Web development

• More Performance Tips - An article on how to improve JavaScript performance when generating web pages using DOM. I'm glad Microsoft is starting to publish more articles on how to write faster and better code for their browser (IE). Now I wish they would reflect more on how to work around IE bugs.
• A huge gotcha with JavaScript closures and loops - Blog post discussing function object creation inside another function. Basically the browser is free to reuse the inside function object, so if you are trying to create an array of them you might end up with the same function instead of having a collection of distinct objects. My biggest surprise, however, came from the fact that ECMA 262 script specification allows the script host to either reuse the function object or to recreate it. I guess specification gives this choice to script host developers for performance reasons. I don't like it though. Whenever there's "either-or" choice some people go one way, while others go another. Usually this difference won't matter until much later and a lot of time will have to be spent to figure out what's happening.
• JavaScript Articles - A small collection of good articles on advanced JavaScript features. There are lots of examples and the same material is often presented from several points of view to make understanding an article easier.
• IIS Server Pro - A lightweight tool to control IIS server from system tray and create multiple websites (same IP, different root on different ports) on Windows XP/2000.
• Internet Explorer Developer Toolbar Beta - A new toolbar from Microsoft to help web developers (who target IE). It offers some interesting features, but I still like Web Accessibility Toolbar better. Most of the functionality is the same, but there are some small differences (in what and how they outline on the page), so it makes sense to have and use them both. The biggest complaint I have about the new IE Developer Toolbar is that it only allows web page inspection. It doesn't let (or I couldn't find how to do it) developer to modify CSS (for example) and immediately see the results.

I have planned originally to publish links to interesting articles and websites on daily basis. I have a title for such posts with an unoriginal name: "Daily Links". With the blog more than 2 months old I have gained some experience and insights, one of which is that I just can’t publish new links every day. I simply don’t go through enough links to have a daily list. “Daily Links” name needs to change.

I see two possibilities – aim to publish links on (by) weekly basis, or publish one link at a time but go deeper into what an article or website is about. I'm leaning towards the first solution and that's what I was doing anyway. I'm going to rename the posts. I guess "Weekly Links" would be closer to the truth:) , but I want it to be original. I've came up with "Turns of liquid maze". I will let you all decide what that means for you :) Maybe sometime in the future when I won't have anything to write about I will go into what it means for me.

If you have critique of the name, or have any ideas why “Turns of liquid maze” is inappropriate, please feel free to share them and I will take your advice under consideration.

Without further ado.

Web development

• On having layout - An article that goes deep into how IE rendering engine works, why IE often incorrectly handles CSS and possible ways to work around the problem. It provides a very good foundation for developing IE-compliant web pages that don't behave unexpectedly. (via http://dean.edwards.name/weblog/2005/06/layout/)
• JavaScript Benchmarking (XSLT) - XSLT performance is analyzed in IE and Mozilla Firefox. IE wins easily even using an older version of MSXML. On the side note using pure JavaScript to generate HTML and manually inserting it into web page is much faster than XSLT in Mozilla, but slightly slower in IE.
• Benchmark – style vs. classname - Another article on web browser performance. Changing element's className is faster than actually going in and changing element's style.someThing. The only exception is Safari, which likes style change better than className change.
• JSAN - JavaScript Archive Network. Repository for OpenSource JavaScript code. It contains a lot of JavaScript code so it's a good place to start looking for something you might need.
• Best Practices: Implementing JavaScript for rich internet applications - A list of JavaScript development practices. All of them are common sense, but having them in front of your eyes will probably lower chance of not following them (you always follow common sense anyway, right?:) ) (via http://domscripting.webstandards.org/?p=19)
• Migrate apps from IE to Mozilla - A list and description of differences between IE and Mozilla DOM API. There are a lot of them and this article touches on most of them (I'm not sure if anybody can describe them all. There are just too many.) The article should be of interest to any web developer, not only those migrating from IE to Mozilla.

.NET

• Castle release (Download) - Old news by now, but still important and worth mentioning. A lot of bugs were fixed and some interesting features introduced.

