Another thing I've been wrong about in the past? JavaScript. I've always held that it was a cheap, lame, ugly knockoff language little better than a spreadsheet macro tool. I'm happy to say that my recent revisiting of JavaScript in the last 2 years has proved me wrong. JS is crazy, bizarre, and convoluted, true, but it's got a fundamental simplicity that I find appealing. The prototype-based inheritance is wacky, too. Anyways, I was interested to see that the ECMAScript 4 working group has published some specs for the next version of the language. It looks pretty cool.
I'm particularly interested in the increasingly functional nature of the language; iterators, generators, let statements, etc. I don't plan to write Javascript instead of Scheme for fun anytime soon, but it makes working with the language when I have to suck less.
Link courtesy of the excellent Lambda the Ultimate, by the way.
tags: javascript ecmascript ecmascript 4 lambda the ultimate
California
We're heading out to California on Friday for Where 2.0, which should be a pretty fun time. It seems like "where" is a big part of what's going on on the Web right now; funny how place is re-entering our definition of the not-place.
It should be fun to go out, but we have a lot to do before we leave, and of course I've left it until the last minute. We really need a smaller computer, and I think the Toshiba Libretto U100 looks totally boss. I ordered one last week, but we had some problems with the order and now it looks like they won't get one to us before we leave. Dang!
It'll be good to go see family; Amita June hasn't seen her cousins for 6 months, and they're all a lot bigger and more interesting than they used to be. She's going to get to spend good time with her Marmie, too. We're going to be there almost a week, but it seems far too short, especially since we'll be wasting time doing geocoding gargargar.
We're in Southern California for a week afterwards, and then back home to Montreal. (Hard to believe, but it just feels that way... Montreal is home now.)
tags: california where2.0 libretto amitajune
Yulblog July 7
The next YULblog meetup is going to be tomorrow at the new Quincaillerie bar just down the street from my house. The place just opened a few weeks ago; it used to be a dance spot that didn't get a lot of business, so I'm glad someone's using the space well. Walking by it looks like the new place (name means hardware store) is getting some good business. They're apparently well-known for their big tables (which I love). The only thing I don't know is if they have Île Sans Fil like Laïka does. That's what makes L. the ne plus ultra of slacker hangouts for unemployed afternoons. Downbeats, booze, and free wifi -- what better way to spend a day?
How I can I miss this event when it's right down the street? YULblog has been moving closer and closer to me as I've lived here in Montreal. It used to be at Copacabana on St. Laurent, then moved up to Laïka, and now an episode right down the street. I guess I could wait till it's held at L'Intrus 1-1/2 blocks away, but that seems like an unlikely outcome.
In any event, I'm heading to Q. tomorrow. Should be a good time.
tags: montreal yulblog blogs laika quincaillerie l'intrus
HTML 5
Yeah, it sounds like RSS 3.0, but apparently some people are working on a new version of HTML -- a diverted evolutionary branch from the XHTML family of fine markup languages.
I find the new HTML "5" (called Web Applications 1.0) to be really interesting -- a focus on application-oriented rather than document-oriented Web hypertext languages. The approach is pretty interesting, and I think the participation of browser developer representatives in the Web Hypertext Application Technology working group (WHAT-WG) suggest that this isn't just bat-craziness. I guess we'll see where this goes.
tags: html html5 what web applications 1.0 whatwg