Comments for Tyson Lloyd Cadenhead - User Interface Developer

Comment on jQuery Mobile vs. Sencha Touch by Joe Estes

Joe Estes — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:34:09 +0000

This is a great analysis. I have developed only native apps up until recently I set out to create an html5 mobile app prototype. I chose to use the PhoneGap JQueryMobile stack. Being that JQuery was not at a stable 1.0 release up until weeks ago, the experience was not as much of a slam-dunk as I expected for implementing well known html5 components. Things that should be simple like passing parameters from one page to the next have nuanced solutions. This post has incited interest in trying Sencha next.

Comment on Do JavaScript Libraries Need An Abstraction Layer? by tysoncadenhead

tysoncadenhead — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:02:27 +0000

I’m glad you enjoyed it Joe and you bring up some excellent points.

I’ve only written an abstraction layer for one of my projects, mostly just because I wanted to have a fully formed idea of how it would behave before totally writing it off. Through that process, I think I became a little more convinced that it was not just pointless but that the performance hit made it completely wrong.

I was a little sad that I had reached that conclusion because I saw a video where Nicholas Zakas (one of my JavaScript heroes) strongly encouraged the use of an abstraction layer.

Comment on Do you get it? (JavaScript Getter / Setters) by Joe Lippeatt

Joe Lippeatt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 22:01:22 +0000

Great article, but missed an important bit: you’re “config” object is now a property bag! I wrote a similar article at work because we had issues with too many expressed parameters in function calls:

var thisObj = new someObj(a, b, c, d, e, f, … x) { … }

And it only got worse as “someObj” became more robust. An easy solution using your example above would be:

var thisObj = new someObj( config ) { … }

This allows you to control scope inside and outside the someObj and tidy your code with the config object!

Comment on Do JavaScript Libraries Need An Abstraction Layer? by Joe Lippeatt

Joe Lippeatt — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 21:52:26 +0000

Found your blog post while researching this topic. Or should I say, I found your post while trying to convince myself that library abstraction is as necessary to JS as Java.

So far, the arguments for abstraction have been few (and weak), and the lack of arguments against seem to suggest the itch doesn’t exist. If abstraction goals include the ability to swap, your argument that this rarely happens is sound. Its more efficient to provide a different solution (or behavior) rather than swap a complete library. For example, its more efficient to install a stand-alone RTF if the chosen UX library doesn’t include one.

If the abstraction goal is development efficiencies, learning the home-spun abstracted JS API is just as monumental as learning the actual library.

The solution would be a standardized, open abstraction API Library (possibly with library auto-detect?). Considering the apparent lack of ROI, that project is unlikely to take much root.

Unlike with some languages that do not suffer when abstraction, JS abstraction would incur a performance hit with each layer. That alone is a red flag.

Thanks for your post, a good read.

Comment on jQuery Mobile vs. Sencha Touch by Tim Jowers

Tim Jowers — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 22:09:34 +0000

Superb write-up. Nailed the important point. Irritating how people try to dance around these serious SW Design choices. The idea of generating code or UI is an old one for sure. Most apps don’t need that. Web Pages already are write-once, run anywhere. and, NO INSTALL.
Plus, doesn’t everyone already know jQuery by now? So I can hire people off the street.

Comment on What is UI / UX? by Delsita Day

Delsita Day — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 05:48:33 +0000

I have that very book “Don’t Make Me Think” by Steve Krug – it’s an awesome read – I too am a graphic designer/web designer and a new graduate with a Bachelor’s in Visual Communications – I know the print side of design inside and out – yet web design still presents some challenges for me – I enjoy web/multimedia design and am looking forward to working in the field – though it would be to my benefit to brush up on usability – Thank you

Comment on Replacing href attributes with onClick events with Regex by mahnuh

mahnuh — Sat, 05 Nov 2011 10:50:24 +0000

hi tyson!
how did you manage to use the childbrowser plugin in your sencha touch app anyway? i’ve been struggling with this since a few days now…
may be you can help me out?

Comment on jQuery Mobile vs. Sencha Touch by Chris

Chris — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:55:41 +0000

What particularly about JQM makes you feel “very limited”? I don’t have extensive experience with Sencha but I somehow feel “limited” by it. I mean, I can always roll my own elements using HTML. I can do the same with Sencha but have to resort to typing HTML in JavaScript files.

It is true that Sencha comes with more predefined widgets, though.

Comment on Detecting JavaScript Popup Blockers by tysoncadenhead

tysoncadenhead — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:35:17 +0000

As a quick update to this, I’ve recently discovered that Google Chrome’s default popup blocker doesn’t actually work the same as most other blockers. Instead of redefining the window.open function, they actually still open the popup but give it a width of 0px and a height of 0px. In my opinion, this is a terrible performance decision, especially coming from a browser that usually makes decisions based on speed and performance, but you can test for it by putting a short timeout function that looks at the popup’s height.

Comment on jQuery Mobile vs. Sencha Touch by Tejas

Tejas — Sun, 24 Jul 2011 15:50:51 +0000

I researched a lot but finally found something useful.
Got a clearer idea,

If I want the app to be fully web based and no native, I will have to resort to sencha otherwise, if only UI is concerned, I can go for JQueryMobile

http://www.the4thdimension.net/2011/07/sencha-touch-vs-jquerymobile.html