Got my hands on a copy of the O’Reilly “Head First Into” book for Javascript. I was expecting it to, you know, throw me in at the deep end but it didn’t. Maybe I could have hedged my bets and started in the middle somewhere, but fuck that.
I thought that seeing as the googlemaps API used Javascript then I would (in the long run) have less trouble with it if I properly understood javascript and how the browser runs it on load depending on where it is on the page etc. I’ve explained this before in a post. I also thought it would just be good to learn it, something new and all that. Anyway, bollocks to it that book was shite and I’m just using W3Schools.com as a reference now.
Idioms are great. “Went Down Like A Lead Balloon”. “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush”. “The whole nine yards”. You know the deal, phrases that most English-speaking people don’t understand the rationality of, and try explaining them to someone trying to learn English! Anyway, you have properly heard of Johnny Lee, the creater of the great Wii head tracking software hack, well he also has this addictive little site made called “___ Will ___ You“. The idea being that you fill in the blanks and his site displays the results.
Anyway the site’s use of javascript is pretty cool. It pretty much redefined what I thought of javascript, initially I thought it to be horrible popups and clunky and obtrusive. Obviously, these kind of fades etc proove me wrong!
So, new idea. Tonight I’ve made a page where I can add idioms to a database, and then another that converts this submitted data into some javascript arrays. I’m going to take make a site letting people add idioms, then also modify the idioms that are being displayed. I’ve got ideas of folksnomies as well but we’ll just see, eh?
The idea is simple, the only static language is a dead one. So what phrases are popular today, and how can we twist them (and keep twisting them) to keep them interesting. I want to use this idea as a continuing work in progress, using the development to solidify existing skills, as well as developing new ones. I’ve already stopped using the built-in Dreamweaver PHP/MySQL applications in favour of handwriting it all (probably to the benefit of exploitative hacker bastards everywhere) so thats one benefit to me, and I’m dynamically creating javascript, which is, y’know, something I don’t think I’ve done before.
Once there’s something up to actually look at I’ll let you know. Obviously, I might get distracted by the inane, or the boring, or the major project, or the dissertation, so it might never happen.
Drink of choice = gin and tonic.
