http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Programming A listing of the most recently indexed works about Programming in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Programming http://tc.eserver.org/35697.html http://tc.eserver.org/35697.html You've always wanted to learn how to build software yourself—or just whip up an occasional script—but never knew where to start. Luckily, the web is full of free resources that can turn you into a programmer in no time. If you're curious about how to become a programmer, you can get off to a running start using tons of great free web-based tutorials and resources. http://tc.eserver.org/35616.html http://tc.eserver.org/35616.html If you want to get better at documenting your own code then this is the post for you. I have 5 simple tips to follow while coding to make the process easier. http://tc.eserver.org/35621.html http://tc.eserver.org/35621.html Some of my designs never make it to market due to lack of funding prior to release and the company slips quietly away or gets bought and I lose contact. Other times by the time the software is released, the person who hired me has left the company and moved onto other pastures. So it's always a treat when someone calls me back to say "Would you like to come in and see the software? We're nearly done." http://tc.eserver.org/35623.html http://tc.eserver.org/35623.html One of the online lists I read frequently has been debating the proper metaphor for the software development environment. The building trade has been used quite often in the past. In fact, we use the term "architect" quite frequently, although ten software engineers will probably give you ten different definitions of what an architect actually should do. I think there is no single metaphor for software development roles because there is not a single software development environment. http://tc.eserver.org/35606.html http://tc.eserver.org/35606.html XAML stands for eXtensible Application Markup Language and was created by Microsoft. It is currently the primary mechanism for declaratively creating the user interface in a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application. WPF is part of the .NET 3.0 framework. Why discuss these very technical things in a design blog post? The answer is simple: because XAML is designed for designers. It has other uses of course, but one of its main tenets is that XAML enables the separation of UI and logic (code). That is a very powerful concept! In this and future posts, I will explain how a few of us at Autodesk are using XAML in our design process as a way to enable design refinement during the Development phase. http://tc.eserver.org/35596.html http://tc.eserver.org/35596.html Every user experience (UX) designer who practices in a corporate setting knows the breathless whirlwind that is modern business. We designers manage relationships with developers, business managers, and customers, and still have a full-time production role researching, designing and validating features and interactions. We rarely have enough time to do everything we should, and therefore have to carefully choose where to spend our time and resources. http://tc.eserver.org/35373.html http://tc.eserver.org/35373.html If you have ever worked with a developer or a development team, this article will probably strike close to home. As designers, we work with dozens of developers across the globe each year. Some of us are fortunate enough to find a gem; a developer that just gets it. A developer that you feel is on your same wavelength in terms of what needs to be accomplished with the user interface, and what it needs to happen. Most often, however, we find developers that we generally don’t see eye to eye with. http://tc.eserver.org/35169.html http://tc.eserver.org/35169.html While MVC is a familiar term to those in back-end application development—using frameworks such as Struts, Ruby on Rails, and CakePHP—MVC’s origin in user interface development lends itself to structuring client-side applications. Let’s examine what MVC is, see how we can use it to rework an example project, and consider some existing MVC frameworks. http://tc.eserver.org/35150.html http://tc.eserver.org/35150.html If a majority of your users could benefit from your product being accessible, doesn’t it just make sense to build an accessible product? If you have decided to do so, you are sending a message to your customers that their needs matter. Populations in many countries are getting older. Civil rights for people with disabilities are gradually being extended to encompass digital inclusion. Governments are requiring procurement officials to purchase products that are the most accessible (mandated in the U.S. by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act). For technology producers, creating accessible products is just the right thing to do, and it makes good business sense. http://tc.eserver.org/34973.html http://tc.eserver.org/34973.html Developing web-based applications can be done using a variety of tools and languages. However, the Java™ programming language and Java servlets are the ideal choice because of a number of attractive features, namely, portability, efficiency, safety, extensibility, and flexibility. Few viable alternatives exist that can be considered equally powerful. Over the past few years, I have developed an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand framework based on Java servlets to facilitate the development of web-based applications. The framework (called Hamlets) is the result of a radical simplification effort. In this article I show you step by step how to write your first web-based application in Java using Hamlets. http://tc.eserver.org/34767.html http://tc.eserver.org/34767.html This cheat sheet covers both ActionScript 2.0 and ActionScript 3.0 and is organized to help those who need to switch to 3.0. The functions and classes of ActionScript 2.0 are to the left of each section, followed by their equivalents in ActionScript 3.0. http://tc.eserver.org/34768.html http://tc.eserver.org/34768.html This cheat sheet is logically organized into DOM methods, functions, regular expressions, etc. It’s easy to use and a great reference for all common JavaScript uses. The guide is not only excellent for JavaScript beginners (covering items as basic as the syntax for putting JavaScript into HTML) but is also suited to programmers at an advanced level (referring to more advanced JavaScript functionality). http://tc.eserver.org/34769.html http://tc.eserver.org/34769.html This PDF is not a guide to any specific language, and so would be great for developers who do not code in any specific language (or who code in more than one language). http://tc.eserver.org/34490.html http://tc.eserver.org/34490.html In the world of development, the need to track bug reports and enhancement requests are a given. But they're not generally required for documentation, in the way they are for code Quite the reverse. For documentation, bug reports and enhancement requests provide little benefit, and generally impede progress. This post compares documentation and code, showing