Confessions of an Eccentric Web Developer IV
My confessions are good for everyone. I get to be candid and get things off of my chest...you get to react and tell me how wrong (or right......but usually wrong) I am. Round 4: fight!
- I think the fact that I have over 3,000 RSS feed subscribers as a primarily MooTools developer is nothing short of a miracle. I bet that number would be doubled if I wrote primarily jQuery posts.
- My girlfriend shames me by using Internet Explorer despite my protests. She's hot so I can live with it but if she tells me she's a jQuery girl we're done (a special smirk and a wink to one Rey Bango ;) )
- I bet the <DD> tag was the most popular in high school but had the least personality. It was the <A> tag that was less noticeable but linked everyone together.
- I think too many JavaScript developers use "the community" as too much of a crutch when choosing a primary framework. Don't get me wrong: the community is very important. It's ultimately up to the developer, however, to study up, hit the IRC for questions, and become a {insert framework here} expert.
- I think the relationship between the browser vendors and developers is the inverse of what it should be. The IE, 'Fox, Safari, and Opera teams should go to CSS gurus and JavaScript gurus and say "What are we doing wrong? What will make things better?" It's almost as if developers and browser vendors are enemies. That needs to change.
- I hope to work for Mozilla in a community/evangelist role some day. I think I would really excel in that role and be happy to go to work every day. In the mean time I just need to keep working hard at improving my skills.
- I think I sometimes use MooTools when basic JavaScript will do. Moo's just so damn fun though....
- I'd love to hold a weekly chat where I pull in developers like CSS-Tricks scribe Chris Coyier, MooTools core developer and Clientcide scribe Aaron Newton, and jQuery hypeman Rey Bango, but I don't think there would be enough interest. I think it would be fun to let reader ask questions and hold general discussion. Maybe some day when I'm popular.
- I'm dreading the reaction to the MooTools 1.3 breaking improvements. I think that the teams intentions are good but wont be treated that way. A framework shouldn't hold back improvements because the community will dislike these changes. The framework developers should, however, educate users as to why the changes are important.
- I'm contemplating making a run at looking at some adult websites to see what JavaScript techniques and frameworks they're using. I'm also scared as hell about the reaction I'd receive if I cited one in an article. I'll likely pass on this to avoid the moral debate.
- There's no better proof that I'm a programmer than the fact that I get nosebleeds often.
- I couldn't run this blog without the help of Netvibes' "Checklist" widget.
- I hate, hate, hate it when a developer adds a click event to an element but the cursor pointer isn't also assigned to the element. If an element is meant to be clicked, give it the damn "pointer" cursor!
- If you're a JavaScript coder and you aren't subscribing to Script & Style's RSS feed, you're crazy. I'm obviously biased because it's my site but but there's a lot of great stuff submitted every day. jQuery, MooTools, Prototype...no matter what framework you use, S&S covers it.
- I don't believe in DIV-itis. If a page take an extra DIV or two, I don't mind; but if I see you creating "virtual tables" using DIVs because "tables are bad," I'm going to call you out.
React.
7 is true for me (just replace MooTools with jQuery). I think I use jQuery so much that I forgot how to use “regular” javascript (like
document.getElementById)…Agreed with #15
100%, although I do like to keep the number ofDIVs in check.Nice post!
Nice list of confessions. I have to agree most with #13. I’ve gone so far as to no longer use a site that refuses to mark the clickable items appropriately.
Thanks!
Damn, She is using IE. :D
lol @ #13. You are pretty correct, Walsh.
BTW, why on clicking search button ( without writing anything in search box ) it says ‘Page not found’ instead of saying ‘Why don’ you write something in search box, buddy!’
One last thing Walsh, I am big fan of yours. keep up the good work. :)
You’ve done it again, Walsh! Hilarious!
@1 Probably tripled.
@2 Mine is hot and was easily convinced to use FF. Eat your heart out.
@3 I was the blink-tag, screaming for attention but nobody liked me, not even that marquee-fellow.
@4 Disagreed, all help is a bonus.
@5 Absolutely.
@6 Do better, start your own community.
@7 replace Moo with jQ and I agree
@8 Great idea, but don’t set your terms so high.
@9 Agreed, says the jQuery-lover.
@10 Only in the USA, we Europeans don’t give a damn.
@11 The Moo T-Shirt also gave it away.
@12 You couldn’t ? I thought you were good.
@13 101% agreed.
@14 didn’t know it was yours, so I got bookmarked two of your site. Don’t do RSS though, just bookmarkek the url.
@15 Agreed, both on divs and tables
I’m subscribed to your RSS feed, and I always skip over the MooTools stuff… its the posts like this that I hold out for! Your opinions and insights are hilarious, I’d love to see more of it. My former boss and I had a good chuckle over one of your comments in a previous “Confessions of a Web Developer”, where you suggested that those who call themselves webmasters might as well use a name like Code Captain. I always think of that whenever I come across a “Contact the Webmaster” link on websites now… hilarious.
9 is pretty accurate. Look at everything that has held back Windows (or just about any software platform.) The only caveat, is that a migration path, migration tools, and perhaps a backward emulation layer be made available. Rewriting code that is working, just to move to latest always sucks. Besides, who pays for it? You or your customer? Moving to the latest to achieve a new (and useful) design element is always a win-win. It could be nice if there was a ‘certifier’ program that scanned your Moo-JS and said it was 1.1, 1.2, or 1.3 compatible. Like HTML and Tidy…
I agreee for most of them, but the 13th is probably the best one :p
Fun list – I only have a reaction to one:
@4 – One of the reasons I stopped using MooTools was because of the bad attitudes and egos in their community. I haven’t been back in over a year, so maybe things have changed. So, call it what you may, but the community is very important to me ;)
You’ve done it again Walsh.
regarding 4
I was a previous mootools user before 1.2 was released. I moved to jquery just because the API was more stable. Now I have to go back and do some work for mootools 1.11. I went to the forum, created a account and I saw that the beginner section is LOCKED. How is this possible?
Is mootools only for experts?
@xpix: The forums are all locked. They use Google Groups now.
Than why I was allowed to create an account?
I hate people that try to make “div tables.” I can’t count how many times I’ve had to go fix the inconsistencies with their attempt in random browsers. Tables are a powerful tool, and when the new CSS table display values get supported by IE perhaps we can finally start coding a lot of things–tables and layouts alike–differently.