Awesome IE Tool
I had to get another post in before the 6 month mark. And it just so happens I ran into this awesome tool that is quite handy in terms of testing code in multiple versions of Internet Explorer. In the past I've always used the IEDeveloper toolbar (or Spoons browser sandbox before M$ got all copyrighty on them and made them remove it) and it's fairly adequate in allowing me to test the various versions of IE. However there have been times It's missed the mark or in one case wouldn't work at all with the portal I was trying to log into (IE6) So when I ran into this little beauty I was instantly captivated (as captivated as one can be when doing anything that has anything to do with IE). Behold the Internet Explorer Collection.
Maybe I'm just behind the times but this is amazing. Multiple standalone installs of different versions of IE. You can even install really really old versions like 1.x (I didn't but you can). I installed IE6, IE7 and IE8, I don't run windows 7 either at home or work so I can't install IE9.
To be fair I'm still in the test drive phase and haven't removed my IETester install yet but so far it's looking good. The only complaint I have is IE Developer Toolbar is only available in IE8, and while Developer Toolbar is not exactly firebug (but, it has gotten better with IE8) it's about all you have when troubleshooting an IE specific issue.
Before downloading read the comments on the download site. I mention it because they seem to be about 50/50 good vs bad. The software works for me so far on Windows XP Pro SP3, if anything changes I'll update this post.
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Notepad++ the New IDE
So, as Phil mentioned I did move across the country, and for no reason other than to get out of surviving another Idaho/Utah winter...and a pretty amazing job opportunity. Which is what brings me to the dev blog today.
Since I got here I'd been using Aptana as my IDE, and generally speaking I love the Aptana/Eclipse IDE's mostly because of the tools that they have that make writing code so easy. However I've become a little frustrated with Aptana as of late because it seems to chew and chew and chew on the memory. And I noticed that at least once a day I was killing it and restarting it just to get some measurable performance back.
Anyhow one fine day about a week ago I was trying to view an .sql file in notepad++ (which I've always kept around as a quick editor) and noticed that the escaping of quotes was not quite rendering in the editor. I mentioned this to the author of said file and he mentioned I should try the "bespin" theme in n++ which I promptly did and thoroughly enjoyed. This lead me to investigate the plug-ins that notepad++ has, like I said I've always used notepad++ to some extent, I've just never paid much attention to the many plug-ins available to it (and there are many).
To make a long story short I've effectively replaced my Aptana IDE with Notepad++ and it's various useful plug-ins. At the onset I knew there were a few things notepad++ would have to have in order to make the switch and not hate it, they are as follows:
1. an Explorer view - I hate doing File->open and browsing, an explorer view is much more efficient
2. an Outline view - I've become addicted to the ability of Eclipse based IDE's to click on a method name in the outline and go directly to that method.
3. Debugger - this one is a big one, in my opinion debuggers cut troubleshooting time down by more than 50%
Nice to haves:
1. ctrl + click - It's always nice to be able to jump directly to a declaration with this simple combination
2. intellisense/auto-complete
3. SVN - I currently don't use SVN but it's nice know there's a plugin available.
In my quest I promptly found that I already had the Explorer plug-in installed (and it's simply called Explorer). And while the look and feel of the view is a little different than Eclipse, it gets the job done and I have no qualms with it.
I was also able to find an Outline plug-in called "Function List". It's a little rugged in appearance but nonetheless gets the job done and the best part is it's not attached to the main view and therefore not making viewing the code a pain.
I thought there would be no way a debugger plug-in would be as effective as the Xdebug setup for Aptana/Eclipse. I was wrong. DBGp is everything I hoped I would find in a debugger (and it uses xdebug, how awesome is that?), like the others it lacks some in the aesthetic department but it is simple to set up, easy to navigate and it works. I did have a little trouble getting it working at first but then I found this Tutorial and I was off and running.
As for the "nice to haves" since Notepad++ 5.0 you can turn on auto-complete from the settings->preferences->Backup/Auto-Completion menu, simply check "Enable auto-completion" and if you'd like check "Function parameters hint on input" to enable hints to the parameters a method expects.
