notebook

I often write about the work I create, and sometimes write about the tools I use to create it, but I have never told you how I integrate my Mac with our Windows office (small O). What is the right way™?To do this, I use Parallels, which is a fantastic tool, and have recently been using it in Coherence mode. In this magical mode I can have Internet Explorer running next to Safari with no problems at all. I can have Access open importing a spreadsheet I’ve created in Excel for the Mac. All with no problems.The best advice I can give you is buy Parallels, turn on Coherence mode, and drag your favourite applications (different Internet Explorers for testing, etc.) into the dock. It’s fantastic, and so quick. 

There are no CSS hacks that can get equal-sized columns, so I wrote this tiny bit of Javascript to do the work for you. Simply add a class of “column” to any <div>s and their heights will match when the page loads.

function matchColumns()
{
	var columns = $A($$('div.column'));
	var column_height = 0;
	var max_height = 0;
	columns.each(function(column)
	{
		column_height = column.getHeight();
		max_height = ( column_height > max_height ) ? column_height : max_height;
	});
 
	columns.each(function(column)
	{
		column.setStyle({
			height: (max_height + 10) + 'px'
		});
	});
}
 
Event.observe(window, 'load', matchColumns);

As always, this script requires prototype, and will work better if you have a DOMReady function instead of window.load.

It’s amazing!

The MacBook Pro that Vuture bought me is incredible. The whole machine flies (not literally, obviously) and running Windows in real-time alongside OS X is such a boon.

If you have the money, I would definitely recommend that you buy one of these beasts.

Earlier I wrote about prototype and script.aculo.us. I’ve been using it even more at work, and really, really like it.

Who wants to write

document.getElementById("searchbox");

when you can write

$('searchbox');

And Ajax; how could it be easier to make an Ajax request than

new Ajax.Request()

Exactly, it couldn’t.

The prototype javascript library is one of the most brilliant, time-saving tools a web developer can use. It’s so easy to use this in conjunction with script.aculo.us to create some user-friendly “drag-and-drog reordering elements with auto-save” to a page.

I’ve used it in a giant database-driven application we’re developing, and it has helped to trim hours of work down to mere minutes.

UPDATE: My new favourite thing!

For years now I’ve had chopter.com, the domain with nothing to do. We have collectively decided at work to try Ruby on Rails for a bit, so I have enabled RoR on chopter to see what it can do.
I’m thinking a To Do list of some description.

Also, Locomotive for OS X looks like it could be good for dev*.

UPDATE: Locomotive is very good for OS X, but I am having some problems with RoR on chopter. I should probably start again.