tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81818572011-12-14T18:46:31.941-08:00This blog is about everything related to web applications development.Terencenoreply@blogger.comBlogger451100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-6329808484109890052007-04-22T17:14:00.000-07:002007-04-22T17:44:15.065-07:00

If you're still rolling your own routines for basic things like content delivery or data access, then you're crazy. For every modern programming technology, there are more than a few frameworks available. It's seems like it's just that time in history. Like the layers from a core sample at the norh pole, the layers of technology represent a view back into the evolution. Even if there are only a

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-44339020770630266392007-01-01T06:28:00.000-08:002007-01-01T08:09:24.305-08:00

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Firefox_2_for_developersThis free software never ceases to amaze me. If ever there was an Enterprise desktop operating system that runs on web 2.0, this is it. There is no better client platform for delivering Enterprise applications that live in the web space.Since I am not on any internal Firefox team, I can only speculate on the philosophical general

Terencenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-32465687147828079762006-12-22T04:12:00.000-08:002006-12-22T06:16:14.701-08:00

This blog post is a response to another blog post by the same title. Initially it was posted as a comment...Not so fast Jens...There are at least 2 problems with your assertion being blanket (noting the use of the word NEVER).1) Bundling costs with other optional extras you bought from 3rd party people.2) Free as in "Free beer" vs "free" as in "freedom" need to be clarified. Go read up http://

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1156050930922682752006-08-19T21:39:00.000-07:002006-08-19T22:46:01.523-07:00

This is my advice to anyone writing a web application that may be extended by another person. In my case, this became important when making templates for my favourite CMS. More specifically, the shopping cart plugin that I am using with it.The problem is quite simple. the usage of inline styles wrests control away from the template designer and can (as in my case) cause bugs in the GUI. So it's

Terencenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1155621701081482412006-08-14T22:24:00.000-07:002006-08-14T23:17:56.000-07:00

I've only managed to dip my toe into the waters of the CMS industry from time to time. The sheer size of the industry can make choosing one a bit overwhelming at times but I'm always intested to see what the latest developments are. More recently, I have started setting up clients with their own websites. Many clients just want an "online presence" and they don't even know what a CMS is, let

Terencenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1154596070692905262006-08-03T01:58:00.000-07:002006-08-03T02:07:50.756-07:00

I'm drawing on my "vast reserves" of general IT knowledge to create a training programme in the video format. It will be a typical screen video (footage of the desktop) with narration from yours truly. Hopefully I will have the time resources to include some animations to re-enforce the conceptual stuff. The video will not be for set-top DVD players, but rather in the FLV format hosted in HTML

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1150959188986381662006-06-21T23:49:00.000-07:002006-06-21T23:53:08.996-07:00

Anyone who has written reasonably complex multi-threaded software will understnad how error prone it can be. After all, it's not hard to imagine how difficult it is to rigorously test your code to simulate real-world conditions. It's can be done, but not everyone does it, because in many cases, it's error prone, and if you know what you are doing, laborious. Wouldn't it be nice to have a library

Terencenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1145610613598157822006-04-21T01:43:00.000-07:002006-04-21T05:38:59.953-07:00

I'm a sucker for recursive descriptions so I just had to blog this. I have to admit, the idea is kind of obvious isn't it, this has crossed my mind before and there are a bunch of em at mozdev.org. Eclipse has an extension for developing eclipse extensions, and it has been there since the early days. It's very early satages so it may be a bit rough around the edges but the idea is a winner so

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1144741082936842132006-04-10T18:08:00.001-07:002006-04-11T00:38:04.150-07:00

uni-verse.org is a project foundation who will make it their business to affect the inevitable. The "inevitable" being the marriage of 3D Audio/Video immusive environements with Internet Protocol (IP). This is not a new concept, in fact, it's fair to say that most IT literate people would say it is inevitable. The thing is, now is the time. All the planets are aligned. We have a mature

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1144297551217246862006-04-05T21:19:00.000-07:002006-04-05T21:25:51.286-07:00

