Barklund.org

Was: self-currying JavaScript functions

I read this nice post on self-currying JavaScript functions, and even though the code to me is not optimal (dispite the low line count), it is improperly named, and it depends on the Prototype JavaScript library (which I really don’t like), it is a very nice script and a very nice idea. The trick in this script is using Function.prototype.length. I didn’t know that this property existed, but after digging a bit I’ve realized, that it has been in ECMAScript at least since 3rd edition (which is the latest edition published in 1999), in JavaScript since v1.1, but only made it into ActionScript by ActionScript 3 (which I haven’t study in as much detail as I have with ActionScript 1 and 2 in relation to my book on basic programming in these versions).

In this post I discuss this property and functionality a bit further, and I implement this function for creating self-”partially applying” functions using both no framework, the MochiKit framework and the Prototype framework.

Continue reading »

This library by polygonal.de looks really nice. I would most definitely be using this for future development.

With a colleague of mine, Morten Reinholdt, I have started to work on a new flash gaming website called Dexgames. Actually we started on the idea several months ago, but now we both have the time to do some more actual work on it.

The concept is very much inspired by many other gaming sites. The ones that I personally have frequented some times are:

• Orisinal
• Donutgames
• Miniclip

Just to name a few.
Continue reading »

Adobe has released a new version of Apollo AIR (yup, that is the new name along with quite a boring logo) and to promote it, they have also announced Adobe AIR Developer Derby – a competition to see who’s best at their new runtime.

The prizes are quite amazing and given the long duration of the development time (deadline is in September), anyone can create some pretty amazing applications. But one things puzzles me about the license, that they require applications to be released under: is attribution-requiring licenses accepted? And what about copyleft-licenses? The official rules are pretty clear on what the license must permit Adobe to use the content for (display, commercial use and derivative use), but does that mean, that if my application is released under say CC-BY-SA-2.5, is that accepted? And what if I include Wikipedia-texts in it (GFDL’ed) and some Flickr-images (under free licenses) will Adobe then be willing to credit me, the main 5 authors of every article from Wikipedia (which is what GFDL requires) as well as the creators of all the Flickr-images that require attribution?

I’ve sent a mail and hope for a positive response. I will keep this entry updated on the matter.

James Ward has created a nice little application for benchmarking Rich Internet Applications. And Flex sure is the winner, when it comes to separating content and layout. Serverside-generated table loading via AJAX is fast too, but that is not a very nice solution to many’s opinion. Thus, Flex clearly wins overall, and AJAX JSON comes in second place, if you cannot go the flash way.

Most people using ActionScript 3 uses MXML. I don’t like that very much, as Flex is a strange proprietary language, and ActionScript 3 is a regular, Java-like programming language. MXML is fast for setting up a GUI using standard components in a RIA and the like, but most of my projects will not use standard components, but will be simple scripting experiments or custom designed games and apps.
Continue reading »

Not Leo’s silly movie, but Flash on the Beach 2006.

I got many interesting contacts, talked to many interesting people and in particular told Branden Hall, that his ancient Flash 5 add-ons (including string.as) is still in use in some of our old Flash 5 projects still being updated.
Continue reading »

I won’t be the one Flashing though, but I’ll very much enjoy the many speakers at this years Flash on the Beach in Brighton early December 2006.
Continue reading »