I haven't found a great ctrl+click plug-in but I'm hoping one will come soon. There have been some attempts but they pale in comparison to what Eclipse has done.
As mentioned SVN is available (I believe there is more than one plug-in for it) but I haven't tried it. Another one that get's honorable mention is "Falling Bricks" it's just like Tetris, and handy on days you've got nothing else to do for staying awake while your code is compiling.
Once the plug-ins were installed I decided to give my new N++ IDE a spin for a full day. I have to admit I felt a bit naked at first, but it's been almost a week now and I've gotten to where I enjoy the draft.
Just for comparison I fired up all of my new plug-ins at one time and checked the memory consumption of notepad++, a mere 35M compared to the 235M Aptana gobbles up immediately after startup (and without being in Debug mode). I'll probably keep Aptana around for a while (at least until a satisfactory ctrl+click comes along for notepad++) but I've been using notepad++ for a few days now and haven't missed the bulkiness of Aptana one bit.
EDIT (2011.02.15): I'd like to point out that when I wrote this post I was at work on two (2) 17" monitors (no not even widescreen, but who wants 17" widescreen anymore?). However a few days ago I set this up on my home PC with a single 20" widescreen monitor (and much much better resolution options) and Oh my Giddy Aunt! I couldn't believe how Eclipse® like it looks, I almost wept.
EDIT (2011.11.03): I recently revisited the plugins department and I have some more goodness.
#1 while Explorer is handy I find Light Explorer much more to my liking. it uses one window instead of two and seems to be much quicker at launch.
#2 Xbrackets Light - automatically closes a bracket pair when the opening bracket is typed. I had been missing this more than I knew.
#3 Window Manager / File Switcher - both accomplish the same goal, which is to provide a quick way to switch between open files, but File Switcher uses an always detached frame, whereas Window Managers frame can either be detached or attached to the main npp frame. Window Manager allows you to turn off the tab bar which also could be useful. So pick your poison, or do what I do and use both until you can commit to one.
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WIndows 7 Upgrade Family Pack from Deals.woot
I noticed this a while back and have been trying to remember it for later. apparently windows is offering a 3 license family pack upgrade for $150. So for those of you who are not yet on the latest windows and wanna be, or for those like me who know that it's eminent that we'll have to be there someday (or go *gulp* MAC, or Linux) and figure you might as well do it as inexpesively as possible, check out the link and mark your calendar for Oct. 3
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PhoneGap – The missing android/windows setup guide
The Introduction
Yesterday I spent a good part of the day setting up the absolutely fantastic framework PhoneGap. If you don't know what PhoneGap is, and you are a web developer, you are truly missing out. The only thing I can compare it to (from a high level) is Adobe Air. Air lets you build a page out of html, css, and js and then renders it in a webkit self-contained browser that you can then package up and distribute on any platform that runs air (Win/Mac/Linux), and yes you can also build Air apps with Flex and Flash. PhoneGap is similar to Air as it too uses html, css, and js to build apps for Android, iOS, WebOS, Blackberry, Symbian, and Nokia.
Now don't let my title fool you, there is a guide (and a pretty good one at that) waiting for you in the PhoneGap Wiki, the problem is that it is now out of date and will cause you grief if you try to follow a few of the steps because they look like they are the right steps to follow. That's why I've created this entry to walk you through the mistakes I blundered through to get it set up and working on my Windows 7 box (My mac died, and my linux lappy is a netbook - not ideal for developing on... plausible, but not ideal).
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Quick and Painless file conversion
It's pretty rare that a person needs to convert one file type to another (especially since programs like OpenOffice.org will open just about anything). However today I got a file with a .wps extension, my first thought was 'maybe that's a word perfect' so I tried to open in w/ OpenOffice writer which gave it it's best shot only to come up way short by opening a blank page.
I promptly went to google to find out what extension that is and not only did I find it's an old Microsoft Works file that is no longer used/supported, but I also found a handy website for converting such files (among others) to more user friendly formats.
The site is called zamzar.com, all you do is point your browser there (or click on the link) upload a file and within a few minutes you have an email with a download link to your new file, it's easy, fast and best of all free. You don't even have to create an account, although there is that option. I was so impressed with it I decided to post it here on my favorite tech blog.