why bug reports and enhancement requests are so vital to the code base, and at the same time why those reasons simply do not apply to documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/34469.html http://tc.eserver.org/34469.html Following a software design process can offer the same kinds of benefits you gain from following a recipe when cooking: getting reliable results. For example, if I have a recipe for gingerbread, but I don’t follow the recipe, should I still expect to get gingerbread? It depends, of course, on how much I choose to deviate from the recipe. http://tc.eserver.org/34248.html http://tc.eserver.org/34248.html If you use copy and paste while you're coding, you're probably committing a design error. Instead of copying code, move it into its own routine. Future modifications will be easier because you will need to modify the code in only one location. http://tc.eserver.org/34119.html http://tc.eserver.org/34119.html Documentation is a huge cost factor in software development, and companies are looking for ways to trim costs. If you cut back on product doc and customers don't complain, there's a temptation to keep cutting. Eventually you end up with software engineers writing bits of doc because all the tech writers were laid off, but there'll be one guy who didn't get laid off who has to work like heck to wire it all up and make it continue to look like professionally written doc. http://tc.eserver.org/34120.html http://tc.eserver.org/34120.html I always try to get a look at a vendor's APIs before (or in the process of) evaluating a product. And I recommend you do, too. If you are involved in a product-selection effort, get input from your developers -- have them evaluate APIs as part of the product-evaluation process. Don't wait until after the deal is inked to find out whether the product's APIs are so problematic that your rollout schedule might have to undergo serious changes. http://tc.eserver.org/34124.html http://tc.eserver.org/34124.html Add to your bag of tricks several handy techniques for crafting real-world regular expressions (regexps). Building regexps is a part of the daily life of any administrator. Learning to think in terms of pattern matching, in order to construct successful regexps that return the desired criteria, is a skill that takes both time and practice. http://tc.eserver.org/33983.html http://tc.eserver.org/33983.html We will demonstrate how enhancements to the XJ language (http://alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xj) facilitate the development of Web Service applications. http://tc.eserver.org/33991.html http://tc.eserver.org/33991.html Panellists talk about two vendor-neutral programming interfaces for content-management systems. Joel Amoussou discusses JSR 170, a vendor-neutral Java API designed to work across many different content management systems. Michael Wechner discusses Neutron, an Open Content Management User Interface based on XML. http://tc.eserver.org/33945.html http://tc.eserver.org/33945.html When used effectively, JavaScript debuggers help find and squash errors in your JavaScript code. To become an advanced JavaScript debugger, you’ll need to know about the debuggers available to you, the typical JavaScript debugging workflow, and code requirements for effective debugging. In this article, we’ll discuss advanced debugging techniques for diagnosing and treating bugs using a sample web application. http://tc.eserver.org/33921.html http://tc.eserver.org/33921.html Want to know more about cloud and grid computing? Learn how you can use Infrastructure as a Service to get a full computer infrastructure using Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). See the similarities, differences, and issues to consider in grid and cloud computing. Explore some of the security issues and choices for Web development in the cloud, and see how you can be environmentally friendly using cloud computing. http://tc.eserver.org/33897.html http://tc.eserver.org/33897.html This paper proposes a general synchronization grammar which can describe synchronization rule sets. For example, when handling three input files, we show that changes to elements can be described in terms of just seven possible permutations. Similarly, PCDATA and attribute changes can be described in terms of a fixed set of permutations. Using these permutations a grammar is proposed, allowing precise description of synchronization algorithms and rule sets and providing a testable framework for their implementation. The paper applies the resulting grammar to existing synchronization tools and technologies and shows how the grammar can be applied to provide solutions for specific application areas, including document workflow and translation. http://tc.eserver.org/33832.html http://tc.eserver.org/33832.html This paper is based from a number of real-world XML validation projects, and compares and contrasts the experience 'in the trenches' with the current state of the art in XML validation standards. Validation is a topic of some controversy in the XML community. While there has been movement from the basic validation offered by XML 1.0 DTD's, there is little consensus on whether that movement has been in the right direction. http://tc.eserver.org/33625.html http://tc.eserver.org/33625.html I'm seeing is a change in the software ecosystem which, for the moment, I'm calling situated software. This is software designed in and for a particular social situation or context. This way of making software is in contrast with what I'll call the Web School (the paradigm I learned to program in), where scalability, generality, and completeness were the key virtues. http://tc.eserver.org/33348.html http://tc.eserver.org/33348.html I’m not one to believe that we’re in a Bubble 2.0 or anything like that (aren’t we always bubbular?), but here are a few ideas about why some of the web apps out there fail. http://tc.eserver.org/32743.html http://tc.eserver.org/32743.html A handy trick for Web Developers in the ability to parse a string to check for a given substring. In plain English, this means checking if a word or part of a word is contained within text. This tutorial demonstrates how to do this using JavaScript. http://tc.eserver.org/32705.html http://tc.eserver.org/32705.html People love Ajax applications so much that they are willing to use them instead of their desktop equivalents. The only problem occurs when they fail to have network access. This is when an offline feature is necessary. Apache Derby is a great option for enabling offline access to Ajax-powered applications. Learn how to use Apache Derby as a local data store that can be used to take your Ajax application offline. http://tc.eserver.org/32657.html http://tc.eserver.org/32657.html Applications, particularly business applications, can often require a lot of date manipulation, but that code could be simplified if JavaScript’s core Date object had some additional methods. In this article, I will show you how to add custom methods to the Date object that are inherited by each date instance. http://tc.eserver.org/32553.html http://tc.eserver.org/32553.html