Category Archives: Programming and Software

Web Programming as Cop Shows

Session Start (AIM – sassbert:ArtLung): Fri Apr 25 09:55:05 2003
ArtLung: we should make the analogy cop shows
ArtLung: and have PHP be Law and Order
Sassbert: hmmmm
ArtLung: reliable. extendable
ArtLung: ubiquitous
ArtLung: perl is like hill street blues
Sassbert: CSI would be Coldfusion
ArtLung: classic. kind of old fashioned
Sassbert: slick and packaged for the masses
ArtLung: CSI is totally coldfusion!
Sassbert: hah
ArtLung: but lacking
Sassbert: no real depth, but it works
ArtLung: i like this
Sassbert: lol you’re killing me
Sassbert: JSP is CourtTV
ArtLung: lol
Sassbert: “The real thing”
ArtLung: but tedious
ArtLung: powerful, real, but tedious
Sassbert: and you need to know a lot to get into it
ArtLung: that still leave us with ASP
Sassbert: hmmmm
Sassbert: Columbo?
Sassbert: maybe….
Sassbert: MATLOCK?
ArtLung: PERFECT!
ArtLung: for some reason, people watch it
ArtLung: damned if i know why
ArtLung: sometimes, you’re forced to watch it
Sassbert: this is going on the blog
Session Close (ArtLung): Fri Apr 25 10:25:22 2003

My Dream Job

SWM Web Developer seeks employer for long-term relationship. Let’s make beautiful Web together.

You:
* Live, breathe, and eat “the deal”.
* Are impeccably organized.
* Have a rolodex ten inches thick- and know how to use it.
* Are supremely cool and confident.
* Are a natural leader.
* Promote a healthy, happy workplace by example.
* Prefer face-to-face interaction over email.
* Understand what I do- and let me do it.
* Know when to work and when to play

Me:
* Punctual, committed, professional.
* Genuinely enjoys his work.
* Works hard, takes care of business, and gets home by 5.
* Lifetime learner – constantly building new skills.
* Really knows what he says he knows. No faux expertise.

Well, a boy can dream, can’t he?

Why I still don’t use Mozilla as my primary browser

* Slow to load : 10 seconds on a 2ghz Athlon?

* Ctrl + N opens a blank page

* Cannot view Source in my text editor.

* Cheesey UI, cannot consolidate taskbars into one single line.

* Can’t remove icon text or make icons small. I KNOW WHICH ONE IS THE “BACK ARROW”

* Cannot use alt+d to select the address bar.

* Security Icon in bottom-right interferes with dragging.

I’ve given up on Chimera as well, instead I’m using Safari on my Mac. although I whole-heartedly support Mozilla, I find their browser to be clunky and slow, and slowness is my major pet peeve on computers.

The best thing Moz has is the Javascript Console, which has become an absolute necessity. Also interesting is people making little mini-Moz apps using XUL- I think this tech has a lot of promise down the road.

For now, on a PC, it’s IE. There is simply no comparison. People saye rendering engine speed in Gecko is better, but who cares if the app takes 1000x longer to load in the first place. And really, aren’t we talking about 100th of a second here and there?

Please like to use the ‘alternative’, which is fine, but that’s not real criteria as far as I’m concerned.

OOP up-side ya head

Finally got my shit together with Object-Oriented PHP- let’s just say – it rules. OOP with PHP is riduclously easy- and powerful.

New: ZIP | Demo | Source

Just pass a 2D array and makes a paginated display. Also comes with an example script.

The best thing about classes is the code re-use. I had this exact same funtionality built out as functions- and it was never as portable as it is as a class.

Using classes in PHP is also cake. Include the class, instantiate it:
$pager = new Pager();

You can easily override a class with extends, or opt to customize the class to accept more user-servicable methods. The choice is yours.

Nerding out Heavily with Fiancee out of Town

————————————————-
Subject: Re: [websandiego] need some good ideas for PHP/mySQL functionality

>maybe someone out there needs an soap client that connects to a
>weather service and stores daily temperature
>averages for their region in a mysql database….?
>check out xmethods.org for web services server info and
>check out O’Reilly books for soap / web service code.

I just played around with a PHP SOAP client this morning.
Took about 15 minutes to make a “Dilbert of the day” page:

Check out Xmethods for public Web services:
http://www.xmethods.com/ve2/Directory.po

Find one you like, then download nuSOAP
http://dietrich.ganx4.com/nusoap/index.php

Write six lines of code to call and display the service.
http://www.vistaseeker.com/soap_client/

I found that a couple of the services were flakey, watch out, but
there’s great
stuff like ARC/GIS and all sorts of Currency and Weather stuff.
Of course there’s also all sorts of RSS / Blog stuff.

Fun stuff, easy as pie. You could incorporate mySQL by ncorporating a
storage system
for user favorites or personalized streams and feeds.

Good Luck,
Matt
http://portfolio.vistaseeker.com

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Are Developers Programmers or Engineers?

After a couple of years in this Web game, I’ve noticed that there is often a widespread misconception amongst Developers that they are, in fact, Engineers.

Think about this for a second, if you will. An engineer is often formally trained, state licensed, and well-schooled in the fundementals of their particular discipline.

When developing customer portal software you don’t just need to think about the software itself but how customers will interact with it, or not so if they don’t like the design.

This means that Engineers have the necessary knowledge of physics, electricity, and other concepts necessary to solve problems in a broadly-defined manner.

Contrast that with a programmer- Web or otherwise. Many have minimal formal training, aren’t subject to mandated certification, and probably have little to no knowledge of the low-level concepts required to be an engineer.

“The act of constructing software is, in fact, not an engineering process,”
Cooper said. “Engineering to me is problem-solving, which is very different
from solution implementations, which is what programmers [do].” Title
inflation is endemic to the industry, he said. “Web designers are called
programmers, programmers are called engineers, and engineers are called
architects, and architects don’t seem to ever get called,” Cooper
exclaimed.”

Read more here:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/02/12/HNproject_1.html

Just becasue someone can cut an appendix out with a steak knife does not make them a surgeon.

I have always taken exception to non-degreed programmers calling themselves ‘architects’ or ‘engineers’. It’s pure fallacy, driven by ego.