#javascript (785 links)
- Adactio: Journal—Going Postel adactio.com
The most brittle part of the [front-end] stack is JavaScript [...]<br /> That’s why I’m so surprised that any front-end engineer would knowingly choose to swap out a solid declarative foundation like HTML for a more brittle scripting language.
- isolani - Javascript: Breaking the Web with hash-bangs isolani.co.uk
Head -> desk. "Gawker/Lifehacker have violated the principle of progressive enhancement, and they paid for it immediately with an extended outage on day one of their new site launch. Every JavaScript hiccup will cause an outage, and directly affect Gawker’s revenue stream and the trust of their audience."
- jQuery Backstretch by Scott Robbin srobbin.com
Allows you to add a dynamically-resized background image to any page. The image will stretch to fit the page, and will automatically resize as the window size changes.
- johnmuhl/javascript-tools-tmbundle - GitHub github.com
I personally feel that until a developer is interested enough in learning about patterns to make the leap to invest in these, the majority of material they have accessible online doesn’t focus enough on how to apply design patterns to JavaScript or jQuery. That’s where having a free book of this nature comes in useful.
- Unobtrusivelib pierrebertet.net
A small collection of unobtrusive functions like open link in new window, input/textarea autoclear etc.
- mrdoob/three.js - GitHub github.com
"A lightweight [JavaScript] 3D engine with a very low level of abstraction". Mental.
- High Performance Web Sites :: Evolution of Script Loading stevesouders.com
- The Tree Slider - GitHub github.com
The new HTML5 History API (which really has nothing to do with HTML — it's a JavaScript API) allows us to manage the URL changes while CSS3 transitions handle the sliding. Permalinks are always maintained, your back button works as expected, and it's much faster than waiting for a full page load.
- How many users have JavaScript disabled? · YDN Blog developer.yahoo.com
While 2% of U.S. visitors may not seem like a lot, keep in mind that over 300 million users visit the Yahoo! homepage each month. That means 6 million users visit each month without the benefit of JavaScript. So even though it’s worth spending your time on the JavaScript-enabled version of the site, there are still a non-trivial amount of users out there who won’t be able to use it. While the percentage of visitors with JavaScript disabled seems like a low number, keep in mind that small percentages of big numbers are also big numbers.
- Django Packages : Asset managers djangopackages.com
Comparison of "Asset managers for combining/compressing JavaScript/CSS and for versioning your media files."
- chrisdickinson's wilson at master - GitHub github.com
a Django-inspired node.js framework
- What is a Polyfill? remysharp.com
- mezzoblue's PaintbrushJS at master - GitHub github.com
A lightweight, browser-based image processing library that can apply various visual filters to images within a web page.
- jQuery Fundamentals jqfundamentals.com
- Why node.js excites me « gnegg gnegg.ch
Node is an awesome platform to very easily write very well performing servers. Node is an awesome platform to use for your daily shell scripting needs (allowing you to work in your favorite language even for these tasks). Node isn't about creating awesome websites. It's about giving you the power to easily build servers. Web, DNS, SMTP - we've seen all.
"Instead of coding in one language, we're actually coding in two. One is the subset JavaScript that can be run in all browsers, and another is the set of JavaScript that can be run by Node. Knowing the difference between the two languages and context switching between them is simply a required skill. You know what would be awesome? If we wrote our libraries so that they could run either on the server or on the client, and they did so in a transparent way. Maybe it would help to give a concrete example of how this could be awesome." Isn't YUI trying to do this? Lots to catch up on
- High Performance Web Sites :: Render first. JS second. stevesouders.com
Rendering first and executing JavaScript second is the key to a faster Web.
- JavaScript Guide - Mozilla Developer Center developer.mozilla.org
This is probably where to begin.
- yepnope.js | A Conditional Loader For Your Polyfills! yepnopejs.com
A small wrapper around LABjs to help use feature detection to load exactly the scripts that your user needs, not just all the scripts that you think they might need.
So here we're collecting all the shims, fallbacks, and polyfills in order to supplant html5 functionality in browsers that don't natively support them. The general idea is that: we, as developers, should be able to develop with the HTML5 apis, and scripts can create the methods and objects that should exist. Developing in this future-proof way means as users upgrade, your code doesn't have to change but users will move to the better, native experience cleanly.