I will go through how to make a full-blown widget that uses AJAX technology. It fetches news from a newsfeed source, presents them nicely to you, includes some eyecandy and of course lets you customize the amount of news items, refresh time and which category of news you want to be shown. http://tc.eserver.org/32470.html http://tc.eserver.org/32470.html On the about page of this site I used to call myself a “developer/designer/occasional writer”. It’s a bit confusing, and I still find it hard to know what to answer when someone asks me what I do for a living. Am I a Web designer? A Web developer? A Web programmer? All of them? Neither? It really is a difficult question to give a simple answer to. http://tc.eserver.org/32474.html http://tc.eserver.org/32474.html There is not a single interpreted language used today that causes more excitement, confusion, disdain, and conflict than JavaScript. The language is so incredibly flexible that it is difficult to separate a developer’s choice of coding style from JavaScript best practices. http://tc.eserver.org/32477.html http://tc.eserver.org/32477.html There is no official ECMAScript or JavaScript language feature called “shorthand”. Developers are responsible for coining the phrase, probably after realizing that terms like Ternary Condition are a bit archaic. The Mozilla Core JavaScript Guide does an excellent job of highlighting many of these shorthand techniques throughout tutorials, but I thought it best to have a definitive list all in one place. http://tc.eserver.org/32478.html http://tc.eserver.org/32478.html Getting started with JavaScript is easy: all you need is a modern Web browser. This guide includes some JavaScript features which are only currently available in the latest versions of Firefox (and other Gecko powered browsers), so using the most recent version of Firefox is recommended. http://tc.eserver.org/32480.html http://tc.eserver.org/32480.html One of the pitfalls of using a JavaScript framework, especially among beginners, is the ability to quickly lose sight of what is specific to the framework, and what is specific to the core JavaScript language. However, as bandwidth constraints continue to dissolve, and browser compatibility issues erode, it makes sense to consider a framework on each project. Whether or not you actually use a framework after these considerations are made, is totally up to you. http://tc.eserver.org/32243.html http://tc.eserver.org/32243.html From a software development viewpoint, model-driven architecture (MDA) encourages efficient use of system models. It also encourages reusing best practices as families of systems are produced. One of the main aims of MDA is to separate design from architecture, which places the business analyst in a unique and potentially powerful position within the organization. Learn how you as a business analyst can take an active role in this type of architecture. http://tc.eserver.org/32006.html http://tc.eserver.org/32006.html Slicken up your web apps with these tips and tricks using the Yahoo! User Interface library. http://tc.eserver.org/32003.html http://tc.eserver.org/32003.html To most, the virtues of Web 2.0 are rather ephemeral; that’s always been one of its main criticisms. However, I like to think that one of the movement’s key aspects is a sense of community, an ability to create sites and applications that bring people together. http://tc.eserver.org/32007.html http://tc.eserver.org/32007.html JavaScript is hip again; there’s no doubt about it. But if you’re starting to get down and dirty with it, there’s no excuse not to keep it clean. http://tc.eserver.org/31637.html http://tc.eserver.org/31637.html Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (Ajax) continues to raise user expectations for interactivity and performance, and developers are increasingly treating Ajax as a must-have component of their Web applications. As more code is moved client side and the network model changes, the community is responding by building more tools to address the unique performance challenges of Ajax. Examine toolsets that find and correct performance problems within your Ajax-enriched applications. http://tc.eserver.org/31638.html http://tc.eserver.org/31638.html Wasting server resources can impact the performance of Ajax applications, resulting in excessive HTTP requests, high memory consumption, and the need for an unusual amount of polling to make applications work. Regular developerWorks author Judith Myerson suggests some open source tools and Firefox add-ons you can use to improve or solve problems with your Ajax applications. http://tc.eserver.org/31114.html http://tc.eserver.org/31114.html A lightweight markup language uses syntax that is similar to wiki syntax -- keyboard characters are used to define formatting. This blog post argues that if your documentation needs are simple, and you have a low or non-existent budget, then a lightweight markup language might be worth investigating. http://tc.eserver.org/31084.html http://tc.eserver.org/31084.html Lightweight literate programming (LLP) combines software documentation and coding in a way that can scaffold collaborations between technical communicators and programmers. We review the genesis and history of LLP, including its relationship to established single-sourcing methods. We then detail its use by programmers and discuss two models for writer/programmer collaboration using LLP. We finish by suggesting a few studies of working relationships between writers and programmers that LLP could facilitate. http://tc.eserver.org/31085.html http://tc.eserver.org/31085.html Although it claims to adhere to user-centered design principles of participatory design and democratized technology, open-source software often fails to effectively address the usability needs of typical software users. In many cases, it embodies a system-centered design approach facilitated by the efforts of developer-users. In addition to the existing participation in open-source projects in the classroom, technical communicators should actively critique open-source software and promote user-centered design principles in open-source software projects. http://tc.eserver.org/31036.html http://tc.eserver.org/31036.html As a Graphical User Interface (GUI) programmer, I have many interface development tools to choose from. Over the years, my development environment changes to accommodate my needs. This often includes learning new languages and the tools that go with them. http://tc.eserver.org/30752.html http://tc.eserver.org/30752.html A book on programming using the Python language. It serves as a tutorial or guide to the Python language for anyone. If all you know about your computers is how to save text files, then this is the book for you. If you are an experienced programmer who loves C, Perl or Java, you can also learn Python from this book. http://tc.eserver.org/30678.html http://tc.eserver.org/30678.html Does it ever occur to you that today's Web developers could learn a thing or two from traditional computer programming? The cranky user talks about the foundations of software engineering and asks where