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Weekend Links – MooTools Fancy Upload, 60 Second Tech, jSize, CSS Pull Quotes, PHP First Language

By David Walsh on May 3, 2008

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/

Recent Features

By David WalshNovember 8, 2012
5 More HTML5 APIs You Didn’t Know Existed
The HTML5 revolution has provided us some awesome JavaScript and HTML APIs. Some are APIs we knew we've needed for years, others are cutting edge mobile and desktop helpers. Regardless of API strength or purpose, anything to help us better do our job is a...
By David WalshJanuary 20, 2014
5 Ways that CSS and JavaScript Interact That You May Not Know About
CSS and JavaScript: the lines seemingly get blurred by each browser release. They have always done a very different job but in the end they are both front-end technologies so they need do need to work closely. We have our .js files and our .css, but...

Incredible Demos

By David WalshFebruary 1, 2010
Google-Style Element Fading Using MooTools or jQuery
Google recently introduced an interesting effect to their homepage: the top left and top right navigation items don't display until you move your mouse or leave the search term box. Why? I can only speculate that they want their homepage as...
By David WalshApril 7, 2009
Facebook-Style Modal Box Using MooTools
In my oh-so-humble opinion, Facebook's Modal box is the best modal box around. It's lightweight, subtle, and very stylish. I've taken Facebook's imagery and CSS and combined it with MooTools' awesome functionality to duplicate the effect. The Imagery Facebook uses a funky sprite for their modal...

Discussion

Will
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.
david
@Will: I went the same route — college Java before teaching myself PHP.
Eric Wendelin
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.
Cal Evans
@David,
Thanks for the kind words and the link. :)

=C=