None of us would use JavaScript? Maybe one of us likes it.
Stop confusing the DOM with JavaScript. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find 100 flaws, and less than 10 core language problems (e.g., non-library), with many in both lists being subjective issues.
This needs to be modded up. NZ is still in relative dark ages with the internet. Lots of talk about it getting better, but the basic services you can buy here are dreadful. It's only been around a year since they offered "uncapped" uploads, which means higher than 127kbps. It costs roughly $70 for 10GB/month for "naked internet" which means you don't need a phone as well, and that's only just arrived. Unless you can get cable internet, which is only in a few selected areas. My office had a 35GB monthly cap for about 30 people not too long ago. Now we have unlimited, but the bandwidth is sketchy. I've seen the internet in other parts of the world. We got the shaft when it came to handing out tubes.
#1: Don't try to meet fellow geeks. Meet anyone and judge them on their personality individually. Maybe you want to socialize with non-LARPs once in a while. #2: Leave your home. You mention "meat" frighteningly often in your summary, so maybe some cooking classes or taxidermy courses? Volunteer at a soup kitchen or something. Join a sports team or a game club or something. If you're fitness adverse, now is a good time to start. Classes at a gym are good motivation to exercise, and you can meet people. #3: Make conversation with random people if you have a difficult time talking to normal people. Buy a coffee, make small talk as you pay. Talk to your butcher when buying meat. All this will help your confidence. #4: Leave your home. #5: Find singles events in your area. Bar nights, group things, etc, if you're interested in meeting people without the pressure of one-on-one. #6: Leave your home.
Did I miss anything? Seriously, it's relatively easy. Just harden up and go out into the world. Stop letting fear rule your life. You'd be surprised how often you can meet geeks by accident these days. Everyone seems to have a bit of geekiness about them.
Please provide me one example of a free/OSS platform implementation of a commercial product that is inarguable BETTER than the original proprietary version
It means sometimes you need to rinse the leaves before brewing. Sometimes, you can brew the same leaves many times without losing flavour. Tea analogy was a joke. Don't read too much into it.
$30NZ for 5GB/month on slow WiMax, or whatever it's called. Faster wired solutions are available, but they don't have the location flexibility and they're no cheaper for bandwidth. NZ is in the stone ages for internet, so don't feel too bad in South Africa.
If you really believe that, then maybe you're slightly autistic. I think it was in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink where he talks about the inability of some autistic people to read any form of body language, whereas normal individuals process an amazing amount subconsciously.
You either don't realize the amount of information you pick up talking to someone in person, or you don't pick it up at all. Communicating with just text is like visiting a bakery without sight or smell--you've lost the richness of the experience.
Granted, virtual avatars only add another thin layer to the whole picture, but if you don't realize what you miss in face to face communication, then you would be the emotionally/mentally challenged one.
I'm not going to speculate on whether they're talking client-side back-end or server-side back-end, but it could be server side: Steve Yegge has been working on some server side JS architecture at Google for nearly a year now.
Hmmm. Not knowing the entire background for scientology, I can't completely disagree, but I really didn't see anything related to the cult in Battlefield Earth. I took it at face value and tried not to read into it anything from the other myth. Given that, I'd recommend reading it, if for nothing more than the scene where the alien thinks humans eat raw rats. But get it at your local library or used book store, or whatever way will prevent any money from going to the cult.
The movie on the other hand...yikes.
There is no Crystal Reports company anymore. They were bought by another BI vendor called Business Objects. They might get bought by someone soon, but probably not by Apple.
I concur. I'm on my HP laptop right now, which is about 20 months old. It came with only one partition, so I had to format the entire thing when I got it to repartition it--I know I could have probably used something like Partition Magic, but I'm cheap and I wanted to uninstall all the cruft, like the Sonic garbage.
The upside is that it did some with a clean* (*HP OEM) Windows XP disk. Even though it was OEM, it gave me the option to keep most of the useless HP software off.
Beyond than, no problems yet. So I'm relatively pleased with HP for once.
I'm not going to dispute the poser-mentality, but I'm agreeing with the GP. *I* go to Starbucks for their bitter black coffee. Growing up in a world of Tim Horton's double-doubles and gas-station coffees, black Starbucks blends are gourmet. Screw the mocha lattes. I'm talking black coffee, no dairy, no sugar. Even after trying fair-trade shops, mom&pop shops, etc..., Starbucks still does it best, consistently. After trying to get a good cup of coffee from Gloria Jeans (and others) in Oz, I broke down and went to Starbucks for a good reliable cup.
Some people say the beans are burnt. But some people say that Islay single malt is $hite. I'm not one of those people.
You can introduce your own friendlier concepts. That's the power of it.
Javascript Closures: has a nice tutorial. In this case specifically, you can follow the event-handler system he's created. You could also look at the prototype.js library, specifically the "bind" function (function extension).
Now onclick executes "DoSomething" using the current "this" as the context, and stores the args. Not only is this very useful, but it avoids the memory leaks in IE caused by combining inline functions, DOM elements, and closures.