- Tracking Code and Click Response Delays - Ravelrumba ravelrumba.com
Aside from choosing not to install tracking solutions that come with such a performance penalty (which is not always an option), your best option is to replace the default 500ms timeout in these scripts with something less obtrusive. 100ms is considered the threshold for what we perceive as instantaneous response.
Good stats. "If you’re using jQuery on a public-facing site, use the Google CDN to host it." But don't use latest version in production.
- Combining meta viewport and media queries - QuirksBlog quirksmode.org
"If you want to make your websites ready for mobile, it’s best to combine <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"> with width media queries. That will give your site the optimal width (as determined by the device vendor, who really ought to know), and your site will look the better for it."
- HTML5 video player praegnanz.de
Comparison table.
- Polymaps polymaps.org
A JavaScript library for image- and vector-tiled maps using SVG.
- Mobile Graded Browser Support | jQuery Mobile jquerymobile.com
Riffing on the excellent Yahoo GBS.
- On Rolling Your Own - rmurphey blog.rebeccamurphey.com
These pieces provided by Dojo — or any other comprehensive toolkit, for that matter — are but starter patterns, and thread, and scissors, and pins, and a sewing machine, and OK I’m stretching the metaphor, now, but my point is they’re definitely not finished one-size-fits-nobody garments. On the other hand, if I decide to use jQuery in a large application, it can feel like I’ve been given a black marker and some of that crinkly brown paper, and now it’s up to me to draw a pattern and then come up with all those other pieces, too. Intellectually interesting and pleasingly crafty, perhaps, but not particularly efficient, sustainable, repeatable, or maintainable.
- On jQuery & Large Applications - rmurphey blog.rebeccamurphey.com
This is a land where HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are almost all you need, and I like it. I’ve become a firm believer in moving giant hunks of functionality that used to belong to the server over to the client. For a variety of reasons, I think it’s clear that this is where most interesting web development is headed, to the extent it’s not already there.
- Combining media queries and JavaScript - QuirksBlog quirksmode.org
A riposte from PPK. Sounds like it's feasible but bloody hard work.
Usually, objections to this plan [requiring JavaScript] do not equate to predictions that we’re going to screw that up or that it won’t be sufficient; rather, they represent an opinion that requiring Javascript for a web application is an automatic accessibility violation. This might be partly a historical feeling, as some older accessibility standards contained language that said (or could be taken to imply) that in order to be accessible, a site had to work with Javascript turned off. I don’t know what motivated the inclusion of those clauses at the time, but would note that most modern accessibility standards merely say that one’s site must be accessible (regardless of whether or not it uses or requires client-side scripting).
- HTML5 Boilerplate - A rock-solid default for HTML5 awesome. html5boilerplate.com
Spiffing!" After more than two years in iterative development, you get the best of the best practices baked in: cross-browser normalization, performance optimizations, even optional features like cross-domain ajax and flash. A starter apache .htaccess config file hooks you the eff up with caching rules and preps your site to serve HTML5 video, use @font-face, and get your gzip zipple on."
- Google JavaScript Style Guide google-styleguide.googlecode.com
"This new feature offers you a way to change the URL displayed in the browser* through javascript without reloading the page. It will also create a back-button event and you even have a state object you can interact with. This means you won’t have to use the hash-hack anymore if you want add state to your AJAX-application, and search engines will be able to index your pages too." Not IE, of course.
- High Performance Web Sites :: Diffable: only download the deltas stevesouders.com
Diffable uses differential compression to reduce the size of JavaScript downloads. It makes a lot of sense. Suppose your web site has a large external script. When a new release comes out, it’s often the case that a bulk of that large script is unchanged. And yet, users have to download the entire new script even if the old script is still cached.
- Molecular Voices » The best front-end development RSS feeds molecularvoices.molecular.com
- HTML5 Video Player | Video JS videojs.com
A javascript-based video player that uses the HTML5 video functionality built into advanced browsers. In general, the benefit of using an HTML5 player is a consistent look between browsers.
- Google Mapplets - Google Code code.google.com
Mini-applications that run within Google Maps. You can create Mapplets that add new features or overlay your data on Google Maps.
- Time Zones everytimezone.com
Never warp your brain with time zone math again.