in the Web those best practices have disappeared to. http://tc.eserver.org/30661.html http://tc.eserver.org/30661.html Where possible, creating Web applications -- including Ajax-based applications -- in a RESTful way avoids a large class of bugs. However, a pitfall of REST (REpresentational State Transfer) is sending duplicate data across similar XMLHttpRequests. This tip shows how the moderate use of session cookies can maintain just enough server-side state to significantly reduce client-server traffic, while still allowing fallback to cookie-free operation. http://tc.eserver.org/30655.html http://tc.eserver.org/30655.html 'Test on multiple browsers' has been a mantra ever since there have been multiple browsers to test on. Testing them all--especially these days--is impossible. But you can come a lot closer than you may think. In this article, learn a variety of techniques for cross-browser testing, from the very thorough to the quick and dirty. The choice you make will depend on your resources, but this is an issue you can't ignore. http://tc.eserver.org/30658.html http://tc.eserver.org/30658.html It takes some finesse to make the best use of asynchronous callbacks for Ajax data sources in JavaScript applications. This tip discusses why you should use asynchronous callbacks for Ajax data sources and gives examples of coordinating the readiness of mutually dependent application data sources that may become ready at undefined times with asynchronous calls. http://tc.eserver.org/30669.html http://tc.eserver.org/30669.html Deploying bandwidth-efficient Ajax applications does not guarantee that the service levels in a Service Level Agreement will stay high. No matter how well you change code in the Ajax format to make it more bandwidth efficient, there will be always risks and vulnerabilities you'll need to watch out for and mitigate. Regular developerWorks author Judith Myerson gives a brief Ajax recap, shows what Web services vulnerabilities are and why Service Level Agreements (SLA) are important, and suggests some solutions for speeding up Ajax applications. http://tc.eserver.org/30613.html http://tc.eserver.org/30613.html Standard UNIX commands can be combined into scripts. Such scripts permit the automation of tasks that otherwise may take many hours of manual work. The paper shows how scripts can solve such problems as putting messages online and indexing texts. http://tc.eserver.org/30585.html http://tc.eserver.org/30585.html This workshop teaches technical communicators what to include in internal documentation, how to interview and work with technical people, and basics of how to 'read' and evaluate code. http://tc.eserver.org/30582.html http://tc.eserver.org/30582.html Could it be that not every set of business requirements has the customer's best interest in mind? Karl Wiegers had always believed that implemented software functionality should enable users to accomplish their goals and help the business achieve its objectives. But a recent experience with a less-than-helpful parking meter system suggested to him that conflicts sometimes might exist between business and user requirements. http://tc.eserver.org/30469.html http://tc.eserver.org/30469.html As developers, we have more and more JavaScript libraries to choose from and, of course, the option not to use any at all. Over time, we each tend to favor one method of coding over another. For those who'd like to learn more about jQuery, one of the more popular libraries, here's a crash course written with code-savvy web designers in mind. http://tc.eserver.org/30374.html http://tc.eserver.org/30374.html The computer industry is moving toward the adoption of the object-oriented approach as the standard mode of analyzing, designing, and implementing applications. This paper applies the new orientation to the task of simulating the traffic of people in a building. This paper is a primer to a new technology which promises to revolutionalize programming: object orientation. To make the presentation concrete, I will build it around a case history. Imagine that an architect asked you to create a simulation that will help her determine how many elevators anew building will need to keep the average wait for an elevator to, say, under thirty seconds. How would you go about this task? http://tc.eserver.org/30171.html http://tc.eserver.org/30171.html If you area technical writer who writes software documentation, chances are you have been informally involved in testing the software that you are documenting. In larger organizations, entire divisions are devoted to thoroughly testing software before it is released. In smaller organizations, this position could be informal or nonexistent. In this workshop, you will learn a basic methodology for testing software that you can use as a starting point for a new or expanded career. http://tc.eserver.org/30039.html http://tc.eserver.org/30039.html Dives into the components of the building block system. Each has a place in his design framework for dashboards and portals. http://tc.eserver.org/30010.html http://tc.eserver.org/30010.html Handling exceptions, errors, and alternative flows are a critical part of defining good use cases and designing good software. Correct handling of esceptional conditions is not only necessary for correct realization of requirements and for system reliability, but is also an important factor in usability. This paper details a systematic approach to the design of exception handling in object-oriented software. http://tc.eserver.org/29958.html http://tc.eserver.org/29958.html The domain model is a familiar concept to most OOP (Object Oriented Programming) developers and architects, and has been used successfully in a variety of systems and projects. But how does this principle apply to SOA-based solutions? http://tc.eserver.org/29861.html http://tc.eserver.org/29861.html This paper proposes a set of API documentation maturity levels that can be used to define a writer or writing team’s ability to document technical materials and to set goals for moving between levels towards more independence from developers. It examines development and documentation team process maturity, as well as several types of API documentation, and their impact on writers new to producing developer documentation. The paper also discusses some of the common difficulties associated with developer-level documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/29588.html http://tc.eserver.org/29588.html XML has revolutionized application UI design in recent years. With a cunning blend of XML and script languages such as JavaScript, rich, aesthetically pleasing applications can be quickly constructed with ease. We've looked at Widgets and XUL as two examples of this in the past and now, I'm going to take a look at some of the innovative Java UI toolkits that implement XML as an integral mechanism for application II design. Please note, this is the first part of a two-part article. http://tc.eserver.org/29338.html http://tc.eserver.org/29338.html In this article, we outline how IT analysts can effectively make determinations about the value of process