Elsewhere on the 'Net - JavaScript

JavaScript elsewhere on the 'Net.

Includes:

22 September 2009

WebKit Page Cache II – The unload Event

Very interesting discussion of the problems the unload event poses for browser vendors. Introduction of the pageshow and pagehide events.

Events | Permalink

11 September 2009

Touching and Gesturing on the iPhone

Useful overview of the (iPhone proprietary?) touch events.

Events, iPhone | Permalink

18 June 2009

JavaScript tests & Compatibility tables

Robert Nyman created a proper test suite + compatibility table for JavaScript 1.6-1.8 features. Useful!

Core | Permalink

15 June 2009

JavaScript Frameworks within Mobile Widgets - Part 2

Stefan Kolb continues his series of tests of JavaScript libraries on mobile phones. This time he did the TaskSpeed tests on ten Nokia S60 phones.

Conclusion: Dojo again the fastest library; this time Prototype is the slowest.

Libraries, Performance, W3C Widgets | Permalink

22 May 2009

ECMAScript 5 Strict Mode, JSON, and More

John discusses some new ECMAScript 5 features: strict mode and native JSON parsing. (It should be noted that IE8 is said to contain the latter already, though I haven't tested it yet so I can't say whether it adheres to the proposed implementation completely.)

Core | Permalink

21 May 2009

jQuery vs MooTools

A useful comparison between jQuery and MooTools.

Libraries | Permalink

13 May 2009

JavaScript Frameworks within Mobile Widgets

Stefan Kolb, one of my co-workers at Vodafone, has conducted a selector performance test for seven JavaScript library versions in the Vodafone Widget Manager, which runs Opera Mobile, on ten different Symbian S60 phones.

For now it is clearly visible that some frameworks perform better than others in terms of DOM selection. By far the slowest framework in my tests across all devices was the YUI v2.7.0 framework. The fastest frameworks were the two version of the Dojo framework, with version 1.3.0 performing slightly better than version 1.2.3.

It is also clear from the results that the performance depends on the mobile device. The Nokia N73 was the slowest phone, no matter which framework was tested on that device. The fastest phone was the Nokia E66, closely followed by the Nokia N85.

Hopefully, the tested - well established - web frameworks will soon be optimized to perform better on mobile phones. After that, I am sure, they will be of great value for the mobile widget developer, just like they are for web developers today.

Obviously, we need many, many more performance tests before we can say which library is "best" on mobile phones. Still, today we've made a start.

Libraries, Performance, W3C Widgets | Permalink

4 May 2009

Why I don't love JavaScript's module pattern

Jonathan admits he doesn't like the module pattern (use private variables and functions within a parent function, then return an object that contains public functions).

His main reason is that he wants to extend the modules later on, after the initialisation. Right now I'm wondering why we couldn't just add all functions we need to the initial function. As a reason, Jonathan quotes "Aspect-oriented Programming"", a technique I've never heard of.

For the moment I disagree with Jonathan, though that's partly because I don't have enough information.

JavaScript | Permalink

ierange: Implementing W3C DOM ranges for IE

Tim Cameron Ryan has written a script to work around the differences between an IE Text Range and a W3C Range. I applaud his courage; I once considered doing this but the incompatibilities were terrible and I decided I needed a little more practice; practice I never got because my career started moving away from production coding.

DOM, IE | Permalink

18 April 2009

Versioning Language Features in JScript

Differences in JavaScript implementation between IE8-as-IE8 and IE8-as-IE7.

IE, JavaScript | Permalink

13 April 2009

EcmaScript Edition 5, formerly known as 3.1: Getting a new JavaScript

Ajaxian gives a useful overview of where we stand with regard to ECMAScript 5.

Core, Standards/W3C | Permalink

4 April 2009

Detecting event support without browser sniffing

Kangax explains how to detect whether browsers support events.

The trick is that, say, document.onclick exists as a property even if no event handler is set (except in Mozilla). Read out whether the property exists, and you know if a browser supports an event. (It's slightly more complicated than that, but not much.)

Events | Permalink

3 April 2009

Introducing the Palm Mojo SDK early access program.

Palm now allows you to apply for a beta version of the webOS SDK, which includs the Mojo library. Maybe interesting; currently I'm wondering if I should sign up. (I wouldn't have the time to create a full app anyway, and I'm wondering what the SDK is worth without access to an actual Palm Pre.)

Anyway, I continue to be mildly impressed by Palm's wholesale gamble on the world of web development.

Libraries, Palm | Permalink

Overloading operators in JavaScript

Peter Nederlof points out an interesting trick: you can overload the + operator all by yourself by messing with toString(). Peter uses the trick to add vectors using just a +.

Interesting trick.

Core | Permalink

24 March 2009

Callbacks vs Events

Dean Edwards explains a tricky bit of scripting: how to prevent an error in one event callback (say, a load or DOMContentReady event) from blocking another event callback.

Not only is this useful in and of itself, but it's also gratifying to see that Dean

  1. blogs once more
  2. has a new domain

So I expect all the stuff we discussed over beers and on mailing lists to be blogged forthwith. Starting now.

Events | Permalink

24 February 2009

JavaScript support in Opera Mini 4

As it says. Useful info.

JavaScript, Opera Mobile/Mini | Permalink

3 February 2009

Opera web standards curriculum: JavaScript in town!

Chris Mills has published the JavaScript part of the Web Standards Curriculum, which includes my article about the principles of unobtrusive JavaScript.

JavaScript, Reference | Permalink

19 January 2009

PhoneGap, Palm Pre, and the State of Mobile Apps

Useful overview of the possibilities for creating web applications on various mobile phones.

Libraries, Mobile | Permalink

9 October 2008

Understanding eval scope

Rakesh Pai researches eval() and reports some truly curious findings; for instance a difference between plain eval() and window.eval() when they're used in an object method.

Required reading for anyone interested in JavaScript Core.

Core | Permalink

7 October 2008

Introducing onFocus and onBlur

The YUI team has taken my research into delegating the focus and blur events and included it in the brand new YUI 2.6.0

Use of the technique turned out to matter especially for creating and removing modal dialogs. When creating such a dialog, all focus events elsewhere on the page have to be redirected to it; after all the point of a modal dialog is that it cannot lose the focus except when you click on the Close button.

Until now YUI set a focus event on every single element on the page, an action that's costly in terms of performance. However, now they can just set one generic event at (presumably) document level, and that brings modal dialog creation time back by about 50%, and cleanup time by about 98%.

Now THAT's what I call performance gains. Cool work.

Events | Permalink

9 September 2008

JavaScript Benchmark Quality

With a new browser war looming, and JavaScript being the main battleground, the quality of JavaScript benchmarks becomes more and more important. John Resig takes a look at the three most important ones.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

20 June 2008

In-browser Development Tools: Firebug Still King

A comparison of debuggers created by the browser vendors.

Browsers, Debugging | Permalink

17 June 2008

Announcing SquirrelFish

Interesting piece on the new Safari JavaScript engine (SquirrelFish), and why it's faster than the old one.

JavaScript, Safari | Permalink

17 April 2008

You're Fat and I Hate You

James Edwards repeats a few arguments against JavaScript libraries that are never far from my mind. In this case, his annoyance seems to derive from script authors who don't know how their own scripts work; and that's something I wouldn't like, either.

Nonetheless the whole To Use or Not To Use discussion remains extremely complex. I used to speak against libraries at every opportunity; nowadays I'm not so sure any more. But while reading James's piece I again feel myself sliding back to a strict No Libraries approach.

