Panasonic Youth rob sanheim writes about software, business, ruby, music, stuff and things

Prototype and extending javascript’s Object or Array

James McParlane wrote a entry detailing why he won’t use the Prototype library, as extending Object or Array’s builtin prototype is bad.
However, Sam heard the complaints about how Prototype 1.3.1 was breaking existing code and other libraries, and the newer relases all use Object.extend() for safe extensions and do not change Array’s prototype. […]

The problem with JavaSchools according to Joel

Java is too easy to be the primary language taught in university computer science, according to Joel. I agree. Good thing I caught the last wave of C++ courses at my school, so I at least learned pointers.
update: Chad weighs in on it, asking where is the room for non-engineers:
What worries me is […]

web framework deathmatch: Rails vs Seaside

Glenn wrote recently about how to decide between Rails or Seaside.
[…Rails] is better in some ways, but Seaside is better in other ways. I think it’s just that Rails’ strengths address problems that are particularly frustrating to developers right now.
Rails addressing the problem of updating a relational database from the web, while Seaside focuses on […]

Back to the daily grind

catching up after the Christmas break…

Monday wrapup: Eckel on Ruby, real-world Rails productivity, the Ajax Experience…

Bruce Eckel wrote on “The departure of the hyper-enthusiasts” and set of a flurry of dicussion amongst DHH, Curt, and Patrick, among others.
I think Curt nailed the most important point that Bruce made - forget the language wars, lets just talk about the best way to solve these problems without all the baggage from […]

Devboi: essential extension for web developers

Click for larger screenshot
Finally, Devboi has been updated for Firefox 1.5. If you aren’t familiar with it, its a sidebar extension that has full API docs for the following (from the homepage):

HTML 4.01 elements, attributes, and entity tables
CSS 2 properties, compatibility chart (IE 5 Mac, IE 5, IE 5.5, IE 6, Mozilla, Opera 5, […]

A missed opportunity for Barnes and Noble’s web site

I frequent barnes and nobles (and borders) in my town a lot. When I find a good book, I’m usually too impatient to wait the shipping delay to save the few dollars via amzon. Yet I only use amazon’s site for all my online book needs. Beyond the obvious advantages amazon has […]

Logging in an abstract base class - violates good OO?

Scenario: you are starting a project and have created three classes that all do their own standard log setup, creating private static logs or whatever. Does creating an abstract base type with standard logging functionality violate YAGNI, the single responsiblity principle, or something else?
A couple immediate problems I can see with the […]

An Open Letter to Rudolph the Red-Nosed Raindeer

via McSweeny’s:

Please, Rudolph, think twice before doing another favor for Santa. Think about this: If you rearrange the letters in “Santa,” what do you get? I don’t think that’s an accident.

Keep your sql and your java code separate

(assumption: using Spring JDBC or some other thin JDBC layer, obviously this does not apply to ORM)
At what point in the process do you decided to take all your sql out of your data access layer and put it into plain property files or sql files? This gives you the PowerOfPlainText but adds an […]