JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language with dynamic typing and first-class functions. This mix of features makes it a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles.

JavaScript is also used in environments that aren’t web-based, such as PDF documents, site-specific browsers, and desktop widgets. Newer and faster JavaScript virtual machines (VMs) and platforms built upon them have also increased the popularity of JavaScript for server-side web applications. On the client side, JavaScript has been traditionally implemented as an interpreted language, but more recent browsers perform just-in-time compilation.

The post Modern Web & JavaScript Frontend Framework Essentials appeared first on EckoThemes.

Responsive web design is becoming more important as the amount of mobile traffic now accounts for more than half of total internet traffic. This trend is so prevalent that Google has begun to boost the ratings of sites that are mobile friendly if the search was made from a mobile device. This has the net effect of penalizing sites that are not mobile friendly.

• The fluid grid concept calls for page element sizing to be in relative units like percentages, rather than absolute units like pixels or points.
• Flexible images are also sized in relative units, so as to prevent them from displaying outside their containing element.
• Media queries allow the page to use different CSS style rules based on characteristics of the device the site is being displayed on, most commonly the width of the browser.
• Server-side components (RESS) in conjunction with client-side ones such as media queries can produce faster-loading sites for access over cellular networks and also deliver richer functionality/usability avoiding some of the pitfalls of device-side-only solutions.

Related Concepts

Audience and Device Aware (ADA)

Audience and Device Aware is an approach aimed at ensuring that a site is optimised to deliver what a user wants and that works effectively on the device being used to access the site. Unlike Responsive web design (RWD), which crafts a site visually for a range of devices, ADA aims to reflect the many different elements that enhance and impact on the performance and usability of a site. The predominant application for the ADA approach is for mobile and smaller screen devices. The principle truly sees the adoption of a “mobile first” strategy and focuses on the performance of a site and value that it delivers to a user and the business.

Mobile First

“Mobile first”, unobtrusive JavaScript, and progressive enhancement (strategies for when a new site design is being considered) are related concepts that predated RWD: browsers of basic mobile phones do not understand JavaScript or media queries, so the recommended practice is to create a basic web site, and enhance it for smart phones and PCs—rather than try graceful degradation to make a complex, image-heavy site work on the most basic mobile phones.

The post Responsive & Mobile Design appeared first on EckoThemes.

Design patterns can be traced back to the early work of an architect named Christopher Alexander. He would often write publications about his experience in solving design issues and how they related to buildings and towns. One day, it occurred to Alexander that when used time and time again, certain design constructs lead to a desired optimal effect.

In collaboration with Sara Ishikawa and Murray Silverstein, Alexander produced a pattern language that would help empower anyone wishing to design and build at any scale. This was published back in 1977 in a paper titled “A Pattern Language”, which was later released as a complete hardcover book.

Some 30 years ago, software engineers began to incorporate the principles Alexander had written about into the first documentation about design patterns, which was to be a guide for novice developers looking to improve their coding skills. It’s important to note that the concepts behind design patterns have actually been around in the programming industry since its inception, albeit in a less formalized form.

One of the first and arguably most iconic formal works published on design patterns in software engineering was a book in 1995 called Design Patterns: Elements Of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. This was written by Erich Gamma, Richard Helm, Ralph Johnson and John Vlissides – a group that became known as the Gang of Four (or GoF for short).

The GoF’s publication is considered quite instrumental to pushing the concept of design patterns further in our field as it describes a number of development techniques and pitfalls as well as providing twenty-three core Object-Oriented design patterns frequently used around the world today. We will be covering these patterns in more detail in the section “Categories of Design Patterns”.

In this book, we will take a look at a number of popular JavaScript design patterns and explore why certain patterns may be more suitable for your projects than others. Remember that patterns can be applied not just to vanilla JavaScript (i.e standard JavaScript code), but also to abstracted libraries such as jQuery or dojo as well. Before we begin, let’s look at the exact definition of a “pattern” in software design.

What is a Pattern?