The final word hasn't yet been spoken.

Libraries | Permalink

A Good Enough addEvent

Two and a half year after my failed addEvent recoding contest, filosofo posted an ultra-short function that mends the this problem.

Also, he explains why my contest failed: my requirements were too strict. Filosofo used a trick that precludes a removeEvent function from working, because he never needs one. Truth to tell, I rarely need one either, though it's absolutely indispensable in my recent events test pages.

All in all this is interesting to read, for all its brevity.

(Via Scott Andrew.)

Events | Permalink

14 April 2008

Dromaeo JavaScript Performance Testing

John Resig unveils a new JavaScript performance test. Very interesting.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

4 April 2008

Popularity

Brendan Eich gives an overview of early JavaScript history.

History, JavaScript | Permalink

20 March 2008

A collection is not an array

James Edwards is quite right to point this out once again. Collections, such as those returned by getElementsByTagName(), are not arrays. In many cases it makes sense to convert them to an array, but you lose the dynamic nature of a collection. Even that's not terrible, but you should be aware of all these facts.

Core | Permalink

21 February 2008

Comparing Document Position

Two years ago I wrote an entry about compareDocumentPosition() and how it can overcome Firefox's annoying disregard of the useful contains() method.

Now it turns out that John Resig has been studying compareDocumentPosition() ever since, and has come up with a way to emulate it in IE. As usual with such ideas, once you understand what's going on it's extremely simple and you're left wondering "why didn't I think of this?".

While he was at it he also rewrote my getElementsByTagNames() function.

Great work.

DOM | Permalink

13 February 2008

Constructors considered mildly confusing

More data on constructors and prototypes. For me it's hard to follow since I don't know Java so I can't judge how much (or little) JavaScript resembles Java.

Core | Permalink

11 February 2008

XPath Overnight

John discusses XPath and its place in JavaScript libraries. Although in general XPath seems to be fast, he's worried about encountering incompatibility problems. These problems might mean that all libraries need both an XPath module and a regular DOM module for the forseeable future, which makes maintenance harder.

Browsers, Libraries | Permalink

Five things to do to a script before handing it over to the next developer

Chris explains the five steps you have to take before turning any of your own scripts over to the next guy.

  1. Put all style definitions in the CSS file and just change class names.
  2. Rewrite all code that might impair execution speed.
  3. Put all class names and other configurable data in a separate config object.
  4. Make sure your variable names are human-readable.
  5. Comment (including your name)

I suppose that most of my scripts don't obey every single of these five steps. Let's keep them in mind when I publish a new one.

JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

The Performance Paradox

John talks about performance testing JavaScript libraries and how not to go about it.

JavaScript, Performance, Tests, Theory | Permalink

28 January 2008

Version Targeting and JavaScript Libraries

Drew McLellan takes a look at JavaScript libraries and the versioning switch.

With version targeting, IE7 will never go away. Just as browsers are born, they must also die and make way for the next generation.

That's an interesting thought I haven't yet seen anywhere else. Good argument.

IE, Libraries, Theory | Permalink

14 January 2008

Will Memory Leaks Matter in 2009?

John is preparing for his next book and is wondering if he should treat memory leaks. IE6 was infamous for its memory leaks, but the problem has been solved in IE7 and IE6 is on the way out. Should a description of this problem still take valuable book real estate?

Personally I think that memory leaks should still be treated, although a detailed description of the IE6 problems is not necessary any more by the time the book is released. A short summary might be useful, though.

Besides, other browsers are rumoured to have memory leaks, too. I'd love to have a solid description of these problems—or a statement that despite rumours these browsers have in fact no problems.

So my answer is Yes, treat them. Keep the treatment short, except for problems that creep up very frequently.

Browsers, JavaScript | Permalink

The competition for you to come up with the best test for Acid3

Ian Hickson asks for our help in filling the last 16 questions of the Acid 3 (JS) test. If you have time on your hands and access to Firefox and Safari trunk builds, participate.

Browsers, JavaScript, Tests | Permalink

10 January 2008

Cross-Site XMLHttpRequest

John Resig explains cross-site XMLHttp. The principle is simple: someone offering data may opt to add a header that says which other sites are allowed to download and play with the data.

A few months ago I mused about something like this, but I didn't post anything about it since I couldn't (and can't) judge the security consequences. Now the Firefox team says there aren't any (which seems to be implicit in them incorporating this feature in FF3), which is good enough for me.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

12 December 2007

Comet works, and it’s easier than you think

Simon starts evangelising Comet, a system for continuously pushing JavaScript to the client. Although the idea is not new (I remember an experiment by Scott Andrew somewhere in 2000/1), it seems to have been set up thoroughly now.

Let's see where it's headed.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

4 December 2007

Further links on ECMAScript 4

Liorean gives a very useful overview of who said what in the increasingly impossible-to-follow ECMAScript 4 debate.

Core, Linkdumps | Permalink

Better ways to writing JavaScript

Dustin gives tons of useful advice to beginning JavaScripters.

JavaScript | Permalink

JavaScript shortcut notations that shouldn't be black magic to the "average developer"

Chris gives tons of useful advice to beginning JavaScripters.

JavaScript | Permalink

22 November 2007

Unobtrusive JavaScript - Rules to work by

Ajaxian follows up Chris's recent Seven rules of unobtrusive JavaScripting by interviewing him.

JavaScript | Permalink

15 November 2007

The World of ECMAScript

John Resig creates a map of the confused jumble JavaScript is right now. Study it carefully and impress your friends with your detailed knowledge.

JavaScript | Permalink

Putting Java in our Script, our unfortunate doom

Dustin is not happy with the proposed JavaScript 2.0, largely because it makes JavaScript more like Java.

I know about the fight going on between (apparently) Mozilla/Adobe vs. Microsoft/Yahoo! about the spec, but I'm not sure what the actual issues are. Therefore I like this sort of opinion pieces: they show what people on both sides of the dividing line think.

Now let's hope for an opinion piece that defends the proposed changes in easy language.

Core | Permalink

11 November 2007

JavaScript Madness: Keyboard Events

A valiant try at defining the browser incompatibilities surrounding the key events. Yes, this is complicated. In any case I'm glad somebody has done some work; I'll probably use this page once I get back to describing the key events and their problems.

Events | Permalink

2 November 2007

Bug Fixes in JavaScript 2

John calls attention to some changes in JavaScript Core that will gradually become supported. I especially like the this propagation.

Core | Permalink

28 October 2007

JavaScript Library Overview

John Resig's slides from his presentation at the Ajax Experiences. This sort of overview is SO useful.

Libraries | Permalink

20 October 2007

Evaluate Low Level JavaScript Performance Characteristics

Benchmark tests for run times of low-level JavaScript functionality in the four major browsers. Overall ranking:

  1. Opera
  2. Safari
  3. Firefox
  4. IE

The results of my own tests tend to swap Safari and Firefox, but they're different sorts of tests. In any case we're one step closer to understanding performance issues in the four major browsers.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

Why do DOM interfaces suck so much?

Dustin takes issue with ugly DOM interfaces; especially those that require endless lists of parameters nobody ever uses; for instance window.find or initMouseEvent.

The most striking example remains the third argument of addEventListener: people rarely use event capturing, so why not make this argument optional with the default set to false (bubbling). I agree completely.

