Archive for September, 2007

Just a quick update on some action in the svn.

• new file: StickyWin.Ajax - adds ajax support to all stickywin classes (creates new classes, just append .Ajax to any of the existing ones)
• date.picker, product.picker - updated syntax to use Element.empty
• form.validator - now passes along the event object to the onFormValidate event so that the form submit event can be stopped if you like
• popupdetails - added html response support; you can now return the html you wish to display rather than a json object; only applies to ajax. Also added a cache so that multiple requests are not made for the same url.
• stickyWinHTML - ractored so that options are now, you know, *optional*
• MooScroller - added support for width option for horizontal scrolling
• TagMaker.js - new file  > demo in the wikitorial.

This article is awesome. Very insightful and entertaining. A must read (and it’s pretty short, for those of you who, you know, spend your time working).

So, we don’t care about performance or optimization much anymore.

Except in one place: JavaScript running on browsers in AJAX applications. And since that’s the direction almost all software development is moving, that’s a big deal.

…
But then, while you’re sitting on your googlechair in the googleplex sipping googleccinos and feeling smuggy smug smug smug, new versions of the browsers come out that support cached, compiled JavaScript. And suddenly NewSDK is really fast. And Paul Graham gives them another 6000 boxes of instant noodles to eat, so they stay in business another three years perfecting things.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/09/18.html

Over on the Mootools forums we have an announcement up regarding the release of Mootools 1.2rc1. :

To those who have been watching the SVN lately, you’ve probably been noticing some big changes to the structure of MooTools. We just got finished with a big merge into trunk that combined many things.

Mainly, these things are:

- Completely rewritten documentation, in a brand new format, for a brand new parser (ibolmo wrote about 7,000 lines of documentation, lets all give him a big thank you…)

- a new trunk structure containing Three directories (Source, Compatibility, and Test)

- Backend code restructuring throughout the entire framework.

- An enhanced download page that allows you to include compatibility scripts that will make (almost) all old MooTools code work. (also check out the new YUI compressor…)

Now what we need from all of you:

- over the next week or so, wed like to get as many people testing out MooTools 1.2dev as possible.

- please submit bug reports as they come up both in here and via trac tickets.

- make your reports as detailed as possible and include sample code and demo links if possible.

Things you should be aware of:

- There are a few breaking changes in the trunk, but almost everything is taken care of by the inclusion of the compatibility scripts (right in the downloader).

The first issue deals with the extending of Classes and Natives via Class.extend. Instead of:

Array.extend({ … });

You must now use:

Array.implement({ … });

These changes have been made to keep the api clean and consistent, and the changes are certainly for the better. We may provide compatibility for the above issues (Class.extend compat. added), but moving forward, you should write your new code like this. Everything else should still work, but if you have any questions or problems with your scripts, please let us know so we can get everything in order for a release soon ;) I will update this post as any developments are made.

Download the latest trunk now! and start using the new and improved moo!

Thanks all for your time, and your help. -Tom

There’s a nice new article by Jonathan Snook on Adobe AIR that is worth the read. I was about to write all about it here but I see that Ajaxian wrote about it yesterday. I’ll, instead, just post what they had to say about it:

It looks like everyone wants to put out some form of Adobe AIR application and Twitter-based apps seem to be all of the rage, possibly because of the ease of integrating with Twitter’s API.

Apparently, Jonathan Snook didn’t want to be left out of the fun and created his new Twitter app appropriately called Snitter:

I built Snitter for a couple reasons. First off, I wanted to take AIR out for a spin and see what it could do. Secondly, I find using the Twitter web site frustrating at times because it doesn’t offer up features that I’ve always felt could be easily added. So, I’ve gone ahead and built an app with the features that I’ve always wanted.

Jonathan definitely has a flare for style and he’s brought that over to a really nice looking application:

You’ll need the following to run the app:

• A Twitter account (duh!)
• The Adobe AIR runtime
• The Snitter AIR file