Biggs' Zone

A Geek's Cogitations, Conjectures and other Cortical Experiences

Tech Talk: JavaScript Frameworks

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On October 29, 2014

In Programming, Tech Talk, Technology

Web_programmerOver the past year I have had several projects at work (I feel like a real live consultant now) and I have used a few new technologies and tools on those projects. The skills that have really come a long way are my JavaScript skills.

I know what some of you might be thinking, “WTF, JavaScript?!?”

Yes. JavaScript. It’s not as cumbersome and taboo as it was back in the 90s. There are new tools and frameworks out there that have actually made JavaScript not only easier but … dare I say it … fun?! The library that has made JavaScript easier, for me, is jQuery, which I have been using for a couple years now and I won’t write any JavaScript without it. There are two frameworks that I have played around with recently that have really made JavaScript kind of fun: Knockout and AngularJS (I know these are not the only two but they are the only two I have spent any time using).

I think I have gone on before about how much I enjoy the magic behind jQuery. I even saved a few on snipplr which have had a few strangers favorite, although I could probably improve on most of them with the newer versions of jQuery. Using jQuery will definitely make your web page feel very dynamic and that seems to be the paradigm we are going for these days. A “web site” is quickly becoming a legacy term and we are evolving into developing “web apps” – which is essentially a website that functions as if it were something running on your desktop (instead of in your browser). I’m sure the evolution and massive adoptions of tablets and mobile devices has been a major catalyst.

The jQuery syntax and plethora of plugins really makes developing web apps much easier and adds a level of enjoyment to it. In fact writing your own jQuery plugin doesn’t require any additional software or new syntax, they are still js files that just use existing jQuery syntax. I have yet to write one myself, but I really want to, someday … if I can think of a worthwhile plugin to write. I have noticed a drawback about jQuery lately; the more complex you make your page the more JavaScript you have to write. I have a couple of sites where there is more JavaScript code then actual markup and trying to find a specific function to modify can be an exercise in perseverance. When JavaScript code becomes increasingly verbose, that’s when frameworks like Knockout and AngularJS come in handy.

I’d like to go on about Knockout and compare it to AngularJS but I haven’t spent a lot of time recently enough with Knockout and I have spent quite a bit of time the past couple of weeks with Angular. I mostly started looking into Angular because its one of those terms that has been mentioned quite a bit around the office. Many folks have talked a lot about using it and it has been implemented at my next assignment. I wanted to go beyond just watching the Pluralsight videos and reading the tutorial on the website. I wanted to see if I can get it working on a website. Therefore I made one of my websites the guinea pig 🙂

Angular uses “directives”, which are essentially special attributes added to HTML tags that only mean something to Angular which tell Angular where it will be applying changes or reacting to events. While you can still use jQuery to handle some of your pages events, in Angular the controller will contain the majority of the code that needs to be executed. It does add a bit of brevity to your html pages.

If you have done any development using the MVC pattern your attention may have latched onto the word “controller”. In Angular you are essentially using an MVC pattern (although you will often see it referred to as MV* when folks speak of Angular). Your controllers are still written in JavaScript but I often create a controllers.js file and keep all my controller code there. Therefore, if you need to make a change to some logic and you know its going to be in a controller, it will be easier to find the bit of code you are looking for to make your change. No more scrolling through lines of JavaScript code, or hitting Ctrl-F to find a specific function (unless you are using several controllers, in which case I would encourage you to create multiple controller files).

I’ve only really just begun to dive into Angular and I’m already enjoying its power and brevity. As I continue to witness and invoke its prowess I’m sure to be inspired to write some more, however I’ve run on enough for now but I encourage you to check out all of the things I talked about (if you haven’t already).

minion_keboard_smI could get so much more accomplished if I only had minions!

The MMO Times: Five Hundred and Nine!