DOM | Permalink

17 October 2007

Dealing with the Flexibility of JavaScript

Neil Roberts takes a stab at defining the thin line between well-modularised and obfuscated JavaScript.

a good rule of thumb is that each parameter should always do the same thing. [...] If you have a parameter named url, go ahead and allow it to be a variety of object types, as long as they all indicate URLs. But once you start letting a parameter be a URL or a date, and you figure out which it should be based on variable analysis, you should start worrying.

No doubt there are many more such rules; I'm glad somebody is attempting to describe them.

JavaScript | Permalink

11 October 2007

Custom Attributes And Class Names

There is some discussion going on about using custom attributes. Alex Russell uses them in Dojo (and I myself have been using and promoting them since 2003). First Aaron Gustafson criticized him mildly, Aaron's main argument being that you can use a custom DTD.

Now Dan Webb weighs in. He goes further than Aaron: he doesn't want custom attributes at all. Instead, he points to the possibility of using good old class to store the data the scripts need. Possible, but when you've got a lot of data to store, it can become ugly in a hurry.

All in all, right now I tend to side with Alex, but I'll read the arguments of the opposite camp with care.

Maybe we can get around the problem by officially specifying a bunch of attributes that are expressly meant for storing script data. I'd like more than one; ideal would be something like:

<element scriptData1="retrospect" scriptData2="opaque" />

I don't think "scriptData" is the best name, but the idea would be that there's an infinite set of attributes to hold script data; and yes, that would mean that scriptData999999 would also be allowed.

Anyway, this discussion has hardly started up yet. I'm curious how it will proceed.

JavaScript, Standards/W3C | Permalink

28 September 2007

DOMContentLoaded for IE, Safari, everything, without document.write

Stuart's solution for the onload problem.

onload | Permalink

14 September 2007

The Browser.Next List

Alex Russell:

Browser.Next list of 10 issues that would give Ajax libraries a break and let app authors worry less

Interesting.

Browsers, JavaScript | Permalink

19 July 2007

JavaScript Getters and Setters

John Resig explains getters and setters. I, for one, needed that explanation because I didn't have the faintest idea what they are. Now that I understand them I agree they're cool. Unfortunately they don't work in IE.

Core | Permalink

4 July 2007

JavaScript as a Language

John Resig thinks it's time for JavaScript to take the final step toward being a fully fledged programming language.

JavaScript | Permalink

16 June 2007

IE Fires Onresize When Body Resizes

The resize event fires also when the <body> element is resized. I knew that, but I forgot it. Thanks to Jonathan for reminding me.

Events, IE | Permalink

10 June 2007

ecmascript-lang.org

A new website dedicated to the evolving ECMAScript specification.

Core | Permalink

Who’s Got Style?

Over on the YUI blog Nicholas Zakas takes a look at dynamically generating a <style> element. Appending a text node with new style rules works in all browsers but IE; while in IE you should use the cssText property of the element.

DOM | Permalink

9 June 2007

SnookSurvey #2: To Link or Not?

Jonathan continues his SnookSurvey.

JavaScript | Permalink

1 June 2007

JavaScript 1.8 Progress

John Resig on JavaScript Core updates in the upcoming Firefox.

Core | Permalink

30 May 2007

SnookSurvey: Element Attributes in JavaScript

Do we use img.src = 'value' or img.setAttribute('src','value')? It appears to be a simple question, but there's much more to it than meets the eye, I think. Comment 34 contains my answer.

DOM | Permalink

17 May 2007

What’s new in JavaScript?

Dustin Diaz on prototypal inheritance. Although I don't pretend to understand all of it (I'm not really a programmer, and certainly don't have any kind of formal education in programming), I fully support his basic message that JavaScript is JavaScript, and should be approached as JavaScript, and not as, for instance, Java. If you want to write JavaScript, learn JavaScript.

Core | Permalink

16 May 2007

JavaScript Libraries: The Big Picture

At XTech in Paris Simon compared the Big Four libraries. Here are his slides. Interesting, altogether.

Libraries | Permalink

11 May 2007

I Object

Douglas Crockford once more explains hidden properties in JavaScript objects. Every object not only has its own properties that you define for your own reasons, it also inherits quite a few methods and properties from other objects, ranging all the way back to the primordial Object object.

These inherited methods and properties will give false positives: for instance, every object you define has a constructor property. If your script doesn't make exclude these inherited objects explicitly, you have a problem.

Fortunately there is the hasOwnProperty() method that returns true if a property has been defined on the object itself; false if it's inherited from another object.

Core | Permalink

9 May 2007

Accessing the document inside an iframe

Finally a good summary of accessing a document inside an iframe.

DOM | Permalink

2 May 2007

Sun’s Project Flair: Ajax without the DOM, CSS, HTML, er wait

Ajaxian warns against the latest round of Ajax bullshit; this time from Sun. Apparently an otherwise sensible, even profoundly accomplished, programmer wants to write a JavaScript "self-supporting Web programming kernel" (whatever thay may be; sounds like marketing-speak to me) that allows people to ignore those nasty, nasty details of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript when writing Ajax applications.

What annoys me most is not so much the idea itself, but the breathless arrogance that speaks from it: I'm an accomplished programmer, so accomplished in fact that I don't have to learn new langauges when I want to do something I can't do in the languages I already speek. I don't want to learn something as easy as HTML/CSS, so I'm going to re-re-re-invent the wheel.

Dion Almaer observes that we should be glad that this latest round of idiocy does not require us to learn a new programming language. The worst thing about it is that he's right.

This message may be a hoax; Ajaxian refers to a cio.in article, which generally refers back to infoworld.com, where nothing can be found about this latest stupidity.

Libraries | Permalink

Timing and Synchronization in JavaScript

Detailed treatment of how browsers handle events, with emphasis on the timing: exactly when does an event handler fire and what does the user notice?

Also treats batches of events (mousedown-mouseup-click), event queuing (when an event occurs while another event handler is still running, the browser waits for the earlier event handler to quit), how timeouts are somewhat like events, and many, many more interesting details.

Required reading for any JavaScripter.

(Via Simon.)

Events | Permalink

JavaScript and Screen Readers

A practical example of catering for screen readers when creating a nify JavaScript effect. Useful tips.

Events, Screen readers | Permalink

27 April 2007

I’d Rather switch Than Fight!

For once I disagree with Douglas Crockford: fall-throughs in switch statements are extremely useful. He doesn't actually deny that, but states that they can lead to complicated bugs; a statement that would have been stronger for some proof.

Take this simple function from Form Validation. It uses a fall-through because the types text, textarea and select-one should be treated the same:

function isRequired(formField) {
	switch (formField.type) {
		case 'text':
		case 'textarea':
		case 'select-one':
			if (formField.value)
				return true;
			return false;
		case 'radio':
			var radios = formField.form[formField.name];
			for (var i=0;i<radios.length;i++) {
				if (radios[i].checked) return true;
			}
			return false;
		case 'checkbox':
			return formField.checked;
	}	
}

My question is: what's wrong with this function? Which errors could occur? The only thing I can think of is the occurrence of an as-yet unknown type.

I'd love some clarification on why this is bad coding practice. I don't see the problem, but I don't want to doubt Douglas' word, either.

Core | Permalink

The sliding scale

Jeremy on the JS library panel at Web 2.0 Expo. I agree with the idea of the gliding scale from libraries meant to make websites to libraries meant to build applications. Needless to say I'll give the latter a wide berth, and I STRONGLY disagree with the idea of using Java to write JavaScript. If you want to write JavaScript, learn JavaScript.