I’ve been really busy lately. My mail keeps accumulating and I want to write more about Monorail and ASP.NET. Soon.

General

• How to Write Killer Blog Posts and More Compelling Comments – The name speaks for itself. Not a development link, but I think many people can benefit from at least scanning it.

Tools

• Saltstorm – Cool JavaScript compression utility. I’m sure there are many similar tools, but this is professionally done and well documented.
• Ultimate Developer and Power User Tool List – A great list of tools that every developer and most of power users should be at least aware of.

Web development

• Efficient JavaScript code - Writing efficient JavaScript code can be a complex task. This article will help you to know the cost (in terms of memory, execution time, etc.) of various things in JavaScript. My only concern is that it’s written from Opera's perspective, which is not as widely used as IE or Mozilla and so the applicability of the article diminishes.
• Data persistence in IE – Overview of how to use IE DHTML Behaviors (proprietary Microsoft extension for IE to ease control creation) to persist user data (such as view or control state).
• Understanding and Solving Internet Explorer Leak Patterns – A great article from Microsoft on what can cause memory leaks in IE. An interesting read providing good insight into the problems I’m trying to solve with my UI project.
• Six JavaScript features we do not need any longer – Discussion on six JavaScript features that author think should be avoided in JavaScript development (as well as thrown out in the future versions of JS). Mostly I agree, but I don’t think "href="javascript: …", onclick="javascript:" can be thrown out yet. Not until Microsoft fixes the problem with IE only supporting “:hover” CSS pseudo-class for the anchors (<a></a>). Using JavaScript here can prevent anchors from navigating away from the page ("href=”javascript:void(0)"). Using anchors is inappropriate in many cases (which doesn't stop most developers, including me, from doing it), but it can really simplify life sometimes.
• W3C DOM vs. innerHTML – Another article on JavaScript performance. In this case, two ways to manipulate the page are compared and apparently, “innerHTML” wins in most of the cases. Still DOM is often more convenient. In most cases, the difference should not be noticeable, but it’s nice to know what to look at if JavaScript seems to take too long to execute. Don’t forget that it’s also possible to use various JavaScript profilers, such as Mozilla Venkman.
• Object Hierarchy and Inheritance in JavaScript – In-depth JavaScript OO capabilities overview. Most certainly, you will learn something knew or recall something you’ve forgotten about what JavaScript is capable of.
• Design for future: workarounds vs. hacks – All web developers who has to work with CSS sooner or later discover inconsistencies in how browsers handle CSS as well as run into CSS limitations. This article is a good starting point to understanding hacks and workarounds possible in CSS, how they can help and when they’re appropriate to use.

Tools

• PowerBand - A powerful IE add-in to explore and partially modify current webpage. Very cool and powerful tool. The only complaint I have is that working with CSS is somewhat limited. Computed (a.k.a runtime) CSS for an element can be copied into clipboard, but that’s it. I can’t even view it on the fly.

Design

• UI Hall of Shame - Love it or hate it but most developers eventually have to get into UI design. I for one have to do it quite often and I realize there’s a lot of space for improvement for me. One of the ways to learn something is by looking at what not to do and this website is all about bad examples of UI design.

Web development

• Pure CSS buttons and XML button via CSS - Often blogs feature button-like elements to allow readers to subscribe to the blog feed. Most of the time images are used, but there are a few techniques I found that can unleash the power of CSS to replace image with HTML tag. If you own a blog and are not afraid of modifying it’s look you might find the links interesting.
• Whitespace in the DOM - White spaces are always a tricky subject when it comes to HTML (or XML) programming and understanding how they are processed is important for any serious developer. This article covers how Mozilla treats them and how to overcome some of the limitations imposed as the result. I’ve actually done something similar in my UI project to make code compatible with both IE and Mozilla.
• W3C CSS2 Specifications - I wish I’ve known of this place earlier. It’s one of the best resources on CSS programming. It’s well written and easy to understand (unlike most of W3C writings). There are a lot of examples and discussion on how various special cases should be handled by the browser. The only problem is that none of the browsers fully support CSS specifications. You find that some things work differently in IE or Mozilla from what you might have expected after reading this manual. Still this book is a good starting point when you try to understand why something is behaving unexpectedly.

