Where Javascript Helps the User Experience.

     As is well known by a good deal of the regular readers of this blog, I have moved back into the world of being an independent Software Engineer, in an open ended contract with Pinchazo Publishing Group, Inc.  Their best known publications are Nylon (featured recently in the newest iPhone commercials from Apple), and the recently re-launched Inked, a tattoo-culture centric magazine, both of which are distributed globally.  

I bring up all of these specifics because it marks a decidedly big shift in my own coding career.  I have traditionally worked on back-end and middle-ware systems, making incompatible systems play nicely together, hardly have I ever had to deal with front ends and end user interactivity.  Sure, I did the web page for Thelesis, a non-profit group, including the framework and almost all graphics, and continue to maintain that site to this very day.  As a whole though, I never felt a desire to deal with the front end, I like the logic behind the interface point of view.  Well, now I'm in a situation where I'm needed to make tools with which end users will interact primarily.  Odd change eh?

It was at my previous employer, Blue Gravity Communications, a wonderful FreeBSD centric (with some Linux) hosting company that I found myself needing to really start to learn Javascript in order to convenience the end users in the selection processes.  It was here that I started to learn more about a language with which I never thought I would have a need.   I couple this to mention from a good friend about a post from a wonderful developer (my aforementioned friend's previous co-worker), regarding how wonderful javascript can be in one's toolbox.

With all of this in mind, I needed to jump into the world of user friendly interfaces.  I know from my own experiences perusing the web that I know what a non-intrusive interface is like, but it really isn't best to ask developers what a good interface is all about.  By nature, we are far simpler in our needs and all too willing to overlook certain practises that we don't see as a problem.  Keep in mind, many developers, myself included, still prefer command line interfaces because of how much quicker they generally are.  

I've already called upon javascript for certain pre-submit form checking, which is ultimately a convenience to the end user because it saves them having to reload the page, or worse off, play hit and miss with multiple loops of the process of submitting and seeing what was wrong with their form submission.  This is a very unfriendly approach in 2007 which is sadly still utilised by many large web based corporations.  

This time was different as I was coding the first version (what I would normally tag as a beta) of Inked magazine's online tattoo gallery.  The concept is simple, allow users (and store owners) to upload tattoo photos for general viewing on the website, and if a specific photo is from a tattoo shop/parlour in our tattoo shop database (covering 4 out of every 5 shops in the United States), make a link to that shop so that browsers of the gallery can associate certain quality work with a given producer of body art.  Very simple, great use for your standard LAMP (in this case BAMP [BSD, Apache, MySQL and Python]) configuration. 

However, end users could care less about the underlying technology, they care about ease of use.   It was with this mentality in mind that I approached the gallery's first incarnation.   Limit the amount of non-photo graphics (for speed), limit the amount of time a page actually needs to be refreshed and/or requested, and make the controls relevant and simple to understand.

This was (I believe successfully) achieved by use of a strong reliable template engine for the purpose of controlling what user control elements were presented for navigation on any given screen.  Ultimately, if a person is browsing paginated libraries of content, we only wish to have he navigation controls relevant to where said individual is in their browsing activities, visible.  Meaning that if a person is on the first page of a five page gallery, don't render the button that links to the first page, and don't render the button which links to the previous page (as it is non-existant).  Likewise, we don't want have buttons for the "next" page, or the "final page" when we're actually on it.  This may seem logical, which I'd like to think it is, yet so many seem to overlook these kinds of details.  These are details which can cause frustration from users who unintentionally click on a button which goes to the same page they are already browsing, or in the case of a "ghosted" button, make them wonder why it isn't working at all.  Only present that which is needed, and nothing else if at all possible.

More importantly, and even less obstructive, javascript for auto-zooming the photo gallery images themselves without having to pop-up a window, or even worse, replace the current viewing page with a simple image link or dedicated page with headers and footers in addition to the image.  These elements are time killers, and javascript is one wonderful way in which to resolve the problem.  Not only does this kind of visual add an interactive feel to the page(s), far more similar to the way a user would experience their own operating system (especially these days with candy like OSes), but it means they aren't hindered by unnecessary delays and can focus clearly on that for which they came to the page in the first place.  To view photos of tattoos that interest them, or share theirs with the world.

Building a Better Box for a Client

As was mentioned in a previous entry, I stated that I was willing to try being an independent contractor again sometime.  That time is now.  As such, my new corporate overlords are a media publishing group and I’ve been called in to do a ground up architecture and engineering job, along with continued long term maintenance.  Unlike before this situation appeals to me because it lacks on of the most common issues in the realm of development in general, legacy upkeep.  Sure, there is the little issue pertaining to a php application which needs to be put on a website short term, but after that we’ll be trying to limit php to specific applications on a limited (only as-needed) basis.

Ultimately we’re looking at starting with a fresh new remote server and that being said, my own experience brings me down to a quasi LAMP setup.  Traditionally I’ve found that when I want a rock solid remote host, one which I know can go years on end in a reliable manner,  I chose FreeBSD.  Nothing against Linux other than I find it fine for a Desktop or a Server, but more so the desktop than the server.  I find that there still is no substitue for Apache when it comes to matters related in pushing out pages to the web.  

