Javascript

Saving HTML canvas element data to an image in a user friendly manner is a tricky problem. Let’s look at one way to solve it. ...

I was fiddling with a JavaScript timer application and noticed a bug in IE6. I’m sure this is documented elsewhere but I couldn’t find anything with some quick searches; hence this post. ...

I was recently working with the HTML canvas element and wanted to attach an event to the canvas that would fire the click event of a file input element. I would then hide the input element so that the canvas element was the only way to browse for files. ...

Fade animations are a standard tool in any jQuery developer’s toolbox. But how do they really work? Let’s create a small function that encapsulates solely the fade functionality and find out. ...

Developers learn by example. This is no secret. The first advice given to new developers is to read a lot of good source code and the best advice given to experienced developers is to read a lot of good source code. Canonical texts for many languages let the source code say far more than the text. I’m thinking of text’s like Kernighan & Ritchie and Friedman & Felleisen. ...

Chrome recently introduced support for HTML Notifications. Following the brief tutorial at HTML5 Rocks I was able to implement this in a matter of minutes and I couldn’t be happier with the results. ...

How are constants declared in JavaScript? ...

Closures are easy. There I said it. Invest a little bit of time, and you will say it too. Follow along with me as I attempt to explain what closures are and how they are used. ...

The future of mobile development is cross-platform HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3. Let me explain. I’ve been working on a couple Windows Phone 7 applications to accompany my first release, FaceArt, in the Marketplace. As I do more research and development with the mobile platform I keep looking for ways to increase the reach of my apps. The most obvious is to release Android and iOS versions but I have a few hurdles to clear first, the biggest being lack of time. I do all development as a moonlighting gig while I work full-time and I’m already struggling to find extra hours during the week to finish my first three applications for one platform. How am I going to write and maintain three separate codebases for each app for the major mobile platforms while still keeping my employer happy during the work week? The solution is cross-platform libraries targeting mobile and web apps. PhoneGap, AirPlay, and DragonFire SDK are a few notable products designed for just this problem. The most notable, and most intriguing for me, is PhoneGap. I first noticed PhoneGap through an article on ArsTechnica. This open-source solution wraps apps designed with HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS in a container suitable for the respective app stores. Why is this exciting? You can design an application for the web and get the mobile app for free (or minimal) time investment. This is as close to the write once, run anywhere ideal that we will get for mobile phones and as the tools improve the experience is only going to get better for developers. I personally can’t wait to see what the future holds for this product. What do you think? ...