http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/ en spam@codeofficer.com Copyright 2008 2008-08-28T07:51:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/my_poor_use_of_git_commit_messages/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/my_poor_use_of_git_commit_messages/#When:07:51:00Z I began using git to manage the source code for my current project, a Rails app which I should hopefully be launching shortly. Yahoo! Now, I hadn’t actually been using source control for very long before I began, and wasn’t able to focus on best practices. With a wife, 2 kids and 2 jobs, I was lucky to get the coding of the apps themselves under control. That said, its funny now to look back at all my commit messages for this project. So it wasn’t until recently I was able to focus my commits to specific features, changes to the code-base that stood on their own. More often, I found myself working “everywhere” and on “everything” all at once. I wonder how many other people start off this way. Well, 127 commits behind me, I took a moment to browse back through the messages of my project. Its amazing to see how useless they are, time to get better at it I guess. Programming, Git 2008-08-28T07:51:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/asset_dependency_manager_plugin_is_now_on_github/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/asset_dependency_manager_plugin_is_now_on_github/#When:22:26:00Z I use JQuery UI a lot, but I don’t use all of it and I prefer not to install the entire library if I can help it. Its not enough to just manage the JS assets you need for a particular widget, you often have to juggle inclusion of its CSS as well. So, rather than separating out the plugins I use on each project, I thought it would be cooler (in development at least) to leave them as smaller files and just find a better way to manage which assets were needed, when they were needed! In an effort to eliminate some development headache I’ve created Asset Dependency Manager. You can download it here: http://github.com/CodeOfficer/asset-dependency-manager/tree/master Basically, it lets you declare dependency lookups in your application_helper.rb file ... Then in your views you say something akin to ... assets_for :tabs, :slider, :etc ... and the resources for said lookups with be included in your layout view auto-magically, removing duplicates and paying strict attention to your intended loading order. The README has more info on how to use it. Let me know if you find it useful or have feature requests. And if its of interest, have a look at my other Rails helper for JQuery UI called TabsRenderer Programming, Javascript, Ruby on Rails 2008-08-07T22:26:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/acts_as_fulltext_indexed_and_geokit/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/acts_as_fulltext_indexed_and_geokit/#When:08:43:00Z I created a quick fork on github of the acts_as_fulltext_indexed plugin made by Chris Heald of antiarc.net. Acts_as_fulltext_indexed addresses a limitation of MySQL’s INNODB table format (which supports transactions but not fulltext indices) by using MySQL’s MYISAM table format (which supports fulltext indices, but not transactions).  Programming, Database 2008-07-01T08:43:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/jquery_ui_tabsrenderer_is_on_github_now/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/jquery_ui_tabsrenderer_is_on_github_now/#When:07:36:00Z I created a more official home for TabsRenderer over at github tonight, and I plan to work on additional helpers this summer in my off-time. http://github.com/CodeOfficer/jquery-ui-rails-helpers/tree/master Github is sweet, and I enjoy working with Git so much more lately than Subversion. I usually end up taking my laptop to coffee shops that happen to be without internet (or are charging a fortune ~blasphemy!~) ... when this is the case, its HUGELY beneficial to be able to still commit my work locally even though I do not have a connection to my main repo at home. So, here’s to hoping I get more time to code soon!! [codeofficer@Asimov ~/code/git/jquery-ui-rails-helpers]$ git push github master Counting objects: 7, done. Compressing objects: 100% (5/5), done. Writing objects: 100% (7/7), 1.55 KiB, done. Total 7 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0) To git@github.com:CodeOfficer/jquery-ui-rails-helpers.git * [new branch] master -> master [codeofficer@ Asimov ~/code/git/jquery-ui-rails-helpers]$ Programming, Javascript, Ruby on Rails 2008-06-22T07:36:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/ruby_on_rails_jquery_ui_and_tabsrenderer/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/ruby_on_rails_jquery_ui_and_tabsrenderer/#When:09:46:00Z