documentation, and in the process, transform a potential scourge into a possible blessing. http://tc.eserver.org/29342.html http://tc.eserver.org/29342.html XML-based development projects often require the development of a Document Type Definition (DTD), which defines the XML code used in an XML document or application. Even if you are customizing an existing DTD like the DocBook DTD, documenting the DTD is a best practice for a number of reasons, including:Providing documentation http://tc.eserver.org/28908.html http://tc.eserver.org/28908.html These days, 'framework' is quite a buzzword in web development. With JavaScript frameworks like the Yahoo User Interface library, jQuery, and Prototype getting a lot of attention and web application frameworks like Rails and Django getting even more, it seems like everyone is using some kind of framework to build their sites. But what exactly is a framework? And are they only useful to programmers, or can we web designers benefit from the concept, as well? http://tc.eserver.org/28854.html http://tc.eserver.org/28854.html Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript + XML) is quickly emerging as a modern way of bringing desktop-quality software features to Web applications running on browsers. Open source software such as Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP (LAMP) and open standards-based J2EE middleware, such as WebSphere Application Server Community Edition, provide excellent capabilities to develop and deploy Ajax Web applications. http://tc.eserver.org/28856.html http://tc.eserver.org/28856.html To maintain success, companies often incorporate the benefits of new and evolving technologies into their star products. Unfortunately, integrating new technologies can sometimes compromise a product's features and adversely affect the time to market. The time it takes for a product development team to become acquainted with the new technology can limit the number of new features added to the product. Discover the most common problems associated with incorporating new technologies into existing products, and learn what steps you can take to avoid these issues and upgrade your products successfully. http://tc.eserver.org/28567.html http://tc.eserver.org/28567.html Two wizards are compared. One client script from DOJO and the other server component from Microsoft. Both fo them work exceedingly well in IE 7.0. Dojo wizard looks smashing. http://tc.eserver.org/28203.html http://tc.eserver.org/28203.html Due to the proliferation of Java applications and applets on the Internet, it is essential that accessibility barriers are not introduced during their development. http://tc.eserver.org/28122.html http://tc.eserver.org/28122.html Microsoft's offer to open the code to key protocols is probably not as revolutionary as it sounds. http://tc.eserver.org/27754.html http://tc.eserver.org/27754.html For a profession full of sharp people, software engineering produces some hideous prose. How many times have you tried to read a technical document and failed because it was, in a very real sense, unreadable? It doesn't have to be this way. We technical types can improve our writing simply by applying some of those hard won coding skills to to those other, human, languages. I may be grammar challenged and spelling incapable, but writing code has taught me a few things about writing for people. http://tc.eserver.org/27622.html http://tc.eserver.org/27622.html Want to get a bang out of your AJAX artillery? In this hands-on tutorial, Stoyan puts AJAX on the front line as he develops a Web app with which you can execute shell commands on your Web server. The downloadable code provides a real tactical advantage as Stoyan marshals JavaScript and XML to create the app. http://tc.eserver.org/27579.html http://tc.eserver.org/27579.html Smart and energetic people believe 'Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.' Smart and lazy people say 'Never do today what you can put off till tomorrow!' This is, to me, one of the most useful tenets from the eXtreme Programming movement. http://tc.eserver.org/27310.html http://tc.eserver.org/27310.html It is common, especially in technical writing, to mix languages with differing text direction, such as English and Hebrew, in the same line. Some writing systems even alternate layout direction in every other line (an arrangement called boustrophedonic writing). Some languages do not group glyphs into words separated by spaces. Moreover, some applications call for arbitrary arrangements of glyphs; a graphic layout may require glyphs to be arranged on a nonlinear path. http://tc.eserver.org/27311.html http://tc.eserver.org/27311.html Apple has been working hard on Universal Access and it's time for you, the developer, to incorporate Universal Access into your application if you haven't done so already. This article guides you through the reasons you will want to provide Universal Access, the architecture underlying the technology, and how to get started incorporating these features into your application. http://tc.eserver.org/27248.html http://tc.eserver.org/27248.html Continues a conversation with closer look at 'mocks,' utility classes that, for testing purposes, pretend to be some component or service with which your object will interact. http://tc.eserver.org/27220.html http://tc.eserver.org/27220.html If you can't understand a program, then you can't debug it. Even with code that you have written yourself, if you come back to it six months or a year later, you may find yourself wondering “Why on earth did I write that? What was it for?” It doesn't take long to forget the details of a program when you aren't working on it any more. Make life easier for yourself, and write programs as clearly as possible. Also, provide such defences as you can against the possibility that VBA might change between versions of Word. http://tc.eserver.org/27217.html http://tc.eserver.org/27217.html Word's macro recorder can help you acquaint yourself with macros and with Office 97's VBA programming language. http://tc.eserver.org/27227.html http://tc.eserver.org/27227.html There are two ways to use Automation (or OLE Automation) to programmatically control another application. http://tc.eserver.org/27229.html http://tc.eserver.org/27229.html There are two Help topics in Word VBA Help that are required reading to get you started with built-in dialogs: 'Displaying built-in Word dialog boxes' and 'Built-in dialog box argument lists'. Unfortunately, in the latter article, Microsoft listed the arguments you can use but forgot to mention what the arguments mean or what values they can take! Fortunately, the dialog box arguments are almost identical to the arguments of the commands of WordBasic, so if you know one, you can work out the other. Therefore, the WordBasic Help file is at present by far the best resource for programmers wanting to use the dialogs. It is an absolute must-have. http://tc.eserver.org/27218.html http://tc.eserver.org/27218.html I can't turn you into a VBA expert but I can suggest a way to explore VBA that you may find helpful. Below, I've listed 22 steps that can be completed