Anon, but I'll still bite since I rarely hear this mentioned:
Visual Studio is a better debugger than Venkman. Start debugging, attach to IE, script type, and start stepping through. Sure you can use the MS Script debugger as well, but there's other good things about Visual Studio for.js editing.
Notepad variants are good for simple projects, but nothing beats coding in the same UI as your debugger. Especially if you're doing AJAX with a C++ back-end and use Visual Studio for that anyway.
I'm keen on Laszlo too (pandora is a really good use of it--google if you don't know), but I need to be picky about some of your points.
First, you're not really building your application in flash. You're building it in (mostly) xml and Laszlo is currently compiling into Flash 6/7/8. They explicitly say that they designed it so that if someone else comes along that's as-good/better that they'll try to support that as well. It's just that flash really has few RIA competitors, so they're using it now.
Secondly, it's highly integrated with javascript so you can make it feel just as hacky as javascript ever did. They have some nice tricks with events that make some of the javascript simpler (and you don't have to write tons of javascript UI controls). You don't have to use javascript with it, but you'll probably find things a bit easier if you do.
And third, as much as it pains me to say it, javascript itself is a beautiful language and hardly hacky at all. Undisciplined javascript and working with the HTML DOM is where that hacky feeling comes through. Everyone blames javascript because of all the garbage javascript "tricks" out there that make you want to shower after visting a page.
Finally, and most important, OpenLaszlo uses AJAX. They have multiple solutions for the same problem, but recently (3.1 I think) they added XmlHttpRequest support. Compile the Laszlo app once and have it read from XML dataset(s) that are updated by AJAX calls.
The JavaScript debugger built into Visual Studio.NET is superior to the Venkeman/Mozilla debugger (IMO), especially since it's on the same tool where you debug your server code.
If you have the product, just attach to an IE process, and select the "script" style of debugging. All the currently loaded.js files will appear in the running documents window and you can step through any javascript execution.
You may need to change some of the default IE settings like "enable script debugging".
I find the UI in Venkeman a bit strange and non-intuitive. Or buggy. I can never get the watch to work properly. Some of the extensions to firefox for web development are really useful, like "web developer" toolbar.
Or use DVDShrink and rip&burn your own copy. DVD burners are almost standard in computers now. Probably better quality than a download, and much quicker.
Wanting privacy is not the same as protecting pedophiles. There were pedophiles before the internet and there will be pedophiles if you make the entire internet transparent.
Don't be so naive. Kids are being harmed outside the internet, despite what CNN tells you.
Slashdot Mirror
You mean Wilt Chamberlain.
JS has try/catch blocks. JS has OO syntax if you want it (debatable issue anyway). Debugging JS is easy using Firebug or Visual Studio.
I'm not going to win you over by arguing, but some of us do like it, probably for some of the reasons you hate it.
None of us would use JavaScript? Maybe one of us likes it.
Stop confusing the DOM with JavaScript. I think you'd be hard-pressed to find 100 flaws, and less than 10 core language problems (e.g., non-library), with many in both lists being subjective issues.
This needs to be modded up. NZ is still in relative dark ages with the internet. Lots of talk about it getting better, but the basic services you can buy here are dreadful. It's only been around a year since they offered "uncapped" uploads, which means higher than 127kbps. It costs roughly $70 for 10GB/month for "naked internet" which means you don't need a phone as well, and that's only just arrived. Unless you can get cable internet, which is only in a few selected areas. My office had a 35GB monthly cap for about 30 people not too long ago. Now we have unlimited, but the bandwidth is sketchy. I've seen the internet in other parts of the world. We got the shaft when it came to handing out tubes.
#1: Don't try to meet fellow geeks. Meet anyone and judge them on their personality individually. Maybe you want to socialize with non-LARPs once in a while.
#2: Leave your home. You mention "meat" frighteningly often in your summary, so maybe some cooking classes or taxidermy courses? Volunteer at a soup kitchen or something. Join a sports team or a game club or something. If you're fitness adverse, now is a good time to start. Classes at a gym are good motivation to exercise, and you can meet people.
#3: Make conversation with random people if you have a difficult time talking to normal people. Buy a coffee, make small talk as you pay. Talk to your butcher when buying meat. All this will help your confidence.
#4: Leave your home.
#5: Find singles events in your area. Bar nights, group things, etc, if you're interested in meeting people without the pressure of one-on-one.
#6: Leave your home.
Did I miss anything? Seriously, it's relatively easy. Just harden up and go out into the world. Stop letting fear rule your life. You'd be surprised how often you can meet geeks by accident these days. Everyone seems to have a bit of geekiness about them.
Thank goodness for git... Seriously. SVN as the "killer" form of something? Only productivity.
Please provide me one example of a free/OSS platform implementation of a commercial product that is inarguable BETTER than the original proprietary version
Linux > Unix.
Git > Sourcesafe.
It means sometimes you need to rinse the leaves before brewing. Sometimes, you can brew the same leaves many times without losing flavour. Tea analogy was a joke. Don't read too much into it.
$30NZ for 5GB/month on slow WiMax, or whatever it's called. Faster wired solutions are available, but they don't have the location flexibility and they're no cheaper for bandwidth. NZ is in the stone ages for internet, so don't feel too bad in South Africa.
