.name = ''; } Obj.prototype.setName = function(name) { this.name = name; }; function init() { var object1; object1 = new Obj(); object1.setName("Chris"); alert(object1.name); // alerts 'Chris' $.post('my_json_list.php', http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/6WlVUppj-Hg/asynchronicity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/6WlVUppj-Hg" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/10/asynchronicity.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-7432386317523965167Thu, 04 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +00002012-10-04T15:24:15.842+01:00rantdesignNote to online vendors:I don't want to have to create an account to give you business.Got it? By all means offer me the option of doing so, if that makes you happy, but if I'm buying 10 quid of lightbulbs from your site, or a one-off rail ticket, I really don't want to create a username and password, opt out of your effing mailing list, etc., etc. Imagine if you had to "create an account" with http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/QeLX9uzap5o/i-dont-want-to-create-account.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)2<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/QeLX9uzap5o" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/10/i-dont-want-to-create-account.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-1503274435653754598Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:29:00 +00002012-10-03T23:29:45.434+01:00contributereferencewebI'm sure most of us have referred to (and probably cited) caniuse.com at some point. It's probably the most comprehensive collection of browser feature support around. Want to know the status of CORS support? Here you go.Well, now if you spot an error or want to add further information, you can do so fairly directly: caniuse.com is now on GitHub.I should probably note that caniuse.com is http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/2GvCBiae9VA/you-can-contribute-to-caniusecom.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/2GvCBiae9VA" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/10/you-can-contribute-to-caniusecom.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-4315267520815219504Thu, 27 Sep 2012 10:51:00 +00002012-09-27T11:51:08.513+01:00javascriptJust a quick note on RegExp#lastIndex: It's misnamed. It's not the "last" index of anything, it's the index of the next character in the string that will be looked at by the regex instance's exec function (if the regex has the global flag and exec is used on a string that's long enough). It's 0 on freshly-created instances. Just useful to remember, if you ever need to set it explicitly (which http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/ir6JZEKDmvM/quick-note-on-regexplastindex.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/ir6JZEKDmvM" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/09/quick-note-on-regexplastindex.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-5594910120649776103Wed, 26 Sep 2012 10:41:00 +00002012-09-26T11:41:47.065+01:00beautifullinkoff-topicTen years of Hubble photographs of a tiny portion of the night sky, well away from the glare of the Milky Way, deep into the infrared and then corrected back to visible, the eXtreme Deep Field is nothing less than a breathtaking view deep into the Universe. Just...impossibly incredible.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/-1o0yu1iclI/incredible-extraordinary-inspiring.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/-1o0yu1iclI" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/09/incredible-extraordinary-inspiring.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-156396409420662868Sat, 01 Sep 2012 16:08:00 +00002012-09-01T17:08:08.318+01:00S3newslinkSome interesting news today: Amazon's S3 now supports CORS, the Cross-Origin Resource Sharing standard. This means that in addition to storing your images, stylesheets, and JavaScript files in S3 as you might be now, you can now also store any static data or templates you want to retrieve via ajax there, assuming your user is using a browser that supports CORS (all modern ones do, one way or http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/aioW9JE0rcY/s3-adds-cors-support.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/aioW9JE0rcY" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/09/s3-adds-cors-support.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-8559097172709605839Thu, 23 Aug 2012 06:54:00 +00002012-08-23T08:11:23.646+01:00linkbrowsershistoryAs IE6 finally rides into the sunset,* Nicholas C. Zakas offers us a reminder of how, in a series of browser releases culminating in IE6, Microsoft introduced many of the key web innovations we use today such as innerHTML, access to all elements (not just forms and such), Ajax, modern events, and several others. This isn't in any way to discount what Netscape and others have done, but it's worth http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/TY3Eei4DPVU/a-reminder-how-microsoft-used-to-drive.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/TY3Eei4DPVU" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/08/a-reminder-how-microsoft-used-to-drive.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-1882146817358366199Tue, 14 Aug 2012 10:30:00 +00002012-08-15T07:00:54.331+01:00javascriptscrollbarsNormally we want to avoid doing this sort of thing, but sometimes you just end up having no other option: Recently I couldn't avoid doing some sizing logic in JavaScript rather than CSS and markup, and I had to know the size of the scrollbars on specific elements. I found this post by Alexandre Gomes (which in turn was based on a MooTools forum thread; those forums are gone now), which shows a http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/_njM6KBo40c/measuring-scrollbar-size.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/_njM6KBo40c" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/08/measuring-scrollbar-size.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-4381938006254898024Wed, 08 Aug 2012 08:46:00 +00002012-08-08T09:50:17.162+01:00javascriptjquerylinkupdateFor those who saw my jQuery - Cleaning up when elements go away post yesterday, I've updated it showing how we can do this right now, today, without waiting for the enhancement (or if the enhancement is never accepted). Oh, and the enhancement went from six lines to three. Many thanks to Dave Methvin for showing how (in both cases). Enjoy!http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/0EKQXfzKRuk/jquery-element-cleanup-update.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/0EKQXfzKRuk" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/08/jquery-element-cleanup-update.