in approximately 15 minutes, assuming someone is kind enough to read them to you as you sit at your keyboard. If you have to read them by yourself and turn your attention alternately to the keyboard and back to the steps, then you may need a half hour or longer to complete the steps. Either way, the steps should give you a feel for what it's like to program in Word. http://tc.eserver.org/27216.html http://tc.eserver.org/27216.html Do you re-use some of your documents over and over again, making slight changes just before you print, fax, or email it each time? Do you, for example, send the same basic letter to each new customer, but edit the letter each time so that it refers to the specific product purchased by that customer? Starting with Word 97, there's an easy way to add a pop-up list of choices to any Word document. This new feature lets you point at a word or phrase and simply right-click the mouse to switch to some other word or phrase. http://tc.eserver.org/27230.html http://tc.eserver.org/27230.html Supposing you frequently need to add Multiline Text Boxes to your UserForms, with the EnterKeyBehavior property set to True. Or let's say you want to drag a 'Next' button straight onto your userform and not have to change the text in it to say 'Next', and not have to change the dimensions of the button. http://tc.eserver.org/27223.html http://tc.eserver.org/27223.html Most of us write routines that do similar operations more than once. It makes your code much less cumbersome and much easier to follow if you hive off all such repetitive chunks of code into separate subroutines or functions. The difference between a sub and a function is that a function can return a value. Within the function itself, you can treat the function name like a variable, and give it a value and then you can call the function and get that value. http://tc.eserver.org/27231.html http://tc.eserver.org/27231.html If you want a macro to be fired whenever any document is opened, regardless of which template the document is attached to, the simplest way is to write an AutoOpen macro and store it in Normal.dot. http://tc.eserver.org/27224.html http://tc.eserver.org/27224.html When Microsoft released Word 97, a new programming language VBA replaced the WordBasic language that had been available in earlier versions of Word. For most things, VBA is a much more powerful and flexible programming language than WordBasic, but there are a few very useful WordBasic commands which have no direct equivalents in VBA. Fortunately, VBA includes the WordBasic object, which gives access to most of the old WordBasic commands. http://tc.eserver.org/27225.html http://tc.eserver.org/27225.html The rules are confusing concerning the use of parentheses to enclose argument lists. I have even seen MS Knowledgebase articles that have got it wrong. The rules are as follows. http://tc.eserver.org/27222.html http://tc.eserver.org/27222.html Almost all Microsoft Word variables should be dimensioned as whatever they are (Dim MyRange As Range, Dim MyString As String, etc.). http://tc.eserver.org/27226.html http://tc.eserver.org/27226.html The most important thing you need to know when working with bookmarks in Word is that there are two 'types' of bookmarks: 'placeholder' bookmarks and 'enclosing' bookmarks. http://tc.eserver.org/27053.html http://tc.eserver.org/27053.html If you're doing Java Web development using Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax), then delivering data from the server to the client is probably your top concern. In this second article in the Ajax for Java developers series, Philip McCarthy walks you through five approaches to Java object serialization and gives you all the information you need to choose the data format and technology best suited to your application. http://tc.eserver.org/27054.html http://tc.eserver.org/27054.html Implement a Web browser-based SOAP Web services client using the Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax) design pattern. http://tc.eserver.org/27015.html http://tc.eserver.org/27015.html The relatively recent adoption of user-focused design practices by the Web design and development community--including personas, participatory design, paper prototyping, and the like--highlights important distinctions between the user experiences of desktop applications and those of information spaces. With the growing desire for usable Web applications, these distinctions become more topical and important to understand. Though the process of designing and creating application and information space user experiences for the Web is virtually the same--even if the deliverable design documents may differ--their user experiences are fundamentally and profoundly different. For designers, business analysts, marketing consultants, and others who are sincerely interested in delivering the best user experiences online, understanding these distinctions can reduce the cost of design and improve the likelihood of user acceptance. http://tc.eserver.org/27010.html http://tc.eserver.org/27010.html Design professionals often decry the lack of importance and investment their companies place on design. After all, most software projects revolve around a product's engineering, to the ongoing detriment of its design--not to mention the chagrin of so many designers, who wriggle uncomfortably toward the bottom of the food chain. But there is a good reason for this: products can be very profitable without investing a single penny in interface design--at least, beyond the user interfaces the engineers build. Indeed, at least in the early stages of a market or company, resources dedicated to intentional interface design are often a bonus rather than being viewed as a necessity. http://tc.eserver.org/26970.html http://tc.eserver.org/26970.html The right kind of comments to speed up the development process and enable a couple of interesting possibilities to generate documentations automatically. This article tries to reflect on the pros and cons of comments and to show some interesting possibilities for automatic comment parsing. Comment Basics http://tc.eserver.org/26885.html http://tc.eserver.org/26885.html What Shale isn't is a shrink-wrapped, well-documented, well-tested product complete with an automated installer and a polished management interface. Now find out what it is, as Brett McLaughlin unveils this mighty -- and rightful-- heir to the legacy of Struts. In this first of a five-part series, Brett explains what Shale is, how it's different from the Struts framework, and how to install and set it up in your development environment. http://tc.eserver.org/26887.html http://tc.eserver.org/26887.html The Eclipse Web Tools Platform (WTP) extends the Eclipse IDE to enable easy development of Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-based applications. Learn how to install WTP, configure it for use with an application server, and use the tools it provides to create a J2EE application. http://tc.eserver.org/26452.html http://tc.eserver.org/26452.html The JAXP API allows Java programmers easy access to the power and flexibility of XML parsing and filtering