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Summer 2009 LinkPost Extravaganza!
Whoa, what happened? I'll tell you what happened, I blinked and it was August! But fear not! I have kept the links that I was going to post and have compiled them into what I like to call the Summer 2009 LinkPost Extravaganza! Cheesy? Yes, a little absurd? Absolutely, but hey at least you're getting the links right?
This Post features plenty of images (icons, textures, etc.), a large selection of jQuery goodness, some php, fonts, and plenty of tools, resources, and tutorials. I even threw in a few links for our growing mac-user community (yeah, you can't see it, but I'm patting myself on the back).
Enough drivel, time to give the peoples what they want, the links!
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EASEUS, Free Partition Magic-esque tool.
So very recently I had a need for a partition editing tool, and being the tightwad that I am I was looking for a free util that would handle such a task. I decided to give GParted a shot, not because I've been successful with it before but because it seems to be everyone's favorite free partition tool. So I downloaded the ISO and burned the image to a cd, and rebooted to the cd and nothing happened. So I burned the image to a cd with a different image burning util and rebooted the system to the cd... again nothing. So I decided, there has got to be something else that will do this.
Hence I went to my old friend Google, which in a round about way came up with this little pearl, it's called EASEUS Partition Master and it's free for home use. I decided I'd give it a shot figuring I have nothing left to lose ('specially since it was my moms computer not mine 
. Turns out the tool works fantastically. It's been a while since I've used Partition Magic (Magik?) but the interface is much like I remember Partion Magi_ being.
So far I haven't seen any side effects but it's only been 15 min. if any come up I'll post them. If you didn't get that link the first few times here it is again
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Ads be gone (Yahoo & MSN)
Within the last week or two Yahoo pushed out a new update to Yahoo! Messenger. Now I didn't mind the old version, (it had a much better color scheme) but it would swallow tons of memory to display ads etc. To get around that I had used the reg-hack and xml hack to remove the ads (which make the messenger take up far less memory and I didn't have to see ads). So Version 9 comes out in all of it's shiny, candy-coated metro-bletch theme-age, and boom, none of my ad removal fixes work. Then I stumbled upon a true gem on the interweb, how to remove the ads by using your hosts file.
After I tried it and found that it worked like a champ for my Yahoo! Messenger, one of my MSN-using friends wondered if the MSN messenger could be hacked the same way... and wouldn't you know it? it can. So crack open your hosts file (/windows/system32/drivers/etc/hosts) in notepad++ (or equivalent text editor) and add the entries below to get rid of the ads in your messenger (of course here's where I make a plug for pidgin and how awesome it is, it doesn't have ads, it works with msn, yahoo, aim, google, etc, blah blah. But of course our work proxy hates pidgin and denies us it's awesomeness, and so we are reduced to fixing the programs that will make it through the proxy).
To stop ads in Msn Messenger add the following to your HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 rad.msn.com 127.0.0.1 global.msads.net 127.0.0.1 rss.video.msn.com 127.0.0.1 ads1.msn.com 127.0.0.1 rad.live.com 127.0.0.1 specials.uk.msn.com |
To stop the ads in Yahoo Messenger add the following to your HOSTS file:
127.0.0.1 insider.msg.yahoo.com |
Note: the MSN fix is not completely tested, it may cause unexpected errors. The yahoo fix will disable your IMvironments (which no one used anyway...), and something else that no one uses.
I've been using the yahoo fix since the update was forced onto my compy (ok, it wasn't really forced, but I like to pretend I didn't have a say in the matter), and I haven't noticed any adverse effects. So have at it! You can throw questions in the comments.
Please note (small disclaimer): If you don't know what a hosts file is, DO NOT follow this example, if you get scared while editing the hosts file STOP editing it and quit without saving your changes. Always make a back up (and then back that up too), always be prepared for adverse effects, and don't blame me for what you do to your system.