A pattern is a reusable solution that can be applied to commonly occurring problems in software design – in our case – in writing JavaScript web applications. Another way of looking at patterns are as templates for how we solve problems – ones which can be used in quite a few different situations.

• Patterns are proven solutions: They provide solid approaches to solving issues in software development using proven techniques that reflect the experience and insights the developers that helped define them bring to the pattern.
• Patterns can be easily reused: A pattern usually reflects an out of the box solution that can be adapted to suit our own needs. This feature makes them quite robust.
• Patterns can be expressive: When we look at a pattern there’s generally a set structure and vocabulary to the solution presented that can help express rather large solutions quite elegantly.

Design Pattern Categorization

In my early experiences of learning about design patterns, I personally found the following table a very useful reminder of what a number of patterns has to offer – it covers the 23 Design Patterns mentioned by the GoF. The original table was summarized by Elyse Nielsen back in 2004 and I’ve modified it where necessary to suit our discussion in this section of the book.

I recommend using this table as reference, but do remember that there are a number of additional patterns that are not mentioned here but will be discussed later in the book.

A brief note on classes

Keep in mind that there will be patterns in this table that reference the concept of “classes”. JavaScript is a class-less language, however classes can be simulated using functions.

The most common approach to achieving this is by defining a JavaScript function where we then create an object using the new keyword. this can be used to help define new properties and methods for the object as follows:

function Car( model ) {
    this.model = model;
    this.color = "silver";
    this.year  = "2012";
    this.getInfo = function() {
        return this.model + " " + this.year;
    };
}

Learning JavaScript Design Patterns is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 unported license. It is available for purchase via O’Reilly Media but will remain available for both free online and as a physical (or eBook) purchase for readers wishing to support the project.

The post JavaScript Design Patterns Introduction appeared first on EckoThemes.

var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello Worldn');
}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');

This is in contrast to today’s more common concurrency model where OS threads are employed. Thread-based networking is relatively inefficient and very difficult to use. Furthermore, users of Node are free from worries of dead-locking the process—there are no locks. Almost no function in Node directly performs I/O, so the process never blocks. Because nothing blocks, less-than-expert programmers are able to develop scalable systems.

Just because Node is designed without threads, doesn’t mean you cannot take advantage of multiple cores in your environment. You can spawn child processes that are easy to communicate with by using our child_process.fork() API. Built upon that same interface is the cluster module, which allows you to share sockets between processes to enable load balancing over your cores.

The post Getting Started with NodeJS: Simple HTTP Server appeared first on EckoThemes.

I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

Ken Venturi

A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of mountain ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically (regionally) related.

Rocky Mountains

On Earth, most significant mountain ranges are the result of plate tectonics, though mountain ranges are formed by a range of processes, are found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets.

The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, that is, many mountain ranges have sub-ranges within them. It can be thought of as a parent-child relationship.For example, the Appalachian Mountains range is the parent of other ranges it comprises, some of which are the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The White Mountains are a child of the Appalachians, and there are also children of the Whites, including the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range. Further, the Presidential Range can be broken up into the Northern Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range.

Geology

The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States of American. Economic resources of the Rocky Mountains are varied.

Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada which all lie further to the west. They were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate.

Ecology and Climate

The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys. At the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range.

The Rockies range in latitude between the Liard River in British Columbia (at 59° N) and the Rio Grande in New Mexico (at 35° N). Prairie occurs at or below 1,800 feet (550 m), while the highest peak in the range is Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet (4,400 m). Precipitation ranges from 10 inches (250 mm) per year in the southern valleys to 60 inches (1,500 mm) per year locally in the northern peaks Average January temperatures can range from 20 °F (−7 °C) in Prince George, British Columbia, to 43 °F (6 °C) in Trinidad, Colorado.