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-6183435470988905015Tue, 07 Aug 2012 19:19:00 +00002012-08-08T14:48:29.735+01:00javascriptjquery(Updated 08/08/2012.) Have you ever wanted to get a notification when an element is removed from the DOM so you could clean up? For instance, maybe you have events hooked on a different object (like resize on window) that you want to unhook when the element goes away.Recently I wanted to, and since I know that jQuery does cleanup when elements are removed (so it can clear out event handlers and http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/U_GMTBvfDaM/jquery-cleaning-up-when-elements-go-away.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/U_GMTBvfDaM" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/08/jquery-cleaning-up-when-elements-go-away.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-944359936398770040Thu, 02 Aug 2012 08:24:00 +00002012-08-02T09:24:28.085+01:00javascriptlibraryframeworklinkSteve Sanderson's done an interesting round up of the eight libraries and frameworks represented at the Throne of JS conference recently. The conference was about JavaScript applications, not web pages, and focuses on the kinds of projects that help you do your Model-View-Whatever stuff. Worth reading, bookmarking, and re-reading later. Steve declares his interest — he's on the KnockoutJS core http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/weRXaK7Kq3Y/steve-sandersons-round-up-of-eight-rich.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/weRXaK7Kq3Y" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/08/steve-sandersons-round-up-of-eight-rich.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-5787416278420086914Sat, 07 Jul 2012 12:06:00 +00002012-07-07T17:29:36.454+01:00performancejavascriptoperatorsmathHow do you floor (or truncate) a floating-point number in JavaScript? (E.g., take a value like 5.7 and get just the 5?). The answer is simple: Use Math.floor. That's the right answer at least 99.99% of the time. It's clear, straightforward, easy to read, easy to maintain. It does what it says on the tin: console.log(Math.floor(5.7)); // "5" Sorted. But you see people doing other things in the http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/n0zhoMrqHy8/well-im-floored.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)6<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/n0zhoMrqHy8" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/07/well-im-floored.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-1377474959080542810Mon, 18 Jun 2012 09:20:00 +00002012-06-18T10:26:59.301+01:00grumbledesigncssIs it just me? Am I getting old? (Well, yes, but...) Surely 9pt grey text (#646464) on a dark-grey background (#1C1C1C) qualifies as a Bad IdeaTM? How's this for readable: Form Factormini-PC CPU SocketIntel® Atom™ D525 (dual-core) (1.8 GHz) Intel® HyperThreading™ technology ChipsetNM10 Express GPUIntel® GMA 3150 MemoryUp to 4GB Harddrive2.5“ drive bay SATA 3.0 Gb/s compatible Graphics Output1 http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/daAafXzN5RI/9pt-grey-text-on-dark-grey-background.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/daAafXzN5RI" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/06/9pt-grey-text-on-dark-grey-background.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-5337559054923592830Thu, 14 Jun 2012 14:07:00 +00002012-06-14T15:07:00.938+01:00internet-explorerlinkhumorAn Australian online retailer has started charging users of IE7 a tax to use the browser on their website. This was inspired, they say, by the amount of time it took their developers to make the site work correctly with IE7 (which 3% of their users were still using). The tax is currently 6.8% — 0.1% per month since IE7 was released. Presumably they just aren't supporting IE6 at all — if they did,http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/3eKO75i3PqA/too-funny-ie7-tax.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/3eKO75i3PqA" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/06/too-funny-ie7-tax.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-4101120594126619894Thu, 14 Jun 2012 08:56:00 +00002012-09-14T09:28:17.131+01:00non-codingmaintenanceubuntuMy Ubuntu system told me today that it was running quite low on room in /boot. I searched around for what to do about that, and found this answer on Ask Ubuntu. It turns out that when kernel updates are applied, old kernels are left lying around in /boot. So what to do? It's quite simple: Ensure you don't have a restart pending (Linux can update just about anything without rebooting...except thehttp://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/z86mqq021_A/cleaning-up-old-ubuntu-kernels-from.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)3<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/z86mqq021_A" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/06/cleaning-up-old-ubuntu-kernels-from.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-3051745027407524405Thu, 24 May 2012 20:46:00 +00002012-05-24T21:46:01.208+01:00javascriptspecificationFinally a normative ECMAScript specification in HTML. Very worthy private efforts notwithstanding (here, here), having a normative deeply-linkable, HTML edition is huge — and long overdue.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/irnWW324dqg/finally-normative-ecmascript-spec-in.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/irnWW324dqg" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/05/finally-normative-ecmascript-spec-in.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-466587625997286365Tue, 17 Apr 2012 08:26:00 +00002012-04-17T09:26:49.017+01:00creativitylinkhumorMy good friend Jock Murphy blogged about this video, where John Cleese spends 36 minutes talking about creativity and telling "how many (blank)s does it take to change a light bulb" jokes. I can only echo Jock's sentiments here: Go watch it. Go watch it now. Utterly brilliant.http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/D2sf3P_4OLA/john-cleese-on-creativity.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)1<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/D2sf3P_4OLA" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/04/john-cleese-on-creativity.htmltag:blogger.com,1999:blog-542398624287876588.post-2241779075925525685Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:06:00 +00002012-04-04T18:57:49.309+01:00javascripttoolsinheritancemy-projectsJust a brief post to announce my latest mini-project, Lineage. It's a small, simple toolkit for creating JavaScript constructor functions and their prototypes ("classes," if you will) in a straight-forward and concise way. From the project home page:Lineage's API lets you define prototypes with a very concise syntax, while still encouraging you to create functions with real names (rather than http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~3/p-EhmBc-ymA/announcing-lineage.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (T.J. Crowder)0<img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/NiftySnippets/~4/p-EhmBc-ymA" height="1" width="1"/>http://blog.niftysnippets.org/2012/04/announcing-lineage.html