Starter Assets

February 2nd, 2010 by Rob Larsen

I just wanted to point folks to the small project I started on Google code- Starter Assets.

It's based on some work I did at Cramer to standardize the development process there. The idea was to provide a standard set of files and a standard file/folder structure for people to start with whenever they were initiating a new project. I've expanded on it in this case to (eventually) include several doctypes (right now it's just xHTML strict- HTML5 will follow soon) and links to popular JavaScript libraries on the Google Ajax Library CDN (just jQuery for now.)*

To use, you'd just download or SVN export the folder that corresponds to the doctype/library combination that strikes your fancy and you're good to go.

I've released it in advance of a blog series I mentioned during my JavaScript presentation this past Thursday. It's a step-by-step tutorial on how I build web sites called, "Building a Modern Web Site."
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HTML5 + Wordpress Resource Links From my WordCamp Boston Presentation

January 23rd, 2010 by Rob Larsen

Me, PResenting at WordCamp Boston

Owing to the contrast on the A/V system, my last slide was illegible, so here are all the links that folks couldn't see.

The presentation itself:
HTML5 + WordPress

And the resource links:

The working group
http://www.whatwg.org/
Mark Pilgrim's HTML5 book
Dive into HTML5
The Modernizr library
Modernizr
The outliner
http://gsnedders.html5.org/outliner/
The post talking about Kubrick
I’m Messing Around With an HTML5 Version of the Default WordPress Theme

My other sites:
DrunkenFist.com (art portfolio)
@robreact

I'll have video of the presentation up shortly (I hope!)

Recent Reading (JavaScript Library CDNs, User-Agent Strings, Hacks, Hacks and Hacks)

January 20th, 2010 by Rob Larsen

Should You Use JavaScript Library CDNs?

Interesting reading. Here's the salient bit:

Or, more simply: If we use Google’s JavaScript Library CDN, we are asking the majority of our website visitors (who don’t have jQuery already cached) to take a 1/3 of a second penalty (the time to connection to Google’s CDN) to potentially save a minority of our website visitors (those who do have a cached copy of jQuery) 1/3 of a second (the length of time to download jQuery 1.3.2 over a 768kps connection).

That does not make sense. It makes even less sense as the download speed of your visitors increases. Try to avoid serving 20 or 30 kilobytes of content at the cost of using a 3rd party just doesn’t make sense.

We've used the Google CDN to serve jQuery at Cramer with no obvious complaints and I heartily recommend using the configurator/CDN option that Yahoo offers (for the unitiated, it builds a "just what you need" package to grab from their CDN, so you don't have to serve every YUI Module just to do x), but Billy Hoffman's article definitely makes me rethink the former.

History of the user-agent string

If you didn't live through it (and I didn't live through the whole thing), now you can revisit the strange history of the user-agent string in just a few, well-written, minutes.

Comprehensive List of Browser-Specific CSS Hacks

I hate me some browser hacks. But that's a mighty fine list.

Detecting browsers javascript hacks

We spent about 45 minutes running variations of the one-liners above in the console during a code-review last week. Fun times.

It sounded like this a couple of times:

"Wait, what?"

And finally… are you enjoying the jQuery advent calendar? I'm interested in running jQuery 1.4 against the demo code I build for my library presentation. I expect to be bowled over.

I'm Resolute

January 1st, 2010 by Rob Larsen

Looking to 2010, these are the big things I'm hoping to accomplish (tech wise):
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What I Read This Week (jQuery's live(), algorithms, IE8 + VPN, Chrome )

December 9th, 2009 by Rob Larsen

These are the posts that have kept me engaged during my quiet moments this week.

Demystifying jQuery .live() and why it’s generally faster than .bind()

A short article looking at jQuery's .live().

List of Algorithms

Just what it says it is- a big-ass list of algorithms. I wish more had source code.

Using a VPN Clobbers IE 8 Performance

The folks at HttpWatch detail the ins and outs of the way that IE8 handles their enhanced connection rules. The browser is set to use 6 open connections, but only when a broadband connection is in use, so there are situations where it can fall back to using just 2.

(down)Loading JavaScript as strings
Steve Souders is a font of performance wisdom. I wish I'd been able to check out the Velocity Online Conference today.

Technically speaking, what makes Google Chrome fast?
Front end engineers can learn much from the people who make browsers. That's the case here. The video content is excellent.

Computer science in JavaScript: Base64 encoding
This is a great series, moving the discussion of JS beyond the browser and the DOM and into a more primary, and therefore really interesting, realm.

JavaScript Library Showdown. Video of my CDIA Presentation is Live. Check It Out!

July 31st, 2009 by Rob Larsen

Thanks to Jason Duclos, my presentation from a couple of weeks ago is live. In it I compare standard JavaScript DOM methods to YUI, jQuery, Dojo and Prototype/Scriptaculous.

JavaScript Library Showdown from rob larsen on Vimeo.

Here's the deck.

Jason is the man for putting this together, by the way.

YUI 3.0.0 beta 1 Available for Download

June 24th, 2009 by Rob Larsen

While I'm not a library guy in my day to day (more on that soon, I promise,) I do have some experience with YUI and featured it in my JavaScript library evaluation and talk in April, so it's definitely of interest when a major new release is pending. YUI is mightily impressive. Style-wise, the code is a little stiff/verbose for my liking, but the documentation, executions speed, logic and features of YUI are basically unmatched amongst the libraries I've evaluated. I'll be interested to see if 3 continues that trend and improves upon it.
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