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A quick and dirty benchmark of Opera 9.5
So a day or three ago Opera 9.5 was released. I didn't realize it had been released until after I had read about it on lifehacker, gizmodo, and/or engadget, but it came out and the masses rejoiced (lifehacker is still throwing a party about it). Back in the day I loved Opera, the tab feature was my favorite (before firefox came along). I use opera on my wii, and I even used it on my mobile a while back (the mobile is gone, in case you wondered). I read a few stellar reviews on it, and after seeing how it handles speed-wise, I decided to give it a shot. With everything that I'd read about Opera 9.5, I came out with very unexpected results. Opera is by no means a developer browser... at all... seriously. I mean it's really sad when IE can b!#%h slap a browser. Don't believe me? that's what screen shots are for.
I set up a test, I ran Opera 9.5, Safari 3.1 (for windows), IE7 With the Web Developer Toolbar running, and Firefox 3.0 (released today*!) with many plugins running (Firebug 1.2.0b03, ietab 1.5.20080310, fireform 0.6.3, Web Developer 1.1.6, and Html Validator 0.8.5.2). Here are snap-shots of my task manager after the browser had been opened and left on a LOCAL html file for approximately 5 minutes.
Safari 3.1 (above) - No CPU usage, and a very respectable 34MB** of memory being used.
Firefox 3.0 (above) - a little CPU, and a little more memory (this is most likely due to all of those plug-ins I have running)
IE7 (above) - better than firefox, and not chewing on any CPU... very interesting (and by that I mean I'm a little surprised).
Wow! that sucks! I mean what is Opera even doing? 50% of my CPU and over 300MBs of RAM? I don't remember them signing up with the SETI program! (ok fine, lame joke, I get it). Seriously though, that's just nuts for a browser!
Ok, now that we've seen the damage after being open for a several minutes, let's minimize all the browsers to see how it can behave down in my task bar (and hopefully free up some memory).
Safari 3.1minimized (above) - Nice, it just fades away into the background waiting to be used.
Firefox 3.0 minimized (above) - Well at least it gave up the 2% CPU it was chewing on.
IE7 minimized (above) - Explatives!! under 4 megs of memory!?! that's it, the world has gone mad...
Opera 9.5 minimized (above) - wth!? Still chewing on 50% of my CPU and crunching 170ish megs of ram? Why is everyone going nuts over this browser? Did mine not come with the hypno-ray?
Anyway, I'm sure that everyone's experiance will vary. Especially on other platforms. I mean who knows, maybe in linux or on a mac Opera really is the best browser. Also I didn't even cover all of the cool features that Opera has (and yes it has some really sweet features, so I'm keeping it installed). So go grab it and see if it destroys your system like it did mine.
*I started this post yesterday, so firefox really had been released "today"
**Yes we all know that a mb is actually 1024k not 1000, but hey getting too critical just makes it easier for me to make fun of you.
This test was run on an intel Core2 6600 @ 2.4GHz with 4 GBs of ram.
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IETester: my new best friend for handling my worst enemy
I found a great tool out in the depths of the interweb, and I thought that I'd do a quick-ish post on it so that I can share the happiness with other people. The tool is called IETester, and it is brilliant. It seems to be a mdi container that is hooked into the api's of IE5.5, 6, 7, and 8 beta 1. This allows you to crack open a tab using each rendering engine and view your websites the way they would look in that browser.
This (above) is a screen shot of the program with the about pop up showing as well as several tabs open (all at nordictrack.com)
NordicTrack in IE 5.5 (above)
NordicTrack in IE 6 (above)
NordicTrack in IE7 (above)
NordicTrack in IE8 (above)
As you can see from the pictures, each release of IE handled the css styling and the page layout a little bit differently. It's almost fun to watch IE change from its quirky youth to an almost standards compliant browser (yes almost is a stretch isn't it).
BUGS:
Yeah you knew there'd be some, here's what I found, and what is posted on the developer's website.
- I almost went into epileptic shock while using it. Lots of screen flickering.
- It crashed on me the first time I opened it, not sure why.
- If you resize the screen, content may disapear.
- Flash may not work in the IE6 rendering engine (note: it did work for me at freemotion).
- Previous/Next buttons may not work.
- Focus doesn't work properly.
- Java applets esplode.
- Javascript loading may have problems... (may be the hidden cause of the screen flickering)
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