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…

Remote Debugging Revisited

A little less than a year ago, I wrote a post about remote debugging tools. Since that time the landscape has changed, so this post will try update where we are in the world of remote debugging. (Note: by ‘we’, I mean me, and by ‘world’ I really mean, what I’ve used since last year) First, lets review where we were a year ago. Chrome for Android was brand new, and had remote debugging support baked in. Opera Dragonfly had great remote debugging support. Adobe Shadow (now Edge Inspect) was new, and WEINRE was still a .jar. Fast forward to now. Chrome for Android still has great remote debugging support, when connected you can see all your inspectable tabs from your remote device, and debug away. In Opera land, things have shifted a bit. Since they have started their switch to Webkit, who knows where their remote debugger will be in another year. Adobe Edge Inspect is a very popular debugging toolset for iOS and Android. Weinre is now (debatably) more accessible as a Node.js server, making it super easy to install and run a local/or remote hosted server. Weinre powers the phonegap debug service . It is also the service behind the experimental mobile debugging option at jsfiddle.net.
The newest version of jsbin.com has a pretty incredible remote rendering capability, but you can see for yourself on youtube:
Over the course of the last year, Firefox has built a homegrown set of Developer tools, so developers need not rely soley on Firebug on Firefox. These tools have been built with remote debugging as a high priority - with the proliferation of Firefox on Android, and the fancy new Firefox OS - remote debugging is important. Remote debugging for Firefox has been around for a few versions, but I really like to live on the nightly branch (currently 22.0a1), so thats what you’ll see here. Its quite simple to enable on your computer: just swing over to ‘about:config’ and toggle ‘devtools.debugger.remote-enabled’ to ‘true’ restart, and you are set. \

Next (assuming you’ve got your android platform-tools installed) you simply connect your device to your computer and

adb forward tcp:6000 tcp:6000

Then, assuming you have enabled remote debugging on your Android device, you again go to ‘about:config’ and toggle the ‘devtools.debugger.force-local’ to ‘false’ and ‘devtools.debugger.remote-enabled’ to ‘true’.

Restart. Debug. To Debug you open the remote console by selecting ‘Connect…’ from the Tools > Web Developer menu. Thats it. Remote debugging is important. And as the web development industry moves more toward mobile, these tools need to and will get better and more accessible for everyone. I expect I’ll be revisiting this topic again soon as tools improve or emerge.