Libraries | Permalink

24 April 2007

Seven JavaScript Techniques You Should Be Using Today

Dustin Diaz shares a few important tricks. His addListener elegantly solves the problem of the missing this keyword in Microsoft's attachEvent, and his tip to include a method in getElementsBySomething is worthwhile, too.

Core | Permalink

21 April 2007

Unobtrusive connected select boxes - yet another solution approach

Chris has a simple solution for creating connected select boxes in an unobtrusive way: use optgroup. Interesting thought.

DOM | Permalink

15 April 2007

Operation Aborted

Shaun explains how a <base> tag can mess up scripts that modify the page header before it's loaded completely.

DOM | Permalink

11 April 2007

Capabilities vs. Quirks: a look at browser sniffing

Andrew Dupont divides browser issues into two groups:

  1. Capabilities (does this browser support canvas?), which are addressed by object detection.
  2. Quirks (bugs), which may have to be addressed by browser detection.

I don't like browser detection for beans, but I'm forced to admit he has a point. The article also contains a few interesting technical details about the browser detection used in Prototype.

Browsers, JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

8 April 2007

JavaScript Keyboard Accessibility

The nuts and bolts of keeping a foldout menu keyboard accessible.

Accessibility, Events | Permalink

3 April 2007

The only for loop you will ever need

Chris discusses and dissects ways and means of looping through an array. I still use the first, simplest way because I'm not convinced reading out the array's length every loop takes a lot of time, but it's useful to have such an overview.

Core | Permalink

2 April 2007

JavaScript Updates in Firefox 3.0a3

John Resig explores them.

JavaScript, Mozilla | Permalink

The Ajax/Flash continuum

Jeremy on Ajax and Flash, and the continuum between web sites and web applications. When you're working on the application side, Flash becomes a serious option, while Ajax is generally harder to code and less accessible.

Data Retrieval, Flash, Theory | Permalink

More on IE and window.event

David Flanagan discovers yet more weirdness in IE's window.event.

Events | Permalink

25 March 2007

Setting & Retrieving Accesskeys with JavaScript and DOM

Ian Lloyd discusses ways and means of using acceskeys that don't interfere with 'normal' browser functions (like Ctrl+R = Reload). He wants to allow users to set their own accesskeys through a little script. Interesting idea.

Accessibility, JavaScript | Permalink

Rules For JavaScript Library Authors

Dean isn't done yet: here are his rules for library authors. They all seem so simple, but are frequently broken by authors with more technical prowess than common sense.

Libraries | Permalink

Choosing the right JavaScript library

Nicholas Zakas offers some advice on choosing a JavaScript library. As far as I can see Dean's Base scores well on all of these points.

Libraries | Permalink

Yet Another JavaScript Library Without Documentation

Dean Edwards finally unveils his Base library which he already mentioned to me back in June 2006. No documentation, obviously. The library seems to concentrate on getting advanced standards to work in browsers that don't support them yet.

Libraries | Permalink

20 March 2007

Flash vs. Ajax: It's time to expand your toolbox

Dan talks about Flash vs. Ajax, and takes Jonathan's presentation at SxSW as a starting point. Dan investigates the reasons he decided to quit Flash programming, and notices many of these reasons have meanwhile been solved.

Data Retrieval, Flash, Theory | Permalink

9 March 2007

JSON is not as safe as people think it is

As it says. Curious Firefox features may pose a threat to 'secure' JSON.

(Via Simon.)

Data Retrieval | Permalink

8 March 2007

The Mark Of The n00b

Scott Andrew's ways of detecting newbies at work in JavaScript.

I've learnt one other trick for distinguishing newbies and pros: ask them the difference between this and self. Usually people who just claim to be excellent scripters don't know the answer, while real pros do.

JavaScript, Skillset | Permalink

Timer resolutions and browsers

Some facts about timer implementations, and why 10ms is the lowest practical limit for setTimeout. I found that out by experimenting (and fortunately this nugget is in The Book), but I didn't know why this was the case.

Browsers, JavaScript | Permalink

Future-Proofing JavaScript Libraries

Interesting thoughts on a tricky subject. A bug fix in a browser can cause problems in libraries. In addition, it turns out certain object detections (for instance if (element.getAttribute)) can fail in some browsers. I didn't know that.

Libraries | Permalink

10 February 2007

Avoiding Evil JavaScript

Useful overview of where JavaScript and accessibility stand.

Accessibility, JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

4 February 2007

Dynamic SCRIPT elements and Safari 2.0

Scott Andrew points out bugs in Safari's handling of dynamic <script> elements.

JavaScript, Safari | Permalink

23 January 2007

Improving accessibility for today’s AJAX - To hack or not?

A call for screen reader users willing to test the recently published virtual buffer update trick (see under 20 January).

Accessibility, Data Retrieval, Screen readers, Tests | Permalink

20 January 2007

The story of XMLHTTP

How XMLHTTP came to be. By the inventor.

Which is the real explanation of where the name XMLHTTP comes from- the thing is mostly about HTTP and doesn't have any specific tie to XML other than that was the easiest excuse for shipping it so I needed to cram XML into the name (plus- XML was the hot technology at the time and it seemed like some good marketing for the component).

Interesting read all in all, especially because it shows once again that this sort of stuff isn't planned: you create something for your own reasons, but suddenly it takes on a life of its own.

(Via Nate.)

Data Retrieval, History | Permalink

Improving Ajax applications for JAWS users

About some interesting Jaws features. Summary:

Popular screen readers use a virtual buffer to allow users to interact with web content, whereby the virtual buffer provides a mechanism for screen reader users to interact with web content. This article uncovers undocumented behaviour in JAWS 7.1 and later, which allows web developers to build Ajax applications that update the virtual buffer without any interaction from the user.

Delves deeply into Jaws's bowels. Not for the fainthearted.

Accessibility, Data Retrieval, Screen readers | Permalink

16 January 2007

Don’t buy the pig in the wig or “why most JavaScript tutorials still suck”

Chris Heilmann on sucky JavaScript books and tutorials. Includes a few interesting thoughts on the nature of education and why it's sometimes important to quickly give a simple example, even when that requires you to use document.write() or similar junk.

JavaScript | Permalink

12 January 2007

Your own personal library

...and Jeremy again.

Building up your own library, on the other hand, is something I wholeheartedly approve of. I’m pretty sure it’s something that just about every developer does anyway, but it really is a great way of accumulating wisdom… wisdom being knowledge over time.

Agreed. In fact, I'm steadily working on a few useful functions of my own, and although I'll never call it a library (I'm thinking of "utility file"), I'll publish it when I'm ready.

Libraries | Permalink

Scripting Essentials

Dan Webb on JavaScript libraries.

I’m a firm believer, especially with JavaScript, that simple is best. File size / download time arguments aside, the less code you can get away with having the browser parse and execute the better off you are. Less for the browser to do. Less to go wrong. Less to try to understand.

Agreed. Dan continues by listing a few essential functionalities that are so totally useful that it's worth having a library for.

Libraries | Permalink

IE+JScript Performance Recommendations Part 3: JavaScript Code Inefficiencies

Some tips from the MSIE team.

Core | Permalink

Why JSON isn’t just for JavaScript

So true: JSON can be used in any environment; it's not restricted to JavaScript.

However, there's an important social issue here, which is reflected in Dave Winer's post on JSON: people outside the front end community aren't (yet) used to it, so they will tend to underestimate it.

That problem will solve itself, although it might take a few more years.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

19 December 2006

Too many libraries, not enough librarians

Jeremy's thoughts on JavaScript libraries.

