Herding Bits

Browser JS Stack Limits

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 10:40:12 -0500

Safari had such a tiny stack at the time this was posted:

Novemberborn: Maximum Call Stack Size in Modern Day Browsers

I've tried it with a more recent version of Safari 3.0.4 and I found:

Fantastic JS Dialog Boxes

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 22:11:44 -0500

Based on Prototype, but not script.aculo.us, this modal dialog box for JS is very good:

Prototype Window Class : Introduction

Prototype & script.aculo.us Book/PDF

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:58:59 -0500

When one day I commented that the script.aculo.us wiki was down yet again, the author of this book suggested that I buy it:

The Pragmatic Bookshelf | Prototype and script.aculo.us

The nice thing is that it is sold as a combination paper book and PDF file. No need to lug around a book if it's not convenient.

Scriptaculous Popups

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 23:46:04 -0500

Looking for some JS popups based upon Scriptaculous and Prototype, I looked at script.aculo.us first. Sadly, a lot of their information is in their wiki, which happened to be unavailable for some reason!

I turned to Google and I found:

DOM Popup Kit which makes its own links and requires popup contents to be defined ahead of time.

ModalBox looks better and it appears to do well called from a JS event attribute and can load dynamic content. It also handles static content well, either directly or by reference.

MOOdalBox is supposedly an altered version of ModalBox that looks pretty nice, too.

Intro to Scriptaculous Effects is not a real popup widget, but is a nice introduction to using the JS library.

There are probably others, but I think these are a good start.

Using JSF PhaseListener For Debug/Other

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 11:35:47 -0500

My colleague Mohamed and I were talking about authorization in our JSF applications. Specifically, what could we do about a user having their authorization removed while using the application and getting appropriate responses from Ajax actions.

Mohamed said that PhaseListener may be helpful.

PHP Library Converts HTML To PDF

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:36:51 -0500

rustyparts.com | HTML_ToPDF: create PDF's on the fly

JSF Introduction For Nonbelievers

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 11:30:12 -0500

Although it is nearly three years old, the "JSF for nonbelievers" series at IBM developerWorks is a good introduction to JSF. I didn't find it at first when I was looking for tutorials because of the "nonbeliever" name. It's a silly name, because I think a lot of people that would be interested in reading it are actually "believers" that want to learn more about it.

JSF for nonbelievers Series

Installing Oracle and cx_Oracle for Python on MOSX

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 09:01:36 -0500

I'm about to attempt connecting Django applications to an Oracle database. Django's support for Oracle doesn't seem to be official, but I see that it uses cx_Oracle. Looking around for information about installing cx_Oracle, I found the article, "Installing cx_Oracle on Mac OS X", outlining the steps.

Download a Free RoR Book

Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:34:35 -0500

For a limited time (58 days, 8 hours, 28 minutes, 24 seconds are left as I write this) you can download an entire Ruby on Rails book for free.

Eclipse: The Powerful (Yet Fragile) IDE

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 15:52:27 -0500

I have used Eclipse on and off for the past couple of years, but in the last few months I've been using it a lot more. Since I'm starting to work on more JEE (Java Enterprise Edition) web applications, Eclipse is fairly essential.

It seems like a panacea. You have editors, design tools, version control, web browser, server control, and many other features at your disposal in one big complex pocketknife of an application. If you need it to do something that it doesn't already do rright out of the box, you may find an extension that will help you. Many third-party extensions are available. It sounds great!

But what happens when an extension has a bug or conflicts with another extension? The results can be unpredictable and a lot of productive time can be lost.

Download StuffIt Expander

Tue, 02 Oct 2007 13:25:17 -0500

I wonder why Smith Micro Software makes people report their name, their company's name, and their email address to download StuffIt Expander. All they do is send an email with a URL that refers browsers to this page where the program can be downloaded: StuffIt Expander: Free file expansion.

In fact, I bet anybody could just use that URL to download StuffIt Expander without the silly little "registration".

Django on MOSX

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:50:16 -0500

Installing Django on OS X is one of several descriptions for setting up a Django environment for Mac OS X. It describes using mod_python, but using FastCGI (fcgi) might be better. fcgi is what our local webmasters support in production(-like).

MacPython Installers and Packages

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:25:19 -0500

Mac OS X Python Packages has several supporting packages for Python as well as installers for the interpreter itself.

Python Tool Downloads

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 09:23:14 -0500

Python Stuff is a small, simple web site with links to Python development tools. There are links for MacPython, an updated version of Python for Mac OS X that installs from a package without disturbing the interpreter that came with the OS. I believe this web site is maintained by Bob Ippolito, a well-known supporter within the Python community.

J-What?

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:36:25 -0500

This article explains the evolution of Java web apps, from mixed presentation, to JSP and up to JSF with other helper technologies.

Enterprise Java Community: Integrating JSP/JSF and XML/XSLT: The Best of Both Worlds