Without Noise

Standards now come standard

Dan — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 11:51:12 +0000

“We’ve decided that IE8 will, by default, interpret web content in the most standards compliant way it can. This decision is a change from what we’ve posted previously.” - Dean Hachamovitch, IEBlog

HTML5 working draft released

Dan — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 13:40:36 +0000

Are you excited yet? Finally there has been some much needed progress made on the future of (X)HTML. The W3C’s HTML5 WG and WHAT WG have come together to release the First Public Working Draft of the HTML5 spec.

Coping with syntax pains

Dan — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:46:46 +0000

A couple of months ago I had an idea. At the time I thought it was a good one. Still do too. I figured what better time to learn a new language and implement said idea in aforementioned language. Nothing helps you learn more then the practical application of newly learned knowledge. At least it helps me sometimes. Also the idea of using a MVC framework was pretty appealing since I would like to get this idea out relatively fast and have the production be quite agile as well. So I narrowed the choices down to Ruby on Rails, Python’s Django, or use PHP with either Cake or Code Igniter. So in the end I chose Ruby on Rails because it seemed everyone was having a lot of fun with it and I could find a ton of information relatively easily.

Let me first start off by saying Ruby on Rails is very nice. I enjoy it a lot. But I do have a beef with it. Honestly I’m not a fan of the syntax. I understand a lot of people are. Yes I think it has tremendous amounts of niceties. Perhaps it’s the fact that I enjoy good design, code aesthetics, and readability that I find issues with the following. This is the first thing that jumped out at me.

123.to_s

What does it do? I imagine it converts to something since it contains the word “TO” in it. If that is the case, then what is “S”, perhaps a Single, Symbol, Signed Integer, String? Oh a string. That makes sense. Now contrast that with C#

123.ToString()

There is no question about what that method aims to do. You could even be more verbose with it writing Convert.ToString(123). Granted while the example is a simple one it still stresses the same point. With all Ruby’s syntactical sugar aside, when it comes to design and convention, it’s a bit rough. When I started learning programming the main thing I picked up was to be verbose and informative with your naming and designing. And to me a language itself should follow such principles as well. I could go on with more, but I just want to know if I’m all alone in this. Again with all that said, I do like Ruby on Rails and will most likely use it for my project, I just wish it could be better.

What say you dear reader?

Heima has dropped

Dan — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 13:39:28 +0000

I’ve been waiting for this for quite some time now, and I actually missed that it was released back on December 4th. If you’re not familiar with Sigur Rós then I would highly recommend checking them out. Every time I watch the Í Gær trailer it makes me want to visit Iceland more and more.

They have a sound that I can only really describe as atmospheric. Very good In-The-Zone/Chill music. Especially for when it’s head down pounding out bits time. I should mention though; being from Iceland their lyrics are in Icelandic. Not a big deal to me, but to some perhaps.

This is something I will surely add to my Christmas list.

I assure you we’re open

Dan — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 14:01:30 +0000

With the coming New Year, I will be entering a brave new world. For far too long now I’ve been strictly a bystander. A silent participant if you will. This shall be the re-birth* of my E-legacy as a good friend once called it.

I will be taking up freelance web development work. Something I’ve wanted to do for as long as I can remember. Well that’s not true. I’m going to guess late 1998 when I first started doing web development. Simple stuff back then, but the desire was still there I’m sure of it. And now with me strictly doing Windows development for my day job, I can take on web work without running the risk of burning myself out. I figure a couple projects here and there to start out, and then I’ll try to get more clients.

What does this all mean for you dear reader? Well, a brand new blog to read littered with my postings on my adventures, experiences, and musings. How about a portfolio of recent works to peruse? Perhaps some code for thought. We’ll see I suppose. This site will be a constant work in progress. Until then, stay tuned.

Oh, and welcome.

*I had an super awesome blog back somewhere between 00-02.