History

The USGS defines ten forested zones in the Rocky Mountains. Zones in more southern, warmer, or drier areas are defined by the presence of pinyon pines/junipers, ponderosa pines, or oaks mixed with pines. In more northern, colder, or wetter areas, zones are defined by Douglas-firs, Cascadian species (such as western hemlock), lodgepole pines/quaking aspens, or firs mixed with spruce.

var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello Worldn');
}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');

Near treeline, zones can consist of white pines (such as whitebark pine or bristlecone pine); or a mixture of white pine, fir, and spruce that appear as shrub-like krummholz. Finally, rivers and canyons can create a unique forest zone in more arid parts of the mountain range.

don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

Ken Venturi

Quisque fringilla justo tristique mi fermentum accumsan. Integer feugiat, sem sit amet sodales cursus, enim lectus tempus tellus, nec facilisis tortor enim vel nunc. Donec facilisis arcu ac suscipit sagittis. Aliquam sollicitudin tortor et viverra commodo. Donec venenatis dignissim lacus quis dictum. Aliquam iaculis quam nec tortor volutpat, nec tempus diam efficitur. Phasellus vel orci placerat, ultricies nunc eu, tempus felis. Ut sit amet convallis velit. Mauris placerat neque at velit vehicula, iaculis semper purus blandit. Vestibulum vel tempus felis. Integer posuere orci vel commodo dictum. Vestibulum sit amet neque vitae dui tempor placerat non et nunc. Duis efficitur est a venenatis facilisis. Vestibulum in leo sem.

Header Three

Duis lectus nulla, tristique in diam vel, posuere luctus elit. Duis convallis turpis venenatis enim eleifend, at ultrices dui luctus. Suspendisse sapien augue, pretium aliquet est eget, vehicula cursus nisl. Praesent eu sodales dolor, vitae dapibus turpis. Fusce in egestas justo.

Aliquam sollicitudin sed nisl non gravida. Vivamus placerat quis nisl vel sodales. Integer vitae tortor tristique, sodales orci sed, viverra nibh. Suspendisse vel dapibus dui. Quisque tempor metus sit amet lorem sollicitudin, vitae pellentesque massa iaculis. Mauris eu bibendum turpis, eu efficitur eros. Curabitur ante diam, volutpat pellentesque facilisis dapibus, blandit nec purus. In euismod fermentum semper. Aliquam ac ex sem. Pellentesque sit amet volutpat augue.

Sed commodo rutrum risus, et tincidunt orci condimentum id. Mauris turpis magna, bibendum a molestie eu, interdum a neque. Cras ac accumsan odio, euismod blandit metus. Donec et feugiat lorem. Aenean sed sem at magna laoreet gravida fermentum egestas orci. Aliquam nec semper quam, id porta erat.

Integer sit amet lobortis magna, id ultrices lectus. Mauris eget sem elit. Aliquam ac luctus nunc, vitae auctor sem. Integer ut luctus elit. Donec ligula turpis, mattis facilisis felis non, mollis fermentum justo. Maecenas consequat vulputate elit. Vestibulum ullamcorper luctus quam at cursus. Morbi a magna placerat est elementum dictum sed vel nulla.

The post Intro to User Experience & Interface Design appeared first on EckoThemes.

I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

Ken Venturi

A mountain range is a geographic area containing numerous geologically related mountains. A mountain system or system of mountain ranges, sometimes is used to combine several geological features that are geographically (regionally) related.

Rocky Mountains

On Earth, most significant mountain ranges are the result of plate tectonics, though mountain ranges are formed by a range of processes, are found on many planetary mass objects in the Solar System and are likely a feature of most terrestrial planets.

The mountain systems of the earth are characterized by a tree structure, that is, many mountain ranges have sub-ranges within them. It can be thought of as a parent-child relationship.For example, the Appalachian Mountains range is the parent of other ranges it comprises, some of which are the White Mountains and the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The White Mountains are a child of the Appalachians, and there are also children of the Whites, including the Sandwich Range and the Presidential Range. Further, the Presidential Range can be broken up into the Northern Presidential Range and Southern Presidential Range.

Geology

The Rocky Mountains, commonly known as the Rockies, are a major mountain range in western North America. The Rocky Mountains stretch more than 3,000 miles (4,800 km) from the northernmost part of British Columbia, in western Canada, to New Mexico, in the southwestern United States of American. Economic resources of the Rocky Mountains are varied.