There’s a lot of talk about JavaScript libraries, including a lot of hype and cheerleading, but I think that maybe the discussion is disproportionate to the amount of people actually using libraries.

Spot on. As Jeremy says, a quick and non-scientific poll @media showed that only a minority of JavaScript developers use a library; the others just code by hand.

But JavaScript libraries are cool nowadays and will remain so until the Ajax hype blows over.

Libraries | Permalink

Dear JavaScript Library Developers…

Chris summarises what's wrong with JavaScript libraries today.

Libraries | Permalink

8 November 2006

Project Tamarin

Now this is pretty cool. Brendan Eich announces that Mozilla and Adobe are going to cooperate in the further development of JavaScript interpreters. This post gives a more high-level overview of what's going on.

What does this all mean? Let's start with users of Firefox and other applications based on Mozilla technology. They'll get future versions of Firefox and other Mozilla-based products that will run JavaScript-based applications significantly faster, [...]. (In its own testing Adobe has seen up to a ten times speedup of ActionScript applications due to the introduction of the AVM2 technology.) Since Firefox and Firefox extensions are partly written in JavaScript (as are other applications built on Mozilla's XUL technology), users will also likely see performance gains in some areas of Firefox itself.

Sounds great; bring it on.

JavaScript | Permalink

7 November 2006

Efficient JavaScript

Useful tips and tricks for performance gain.

JavaScript | Permalink

1 November 2006

Optimizing Page Load Time

Several possibilities for speeding up the page loading.

JavaScript | Permalink

The <module> Tag

Douglas Crockford proposes a modification to JavaScript's Same Source Policy in order to make cross-domain data retrieval possible.

Data Retrieval, HTML | Permalink

25 October 2006

IE, event objects, and attachEvent()

David Flanagan discovers that an event object is passed to event handlers set with the Microsoft proprietary attachEvent() method. This object is not the same as window.event, but contains the same properties.

Everybody kind of assumed that IE only used window.event, but nobody ever seems to have tested it. My book doesn't mention this fact, although I don't think I ever denied the existence of these event objects, either.

I wonder how many more of these curiosities are hidden deep in the browsers' bowels.

Events, IE | Permalink

19 October 2006

DHTML JavaScript Benchmark (DOM and innerHTML)

A W3C DOM vs. innerHTML benchmark. Its conclusions match mine: innerHTML is much faster than "real" W3C DOM methods.

Benchmarks, DOM | Permalink

Keep your JSON valid

It turns out that JSON requires you to use double quotes everywhere, even for your property names. JavaScript object literal notation does not require this; but it turns out JSON is a subset of the JS object literal.

I didn't know this; and as a consequence my book doesn't treat this rule. In fact, I have doubts about its practical necessity. A JavaScript object is a JavaScript object, whatever kind of quotes you use. OK, with the wrong quotes it isn't "JSON" any more, but all scripts will happily read and parse the objects, and do whatever they need to do.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

11 October 2006

Today’s AJAX and DHTML Best Practices

Excellent overview of recent thinking on Ajax and accessibility.

Accessibility, Data Retrieval | Permalink

Ajax loading screens

Stuart points out an important usability requirement of Ajax sites: no discernible load time.

There is no point in using Ajax if you have to pop up a “Loading” screen and wait ten seconds when a link is clicked.

Spot on.

Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink

28 September 2006

for in Intrigue

Douglas Crockford explains the finer points and dangers of the for in loop.

Core | Permalink

22 September 2006

IE7 JavaScript Improvements

IE 7's JavaScript now runs much, much faster than before. Dean Edwards has the details; and Chris Wilson has confirmed them.

IE, JavaScript | Permalink

13 September 2006

Text-Resize Detection

An onFontResize event handler created by Chris Heilmann and Lawrence Carvalho.

I had a similar idea a few months ago, but never did anything with it because I couldn't find a way around the inevitable interval. Essentially you have to continue running a check function for as long as the user stays on the page. That's no problem if you have only one such function, but what if we get many more custom events like this, and the browser has to check dozens of them every 1/5th second or so?

Regardless of this potential problem it's an interesting idea.

Events | Permalink

12 September 2006

Beware of JavaScript Library Overkill

Ryan Campbell does some benchmark tests with Prototype's Enumerator, and finds it's significantly slower than a traditional, non-library approach.

If basic JavaScript will do the task, then use basic JavaScript.

Benchmarks, Libraries | Permalink

6 September 2006

The FOUC Problem

Dave Hyatt on parsing order. Are CSS files read first, while the HTML is stalled, or are they read at the same time?

Browsers, CSS, JavaScript | Permalink

29 August 2006

IE + JavaScript Performance Recommendations - Part 1

The IE team gives JavaScript performance tricks. Some are old hat for advanced scripters, but others are new (at least, to me). Interesting read overall.

IE, JavaScript | Permalink

25 August 2006

The “add a class name” JavaScript widget philosophy

Is relying on class names to trigger advanced scripts wrong? Dustin Diaz seems to think so, but I don't think I agree.

JavaScript | Permalink

23 August 2006

UJS for Rails has arrived

Dan Webb and Luke Redpath unveil their unobtrusive JavaScript plugin for Rails. It's a necessary one, since Rails' native JS implementation is ugly and uses inline event handlers for about everything.

JavaScript | Permalink

14 August 2006

JSON All The Way

Drew McLellan feels JSON is superior to XML. I'm not sure I agree, but it's useful to have a few major arguments concentrated in one entry.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

Dynamic 3D with CSS and the DOM

James Edwards creates a Wolfenstein-like labyrinth with CSS borders and some JavaScript. Quite extraordinary; even though it won't find a practical application any time soon.

JavaScript | Permalink

7 August 2006

JavaScript Def Guide, 5th edition

David Flanagan's undowithoutable Def Guide is now available in the 5th edition. Months ago I did some light tech editing on a few chapters, but quite frankly I can't remember much of it. Another book got in the way.

Books, JavaScript | Permalink

5 August 2006

JSON is a subset of the Object Literal

On the difference between an object literal and a JSON string. I wonder if this difference really exists in practice.

Core | Permalink

Can Your Programming Language Do This?

Joel Spolsky discovers JavaScript functions are really values. That opens a neat bag of tricks!

Core | Permalink

JSON RFC

JSON has been officially RFC'd.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

Javascript speed tests

JavaScript benchmark tests. Result (Win only): Opera super-fast, IE OK, Firefox slightly less OK.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

28 July 2006

Firefox 1.5, XmlHttpRequest, req.responseXML and document.domain

responseXML is not available when you use document.domain to allow pages from several subdomains to communicate.

Data Retrieval, Mozilla | Permalink

25 July 2006

Mouse wheel programming in JavaScript

On handling the mouse scroll wheel.

Events | Permalink

24 July 2006

JavaScript event tests part 1: onmouseover

Gez Lemon studies the mouseover event in screen readers. Part 1 of a series; I can't wait for the next installment.

Events, Screen readers | Permalink

18 July 2006

Return of the POJO: Plain ‘Ole JavaScript

Yes, please! Let's just write JavaScript and forget about all those bloated frameworks.

JavaScript | Permalink

The Importance of Maintainable JavaScript

Useful tips and tricks from Chris Heilmann. Maybe not surprising for senior gurus, but definitely worth a read if you rank lower than that.

JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

11 July 2006

Learning JavaScript

Jeremy on learning JavaScript. Bottom line: if you want to use JavaScript, learn JavaScript. I completely agree.

