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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 WalshJuly 25, 2012
CSS 3D Folding Animation
Google Plus provides loads of inspiration for front-end developers, especially when it comes to the CSS and JavaScript wonders they create. Last year I duplicated their incredible PhotoStack effect with both MooTools and pure CSS; this time I'm going to duplicate...
By David WalshApril 25, 2011
Facebook Open Graph META Tags
It's no secret that Facebook has become a major traffic driver for all types of websites. Nowadays even large corporations steer consumers toward their Facebook pages instead of the corporate websites directly. And of course there are Facebook "Like" and "Recommend" widgets on every website. One...

Incredible Demos

By David WalshOctober 2, 2012
Modal-Style Text Selection with Fokus
Every once in a while I find a tiny JavaScript library that does something very specific, very well. My latest find, Fokus, is a utility that listens for text selection within the page, and when such an event occurs, shows a beautiful modal dialog in...
By David WalshFebruary 16, 2012
Use Elements as Background Images with -moz-element
We all know that each browser vendor takes the liberty of implementing their own CSS and JavaScript features, and I'm thankful for that. Mozilla and WebKit have come out with some interesting proprietary CSS properties, and since we all know that cementing standards...

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=