This blog entry is brought to you by the all new Flock browser. Actually, it's not officially released yet. I only tripped accross it because it had such a pretty icon on someone's XPI (mozilla extension) download page. Anyway, it's a web browser (using Mozilla's Gecko engine) that adds communal functionality as part of the core feature set - blogging, for instance. It's basically a modified

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1138854089887673752006-02-01T20:20:00.000-08:002006-02-01T20:21:29.896-08:00

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1134692287300575672005-12-15T16:08:00.000-08:002005-12-15T16:18:07.310-08:00

Here's a novel approach to the batch renaming of files. I've used many different renamers but this one is worth a mention. Don't you wish that you could just edit the names of all the files in a directory the same way you can edit all the lines in a text editor? Well, now you can with Oscar's Renamer. It gets the diretory listing and plonks it into a text editor where each line is a file name.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1133358497389180822005-11-30T05:46:00.000-08:002005-11-30T05:48:17.400-08:00

The BlueJ IDE is a learning tool designed to assist with the learning of Java.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132888214573015542005-11-24T19:08:00.000-08:002005-11-24T19:10:14.596-08:00

It's all the rage. Even while a laptop makes much more sense, I have a perverse urge to build a PC into my fourby. I made a wiki page for it.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132797570563186452005-11-23T17:58:00.000-08:002005-11-23T17:59:30.576-08:00

This is both useful, and quite amusing...

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132700684982933732005-11-22T15:02:00.000-08:002005-11-22T15:04:44.993-08:00

Here is a good article that summarises some really good FF extensions for us types.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132634090085319742005-11-21T20:24:00.000-08:002005-11-21T20:34:50.100-08:00

I found another web-based command shell project. It's called PHPsh and as the name suggests, it's a command shell which communicated with a PHP server to run SHell commands using the HTTPDs credentials on the server. The interface has some interesting layout concepts.WebCLI seems to differ in that it is more general in it's aims. A function such as shell command pass through would be an optional

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132618275010453322005-11-21T16:04:00.000-08:002005-11-21T16:15:06.920-08:00

Microformats seems to be the formalisation of a commone sense idea. That idea is to promote existing nomencletures that are common in order to ubiquitise information formats. It discourages ad-hoc schema invention - whether for internal pipelines or external publishing. This article on it is short and sweet - worth a read.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132325711612667172005-11-18T06:52:00.000-08:002005-11-18T06:55:11.613-08:00

Halleluja!I have been sooooo waiting for this. All my JS development has been going on in FF 1.5 - but with no debug environment.If you do ANY web-based JavaScript (ECMAScript) development, you have rocks in your head if you don't use venkman.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132325112031831232005-11-18T06:41:00.000-08:002005-11-21T19:28:26.623-08:00

Notepad++ has to be the coolest code editor for Windows that I have seen. It's written in C++ so it is miniscule. It has boatloads of features/functionality/plugins/languages-support, yet it is lightning fast and has a tiny footprint on your memory.Because there is no "project management" guff, it's perfect for file associations. It launches quickly for instant double click gratification.I only

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132228043687547082005-11-17T03:45:00.000-08:002005-11-17T03:47:23.706-08:00

This looks like one of those books which would be really really interesting to read - if I didn't have all this other crap to do :/

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132221358947519622005-11-17T01:33:00.000-08:002005-11-18T00:42:58.970-08:00

I started a new sourceforge project today (under the MPL) and there is a wiki for it too. It's Called "Web Command-Line Interface". The official homepage is WebCLI.sf.net. At this stage, the project is a bit whimsical as it pokes fun at website development and design. It's ironic on purpose.WebCLI is a console application written in JavaScript. My intention is to provide it with commands that

Terencenoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132219328865823442005-11-17T01:17:00.000-08:002005-11-17T01:22:09.783-08:00

JavaScript has no built in way to test if an item exists (as a value) in an Array/Object. Here's a handy prototype I whipped up.Array.prototype.Contains = function(mxd,strict) { for(i in this) { if(this[i] == mxd && !strict) return true; else if(this[i] === mxd) return true; } return false;}// i.e.if(arrMy.Contains("it")) alert("We have it!");This could be useful to see if

