Ext 1.1 is out

Finally, after a long wait, Ext 1.1 is out with all the goodies like a lightweight HTML editor, improved Date Field and the Ajax class and much much more. I will be trying this out real soon. Next thing on my wishlist is definitely Ext 2.0 with its super cool window class. Ext team, you rock.

The main features of this version are

1. A very lightweight HTML Editor class
2. Improved Date Field
3. A very convenient Ajax class with global Ajax events and global headers
4. Behaviors, which let you attach listeners to tags on the basis of selectors
5. Much better documentation

You can read the blog post here.

Selector Wars

Jack Slocum of Ext fame recently posted a comparison of CSS Selector speeds among different JavaScript libraries. The results are pretty impressive. Looks like performance is starting to become the foremost concern among the different libraries. The librariesin question are - Ext, jQuery, Dojo, Mootools, Prototype.

You can view the post here.

But why all the spotlight on CSS selectors only? What about other aspects of JavaScript like text metrics, element manipulation, event management, problem of memory leaking, state management, etc. There are no good comparisons on these lines, maybe because not all libraries support these features.

Anyways, according to the tests Opera seems to outperform other browsers, and Ext seems to outperform other libraries by a fair margin. But one could easily say that the results are tainted as they come from Jack himself. If that is the case, you can always run the tests yourself. Navigate here.

These libraries are doing their bit, but with the present incompatibilities among browsers and slow rendering of JavaScript, it is nearly impossible to push the performance any further. Its true that they keep on raising the bar, but the saturation point seems to be quite near.

500 GB Holographic Discs

Well, the title says it all…... some scientists at Technical University of Berlin claim to have developed a technique using which they can cram up data to the tune of 500 GB on a single disc…... and by 2010 they plan to double the capacity…... it will use multi-layered holographic storage to store data all across the 3 dimensions of the disc…… neat…... here’s the [Link] to the article for your reading pleasure…... I would be waiting for this monster to hit the market…... +1 to my wishlist

Technorati Tags: holographic, storage, hardware, technology

Web App….. what Web App?!

We all know that slowly Web Applications are gearing towards replacing the traditional Desktop Applications, but how soon and how well? Will Web Apps ever come close to replacing Desktop Apps or will they keep content with being called the cyber clones of the Desktop Apps after giving a tough fight? Will they ever pack enough punch to blur the difference between the Desktop world and the Cyber world?

Well, you will find sufficient support for both the camps, and I once myself said in a reply to a blog post that Web Apps are not meant to replace the Desktop Apps, rather they are meant to complement their desktop counterparts to provide a fuller experience to the users. But there is one person who is tilting me in the other direction, read Jack Slocum. He has set the internet ablaze with his mindblowingly beautiful and unbelievably powerful library. Just google for his name and see for yourself.

Recently in a blog post he demonstrated to the world what can be done using Adobe Air and Ext 2.0. What should I say about it, freaking awesome.

“Nobody can be told what the Ext is, you have to see it to believe it“

- Morpheus, The Matrix (abridged, of course)

So here you go

• The sample App using google gears and Ext 2.0 [Link]
• The Blog Post [Link]
• The forums (This is where all the action is discussed) [Link]

Free Your Mind

Open Source Camp

There is an unconference being organised by OSSCamp (similar to BarCamp) which is going to be held in the month of September in New Delhi, India...... the theme is Open Source

Not only am I going to attend the event, I am going to speak in it...... the details are not yet finalized but you can find the tentative list of topics here

Hope to see you there.......

TreeGrid..... Here are the specs

Hi everyone,

First of all, I am experimenting with the Mail-to-Blogger functionality of Blogger Beta, so forgive me for any styling or readability issues. I'll correct them soon.

I have been working on a DHTML TreeGrid control. And before I set out to explain everything and discuss it online, I would like to lay out the specs. I have not been able to meet even 10% of them right now. But I am working on it. The specs are listed in order of their importance....

Note: For those of you who are still figuring out what the heck is a TreeGrid, you can imagine TreeGrid as a grid with every row as a node which is collapsible and can have a hierarchy of children.

