FontCapture.com

By mike@mike-miles.com

So the other day I stumbled upon the website FontCapture (beta).  What this does is creates a font from your hand writing.

It’s a simple process.  You print out their template, fill in each character with your own hand, scan it, upload it and viola!

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Most powerful Dev Tool

By mike@mike-miles.com

All developers have a central set of tools (programs, frameworks, plugins, ect) that they rely on, their toolbox so to speak.  But I have found that there is one tool that seems to universal and one of the most powerful… music.

I have found that to most developers (including myself) music is a key component to optimal development.  Music allows you to block out all annoyances when developing, such as co-workers, bosses, street noises, ect…  It can also help when your stressed out or cant figure out a solution.  When ever I get stressed out while coding I always take a break and listen to these two songs:

1. Dont’ Stop Me Now by Queen : Calms me down, reduces the stress
2. It’s a long way to the top by ACDC : gets me energized, makes me feel like a programming rockstar.

After that I can jump right back into coding and solve what ever problem I was stuck on.  And for those times that I just need a bit of a boost, nothing works better then listening to some Disturbed (works better than any energy drink). So my personal preference is rock music (in the word of Joe Dirt ‘I’m a  rocker throu and throu’), but I know its not for everyone (Some developers I know work best while listening to techno music for example) which is why in addition to good music every developer needs a great pair of headphone.  Headphones allow you to blast your music (thus drowning out any distractions) yet not bother anyone around you.  The best the headphones, obviously the better the performance (a developer friend of mine just dropped $150 on a great pair of studio headphones).

So if you are not happy with the performance of you developers, try letting them listen to music I’m sure you’ll see an increase in performance.  And for all you other developers out there, what music really gets you going while developing?

I promise my next post will be about actual development once again (I’m thinking it’ll be about Data mining since I’m working on a personal project that involves it)

The otherside of Web Development

By mike@mike-miles.com

I thought I would take a moment and talk about some of the other aspects of web development (and any development for that matter). management and clients. Not that I know a whole lot about these areas, but I feel that as a developer it’s important to have an understanding of these types of things.

Management

Unless you’re a freelance developer you most likely report to a PM (Project Manager) and/or Dev Lead (Sometimes these roles can be one in the same).  Some people I know regard their PM’s as strictly management, someone who just bosses you around.  That’s the wrong way to think.  A PM to a developer is like a handler to a spy. A handler is a spy’s contact, who then relates everything to the agency/government that spy works for, they are the spy’s go to guy.  That how you should think of your PM, he’s your contact to the other side of development.   If you have a problem with a clients demands, or with upper management your PM should be the guy (or gal) you talk to, its their job to make sure everything runs smoothly, and for that to happen they need to keep you (the developer) happy.  Thats not to say they wont kick your butt when they need to (stuff does need to get done after all).

Just as you’ll confuse your PM with programming terms and talk, they most likely will confuse you with management terms, like ‘agile practices’ or ‘gant chart’, ‘serial requirements’, ‘scope document’.  It’s important that you two meet on some level playing ground (especially for that last term, oh boy).  So I suggest as a developer you brush up on a bit of your management knowledge because it can make work less stressful, and easier for you to communicate your ideas and needs better.

I for example follow a blog by a Joshua Milane (http://mittechnical.com) he’s a PM with alot of experince, and seems to write about the topic in an easy to understand method.

Clients

They people who cause you all your headaches by demanding ridiculous ideas that they expect to be done ASAP.  No developer likes talking with clients (at least any that I’ve met) plus that’s one of the reasons why you have a PM (see above).  But sometimes the inevitable happens, and you have to deal with clients directly.  My approach for dealing with and talking to clients is the same as my programming method, K.I.S.S.  No not the band (thou, they do kick ass)  I’m talking about Keep It Simple Stupid.  If you start getting to technical with a client your going to confuse them, confused clients are unhappy clients and unhappy clients dont pay.  So Always try to explain things in a simple form (if you have to explain yourself) and be honest with clients.  If you cant build something for them, don’t lie about it. Sure you may lose the client, but they may come back to you in the future with other projects because of how you handled them.

Ok its time to go back to what I know, I have a few functions to build.

Choose your framework

By mike@mike-miles.com

Gone are the days where you have to write extensive, ugly javascript code to manipulate page elements and DOM. Thanks to the development of some really great javascript frameworks  you can do more with less (that sounds like a line out of a Walmart commercial). The big three libraries are jQuery, Prototype (with or with-out script.tac.ulous) and mooTools. Each has its advantages and disadvantages (A major disadvantage to all three is that it’s very difficult to work with more than one at a time). Just like shopping for a new car or deli sandwich, how do you know which one is right for you?

The debate on which javascript framework to use is an even bigger then the DIV vs TABLE debate  (another article for another time), and plenty of opinions have been voiced.  For example, Glenn Vanderburg who runs the blog Relevance recently wrote an article (on my birthday no less) about how he prefers Prototype over jQuery.

jQuery is a very nice piece of work, and makes some common tasks easier than their Prototype equivalents. Where it’s good, it’s very good indeed. But its design is uneven, and its scope is limited. For me, at least, Prototype is still the tool of choice. I think it’s a richer, more thorough, and overall better designed library.

In his artcle (I’m not going to post the whole thing, that would be plagerism) he explains many great points for both jQuery and Prototype, along with code examples to show his opinion;

So while jQuery might be easier to get started with, Prototype grows with you better. Most web developers get started with JavaScript by doing relatively simple DOM manipulation, and jQuery really excels there. But as you get more comfortable and begin trying to do more, you may find that jQuery doesn’t help you as much. Prototype makes JavaScript programming lots of fun even in circumstances where jQuery feels constraining.

Basically he explains that jQuery is nice framework, its more for programmers who are  beginner / intemediate DOM manipulators, and Prototype is for more hardcore stuff.  An opinion that I can agree with having both used jQuery and Prototype in projects.  For example, in my senior year of College I was part of a development team and we were building a Project Management System.  We had disxcussed that we wanted it to be ajax based, and as the lead developer/programmer it was my duty to make it function smoothly.  At the time I had barely any experience with  major DOM manipulation except for straight up javasript.  The Team leader opened me up to jQuery, which I was able to pickup fairly quickly and easily.

In another blog by Trent Richardson (trents blog) he compares jQuery and MooTools ;

Mootools has previously been known for its silky smooth effects and great dom utilities, but they also have performance on their side as well. jQuery on the other had has to have the friendliest syntax ever with chaining and selectors, with just enough effects to make you hungry for more.

MooTools does in fact have the best preformance out of the bunch, Peter Velichkov over at his blog did alot of speedtesting for each of the major frameworks (it originally inspired me to write this article) which showed across the bored mootools was the fastest preformer.

So which framework is the best?

The true answer (which you’ll probably hate) is there isnt a best one.  It’s all based on circumstance, for example if you wanted something lightweight and easy to use I’d go with jQuery.  If you wanted something robust  and powerful I’d go with Prototype, or if you wanted something really fast I’d pick MooTools.

Another factor is ease of use.  You have to figure out which is best for you depending on your programming level.  jQuery (easy), Prototype (intermediate/hard), MooTools (intermediate/hard).  The more comfortable you feel with the tools your using, the overall better product you’ll produce.

I personally, prefere to use jQuery simpley for its ease of use.  I can write powerful javascript functions very simply and fast alowing me to get more done in a shorter amount of time.