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1132024578913325332005-11-14T19:14:00.000-08:002005-11-14T19:16:18.916-08:00

http://www.ajaxgoals.com/

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131692376669524242005-11-10T22:53:00.000-08:002005-11-10T22:59:36.680-08:00

"A closure is an expression (typically a function) that can have free variables together with an environment that binds those variables (that "closes" the expression)."A very enlightening use and abuse article on the topic by Richard Cornford. March 2004.It's enlightening because it involves key concepts in JavaScript related to object orientation, scope, and identifier resolution.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131672530101407012005-11-10T17:20:00.000-08:002005-11-10T17:28:50.113-08:00

I must confess, I don't really use bit bashing in my code. I just never bothered. Sure, I've come accross it before and understood it, but I could never be bothered applying it. That is, until I read the bitwise operator section of the Mozilla JavaScript 1.5 reference. I have to say, this little wiki page is the shortest, most useful article on the topic and is very very easy to understand and

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131624741999947242005-11-10T04:10:00.000-08:002005-11-10T04:12:22.006-08:00

It's official. The PostgreSQL project is unstopable.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131604945592196702005-11-09T22:19:00.000-08:002005-11-09T22:51:02.973-08:00

Testify brother!Regex Buddy is MY bosom buddy. I can't, in good conscience, keep using this program without spreading the word about how good it is - it really is that compelling. I found out about it while trolling the web for good information on regular expressions. After checking the price, I promptly had 5 licences ordered for our developer team at work. I've had a few months with it now and

Terencenoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131593748392385332005-11-09T19:34:00.000-08:002005-11-09T19:35:48.403-08:00

With this online application.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131581327932280542005-11-09T15:40:00.000-08:002005-11-09T16:08:47.993-08:00

Douglas Crockford has written a short but interesting piece on how JavaScript is misunderstood. It goes beyond being, what looks at first glance like, an opinionated article written by a grumpy old man. His areguments are sound and well constructed. There are ample code examples to illustrate his points. This was educational for me in at least one profound way, and I reckon every developer (and

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1131085482839111952005-11-03T22:13:00.000-08:002005-11-03T22:24:42.853-08:00

I got bit by the beta bug.I've been spending the last couple of weeks developing a XUL application. I got stuck on this bug where this widget would simply refuse to bind to my remote RDF/XML datasource which was generated by a PHP script. Eventually, after some agressive debugging, I figured out that file encoding might be an issue. Then I spent a lot of time trying to sort that. Still, things

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130980277701774302005-11-02T17:04:00.000-08:002005-11-02T17:11:17.710-08:00

Hey look, I know I'm starting to sound like an ad for Google , but their spam protection is so good, it's spooky. I think this may have a lot to do with the fact that they can detect a msg which is sent to a high number of their users.Unfortunately, I haven't always practiced safe surfing with web forms and email addresses, which hasn't helped me much in making myself a small target for spammers.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130975215159526472005-11-02T15:38:00.000-08:002005-11-02T16:13:56.553-08:00

"Taking steps to guard itself against the growing popularity of cheaper open-source databases, as well as making lower-end application developers and students more familiar with its technology, Oracle Corp. on Monday announced the beta release of its new Oracle Database 10g Express Edition."..."Bowing to growing pressure from these startups, IBM has already released a free version of its DB2

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130904982616311192005-11-01T20:13:00.000-08:002005-11-01T20:16:22.626-08:00

I just watched this screen video of some guy presenting Ruby on Rails. Man it was funny. The dude is like a comic with the voice and all. You just gotta see it yourself.BTW. RoR looks very interesting indeed. When I get the time...

