My article in .NET / update to Dropdown
Remember I blogged a few months back that I'd been approached to write for .NET? Well my article is in the latest (September) issue, so perhaps you've seen it.
It's a beginner's guide to tackling regular expressions - one of the most avoided and feared areas of programming for elementary-intermediate-level developers.
There's an annoying typo; the * modifier, of course, matches zero or more characters, not one or more. D'oh. I had meant the + modifier, which does match one or more characters.
In other news, following a recent update to my jQuery Dropdown script (which allowed it to be used as a form field, not just as a navigational tool), there's been another update.
In the comments on the script page, Michael Eaton requested that it be possible to include icons in the 'options'. This is now possible!
Head over here to download, get usage info or view a demo.
post a commentREGEX article by me in .NET magazine
I've just completed an article for .NET magazine, to be printed in one of their upcoming issues. The article is an introduction to - what else - regular expressions, and why you should get into it.
There's three good reasons, actually. Firstly, and most simply, you'll gain the benefit of a very powerful part of programming. Secondly, REGEX grammar is implemented in much the same way across multiple programming languages, so learning it in Javascript also means learning it (or at least to a large degree) in whatever else you program in - say, PHP.
Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, it sets you apart. The age of jQuery means everyone is a JS developer these days. Mentioning on your CV that you know REGEX makes clear you REALLY know Javascript, rather than simply dabble with a few jQuery plugins.
So look out for that one. I'll do a follow-up post when they finally publish it.
2 comments | post newMy new article on JS oddities and well-kept secrets
My third article for Smashing Magazine went live yesterday, titled "Ten Oddities And Secrets About JavaScript".
It looks at things that are either weird or less known in the world's strangest programming language. I've covered a few of them in posts on here, such as self-executing functions, replace() taking a callback function, and the concept of truthy/falsy.
Others include null being an object, and undefined being definable. Check out the full article for more.
3 comments | post newNew Smashing article by me on image manip
Those nice guys at Smashing Magazine have just posted up my latest article for them, on image manipulation in jQuery and PHP.
It serves to highlight just how well PHP (specifically, its GD library) and Javascript go together in forming interactive web aps.
Short of a little flaming for my less-than-superb filetype verification technique in the PHP, the article has been generally well received.
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