1. Should be Cross Browser compatible [Very very important. At least IE 6+, NN 6+, FF 1+, Opera 8+]
2. Should be extremely modular
3. Should be AJAX enabled [maybe use JSON or XML for data fetching. I am using JSON right now]
4. Should be simple to implement in the page, with minimal coding required. As simple as a simple function call
5. Should be very fast, should be able to handle at least 1000 nodes per page
6. Should allow to resize columns
7. Should allow "action" placeholders. like an icon on every "node row" to flag it, or an icon on every "node row" to create its child, or an icon for deleting it, and so on.
8. Should be responsive. Should give visual cue on "mouseover", "mouseout" and "click" events on almost anything on the canvas.
9. Should allow dynamic insertion and deletion of nodes
10. Should allow dynamic showing/hiding and creation/removal of columns
11. Should allow dynamic insertion of value in any cell
12. Should allow to select multiple rows with "ctrl" or "shift" keys
13. Should have a context menu with dynamically fetched values
14. Should allow keyboard navigation
15. Drag and Drop should be incorporated. For eg. columns can be reordered by a simple drag and drop, nodes can be reordered and so on. [might consider using an external library for this]

Quite a list eh??.... and thats just for the starters. I have got much more planned. But lets take one step at a time

The first decision I had to take was to choose the technology. The closest contender was Laszlo, but I decided in favour of old fashioned DHTML and CSS simply because I don't know Laszlo :)

Then, being a complete nOOb, I was still confused whether I should use tables for layout or use CSS instead. Though, many would argue that tables would be a better choice here, I chose to layout the entire thing using CSS, and had quite a hard time getting it to look the way I wanted.

Though, I have started working on it, but I would still ask for your suggestions as to what is a better choice a table based layout or a CSS based layout.

I am really out of time and gotta go, but I will post a snapshot of the actual thing and some code in my next post very very soon.

Update : DHTML Toolbar Widget

Hi guys,

I just noticed that the files are gone from rapidshare now. And as Deja_vu suggested, I am now re-upping them on geocities (bye bye rapidshare) till the time I find a reliable free hosting service. Please follow the instructions.

1. Download the file
2. Change its extension from ".doc" to ".rar"
3. Extract it using winzip or winrar, or any other tool you like
4. Open the HTML file in browser

You can see the page Live in Action on the following URL
toolbar.htm

Please give me your valuable suggestions and feedback in order to improve it.

Funny Video

Hey everyone!!!

I have been out of the picture for some time. I am still working on the toolbar to improve its performance and include some more features (A few suggestions would be a great help) .

I am also working on a TreeGrid control, which is too immature to share right now. But you will be getting an update soon.

Till that time I am sharing a video. I hope you like it.

DHTML Toolbar Widget

Hey everyone!!

I have been working on a few DHTML widgets to make my life simpler. I just completed a Toolbar widget. Its fairly simple as of now and I will keep on adding new features to it. Just have a look at it and give me your valuable suggestions.

But before you leap into the coding part, I want to make some points
1. I dont know JSDocumentor as yet so I have commented in the usual way ;)
2. I have used all lower case tagnames and properties coz I am using XHTML DOCTYPE
3. At some places I have used "javascript:" before the function call. It is to make it compatible with IE
4. I am assuming that you have a working knowledge of HTML, CSS & Javascript. So I wont explain each and every line. For reference you can visit http://www.w3schools.com

Download the following files and put them all in the same folder. Then run "toolbar.htm" file.

JAVASCRIPT
toolbar.js

CSS
toolbar.css

HTML
toolbar.htm

IMAGE
add.png


You are free to use it but I would request you to give me due credit for it wherever you use it.

I request you to test it and give me your feedback so that I can improve it. Suggestions are also welcome. Thats all for now, I will come back with some more widgets very soon.

Hi everyone!!!

Well... this is my first blog here, and I welcome you all to my blog. The root pupose of creating this blog is to share my ideas and experiences with people, and discuss technology issues and learn in the process. Another very important reason is to be able to link my articles in digg.com :D

I invite you all to actively participate in the discussions and provide me with your valuable feedback.

One last word....... I am not forcing you to come here, so mind what you say here. Constructive criticism is always welcome.


Thanx for reading
Manu