Javascript Archives - creative bits

D3.js

In a recent hack day at work, a coworker approached me about toying around with D3, a cool Javascript library to do really rich, interactive visualizations of data. Since my last hack day I only decided to quietly redo my marshallupshur.com site, I decided to jump in on the fun.

In a nutshell, D3.js is AWESOME, THE BEES KNEES, EPIC…. and a great way to make you remember geometry

We ended up creating a visualized way of monitoring events with our home product, so you can see alarm notifications, arming info, etc. all on a cool little graph. Best thing about, it’s all real-time, must better than the cached long poll list that is there now.

Tech used: node.js, socket.io, d3.js, html5, css3, phantomjs, …

Great fun, I hope to participate in more of these hack days, as it has branched out into me hacking together things for other hobbies of mine….

Good Read: Javascript Enlightenment

Just finished up this great book a friend passed my way called “Javascript Enlightenment”. File this under “a book I wish I would have read years ago”. It is a great read for a couple of days, and if you are really trying to understand some of the key concepts and behaviors of the language, read it.

It doesn’t go into as much depth of why stuff is good or bad, like Javascript: The Good Parts, but it takes the good parts and really hammers them home on how they work, why they work, and when to use them effectively. If you mostly use provided libraries to get things done, this book will glass door to how these libraries do the things they do, and hopefully start you on a path to writing your own libraries or adding your own contributions. It also includes the best explanation of closures and the prototype chain that I’ve seen, which finally gave me my light bulb *click* moment of full understanding.

Can’t wait for any other books Cody has in the pipeline.

2013/02/052013/02/05 by mbu Categories: BooksTags: Javascript, Mastery, ProgrammingLeave a comment