The Author – Bart Busschots
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Jan
25
PBS 89 of X — Currency Converter Challenge
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on January 25, 2020 | Leave a Comment
This instalment is an experiment in more ways than one. The most obvious being that it is the first to be hosted entirely on GitHub, show notes and all!
Dec
15
PBS 88 of X — DOM & jQuery Objects Redux
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on December 15, 2019 | 2 Comments
We’re nearing the end of our series-within-a-series re-capping the many proverbial hats JavaScript objects wear and updating our knowledge to include new features added to the language since we started our JavaScript journey. In this instalment we’ll focus on two very tightly related hats — native JavaScript DOM object, which we’ve chosen not to use, and jQuery object, which wrap native DOM object to give them super-powers.
This instalment will have a slightly unusual structure, we’ll use my sample solution to the challenge set at the end of instalment 85 to illustrate some of the core concepts.
Jun
1
PBS 79 of X — Introducing Javascript Promises
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on June 1, 2019 | 1 Comment
Finally, after much teasing, we get our first taste of JavaScript Promises! This will just be a taste though, Promises are simultaneously really simple and really counter-intuitive. In many ways teaching promises reminds me a lot if teaching recursion — there is a tipping point where the concept goes from infuriatingly mind-bending to obvious and logical. Getting to that tipping point can be quite the challenge though.
So, we’re going to take it slow with promises. They will provide us with a way out of callback hell, but that path to salvation is unlikely to be obvious to you by the end of this instalment. It will take one or two more instalments until we get that far. All I can ask is that you please trust, me, how ever bumpy the journey gets, the destination is worth the struggle!
You can download this instalment’s ZIP file here.
May
18
PBS 78 of X — is.js & Bootstrap Popovers
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on May 18, 2019 | 2 Comments
For boring real-life reasons this instalment is a bit of an intermission. In the previous instalment we learned about so-called call-back hell, and were all set to learn how Javascript Promises would be our liberation, but that’s going to have to wait until next time. Promises are a very important concept, and I don’t want to rush them.
What we’re going to do in this instalment is focus entirely on my sample solution to the challenge set at the end of the previous instalment, which I’ve used as an opportunity to demonstrate two new tools to add to our programming tool belt — the micro-checking library is.js, and Bootstrap Popovers.
You can download this instalment’s ZIP file here.
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May
4
PBS 77 of X — More Callbacks & More AJAX
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on May 4, 2019 | Leave a Comment
My plans for this instalment were to quickly demonstrate so-called callback hell, and then move on to the solution, JavaScript Promises, but in light of some listener feedback I changed my plans a little. There was some confusion in the community about what callbacks really are, so, now seemed like an opportune moment to spend a little time re-familiarising ourselves with some callback basics. This sets things up for a bit of a teaser-ending because we’ll get as far as demonstrating callback hell, but not as far as using Promises to get back out of hell, that will have to wait until the following instalment!
You can download this instalment’s ZIP file here.
Apr
20
PBS 76 of X — AJAX with jQuery
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on April 20, 2019 | 2 Comments
Having laid a very strong foundation in the previous instalment, we’re now ready to learn how to make HTTP requests with JavaScript using a technique known as AJAX.
We’ll start our journey into AJAX using more traditional JavaScript techniques, i.e. we’ll use callbacks to handle HTTP responses. As we’ll discover, this works very well for single AJAX requests, but the model really starts to get complicated when you have multiple inter-dependent requests. We won’t complicate things in this instalment though — we’ll start with just simple stand-alone requests this time.
You can download this instalment’s ZIP file here.
Apr
6
PBS 75 of X — AJAX Intro
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on April 6, 2019 | 1 Comment
Having wrapped up our introduction to Mustache templates we’re going to spend the next few instalments learning about AJAX, a very powerful JavaScript technique for loading information from a given URL. In future instalments we’ll use this technique to load external templates and data for use with our Mustache templates.
AJAX is a mechanism for making a HTTP requests via JavaScript, so before we’re ready to learn about AJAX we need to take the time to learn about the HTTP protocol itself. Unless you understand the mechanics and the terminology of HTTP, AJAX-related documentation simply won’t make any sense.
May
19
PBS 35 of x – HTML Text Input | Introducing ‘Life’
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on May 19, 2017 | 3 Comments
We’ll start this instalment by rounding out our look at QUnit – first, by taking a quick look at my sample solution to the challenge from the previous instalment, and then by introducing a simple little feature that will make this instalment’s challenge more manageable.
Next, we’ll make a start on text input in HTML forms. This time we’ll focus purely on free-form text, and then in the next instalment we’ll move on to formatted sub-sets of text like numbers, email addresses and so on.
Finally, we’ll make a start on what will be an on-going project. The idea is to combine our understanding of HTML, CSS, JavaScript, jQuery, and QUnit to implement a zero-player with a really cool computer science back-story.
As usual, I’ve created a ZIP file with the files for this instalment, including a sample HTML page that demonstrates text input in action, and the files that make up the starting point for this instalment’s challenge which you can download here.
Apr
30
PBS 34 of x – More JS Testing with QUnit
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on April 30, 2017 | 3 Comments
In the previous instalment we had our first look at QUnit, an open source Unit testing framework for JavaScript by the jQuery project. In this instalment we’ll finish our exploration of QUnit with a look at a few more advanced QUnit features. We’ll be making regular use of QUnit in future JavaScript challenges.
Wrapping up our brief detour into testing a QUnit leaves us free to move back to HTML forms and more JavaScript practice in the next instalment. The aim is to slowly bring those two streams back together through a new multi-instalment project. Over the next few instalments we’ll be building up a web app that makes use of both web forms and JavaScript prototypes.
As usual, I’ve collected the code referenced in this instalment into a ZIP file which you can download here.
Dec
31
PBS 27 of x – JS Prototype Revision | HTML Forms
Filed Under Computers & Tech, Software Development on December 31, 2016 | 2 Comments
In this instalment we’ll make a start on a large topic which we have intentionally ignored until now – taking user input on the web. The way this is done is through HTML forms. It will take us a few instalments to learn all about them, so we’ll start with the basics in this instalment.
The code for the examples in this instalment has been collected into a single ZIP file which you can download here.