JavaScript, Society | Permalink

3 July 2006

Free ebook Chapter “From DHTML to DOM scripting”

Chris has some preview goodness.

Books, JavaScript | Permalink

Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) v3.20

Again an updated version.

Flash, JavaScript | Permalink

29 June 2006

How to Make Your AJAX Applications Accessible - 40 Tutorials and Articles

As it says. I read only a few of them, and wrote one of them.

Accessibility, Data Retrieval | Permalink

26 June 2006

Notes on JavaScript Libraries

Simon repeats the points he made during the @media panel.

Conferences, JavaScript | Permalink

22 June 2006

The JavaScript Library World Cup

Dojo, Prototype, Mochikit or the Yahoo UI Library? Who's going to win the JavaScript library World Cup? Dan Webb ponders the question.

JavaScript | Permalink

20 June 2006

window.onload (again)

Dean returns to the onload problem.

onload | Permalink

Behavioral Separation

Jeremy explains the basics once more; this time on ALA.

JavaScript | Permalink

13 June 2006

Promoting the responsible use of JavaScript: writing, teaching and presenting

What the WaSP DOM Scripting Task Force has done this year.

JavaScript, Linkdumps, WaSP | Permalink

12 June 2006

Ajax Patterns

List of Ajax patterns; similar to what I myself am looking for in my QuirksBlog entries, but a bit more low-level.

Data Retrieval, Theory | Permalink

11 June 2006

JavaScript loop test

Which JavaScript loop is fastest?

Benchmarks, Core | Permalink

9 June 2006

An XMLHTTPRequest tip

A tip from the MSIE team: in IE 7, use the native XMLHttpRequest object, and not the ActiveX objects you need for IE 6 and lower.

Data Retrieval, IE | Permalink

2 June 2006

Levels of JavaScript Knowledge

Dean takes a stab at categorizing JavaScript knowledge.

Fun, JavaScript | Permalink

26 May 2006

JavaScript 2 and the Future of the Web

Brendan Eich's presentation on JavaScript 2.0, which I had the good fortune of attending in Amsterdam.

Core | Permalink

25 May 2006

Making Ajax Work with Screen Readers

'We explain the fundamental issues; how to inform users of assistive technology that a change has taken place, and how they can interact with the content. To illustrate our findings, we summarise the behaviour of popular screen readers.'

Accessibility, Data Retrieval, Screen readers | Permalink

13 May 2006

JavaScript and Selectors

Liorean discusses and criticises the new W3C Selector API.

JavaScript | Permalink

9 May 2006

Why Frameworks Suck (redux)

Again a frameworks article. Frameworks *can* suck, is the message.

Libraries | Permalink

Flummoxed By Frameworks

Eric complains: 'I just don’t get all these new-fangled programming frameworks. Is something wrong with me?' No, there's something wrong with the frameworks. Several commenters note that the same problem exists in JavaScript. What goes around comes around. Maybe the latest batch of JS libraries have already passed their zenith.

Libraries | Permalink

Build Half a Product: Is Ajax accessible? At all?

Surprisingly, Joe's conclusion is 'Everybody could do everything. It just wasn’t all that convenient.'

Accessibility, Data Retrieval, Screen readers, Tests | Permalink

4 May 2006

AJAX and Screenreaders: When Can it Work?

James Edwards discusses screen reader JavaScript support. Chaotic.

Accessibility, Events, Screen readers, Tests | Permalink

13 April 2006

Awkard Looking JavaScript

Dustin Diaz explores some curious-looking Core constructs.

Core | Permalink

12 April 2006

with Statement Considered Harmful

Agreed. Nobody uses it anyway, but it's useful to have one entry with all arguments against it.

Core | Permalink

4 April 2006

Leaky Scripts

Dan wonders whether memory leaks are such a big deal. Sure, they occur, but does it really matter in a lightly scripted page? Interesting question.

DOM, IE | Permalink

2 April 2006

Faster DOM Queries (reply)

Dean Edwards responds to Alex. I agree with his criticism of the specific example, and right now Dean is the Supreme Honcho of Onload, so this entry is well worth reading.

DOM | Permalink

Fast DOM Queries in Today’s Browsers

Alex Russell proposes a non-valid hack. In general I agree with him, but I don't like his specific example.

DOM | Permalink

15 March 2006

JS Generics

Erik Arvidsson's little library that ports the Mozilla Array and String extensions to other browsers. Useful.

Core | Permalink

A (Re)-Introduction to JavaScript

Simon explains JavaScript concisely and with slides.

JavaScript | Permalink

Results for JavaScript - Part 2: Navigating forms

Which screen readers support which events?

Accessibility, Events | Permalink

22 February 2006

OOJS - overhyped and overcomplicating

Amen brother.

Core | Permalink

20 February 2006

The DOM And Screen Readers

How to write an advanced form validation script that's usable in a screen reader. The trick is very simple.

Accessibility, DOM, Screen readers | Permalink

17 February 2006

The Real AJAX Upside

In which Tim Bray discusses the advantages of Ajax from a server side perspective.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

15 February 2006

Yahoo! User Interface Blog

Yahoo! goes community, too. It has released a user interface library and a design pattern library. Since I'm not terribly interested in JavaScript libraries, I'll spend most of my attention on the second one, which looks very promising and ties in with John Allsopp's ideas along the same line.

JavaScript, Society, Usability | Permalink

Javascript libraries roundup

I'm not likely to use any of them, but this is nonetheless a useful list.

Libraries | Permalink

13 February 2006

Alternate Ajax Techniques, Part 1

On generating new script tags and downloading new scripts.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

6 February 2006

Alternatives to innerHTML

A little DOM tutorial for innerHTML junkies. Interesting approach.

DOM | Permalink

5 February 2006

Memory leak progress

Memory leaks in Firefox 1.5

JavaScript, Mozilla | Permalink

4 February 2006

IE7b2, is it intentionally this bad?

Not entirely fair. The current beta focuses on CSS issues, and not on JavaScript issues. There are few JavaScript changes.

IE, JavaScript | Permalink

31 January 2006

Is this a Safari bug?

A Core bug in Safari.

Core, Safari | Permalink

28 January 2006

DOM Abuse Part 1: Drag and drop

'Drag and drop on the web is rubbish.' Agreed, mostly.

JavaScript, Usability | Permalink

27 January 2006

Dynamic scope

About some of the more curious aspects of JavaScript nested functions.

Core | Permalink

26 January 2006

Developing Ajax Applications That Preserve Standard Browser Functionality

How to enable the Back button in Ajax applications.

Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink

Preloading Data with Ajax and JSON

An interesting example of caching JSON requests. Just make the next request before the user actually commands it, and your application will appear to work smoother. Of course this is only possible in a linear situation.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

23 January 2006

Escaping regular expression characters in JavaScript

Always useful.

Core | Permalink

JavaScript Cursor Position

An updated cursor position script. It turns out that for IE's sake in Strict Mode you have to subtract clientLeft/Top.

Events | Permalink

19 January 2006

Resolution dependent layout update

Despite the title this post is really about the problems the load event can have (takes too long), and problems in IE 5.0 and 5.5 when you directly include your JavaScript calls at the end of the body (document.body not yet available).

Events | Permalink

18 January 2006

AJAX: reducing latency with a CDN

A proposed measurement for network latency of AJAX applications. Interesting read.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

Javascript Inheritance

On Java-style inheritance in JavaScript. Although personally I don't really see the point of adding inheritance to JavaScript, this article gives a nice overview and has a few interesting comments.

