Dev Dawn

Oh baby. Waaaay back (couple of months) when this site got moving, I posted a few times about Ajax, and how cool it sounded, and even started looking into it.

It’s back on my radar.

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I missed the best link of them all … Check out Zimbra. Not that this is counterproductive to a certain other email engine that’s being developed … it’s all good.
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The journey begins here on Slashdot, then proceeds here to a story of how the Web-based Office will have it’s day. From here we have a host of different apps that are appearing (mostly in beta form, and requiring registration to use, but free. Writely is a word-processor. Openonmy is a file-system. Kiko is a calendar thingy.

(EDIT :: It must be noted that the some of the Slashdot-ians had questions regarding this … A very valid question.)

It’s all pretty cool. We need to get on the band wagon.

Of course, a statement like that is dumb. There needs to be a … need, a purpose. But i’m sure there is. Just need to find it. What kind of stuff could we do? … I guess it puts the web-based solution more into the forseeable future. The agent being able to log on and maintain their data. Like SalesForce I guess. That’s not really going to take away from the power of the desktop … but it could definately be a short-term goal to offer in excess of what we do now. As in, an extra feature, for the “rich and powerful”. A Premium feature.

What kind of features could we offer that are premium?

Well i guess the Intranet could definately be done in Ajax. But that needs more of a base design reconstruction.

What else?

I’m sure that most of the web stuff being talked about and thought through at the moment could definately do with a perspective of Ajax. It’s a valid development set of standards/tools that we should get on board with.

So … the bandwagon. Let’s get our gear on!

Oh yeah … Telamonian … check out Answers.com – Ajax Telamonian and Wikipedia – Ajax (Aias) Telamonian. Greek mythology, there’s nothing like it. It should be a prerequisite course for development, especially when needing names for systems … heh.

This is a very handy resource for doing anything with XML in Clarion … iQ-XML.

Which makes me think we need some kind of resource library rather than just posts about stuff.

Manage your google existence – https://www.google.com/accounts

Note that windows update now insists on installing a verification program to check if you have a legit Windows XP.

It does this automatically once installed – it doesn’t ask for your CD key again etc. But otherwise bit of a pain.

Just discovered (should have tested more than one browser, haha) that IE doesn’t like the css of the site at the moment. The top border doesn’t show up properly.

Apologies to all IE viewers … CHANGE TO FIREFOX NOW … I mean, have a nice day.

Further from my Simply Complex post, a wiki is looking good. Dev-iki … to be precise. I’m looking into it.

If you can make it through some blather, there’s a cool idea in here … Software Gates … heh heh … Take a look.

I’ve had something purcolating (i looked that up on dictionary.com ) for a while.

When writing a System, whatever it is, no matter how large or small … there are elements the same throughout.

This also ties in with the email Bill sent around about a generic tools dll … it’s part of the overall picture. And there is more i believe. Not so much if you use an “end” or a “dot” … heh heh, but standards that give consistency. So that even if you do it differently, it is consistently done across your projects, that everyone can understand it if they saw the code.

Another element is how to keep track of what has been done in the project. Not just when multiple people work on it, but when you come back to some code or procedure that was last in your mind a year ago. I know that for myself, my coding style has so progressed that i cannot stand my old code. I MUST fix it . Anyway, losing track.

We need to be able to have maybe a document, or a little program, that keeps track of “Threads” maybe. Procedures and their purposes. Also, actual ideas to put within the System, like Todos.

I’m sure there is lots more … and Together We Can Do IT!!!! awww, yeah, cmon, you know the feel-good feeling of feeling nice …

Anyway, i’m thinking of putting up some kind of wiki on this site … maybe. We’ll see.

When things start to come together, it’s good. Experience would beg that this is a temporary euphoria, but that’s okay. It’s like conquering a mountain, each single step at a time.

There are a number of different factors to consider with dll projects. What if you want more than one dataset? You don’t want any dictionaries defined in the actual app, nor do you want the main app (the exe), to ever directly know about anything happening underneath it. And when using a third-party tool like File Manager 3, how do you fit this in with the above vision. It’s a simple and very powerful idea, but complex in implementation. I guess.

Anyway, more later.

Having fun with DLL’s and Clarion. Want to post up here my experiences, so at least something is down on “paper”. The Rules … The Rules!!! They’re a little crazy sometimes.

At least I’m beginning from scratch. Whereas the Great Benefactor* is breaking up 6 billion procedures into dlls.

So anyway, more later on this.

* a.k.a. Mr. S