Next is a point of contention, the database.  I’ve been using MySQL since version 3.23.24a (or something around that revision number), and have found that it met my needs about half of the time.  Much of it (at the time) revolved around the issues pertaining to MySQL’s myisam faults and weaknesses regarding concurrence in high insert/update environments.   I know some people out there (many actually) will start arguing this point right away, and I still say unto you that this is a known weakness.  The myisam database storage engine is designed for speed, not high-concurrecy, nor transaction safety.  When paird with the InnoDB engine, and the removal of the auto-commit flag (as it negates the whole point of using a transaction safe engine), most of those issues disappear.  The other issues pertain to foreign keys, store procedures, etc., which have been slowly addressed in versions since the 3.xx base.  Now we’re at the 5.xx family and much has improved.  

However, all of these points still cause MySQL to pale in comparison compared to PostgreSQL.  True, MySQL has proven to be very capable and very popular, especially among the Linux crowd and cheap hosting crowd.  I will be installing MySQL on the new machine to handle support of third party web applications, though when it comes to hosting any important data, there can be only one choice, and it isn’t MySQL.  PostgreSQL is the clear winner here, the closest db engine we have to Oracle without being Oracle.  

Finally, we approach the last letter in our acronym.  The ‘P’, which can stand for a multitude of langauges scripting, web and otherwise.  We have PHP which is wonderful for quick and simple (an a handful of not so quick and simple) web based applications.  It is an easy language for the novice to learn, and in the hands of an expert, even more so capable, though it has its faults, and among those security being the top.  Much effort has been made (especially post 4.2.3 and 5.x versions/trees, and I hope to see this evolution continue, though I still don’t see myself using it much as I don’t feel compelled by the language as a whole.  

Next we move to another ‘P’, which in actuality is a ‘p’, perl.  The oldest of the languages we’re discussing here, but not by that much of a time frame.  Perl grew out of the personal needs of a C programmer, Larry Wall as a combination replacement of both sed and awk (amongst other Unix utilities).  I’ve been paid to code in Perl for the better part of the past 11 or so years, and I can say after all of that time several things.  On the good side, perl is found everywhere, has a large code base, and is fast.   On the bad side, I’ll have to limit my dislikes and faults found within perl so that this entry doesn’t go on for thousands of words.  Limiting my issues with perl we will see that it allows, almost seduces people into writing ugly, cryptic code.  Yes, yes, yes, the code some perl monks/mongers write may be very crafty.  Crafty does not equate with great, let alone good quality.  

All too often we see people referring to the TIMTOWDI (There Is More Than One Way to Do It) mindset of perl as being a benefit, though I see it (time and time against, countless of codebases later, even the CPAN library) as being a flaw and weakness.  If you don’t enforce a certain level of clean design into the language itself, you end up with a mess, or as many others have stated, a write-only language, one which even the author(s) of programs cannot read/decipher down the line.  My suggestion is for perl coders to follow Java coding guidelines.  I mean, we’re talking about a language that doesn’t has several decent levels of rules and coding enforcement (such as the ‘use strict’ pragma), but is so foolish as to allow people to code in a manner contrary to that pragma when it already exists in the core language.  How about a proper exception handling system?  Eval blocks or non-core/second-class libraries do not make a proper first class handling system.  This is asinine in a language that has been around for over 20 years as of this writing.  I could go on, but I’d rather not.

This brings us to a non-p ‘P’ in LAMP, Ruby.  Ruby to me is an evolution of perl in many regards, especially its object based design and proper exception handling system, however it still fails miserably in the sense of massive overuse of tokens and pascal-esque verbatim block terminators.  Rails has made Ruby a mainstream language, and I do feel that it has considerable potential ever more so than Rails alone, but it still has a ways to go when it comes to speed and cleanliness.  Matz has be working hard on it, and I’d like to think there are great things ahead for the language from the land of the rising sun, but at the current moment, I still find it lacking as non-web specific development platform.

Finally we come to where I’m heading, and I’m sure others have already figured that one out.  Python rounds out the last ‘P’ in the equation.  Python is almost as old as Perl, and is rooted in development languages as opposed to the shell and various utilities.  In this language we see a very capable, 100% object-based development language which is capable of handling coding projects of any size which espouses clean design, human readability, code re-use, distributable byte-code compiled classes/applications and proper exception handling as a first class citizen.  

So as we can see where, the solution i find most reliable and long-term maintainable with minimal development time, maximum return for design/coding efforts, security and platform flexibility is simple.  So it isn’t technically a “LAMP” solutions, more as it is a BAMPP solution encompassing BSD for the OS, Apache for the web serving, MySQL and PostgreSQL for the database(s), and Python for application development.  

I came to the above choices after years of experimenting and experiencing and I do suggest others experiment on their own if they have that luxury/time frame available to them, but I do offer the above as a recommendation as I would (and have, and will) bet my own future livelihood on the flexibility and reliability of the aforementioned combination of technologies.