I’m a big fan of JQuery UI and have been using the Tab plugin a lot recently. However, I found the code to create each Tab a bit repetitious. It became especially ugly in situations where you might want to display a tab conditionally ... first displaying the tab header, then the tab body, and having to re-use the same condition in both places. yuck! Sooo, since I had recently given a presentation at our local Ruby Users Group on Design Patterns in Ruby, I thought maybe a little template pattern would be a nice fit here. The result: TabsRenderer!! Programming, Ruby on Rails 2008-05-19T09:46:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/3d_sketching/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/3d_sketching/#When:22:29:00Z I found these old renders on my drive recently and thought I might share them. They date back to about 2000 when I was doing contract work for a digital graphics shop in Camden Maine. I spent most of my time modeling the interior and exterior of various buildings, but these particular renders came from just goofing off at the local coffee shop. Nothing extraordinary! Design, 3D 2008-05-05T22:29:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/my_ruby_design_patterns_talk_of_april_14th/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/my_ruby_design_patterns_talk_of_april_14th/#When:07:53:01Z I had the honor of presenting this week at our local Ruby Users Group. This was my first time speaking publicly and it was thrilling experience. I spoke for about an hour and despite my preconceptions, survived well beyond the first 10 minutes of my talk! The topic I chose was Design Patterns in Ruby, largely because I had just finished reading (twice) an excellent book by the same name. Design Patterns in Ruby, by Russ Olsen, was just fantastic to read. Russ’s approach was so casual, and un-reference like ... that I rarely felt lost in the patterns being described. I’ve tried a few times to read other books on the general topic of design patterns, but usually these were written for an audience of Java or C++ programmers. As well, those other books rarely did anything other than flash a few UML diagrams at you and drop you in the middle of code that was more complex than the pattern at hand, hardly an elegant way to learn a new subject. After reading Design Patterns in Ruby I actually felt a bit like Neo from the Matrix when he said ... “I know kung fu!” Its a couple days later but I wanted to post my factory pattern examples for those who attended. My apologies for the delay, its been a busy week. The other examples I presented on were largely unchanged from examples found in the book, so I wont publish Russ’s creation. (wait, thats me!) Thanks again to those who were able to bare with me and withstand the awkwardness of a first presentation. Kudos to Casey Rosenthal of Port Forty Nine for convincing me to get up there. I really enjoyed myself and might be convinced to do it again. Continue reading to view the example factory patterns!  Programming, Ruby on Rails 2008-04-16T07:53:01-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/firefoxs_firebug_vs_safaris_web_inspector/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/firefoxs_firebug_vs_safaris_web_inspector/#When:08:12:00Z Like most web developers (that I like) I use Firefox for building my web applications. Its stable, it renders beautifully and it has more 3rd party plugins than you can shake a stick at. But without a doubt the biggest reason I use FF is a plugin called Firebug. I use it primarily for debugging Javascript but Firebug can do sooooo much more. Internet Exploder has nothing like it! Safari didn’t used to .... but for some reason ... it now does?! huh?! Programming, Javascript 2008-03-05T08:12:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/simply_basic_and_restful_searching/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/simply_basic_and_restful_searching/#When:06:30:00Z I’ve been working with Rails about 4 months now. Though I am just a newbie, I’m quite a fan of the restful design approach Rails 2.0 seems to favor. I recently needed to add basic search functionality to my app, but had to think a bit on how that would work with a ‘mostly’ restful app. What follows is a basic description of the implementation I settled on. Programming, Ruby on Rails 2008-03-04T06:30:00-05:00 http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/the_eclipse_feb_20_2008/ http://www.codeofficer.com/blog/entry/the_eclipse_feb_20_2008/#When:04:22:00Z I had to check it out, scored a nice shot that included Saturn and Regulus as well. Have a look! (click read more) 2008-02-21T04:22:00-05:00