Weekend Links – MooTools Fancy Upload, 60 Second Tech, jSize, CSS Pull Quotes, PHP First Language
MooTools Fancy Upload
Moo developer Harald Kirschner gave Fancy Upload a face-lift for MooTools 1.2. If you haven't seen Fancy Upload before, please check this out!
http://digitarald.de/project/fancyupload/
Sixty Second Tech
I met Cal Evans through my time as a PHP Zone Leader. He's a really bright guy and his newest podcast show aims to share his knowledge with people that aren't so techy.
http://www.sixtysecondtech.com/
jSize 1.0 - A Window Slider/Resizer Wonder for jQuery
This jQuery gem allows for you to use a slider to change the size of columns within the structure of a website. Cool!
http://www.gimiti.com/kltan/wordpress/?p=27
Better Pull Quotes
CSS-Tricks shows you show to avoid duplicating content to create pull quotes by using a little bit of jQuery goodness.
http://css-tricks.com/better-pull-quotes/
Is PHP a Good First Language?
This article outlines why PHP is a good first server-side language to learn. While I love PHP, I think Java is a better first language to learn. It's much more strict, which I think a developer needs to know first -- then be amazed at how PHP is much easier.
http://codeutopia.net/blog/2008/05/01/is-php-a-good-first-language/
In regards to your statement about PHP vs. Java. I would agree, but for different reasons. I think it’s beneficial to know a non-strictly-web language (unless of course you meant JavaScript?) before learning a web language, I would say it would have to be Java though. I learned Java (well, two college semesters worth) before I taught myself PHP, and it made it much easier.
@Will: I went the same route — college Java before teaching myself PHP.
Hmm. That’s a tough one about first languages. My first language was HTML for interpreted and Java for compiled languages. If I was teaching, I would teach shell scripting first because it has some simpler but well defined constructs and I pretty much guarantee that you will use it for a LONG time.
@David,
Thanks for the kind words and the link. :)
=C=