Core | Permalink

JavaScript Coding Style

Dan Webb studies JavaScript coding styles and gives a list of his own preferences. Might be an interesting starting point for a discussion.

JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

Prototype And The This Keyword

Interesting. Since prototype is the single library on my to-study list, I'll keep this reference around.

Libraries | Permalink

More on the defer attribute

David Flanagan on the defer attribute of the script tag. Microsoft's implementation is acceptable due to a certain vagueness in the spec.

HTML, JavaScript | Permalink

10 January 2006

S5 1.2a1

Eric Meyer releases the next version of S5.

JavaScript | Permalink

Cheeky Tip: Default Function Arguments In JavaScript

A useful little trick, but be sure to read Stuart's caveat in comment 3.

Core | Permalink

9 January 2006

Treating the HTTP Status code right

Some useful examples of using HTTP status code in AJAX calls.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

4 January 2006

Fixing the back button that AJAX broke

Ajax breaks the Back button. Some observations and possible solutions from Isolani.

JavaScript, Usability | Permalink

When are document elements available to scripts?

As it says. David Flanagan worries about the exact time DOM elements become available to scripts. Only onload? Or also when you include the script at the bottom of the page? Please leave a comment if you have anything useful to say.

JavaScript | Permalink

23 December 2005

JSON Benchmarking: Beating a Dead Horse

Dave Johnson did some benchmarks for W3C DOM, JSON and XSLT as Ajax response formats. His conclusion is that XSLT is by far the fastest method. I hope he gets around putting his test pages online soon, so that people can verify this conclusion.

Benchmarks, Data Retrieval | Permalink

17 December 2005

Yahoo! Developer Network - JavaScript Developer Center

With interesting information about AJAX and JSON in general, as well as the Yahoo APIs.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

16 December 2005

JSON and Yahoo!'s JavaScript APIs

Yahoo goes JSON. The JSON solution begins to become interesting. I didn't realize it can be used to ignore cross-domain security, but now that Simon spelled it out it's obvious.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

12 December 2005

Prototype Meets Ruby: A Look at Enumerable, Array and Hash

Yet more documentation of prototype functionalities.

Libraries, Reference | Permalink

8 December 2005

JavaScript Tip #1: Speed Up Object Detection

Dean Edwards starts a series of JavaScript tips. This one is interesting, and although I'm going to think about it before implementing it, it could very well be an important improvement.

JavaScript | Permalink

5 December 2005

10 Places You Must Use Ajax

Alex Bosworth about when to use Ajax and when not to. Useful overview.

JavaScript, Usability | Permalink

3 December 2005

Top 10 custom JavaScript functions of all time

As it says. Useful overview of the tasks that we want to standardise.

JavaScript | Permalink

The innerHTML dilemma

For once I disagree with Jeremy: the innerHTML property is a beautiful invention that makes DOM scripting much simpler, and I don't have the slightest compunction about using it. I hope Jeremy will work out his "issues", because innerHTML is just too good to ignore.

DOM | Permalink

24 ways

An advent calendar with a web development tip for every day.

Accessibility, CSS, HTML, JavaScript | Permalink

30 November 2005

Quick Guide to Prototype

May be interesting after all, though I'll still have to study this library in detail.

Libraries, Reference | Permalink

29 November 2005

insertAtCursor function

Always useful: a function that inserts text into a textarea at the current cursor position.

JavaScript | Permalink

28 November 2005

WikiPedia XMLHTTP

Contains a few browser bugs that don't seem to be covered anywhere else.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

24 November 2005

Javascript libraries roundup

A list of JavaScript libraries. Does anyone else feel we've got too many libraries and not enough developers?

JavaScript, Linkdumps | Permalink

17 November 2005

The dangers of frameworks

Jeremy explains the problems of using framework libraries. I fully agree.

JavaScript | Permalink

11 November 2005

JS2 Design Notes

Brendan Eich reveals a few more interesting design principles for JavaScript 2.0 . As long as it's backward compatible I don't mind, though I don't see an immediate practical value for everyday scripting, either.

Core | Permalink

18 October 2005

Faulty Firing

Detailed investigation of the order of events in all browsers when you click on an input and/or a label. Excellent research.

Events | Permalink

Perpetuating the myths of JavaScript degradation

Jeremy Keith takes a stab at dispelling the myth that the myth of JavaScript degradation can be dispelled. If your Ajax application does not degrade and is inaccessible, you made the wrong choices during the design phase. Simple as that. ANY application can become accessible, although I admit there's quite a lot of work to be done in defining best practices.

JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

Introducing DomCorners

An interesting, and especially SHORT script for adding rounded corners to an element of your choice. It begins to look as if JavaScript is the best alternative for this task, since it doesn't require you to insert tag soup into your XHTML just to provide for the corners.

DOM | Permalink

17 October 2005

DOM vs. innerHTML pitfalls

Two interesting innerHTML tidbits.

DOM | Permalink

11 October 2005

Digital Web Magazine - Interview with Jeremy Keith

Over on Digital Web Jeremy explains once more what has gone wrong with the way JavaScript was used (DHTML!) and how we can clear up the situation.

History, JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

7 October 2005

DevBoi Sidebar

I just discovered this useful Mozilla sidebar that lists all HTML, CSS and JavaScript elements, declarations and methods. The CSS part contains links to my CSS pages for further information on a few properties.

CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Tools | Permalink

5 October 2005

What the Heck is Canvas

Example of the use of canvas. Firefox 1.5 or Safari 1.3 required.

JavaScript | Permalink

30 September 2005

Mousewheel scrolling event in Mozilla

Stuart Langridge explains a Mozilla event that fires when you scroll with the mouse wheel. It's a bit silly to use a separate event when the scroll event is also there, but it's useful to know that you can actually detect the mouse wheel in Mozilla.

Events, Mozilla | Permalink

The Ghost of NS4

Scott Andrew encounters the ghost of Netscape 4 and tries to squeeze it into Firefox.

JavaScript, Mozilla | Permalink

Using dynamic CSS to hide content before page load

Bobby van der Sluis discusses various ways of adding CSS to hide elements only when JavaScript is supported. Includes a discussion of XHTML pages where the use of document.write() is not possible.

CSS modification | Permalink

25 September 2005

window.onload - An Alternative Solution

The other solution to the window.onload problem: HTCs.

onload | Permalink

24 September 2005

The window.onload Problem - Solved!

The load event fires when the entire page, including images, has been loaded. If clueless users upload 5M bitmaps to their sites, the event may fire far too late and the user may see all kinds of odd things happening while he's already doing something on the page.
What we need is a load event that fires when the document structure is complete, but that does not wait for the images. Dean Edwards provides. IE and Moz only, but it's a nice start.

onload | Permalink

22 September 2005

Browser JavaScript Explained

Opera introduces Browser JavaScript, bits of script that seem to rewrite the scripts on pages that don't work properly in Opera. 90 % of the examples is about changing browser detects.
Is this a good idea? It'll help Opera users in the short run, certainly, but what if it changes scripts wrongly? I'd love to take a peek under the hood to make sure that everything works fine.

JavaScript, Opera | Permalink

21 September 2005

Improving Link Display for Print

By Aaron Gustafson on ALA. May be a useful script. I especially like the way Aaron first builds his scripts with comments: 'do this, then that, then that'.

JavaScript | Permalink

15 September 2005

New Skool DOM Scripting - The Unobtrusive Behavior Layer

Useful set of slides (using, of course, S5) about the basics of unobtrusive JavaScript.