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On October 23, 2014

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

orc_yellIssue 110: Oh, wait, no, we’re just at one hundred and ten. I guess I have to move to Denver and nearly break my neck to get to 509. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, unless you are an NFL fan (the real thing, not the EA Sports kind) don’t worry about it. A completely random numerical title with a cultural reference just seemed like a fun thing to do. In any event, Warlords of Draenor pre-expansion patch is officially live. We all are having to learn how to play our characters again and we have to get used to the stat squish. Of course if you’re not playing WoW then all of that information is completely moot, but keep reading because I’m going stop referencing WoW now 🙂

There might be a Hearthstone clone in the works, STO and RIFT have some expansions that have gone live, a big BlizzCon announcement are just a few of the headlines that might catch your attention today. I found an article from September that talked about what Titan might have been so some of you might find that to be an interesting article to read. KCGO** 

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TBT: My Favorite Date

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On October 16, 2014

In TBT

wedding-dayOctober 13, 2007 will forever be the favorite day of my life, followed very closely by April 14, 2014 (after all the latter couldn’t have happened without the former). Since Octoboer 13th was just this past Monday, this seemed the appropriate TBT post. I’ll admit it was a day I never thought would happen to me; not many of us with that “computer geek” label are credited with having much luck in the romance department; but for what its worth, we do have amazing “grep” patience 🙂

So, most of my friends and family I’m sure remember this day. We were married in the city we both loved for 4-6 years (i.e. West Lafayette on Purdue’s campus) and in a church we both loved (St. Thomas Aquinas). There are so many memories I could go into from that day. One memory, for example, was the morning of the wedding when I did not receive the groom’s complimentary bagel from Einstein’s Bagel’s because I was not present when a few of my groomsmen went to get some breakfast. Since the Best Man was dressed slightly differently than the others, the clerk thought he was the groom and he decided he wasn’t going to make the correction. I took no offense, but its a great story!

An example of “best made plans going awry”, which is a frequent theme for all weddings, was the night before the wedding. The church had made a mistake when booking the rehearsal. We were supposed to begin rehearsal at 7pm but we received a phone call about 5pm asking why nobody had arrived at the church. We had to call all the bridesmaids and groomsmen (that had managed to make it into town) to get to the church as quickly as possible. We ended up doing the rehearsal with about half the bridesmaids and a third of the groomsmen and the rehearsal dinner was still 2 hours away. Everything still worked out because all of our bridesmaids and groomsmen are awesome!

We were both so happy that so many of our friends could attend. Friends from high school, college, and friends we made while Beth was getting her MBA at Notre Dame.

So here’s to 7 years, to another 70 years and to the Best. Wife. Ever!

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

WoW: Fare-thee-well Pandaria

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On October 13, 2014

In Gaming, World of Warcraft

gate-of-the-setting-sunThis week the 6.0.2 patch is released, which contains pretty much all the expansion changes except the new zones. We will essentially be bidding farewell to Pandaria as everyone prepares for Warlords of Draenor by grinding the three new instances (and acclimating to the item squish and class changes). So as we bid adieu to Pandaria I want to reflect on my likes and dislikes of this expansion.

First, Mists of Pandaria was not my favorite expansion. Wrath of the Lich King is still the forerunner but a huge margin and I’d probably say that I liked Cataclysm more than Mists of Pandaria so it probably falls in about third place among the expansions. MoP had some highs and lows.

The Highs

– I loved the Asian theme. I think Blizzard’s art department did an amazing job integrating the storyline and new Pandarian race with a Chinese motif. Speaking of the Pandarian race, I really did enjoy them more than I thought I would in fact if Pandaren could be Paladin’s, I probably would have race changed my main.

– I did like the introduction of Flex raiding. We would struggle a lot to gather enough people for a full raid team, Flex helped us kill some raid content without having to constantly put enough butts-in-seats.

– I seriously loved Sunsong Ranch. I completely unlocked all 16 plots on all my max level toons. I was fairly diligent in planting things daily on all my toons as well. I think my enjoyment of the farm will transfer to my garrison.