If you really believe that, then maybe you're slightly autistic. I think it was in Malcolm Gladwell's Blink where he talks about the inability of some autistic people to read any form of body language, whereas normal individuals process an amazing amount subconsciously. You either don't realize the amount of information you pick up talking to someone in person, or you don't pick it up at all. Communicating with just text is like visiting a bakery without sight or smell--you've lost the richness of the experience. Granted, virtual avatars only add another thin layer to the whole picture, but if you don't realize what you miss in face to face communication, then you would be the emotionally/mentally challenged one.
I'm not going to speculate on whether they're talking client-side back-end or server-side back-end, but it could be server side: Steve Yegge has been working on some server side JS architecture at Google for nearly a year now.
Hmmm. Not knowing the entire background for scientology, I can't completely disagree, but I really didn't see anything related to the cult in Battlefield Earth. I took it at face value and tried not to read into it anything from the other myth. Given that, I'd recommend reading it, if for nothing more than the scene where the alien thinks humans eat raw rats. But get it at your local library or used book store, or whatever way will prevent any money from going to the cult. The movie on the other hand...yikes.
There is no Crystal Reports company anymore. They were bought by another BI vendor called Business Objects. They might get bought by someone soon, but probably not by Apple.
I concur. I'm on my HP laptop right now, which is about 20 months old. It came with only one partition, so I had to format the entire thing when I got it to repartition it--I know I could have probably used something like Partition Magic, but I'm cheap and I wanted to uninstall all the cruft, like the Sonic garbage.
The upside is that it did some with a clean* (*HP OEM) Windows XP disk. Even though it was OEM, it gave me the option to keep most of the useless HP software off.
Beyond than, no problems yet. So I'm relatively pleased with HP for once.
I'm not going to dispute the poser-mentality, but I'm agreeing with the GP. *I* go to Starbucks for their bitter black coffee. Growing up in a world of Tim Horton's double-doubles and gas-station coffees, black Starbucks blends are gourmet. Screw the mocha lattes. I'm talking black coffee, no dairy, no sugar. Even after trying fair-trade shops, mom&pop shops, etc..., Starbucks still does it best, consistently. After trying to get a good cup of coffee from Gloria Jeans (and others) in Oz, I broke down and went to Starbucks for a good reliable cup.
Some people say the beans are burnt. But some people say that Islay single malt is $hite. I'm not one of those people.
How so?
Javascript Closures: has a nice tutorial. In this case specifically, you can follow the event-handler system he's created. You could also look at the prototype.js library, specifically the "bind" function (function extension).
foo.onclick = this.DoSomething.bind(this, arg1, agr2);
Now onclick executes "DoSomething" using the current "this" as the context, and stores the args. Not only is this very useful, but it avoids the memory leaks in IE caused by combining inline functions, DOM elements, and closures.
Visual Studio is a better debugger than Venkman. Start debugging, attach to IE, script type, and start stepping through. Sure you can use the MS Script debugger as well, but there's other good things about Visual Studio for .js editing.
Notepad variants are good for simple projects, but nothing beats coding in the same UI as your debugger. Especially if you're doing AJAX with a C++ back-end and use Visual Studio for that anyway.
Um...They also sell Enterprise products. Given their brand-name recognition and expertise, selling this stuff shouldn't be too difficult.
First, you're not really building your application in flash. You're building it in (mostly) xml and Laszlo is currently compiling into Flash 6/7/8. They explicitly say that they designed it so that if someone else comes along that's as-good/better that they'll try to support that as well. It's just that flash really has few RIA competitors, so they're using it now.
Secondly, it's highly integrated with javascript so you can make it feel just as hacky as javascript ever did. They have some nice tricks with events that make some of the javascript simpler (and you don't have to write tons of javascript UI controls). You don't have to use javascript with it, but you'll probably find things a bit easier if you do.
And third, as much as it pains me to say it, javascript itself is a beautiful language and hardly hacky at all. Undisciplined javascript and working with the HTML DOM is where that hacky feeling comes through. Everyone blames javascript because of all the garbage javascript "tricks" out there that make you want to shower after visting a page.
Finally, and most important, OpenLaszlo uses AJAX. They have multiple solutions for the same problem, but recently (3.1 I think) they added XmlHttpRequest support. Compile the Laszlo app once and have it read from XML dataset(s) that are updated by AJAX calls.
That was strange, love!
If you have the product, just attach to an IE process, and select the "script" style of debugging. All the currently loaded .js files will appear in the running documents window and you can step through any javascript execution.
You may need to change some of the default IE settings like "enable script debugging".
I find the UI in Venkeman a bit strange and non-intuitive. Or buggy. I can never get the watch to work properly. Some of the extensions to firefox for web development are really useful, like "web developer" toolbar.
Besides those already mentioned, they also sell the Earth.
Or use DVDShrink and rip&burn your own copy. DVD burners are almost standard in computers now. Probably better quality than a download, and much quicker.
Don't be so naive. Kids are being harmed outside the internet, despite what CNN tells you.