JavaScript, Theory | Permalink

9 September 2005

Async Requests over an Unreliable Network

As it says. Required reading.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

AJAX Latency problems: myth or reality?

Jep Castelein gives a useful overview of latency problems in AJAX: how and when should you download data? Preload it? Load it only when the user requests it? Small chunks? Large chunks?

Data Retrieval, Linkdumps | Permalink

5 September 2005

What is “this”?

Problems with the this keyword in xmlhttp's readystatechange event. Turns out that Explorer considers it the window, Mozilla the event handler, and Opera the xmlhttp object.
Interesting bit of lore.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

30 August 2005

Reserved ID Values?

Eric Meyer discovered that the use of a few ID values that have special meaning in the old document.all DOM may cause IE to crash.

DOM | Permalink

29 August 2005

Breaking onload limits

Useful overview of the problem with the load event handler and possible solutions, including their drawbacks.

onload | Permalink

27 August 2005

DOMScripting Book sample chapter: Best Practices

A sneak peek into Jeremy's upcoming book. This chapter explains why JavaScript has such a bad name, and what we can do about it. Needless to say, I completely agree.

JavaScript | Permalink

Firefox document.all caveat

Scott Andrew discovered that Firefox does support document.all, which it's supposed to ignore. So Firefox now executes supposedly IE-only code branches.
Annoying, but since we haven't needed document.all at all since IE 4 went down, it shouldn't be too big a problem for standards aware JavaScript sites.

DOM, Mozilla | Permalink

1 August 2005

JavaScript Speed Test

Some tests for determining JavaScript execution speed. Please do the tests; the results are automatically added to the database.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

.className vs. .style

A reaction from the Safari team to my benchmark test of the same name. Although my conclusion seems not to have been correct, the test case allowed the Safari programmers to solve a bug in their getElementsByTagName implementation.

CSS modification, Safari, Tests | Permalink

31 July 2005

Javascript Benchmarking - Part II

Dave (can't find his last name) continues his series of JavaScript benchmark tests, this time for finding the fastest method of changing the background colour of a table. The results are interesting, but I wish he'd publish his test pages.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

29 July 2005

Access Matters - JavaScript Quiz

Great test page on the working of events in screen readers. If you happen to have an assistive device available, or know someone who does, please do the test! We badly need to know how screen readers actually handle JavaScript.

Accessibility, JavaScript, Screen readers, Tests | Permalink

28 July 2005

Best Practices: Implementing javascript for rich internet applications

Useful overview of basic best practices. Needs to be expanded enormously, but it's good that someone is making a start.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

26 July 2005

Footnotes and sidenotes with JavaScript and CSS

A subject that interests me highly. I recently considered a sidenote system like the one presented here, but with one slight difference. Maybe I'm still going to write that article, but I first have to study the examples mentioned here.

CSS, JavaScript, Usability | Permalink

JavaScript Module Conventions?

David Flanagan worries about possible conflicting namespaces when pages load a large number of scripts. He tries to create a list of requirements for a JavaScript module system, and asks for feedback. I myself have nothing to offer, since I know too little about namespaces, but maybe some of my readers will be able to help.

Core | Permalink

22 July 2005

Ajax reconsidered

Some reasons why AJAX is more popular than DHTML was back in the nineties. Also a few caveats that apply when working with AJAX applications.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

20 July 2005

TrimBreakpoint

An interesting function that allows you to set breakpoints in your JavaScript code. When a breakpoint is encountered, you can read out the values of your variables, which can be quite handy when you encounter a bug you can't solve with pure alerts. The script is one of the few practical examples of the use of closures.

Core | Permalink

Unobtrusive Flash Objects (UFO) v1.0

Unobtrusive script that writes the HTML for a Flash movie into your pages if the user supports the correct Flash version. This allows you to use a nice placeholder message for noflash users, and to keep your pages valid since you don't need EMBED tags and such.

JavaScript | Permalink

19 July 2005

Faster DHTML in 12 Steps

MS tips for faster DOM Scripting in Explorer. Contains benchmark tests (I thought I was the only one who did that). The tests could use a bit longer loops (1000 iterations instead of the 100 currently used), but all in all the tips have an experimental basis and can serve as a first step towards real benchmarking.

Benchmarks, DOM, IE | Permalink

18 July 2005

Promoting modern JavaScripting

Isofarro adds to the list of blog entries about Saturday 11 June, when the JavaScript revolution began.

@media 2005, JavaScript | Permalink

14 July 2005

JS: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Erik Arvidsson proposes a few additions to JavaScript 1.6 . I largely have no opinion on these subjects, because I know too little about Core functionality, and avoid dates whenever I can. I'll leave it to wiser minds than myself to decide on these matters.

Core | Permalink

AJAX: Usable Interactivity with Remote Scripting

Excellent introduction to using XMLHTTPRequest by Cameron Adams.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

Mapping Doomsday

Eric Meyer has created an AJAX application that projects the effects of a nuclear strike on a Google Map. It uses Google Maps and some extra data Meyer created. This combining of data from different sources is going to be very important.

JavaScript | Permalink

AJAX: Best practice for Asynchronous Javascript

A candidate AJAX best practice. I'd go for a simplified option 2: remember the node the data should be appended to and append it even when the user has clicked elsewhere.

Data Retrieval | Permalink

12 July 2005

And and Or in JS

Simple and to the point. I never thought of the target || srcElement trick. Worth remembering.

Core | Permalink

11 July 2005

developer.mozilla.org - alpha

Dedicated to providing solid information, documentation, and community for Mozilla and Firefox developers. Looks like an interesting initiative, and as far as I can see now the JavaScript and DOM pages might eventually take the place of the alas disappeared devedge JavaScript reference.

CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Mozilla, Reference | Permalink

10 July 2005

Javascript Benchmarking - Part I

Benchmarking test for XSLT and JavaScript. Conclusion: Explorer Windows is far faster than Firefox. In Firefox JavaScript is much faster than XSLT.

Benchmarks, JavaScript | Permalink

MIME Type Test Suite

A test suite by Gez Lemon that checks what browsers do right/wrong when you send XHTML pages as text/html or as application/xml+xhtml . Could use a formal compatibility table, but otherwise the tests are quite interesting.

CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Tests | Permalink

Web browser standards support

Interesting series of compatibility tables for HTML, CSS and JavaScript in Explorer Windows, Mozilla and Opera. I think my W3C DOM Tables are more useful and detailed, but the tables here are definitely more complete.

CSS, HTML, JavaScript, Reference | Permalink

7 July 2005

Mouseover DOM Inspector

This tool might be useful. Run it, mouse over an element and see information. Only drawback: it doesn't work on generated elements. Turn off and then on to solve this problem.

DOM, Tools | Permalink

Ajax Mistakes

Must-read about the usability of AJAX applications.

Data Retrieval, Usability | Permalink

6 July 2005

Efficient JavaScript code

Tarquin gives some useful tips about writing efficient scripts. His discussion of for-loops and the errors people make when writing them are especially interesting.

Core | Permalink

Javascript: what’s next?

Useful overview of the current state of JavaScript.

JavaScript | Permalink

JavaScript and Accessibility

Derek Featherstone explains why screen reader users might have to turn off JavaScript.

@media 2005, Accessibility, JavaScript, Screen readers | Permalink

This is the linklog of Peter-Paul Koch, mobile platform strategist, consultant, and trainer. You can also visit his QuirksBlog, or you can follow him on Twitter.

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