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130898738895338982005-11-01T18:28:00.000-08:002005-11-01T19:36:47.176-08:00

It's google's way to build things simple and useful. And that's just the way I would describe their personal portal thingy. I use it as my homepage. You can plonk portlets of your choice all over the place. I find the RSS feed portlet the most useful. For instance, you could add http://devhed.blogspot.com as an RSS portlet.Well worth the 2 seconds it takes to register.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130898359564048292005-11-01T18:22:00.000-08:002005-11-01T18:26:18.940-08:00

If you are experiencing the web with anything less than the best browser in the world, you need to trot on down to to this here link and rectify the problem. Version 1.5 Release Candidate 1 was released yesterday. See what all the fuss is about.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130838162573884212005-11-01T01:38:00.000-08:002005-11-01T01:42:42.583-08:00

The venerable open-source PostgreSQL RDBMS takes another leap forward with version 8.1When I get a chance, I might enumerate some of the highlights. In the mean time, there is a rather large changelog to peruse.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130831677957942772005-10-31T23:52:00.000-08:002005-11-01T00:01:12.243-08:00

"From the something-for-nothing dept. CosmoPOD.com offers free remote KDE desktops over NX. Anyone can sign up to have their own desktop accessible from any computer with a network connection. CosmoPOP uses KDE's Kiosk framework to ensure security for their system. To find out more about the service and why KDE was the chosen desktop, KDE Dot News spoke to the man behind CosmoPOD, Stephen Ensor.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130831510575195602005-10-31T23:51:00.000-08:002005-10-31T23:55:57.096-08:00

A 5 minute guide.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130831101638134562005-10-31T23:41:00.000-08:002005-10-31T23:45:01.646-08:00

In an internetworked marketplace, this means distribution. Audio compression in the form of MP3 was a great enabler for internet distribution for music. The corporations obsessed with the charter and the bottom line didn’t see the opportunity. I remember when MP3 was a dirty word in corporate circles. Then apple came along and showed people how to behave sensibly with the technology. Now everyone

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1130727369816787742005-10-30T18:46:00.000-08:002005-10-30T19:17:36.093-08:00

I can't believe the amount of fuss being made over Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX) at the moment. People have been communicating with the web server via pure Javascript for years now and they've been doing so with XML for a long time too. Just because someone coined an acronym for this "handy little trick", it's become all the rage now and big companies are funding projects in it's name.

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1114763303293861662005-04-29T01:21:00.000-07:002005-04-29T01:28:23.296-07:00

My application for a space at wikicities.com has been approved for my xao project. Unfortunately SourceForge does not offer a wiki so I had to host at wikicities. In a nutshell, XAO stands for Xml Application Objects. It is a framework/library for building web applications using XML/XSLT. Currently I have one built for PHP4, I plan on porting it to PHP5 ASAP because the DOM XML APIs in the two

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1114762268556637092005-04-29T00:55:00.000-07:002005-04-29T01:12:24.150-07:00

XUL has been around for a while now in the form of Mozilla, Firefox, Thunderbird, and of course, all associated extensions. The engine which powers it (Netscape Gecko Layout engine) is very mature now - feature rich, and stable. It is a runtime with no equal - because it was built to power a web browser, it is the most webcentric runtime around. There have been few other notable stand-alone XUL

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1094193485503195212004-09-02T23:34:00.000-07:002004-09-02T23:38:05.503-07:00

http://pgfoundry.org/projects/pginstaller I just installed the windows installer for pgsql8 and it comes with - the RDBMS server (windows service) - RDBMS documentation - ODBC driver - JDBC driver - .NET data provider (npgsql.dll) - PGAdminIII (GUI admin/devel client tool) - PGAdmin documentation (CHM file including RDBMS help) The whole lot comes down in 12MB! Pretty amazing considdering

Terencenoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8181857.post-1094187916096985162004-09-02T21:42:00.000-07:002004-09-02T22:05:16.096-07:00

This is like the 5th time I've started building an online photo album app from the ground up. The main reason I began it in the first place was so that I could have total control over the feature set. Problem is, I'm not even happy with what I do myself so I keep knocking it down and starting again. oh well... This time round I'm considdering the following features transparent content

Terencenoreply@blogger.com2