half a year gone

It's hard to believe that half a year has passed already!!! I'm hoping that i've passed all my modules (crossing fingers and toes) and am looking forward to the last half of the course.

*note to self* study hard, and do your assignments!

Some pest control for javascript (aka debugging)

I found a couple of stand-alone programs for debugging when I did a google search.

The first one is SplineTech JavaScript HTML Debugger (available for download here at a cost of a measly US$70 up to a staggering US$400. It has a lot of features that sound good for debugging, but the cost is a real turn off.

The second stand alone I found is Komodo IDE 4.3.2 which is found here and it costs a lot less than the previous product. It also has a student edition, but you have to email them for prices on this, as they want verification you are a student before they give up that state secret. Seems to have the same things that SplineTech has.

If the debuggers you can get for nothing are not your cup of tea, then either of these programs would suit your needs.

Now onto the good stuff ... debuggers that are FREE

My system is AMD athlon 64 X2 dual core processor 3600+ 1.90 GHz, 894 Mb RAM, with a 32-bit operating system. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium, with all available security updates installed.

My main internet browser is Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-GB; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14, and so I looked for free debuggers which work with this.

I installed both FireBug and Venkman but have yet to use either of them. I really don't know how to test them, and haven't found the time during the week to do anything. I do have information on both, taken from the websites so I don't know how good the information is.

Firefox does not come with a built-in JavaScript debugger. Nevertheless, Firefox users can download Venkman JavaScript debugger version 0.9.87.2 as an extension ( here ). I have had a quick look at it, and it seems to be fine at first glance. It has a built in help function if needed (just type /help)

Now to FireBug. Information from http://www.joehewitt.com/software/firebug/# states 'FireBug lets you explore the far corners of the DOM by keyboard or mouse. All of the tools you need to poke, prod, and monitor your JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax are brought together into one seamless experience, including a debugger, error console, command line, and a variety of fun inspectors.'

I'm relying heavily on correct information from both websites, as I haven't tested either of them. One day I will test them, and add another blog to let you know what I think.

Oh, for IE users, there is help available.

'The best tool for debugging JavaScript on Internet Explorer is the Microsoft Script Editor, a free component of Microsoft Office XP/2003. There are other options, but they are less attractive: Microsoft Script Debugger is not very powerful, and Visual Studio .Net is an expensive purchase if all you need is JavaScript debugging for IE.' (http://www.jonathanboutelle.com/mt/archives/2006/01/howto_debug_jav.html)

The best advice I can give at this time is for IE users to switch to FireFox, and use the free add-on FireBug for all your debugging needs. (no, I don't like IE and only use it when I have to)

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Image: 'high point for little creatures'

www.flickr.com/photos/37996577120@N01/858410838

Venkman information from http://www.mozilla.org/projects/venkman/

Think I'll need piles of coffee to work on this stuff!

Over the past two weeks we have been given an introduction to programming. UGH, what a way to start the week! The notes Peter has given us are certainly helpful, although a tad confusing at times.

This week we did our first little bit of javascript! A simple little thing that adds two numbers together, but still mind boggling as i've only ever copy and pasted javascript from dynamicdrive.com so writing it myself was certainly an experience.

Looking forward to more exciting stuff next week.

ta ta for now ....

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Image: 'Un latté svp ....'

www.flickr.com/photos/58002590@N00/341113489

How do I think I'm doing so far????

I think I'm doing okay with html and css, although I tend to forget the simple things. I'm sure I don't need any refresher lessons, but if you want to give them that's fine. If I could practice more at home this stuff might actually be imprinted on my brain lol. And now I don't have anything more to say, so ..........

ta ta for now

CSS and tables

After a bit of mucking around I finally got my 2 exercises to look right! Yippee!!!! Guess this CSS stuff isn't half bad, especially if you do it right so your final product comes out how you want it to. Hopefully though, there won't be that many times I will need to do a table when I get out into the real world to do this stuff as I think there is too much stuffing around. But at least I know I can do it.

ta ta for now



Image: 'Setting up the Tables'
www.flickr.com/photos/90514086@N00/216729825

HTML, CSS, drills and other exciting stuff

Today Peter has us doing more stuff to our css for '10 things'. I'm telling you, this is confusing stuff! Maybe I should record it and play it while I'm sleeping lol (i've heard this is a good way to remember stuff)

He's got us adding images to the background, and to different elements. I'm not sure having a background image is a good idea, but using them as borders is interesting.

Didn't want to miss Monday, but life sux that way

Thanks Peter for posting what we did in class on Monday ... I really wanted to be there, but things happened that were out of my control.

Anyway, I have done the tutorial bit today, and am going to do the rest of the stuff on the post tomorrow as I am going to have a full day with no kids, so no interruptions. They won't be getting home till after 5 so I should get a fair bit done. Will post again when I've finished!

Okay ... I'm starting to get another headache trying to figure out where I've gone wrong in my divs for my 10 things index page. Think I'm going to have to walk away for a while and come back later, maybe even start from scratch so I'm not getting so annoyed/frustrated with it and myself. I can say that I will definitely be at TAFE on Monday, no matter what.