The Winter of jQuery

This winter I was fortunate enough to be able to speak at two jQuery events - First in jQuery Conference in San Diego, then in Vienna for jQuery Europe.  The traveling is always great, and these events were top notch as far as organization, content, and attendees.

While I always enjoy attending conferences, these two seemed to be extra engaging in that the attendees I talked with all brought a great deal of encouragement and excitement to continue to share what they know and learn.

I was also able to spend more time with a few of the folks I have met from the jQuery team and really see the vision of where some of the projects are headed. From this, I have even started to spend some time trying to triage and/or fix issues on the jQuery Mobile project.

In any case, here are the slides and video for my presentations about building $.Widgets for both UI and Mobile.

Book Review: Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript

I just finished reading another fantastic resource for JavaScript developers "Principles of Object-Oriented JavaScript" written by Nicholas C. Zakas. 

Nicholas C. Zakas is an excellent Front-End developer, and what I have always enjoyed about his work, is his ability to clearly articulate his knowledge to developers of all skill levels. Because of this I had high expectations for reading this book. I'm happy to say that this book did not disappoint.

The book, to me, is an reference I will keep with me throughout my JavaScript career, and I'll recommend it to any developer interested in JavaScript. Targeted toward JavaScript beginners, this book highlights areas that many who are new to JavaScript will likely have to learn the hard way, or discover after they have reached a level of frustration that makes them decide to hate JavaScript forever.

Now, this does not mean that this book contains some secret recipe to JavaScript Zen, but it does provide all the necessary tools for the reader (Seasoned JavaScripter or one who is new JS) to understand how to build great applications with JavaScript. The topics - functions, objects, prototypes, inheritance - are all covered thoroughly through well though out examples which are not too complex for even a new developer to follow. These examples and explanations are accompanied with wonderful notes and snippets that signal the voice of the seasoned JavaScript professional that Nicholas C. Zakas is. As I wrote above, I definitely recommend this book.

Node.js Recipes

It started when I favorited a tweet in February in which a request was being made for some help updating a JavaScript book. I had recently spent some time contributing to a jQuery Mobile book and wanted to continue writing. Shortly after I contacted Louise (my editor) and it turns out that they had already found someone to update the book.....
 
It turns out that Louise had some plans for a Node.js Recipes book, which I thought would be spectacular so I set to work writing an outline and proposal for the book.

After a few weeks I had the proposal in hand, sent it to the publisher and it was approved. This is where things get crazy, because I now had to write the twelve chapters I'd outlined and I had less than two weeks to write each one if I was to make my deadline.

This crazy schedule, while good at keeping me on task, was not great at keeping me rested and stress free. There were many late nights and long weekends where I was not able to spend quality time with my family or friends. I am grateful that they allowed me time to research and write, because I was able to create a book which I feel will be a useful tool for any developer who wants to learn more about Node.js. It will give readers a glimpse of what goes on in Node.js not only in the Core, but also in the third-party modules that have helped to create the robust Node.js ecosystem.

If you are interested in getting to know Node.js better, or if you would just like to buy an amazing book for your coffee table or library, please buy the book.
http://www.amazon.com/Node-js-Recipes-A-Problem-Solution-Approach/dp/1430260580/
http://www.apress.com/9781430260585

FirefoxOS Apps

A few weeks ago Mozilla announced another initiative to get some more applications into the FirefoxOS Marketplace.
I had submitted a simple compass application early on in the Marketplace's life, but thought that this opportunity would be perfect to get an PhoneGap wrapped HTML application that I created for Android onto the marketplace, so I applied for a phone for app port deal. Within a couple days I recieved confirmation that I would be getting a developer preview phone from Mozilla, in exchange for my app port.
Now, I could have waited around until I received the phone to get started working, but with the FirefoxOS simulator available as a Firefox Add-On I set to work right away. I had previously submitted an application so I knew the general Firefox manifest format which is probably helpful. Once I had a Firefox app manifest being served (with the proper MIME type) from AppEngine I was ready to submit. I did however wait until I had a physical device to test and ensure it appeared and functioned as I expected.

Busyness

I have had a busy time over that last few months. Firstly, I have been engaged in a very ambitious and exciting project for my day job. Aside from this keeping me busy, I also had a talk accepted for the jQuery Conference in Portland in June. Conferences like the jQuery Conference are always welcoming to new speakers and the community as a whole is open to everyone's input. Experiencing a conference such as this is always a thrill. This was my first talk at a big conference but I think it went well and I hope to do it again.

If you listened to at least the beginning of that talk, you may have heard me mention that I’ve been writing a book. This book has been a great deal of fun, but has also been challenging. Between research, writing code, writing text, editing, and following up with the technical reviewer it has kept me busy. It should be published this fall so stay tuned…