In the last few weeks NetFlix has quietly added the ability to drag & drop the ordering of your movie queue. I inadvertently stumbled on the functionality while working on my queue. In our office of techies only 1 other person knew the functionality existed. There are likely many others out there that are unaware that NetFlix has this useful functionality.

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There are a few programs which I run across and say, damn… nice software. Wufoo is one of those instances. Wufoo is a bit of an odd name but then again so is ours. Essentially Wufoo allows people to quickly create web-forms which validate text, track statistics and and customize the look and feel of the form. (more…)

This last week I had the opportunity to experiment with and compare two JavaScript libraries/frameworks, jQuery and Prototype. I’m familiar with Prototype (and the Prototype/ Scriptacolous combo) – I used it for projects in the past – but jQuery was new to me. I was looking for a library/framework to add some spice to my personal website, ryanpeterson.net.

Both offer great features and are simply outstanding. I enjoy how Prototype feels more like an extension of JavaScript. Any developer with JavaScript experience would probably – at least initially – have an easier time learning the Prototype/Scriptacolous combo than jQuery.

But I get the impression when playing with jQuery that it may be a bit more revolutionary, mature, and powerful. jQuery is inspired by Prototype – its author, John Resig, gives credit for this inspiration at jQuery.com – and has the advantage of building upon the ideas of Prototype. jQuery also has outstanding documentation.

But Prototype (and the Prototype/Scriptacolous combo) is older – and having been baked into Ruby-On-Rails – has received considerable attention. This has given it a large community.

For ryanpeterson.net I decided to use Prototype/Scriptacolous, for now at least. Its effects libraries had one key feature I needed, so I decided to go with it. I’ll be keeping a close eye on jQuery, however. I’m super excited about its potential and may switch to it at any time…

In this crazy, Web 2.0 world of ours, we developers better understand the finer features of JavaScript as we develop buzz-word packed, interactive web applications.

To help, I’ve recently discovered a great intermediate tutorial that clearly explains some Object-Oriented JavaScript features such as JSON, functions, arguments, and classes. Written by Sergio Pereira, it can be found here.