and XSLT transformation. However, while many programmers utilize JAXP for simple XML parsing or single-shot XSLT transformation, going further to construct processing pipelines often proves difficult. http://tc.eserver.org/26414.html http://tc.eserver.org/26414.html The Java programming language contains object-oriented features enabling the construction of interface-based application frameworks. Interfaces separate module implementation from core implementation, thus simplifying module development. The following article demonstrates how to take advantage of Java interfaces by designing and implementing a game playing application framework. http://tc.eserver.org/26416.html http://tc.eserver.org/26416.html Programming is an art. As with any other art, it is important to use the right medium. In programming, this translates to the choice of programming language. But why should one pay so much attention to one's first programming language? http://tc.eserver.org/26331.html http://tc.eserver.org/26331.html The guidelines that I follow when writing my PHP scripts; can be helpful to have something like this if you're working on a joint project. http://tc.eserver.org/26200.html http://tc.eserver.org/26200.html The World Wide Web is growing rapidly with new and changing web content. Detecting changes in web pages is crucial for website masters who care about website integrity. It is also convenient for web surfers who are constantly looking for new products, services, or information on their favorite websites. This paper describes TopBlend, a new HTML differencing tool implemented in Java. TopBlend uses the fast Jacobson-Vo algorithm, which solves the Heaviest Common Subsequence problem, for page comparison. Performance results indicate that TopBlend significantly outperforms a previous HTML differencing tool in most time-consuming jobs, often by 1-2 orders of magnitude. TopBlend allows comparisons to be performed either on the server or client side. The latter has become increasingly powerful enough to offload busy servers by performing heavy computations. TopBlend can present the results in either a merged HTML view or a more convenient side-by-side view for web pages with complex graphics designs. TopBlend has been integrated with the AT&T Internet Difference Engine (AIDE) and can also be employed easily by other website tracking services. http://tc.eserver.org/26201.html http://tc.eserver.org/26201.html XML has become the de facto standard format for web publishing and data transportation. Since online information changes frequently, being able to quickly detect changes in XML documents is important to Internet query systems, search engines, and continuous query systems. Previous work in change detection on XML, or other hierarchically structured documents, used an ordered tree model, in which left-to-right order among siblings is important and it can affect the change result. This paper argues that an unordered model (only ancestor relationships are significant) is more suitable for most database applications. Using an unordered model, change detection is substantially harder than using the ordered model, but the change result that it generates is more accurate. This paper proposes X-Diff, an effective algorithm that integrates key XML structure characteristics with standard tree-to-tree correction techniques. The algorithm is analyzed and compared with XyDiff [CAM02], a published XML diff algorithm. An experimental evaluation on both algorithms is provided. http://tc.eserver.org/25789.html http://tc.eserver.org/25789.html This tutorial illustrates various aspects of Hamlet programming as it provides a number of practical Hamlet examples. The examples are part of WebZEC (Web-based Zurich Event Console) -- a fast, browser-based console to quickly navigate in intrusion-detection alarms. With these samples, you can develop a good understanding how to use Hamlets for Web-based application development and how Hamlets work. http://tc.eserver.org/25633.html http://tc.eserver.org/25633.html Code it right: Use these best practices as you write your ActionScript. http://tc.eserver.org/25002.html http://tc.eserver.org/25002.html Extreme Programming (XP) is yet another popular idea gaining press. It adapts the best ideas from the past decades of software development. Whether or not you adopt XP, it's worth considering what XP teaches. http://tc.eserver.org/25000.html http://tc.eserver.org/25000.html CVS, part of the glue that holds open source development together, is showing its age. Many competitors have emerged recently, fixing misfeatures and adding new ideas. Shlomi Fish explores several current open source version control systems that may be better than CVS for your needs. http://tc.eserver.org/24809.html http://tc.eserver.org/24809.html Software organizations are increasingly willing to hire consultants in technical communication for projects in visual design. This paper examines ten factors critical to successfully managing icon development, based on experience in two different companies, Practical issues -defining the scope of the problem, recruiting the contractor and reviewers, writing the contract, deciding where the contractor should work, validating the images -- require attention to make your partnership with a consultant work. http://tc.eserver.org/24707.html http://tc.eserver.org/24707.html Resumes may seem like something of a mundane topic, but after spending the last few weeks wading through resumes from software developers, it is clear to me that most developers need help with their resumes. This impression is backed up by many past resume reading experiences. While I have come across very few truly awful resumes, the majority of the resumes I have read in the last week have been substandard. Only a few have been what I would call really well done. http://tc.eserver.org/24708.html http://tc.eserver.org/24708.html There is a direct line between the abstraction embodied in our code and the reality of the people who will come into contact with that code. Methodologies and managers are beside the point—a distraction from the real issue. http://tc.eserver.org/24648.html http://tc.eserver.org/24648.html The purpose of this collaboration is to collect on one portal page many of the current theories of software development, so that a technical communicator working with developers can at least be a bit familiar with these. It is by no means a thorough explanation of all the contemporary methodologies, both organic and imposed. But it should give readers some tips about what they are and where they can find more information. http://tc.eserver.org/24440.html http://tc.eserver.org/24440.html Expert systems that use knowledge bases to find quick and accurate answers for customers are growing in popularity. Our experiences in writing knowledge bases for a large customer help desk have led us to believe that technical communicators are well suited for the job of “knowledge engineer.” We have used our technical writing skills to interview experts in an area, gather information from them, and then organize and write the information in a way that non-experts can