The Lows

– I was never a fan of the name of the expansion (for starters) and I’m still not the biggest fan of it. It never seem to fit in with the inauspicious titles of all the previous expansions. It was definitely too … fluffy!

– This expansion was way too long. Blizzard released content too quickly and left all of us twiddling our thumbs for about 8 months.

– I couldn’t really get into the story. Blizzard definitely succeeded by making all of us despise Garrosh but his ultimate plan seemed anti-climatic.

– In the end, I did not like how everything became a grind-fest. 20 of these bobbins for the legendary,  then 10 more of these others, etc. The Timeless Isle became the epitome of the old school rep-grind.

Despite the fact that I have more bullets that describe things I didn’t like, the points that I did like count as double. It was enough to keep me coming back most days to keep playing some of the content. I imagine its difficult for Blizzard to find that happy medium between releasing content too quickly and avoiding long content gaps.

During WotLK it was difficult keeping 25 people happy in a raid, I cannot even begin to imagine what its like to keep 7 million happy. Everyone plays at their own pace, how do you appease those that finish content much faster than the others. One thing is for sure, I’m glad that’s a conundrum that I don’t have to figure out.

/cheers

The MMO Times: Blood Moon Eclipse

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On October 13, 2014

In Gaming, MMO Times, MMORPG

lunar-eclipse-0814Issue 109: Isn’t that an awesome lunar eclipse. The “Blood Moon”, such an iconic event to happen in the month of October. Yes, fall is upon us and so are many a content patches and expansions. Obviously the gaming companies are gearing up for the Christmas season and the winter months for those that will be sequestered in their homes in the colder regions of the world. Blizzard, Bioware and the other companies are preparing content for your enjoyment while you endure the frigid winter months. Also, BlizzCon is a mere 3 weeks away (which means we are about 4 weeks away from Warlords of Draenor)!

 Speaking of the WoW expansion, the pre-expansion patch will drop October 14th so get your last taste of Brawlers Guild, Challenge Modes and get your Legendary Cloak quests because they will be gone with 6.0.2. So there is some SWTOR and WoW expansion news in this issue, as well as some more details about new content coming for Final Fantasy XIV, Age of Wushu and more.

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TBT: Pool Nights

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On October 9, 2014

In Reminiscence, TBT

shooting_poolThis is a very fond memory. Pool Nights at Nick’s Pool Hall. It was so much fun just hanging out and shooting pool and having a couple of beers. This was a pastime Doug, Alan and I would partake in quite often during our latter years at Purdue. Everyone wanted to go to the Neon Cactus or Where Else, but I would have never chosen those places over Nick’s. I know one of the things that people will notice in this picture is my iconic Australian Fold-Up hat. I came back from a family vacation with that hat and it became something I was known for … although apparently I was the “creepy-guy-in-the-hat” according to my wife, whom I had barely known at the time (see previous TBT post).

We spent many  nights shooting everything from standard 8-Ball, to 9-Ball, and cutthroat. Some nights may have even involved attempting some trick-shots during those “Mike Massey” wanna-be nights.

I know several of our other friends would come and hang out at Nick’s, but as far as the three of us were concerned, this place was our “Central Perk“, “Cafe Nervosa“, “MacLaren’s”. I was disappointed to find out that when I returned to Purdue recently, Nick’s was gone. I think Alan said that it is under new ownership with a new location and a new name. It’s a real shame. Another shadow of the past, visible now only through the phantasmagorical images of our minds.

TBT is one of those crazy Facebook trends. It stands for “ThrowBack Thursday” and often times people post pictures. I know the old adage “A picture is worth 1,000 words” but most of the time the pictures I want to post have a great story behind them. In my traditional nerdy fashion, instead of just a picture I want to provide a blog post for my TBT moments to share those great stories. I will not share stories in which the context will embarrass or incriminate myself or my friends and family.

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