FuzzyBit - blurring the blogs of the web The first week as a stay at home working dad is done. The weekend went by faster than an episode of Modern Dads and it’s Monday morning already. [Pause while I try to get the little one back to sleep – it’s too early for her to get up.] Saturday was hot and muggy doing yardwork while Sunday was spent at the Apple and Corn Festival in Morden.
I did manage to get a feature implemented I wanted to this weekend. I tend to stay away from code libraries but they can be very useful. In my case during the CMS development I pulled back from keeping up with web trends or using code libraries to focus on more fundamental programming. Fundamental programming helps build critical mental acuity and expertise but does require more up-front mental investment. Libraries help get the job done in exchange for dependence which is a form of job security for the library developers. A codebase that uses libraries can be picked up by another programmer relatively easily if the libraries are sufficiently popular. Managing libraries can require on-going management but it can beat custom code which will have entrenched programmers. So, development is a balance between resources: human capital and means of production – all the while trying to achieve innovative breakthroughs and ROI.
What I wanted to achieve this weekend was a way for the FuzzyBit layouts to “unfold”. The layout engine outputs the HTML, CSS and Javascript associated with the layout so it was just a trivial task to augment the layout using the popular jQuery library.
This was a long-winded way to say that I did some cool coding this weekend. Next step is to roll out this new feature to you.