XML-based declarative user interface languages are becoming all the rage right now. While the ability to declare a GUI using a descriptive language is nothing new (I believe software for X-Windows/Motif widgets has been around for awhile), we are seeing this renewed focus due to several factors: 1) maturity of XML technologies on the web, 2) the rising popularity of Mozilla's Firefox browser, 3) next release of Windows (Longhorn) and 4) new web applications that provide an enhanced user experience over traditional web experiences (for example Gmail, Google Maps, Flickr). Read the rest of this entry ...
As if Flash games weren't enough, Holger has released a new web-browser game written in SVG: Sokoban. This puzzle game is fun and challenging, but at 60 levels, it's unlikely that anyone is going to sit through them all. It's a shame that the game doesn't save a cookie and remember which level you've made it to (hint hint, Holger).
To play the above, your browser needs to support SVG (a relatively new web-based graphics standard). Until Mozilla Firefox 1.1 is released, I recommend you download the Adobe SVG Viewer plugin. For Internet Explorer, click here. For Mozilla Firefox, follow the instructions at the bottom of this page.
After I wrote this entry, I knew I had forgotten one "gotcha" from my little Remote Scripting experience. I remembered it today. It involves PHP and the annoying aspect of having to declare within a function when you want to use a global variable:
$gSomeVariable = 5;
function somefunc() {
printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}
function somefunc() {
printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}
The above will not produce "5". Without explicitly telling PHP that gSomeVariable is a global variable, it will assume it is a local variable and currently undefined.
Do you know how many time this has tripped me up? The correct PHP code is:
$gSomeVariable = 5;
function somefunc() {
global $gSomeVariable;
printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}
function somefunc() {
global $gSomeVariable;
printf("%d", gSomeVariable);
}
For all the times I made this mistake: AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!
Why are newspapers still around? Who buys newspapers these days? It certainly isn't teenagers looking for a used car. As a family we certainly don't buy newspapers, though we'll occasionally check one out if we find one sitting (discarded and lonely and only slightly stained) in a coffee shop. Read the rest of this entry ...
This is just a quick entry for me to jot down some caveats that I encountered while making a simple instant messaging application for the browser using Asynchronous JavaScript, XML and PHP. Read the rest of this entry ...