Web development examples

• CSS Desktop - a Windows-like desktop simulation written in JavaScript. Pretty nifty although still needs some work.
• WebCmd - an example of command prompt written using JavaScript and AJAX. This approach could create powerful tools for remote administration through web interface, but I doubt there are many uses for it other than educational. (via http://www.ajaxian.com/archives/2005/06/ajaxian_command.html)

General

• http://www.jnd.org/dn.pubs.html - a collection of essays on various topics from design to technology & society. A good place to look for an inspiration when designing just about anything I think.
• http://www.start.com/myw3b/ - a beta version of an interesting online service to read RSS feeds online. It uses AJAX to dynamically load everything on the fly. (got link via http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/06/04/425205.aspx)
• http://sandbox.msn.com/ - a place where various Internet related tools developed by Microsoft are available for download.
• http://www.rss-specifications.com/rss-submission.htm - RSS submissions list. A page with collection of various RSS directories to submit the blog to.

Tools

• http://extensionroom.mozdev.org/more-info/sessionsaver - Session saver extension for Firefox which saves opened web-pages and tabbs when Firefox is closed and reopens them when it restarts.
• http://chrispederick.com/work/firefox/webdeveloper/ - Web developer Firefox extension. A powerful tool that allows to do such neat things as changing CSS on the fly to see the changes on the screen right away. I'd love to see some similar tool to appear for IE also.
• http://jgwebber.blogspot.com/2005/06/drip-02.html - Drip 0.2. Some minor improvements over Drip 0.1. Also the source code has been released.

Web development

• http://web-graphics.com/mtarchive/001568.php - "Javascript: what's next?" An interesting article on where Javascript is today and where it is headed. Provides a lot of links to things people are doing with Javascript.
• http://www.opensourcecms.com/ - web page with a list of various open source tools to be tested online before you download and install them. Truly gives a new meaning to "try before you buy it."
• http://www.htmldog.com/ptg/archives/000107.php - a post on how to do multiple backgrounds in CSS with a lot of interesting points and ways to do it discussed in the comments.
• http://blogs.msdn.com/ericlippert/archive/2003/09/17/53028.aspx - Eric Lippert writes about closures in Javascript. What's more important is what he says towards the end of the post - how closures can cause memory leaks in IE and why Microsoft hasn't fixed the problem yet.

Development tricks

• http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=167842&rl=1 - a really interesting article on how to do policy-based class development in C++ using templates and multiple inheritance. Policy-based classes allows the user of the classes to configure how an object is made and how it works by specifying from which classes the object is built. (got link via http://jlamas.blogspot.com/2005/06/policy-based-design-in-c.html)

Today I'm opening a new category for posts. Every day I read quite a few blogs and various e-mail newsletters from different places on trends and news in the world of development. Some of the stuff that I read is interesting, but not all of it is exciting enough to mention. So what I'm going to do is to list links to the most interesting articles and posts on other blogs. I will also add descriptions to the links so that you would have some idea what you can expect to see there before you decide to follow the link. Personally I don't like to see links damps that I encounter from time to time and having to click on each of the links just to see what it's all about,.

Software tools

• Drip: IE Leak Detector - a cool tool to help detect memory leaks in Internet Explorer. It might not detect all possible leaks, but it's the step in the right direction. It's a very useful tool for any serious web developer.

  I've tested JavaScript UI library I'm working on and happy to report that Drip didn't find any leaks yet. Getting rid of memory leaks is one of the major goals of the library.

  Read more on Drip
  Download Drip

• Window System File Checker - a knowledge base article from Microsoft on the tool (built into Window XP and Windows 2003) to verify system file's version. It could be useful to check and restore system file that got corrupted or overwritten.

References

• Cheat Sheets - a collection of cheat sheets on such topics as MySQL, Apache programming, CSS, PHP programming and RGB colour chart. Each cheat sheet is a page in PNG or PDF formats that could be printed for quick reference.