use it. http://tc.eserver.org/24340.html http://tc.eserver.org/24340.html More and more job notices request some knowledge of object-oriented programming concepts. So, what are object-oriented programming concepts, why are they so special, and what documentation challenges do they create. This seminar answers your questions about the real meaning behind those job ads. http://tc.eserver.org/24164.html http://tc.eserver.org/24164.html The easiest way to gain the respect of programmers is to learn to speak their language. If you can do that, they’ll inevitably recognize the effort you've invested in learning to appreciate their work and will treat you as an equal thereafter. With that goal in mind, I present this glossary of key programming terms you should master. http://tc.eserver.org/23968.html http://tc.eserver.org/23968.html Interaction design methodologies, such as Goal-Directed Design, tackle the software development process from the top down by defining specific product requirements and interface behavior based on research and user needs. The Rational Unified Process (RUP) and other agile programming methodologies attack software development from the bottom up. RUP creates fluid efficiencies for iterating product development during the construction phase in order to react to changing product requirements while still producing shipping code. http://tc.eserver.org/23360.html http://tc.eserver.org/23360.html A presentation about applying concepts from extreme programming (XP) to the IA redesign of a web site (=XIA). http://tc.eserver.org/23176.html http://tc.eserver.org/23176.html This document aims to capture some of the best practices for developing Java Enterprise Application. The information in this document should ideally be used during Design Cycle. Some of the areas covered are a) Resource Handling b) NLS c) Code Documentation d) Error Handling e) General/ Others. The information presented must be used along with Java Standard Practices and Organization level standard practices. http://tc.eserver.org/23102.html http://tc.eserver.org/23102.html A collection of humorous quotations about programming that proves geeks have a sense of humor after all, albeit arcane, for example: "A computer without COBOL and FORTRAN is like a piece of chocolate cake without ketchup or mustard." — John Krueger http://tc.eserver.org/22331.html http://tc.eserver.org/22331.html Java may be used to develop stand-alone applications, servlets (an application that runs on the server), or applets (an application that runs inside a Java-capable browser). Applets appear in web-pages in the same way as an image, but because they are essentially embedded applications, are dynamic and interactive. http://tc.eserver.org/21655.html http://tc.eserver.org/21655.html The task of creating and deploying web services is really not all that difficult, nor is it all that different than what developers currently do in more traditional web applications. The tendency on all platforms is to automate more and more of the gory details and tedious work in creating web services. Most programmers don't need to know the exact details of encodings and envelopes; instead, they'll simply use a SOAP toolkit such as those described here. http://tc.eserver.org/21656.html http://tc.eserver.org/21656.html Python and XML are two very different animals, each with a rich history. Python is a full-scale programming language that has grown from scripting world roots in a very organic way, through the vision and guidance of Python's inventor, Guido van Rossum. Guido continues to take into account the needs of Python developers as Python matures. XML, on the other hand, though strongly impacted by the ideas of a small cadre of visionaries, has grown from standards-committee roots. It has seen both quiet adoption and wrenching battles over its future. Why bother putting the two technologies together? http://tc.eserver.org/21654.html http://tc.eserver.org/21654.html This chapter covers the two most important tasks in working with XML: reading it into memory and writing it out again. XML is a structured, predictable, and standard data storage format, and as such carries a price. http://tc.eserver.org/21504.html http://tc.eserver.org/21504.html With the spread of new technology, technical communicators face interesting new challenges for solving documentation problems. One area of software development that technical communicators are increasingly becoming involved in is that of rule-based expert systems. Because of their complexity, both the systems and their documentation can be difficult to maintain. Technical communicators can solve some of these maintenance problems by flow-charting only the chaining structure of the rule-base design. http://tc.eserver.org/21503.html http://tc.eserver.org/21503.html Object-oriented (OO) programming helps writers and programmers use real-world paradigms. By understanding some basic terminology of OO (classes, instances, and messages), the writer can feel more at ease with OO concepts. A glossary and suggestions for further reading are included. http://tc.eserver.org/21469.html http://tc.eserver.org/21469.html One of the defining elements of web applications is their support for the editing and manipulation of stored data. Unlike the typical conversation that goes on between a user and a content-centric website however, this additional capability requires a more robust dialog between user and application. http://tc.eserver.org/21379.html http://tc.eserver.org/21379.html The growth of the information technology industry and the focus on ease of use combine to offer technical communicators an unprecedented opportunity. If we seize this opportunity, we will no longer feel the need to justify our jobs. By developing proactive user assistance, we can act for customers and make their tasks easier to complete. If we make customers’ jobs simpler and reduce their reliance on static information, our perceived value will increase. To create proactive user assistance, however, we need to develop computer-programming skills. http://tc.eserver.org/21314.html http://tc.eserver.org/21314.html What distinguishes a web application from a traditional, content-based website and what are some of the unique design challenges associated with web applications? A reasonable launching point is the more fundamental question, 'What is an application?' http://tc.eserver.org/21167.html http://tc.eserver.org/21167.html Most people who do even a little bit of JavaScript programming, even those who are simply tweaking somebody else’s code, are familiar with the rudimentary JavaScript debugger in the recent versions of Internet Explorer. Click on the yellow warning icon in your browser, and you get a listing of various JavaScript errors in your code. It is simple, and for many people it is enough, but it’s not really the type of fully-fledged debugging environment with features programmers have come to expect in other development languages. If you find yourself doing a lot of JavaScript programming or tweaking and you are concerned with cross-browser support for your scripts, then Venkman is worth checking out.