Within the North American Cordillera, the Rockies are somewhat distinct from the Pacific Coast Ranges and the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada which all lie further to the west. They were initially formed from 80 million to 55 million years ago during the Laramide orogeny, in which a number of plates began to slide underneath the North American plate.

Ecology and Climate

The angle of subduction was shallow, resulting in a broad belt of mountains running down western North America. Since then, further tectonic activity and erosion by glaciers have sculpted the Rockies into dramatic peaks and valleys. At the end of the last ice age, humans started to inhabit the mountain range.

The Rockies range in latitude between the Liard River in British Columbia (at 59° N) and the Rio Grande in New Mexico (at 35° N). Prairie occurs at or below 1,800 feet (550 m), while the highest peak in the range is Mount Elbert at 14,440 feet (4,400 m). Precipitation ranges from 10 inches (250 mm) per year in the southern valleys to 60 inches (1,500 mm) per year locally in the northern peaks Average January temperatures can range from 20 °F (−7 °C) in Prince George, British Columbia, to 43 °F (6 °C) in Trinidad, Colorado.

History

The USGS defines ten forested zones in the Rocky Mountains. Zones in more southern, warmer, or drier areas are defined by the presence of pinyon pines/junipers, ponderosa pines, or oaks mixed with pines. In more northern, colder, or wetter areas, zones are defined by Douglas-firs, Cascadian species (such as western hemlock), lodgepole pines/quaking aspens, or firs mixed with spruce.

var http = require('http');
http.createServer(function (req, res) {
    res.writeHead(200, {'Content-Type': 'text/plain'});
    res.end('Hello Worldn');
}).listen(1337, '127.0.0.1');
console.log('Server running at http://127.0.0.1:1337/');

Near treeline, zones can consist of white pines (such as whitebark pine or bristlecone pine); or a mixture of white pine, fir, and spruce that appear as shrub-like krummholz. Finally, rivers and canyons can create a unique forest zone in more arid parts of the mountain range.

I don’t believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.

Ken Venturi

Quisque fringilla justo tristique mi fermentum accumsan. Integer feugiat, sem sit amet sodales cursus, enim lectus tempus tellus, nec facilisis tortor enim vel nunc. Donec facilisis arcu ac suscipit sagittis. Aliquam sollicitudin tortor et viverra commodo. Donec venenatis dignissim lacus quis dictum. Aliquam iaculis quam nec tortor volutpat, nec tempus diam efficitur. Phasellus vel orci placerat, ultricies nunc eu, tempus felis. Ut sit amet convallis velit. Mauris placerat neque at velit vehicula, iaculis semper purus blandit. Vestibulum vel tempus felis. Integer posuere orci vel commodo dictum. Vestibulum sit amet neque vitae dui tempor placerat non et nunc. Duis efficitur est a venenatis facilisis. Vestibulum in leo sem.

Header Three

Duis lectus nulla, tristique in diam vel, posuere luctus elit. Duis convallis turpis venenatis enim eleifend, at ultrices dui luctus. Suspendisse sapien augue, pretium aliquet est eget, vehicula cursus nisl. Praesent eu sodales dolor, vitae dapibus turpis. Fusce in egestas justo.

Aliquam sollicitudin sed nisl non gravida. Vivamus placerat quis nisl vel sodales. Integer vitae tortor tristique, sodales orci sed, viverra nibh. Suspendisse vel dapibus dui. Quisque tempor metus sit amet lorem sollicitudin, vitae pellentesque massa iaculis. Mauris eu bibendum turpis, eu efficitur eros. Curabitur ante diam, volutpat pellentesque facilisis dapibus, blandit nec purus. In euismod fermentum semper. Aliquam ac ex sem. Pellentesque sit amet volutpat augue.

Sed commodo rutrum risus, et tincidunt orci condimentum id. Mauris turpis magna, bibendum a molestie eu, interdum a neque. Cras ac accumsan odio, euismod blandit metus. Donec et feugiat lorem. Aenean sed sem at magna laoreet gravida fermentum egestas orci. Aliquam nec semper quam, id porta erat.

Integer sit amet lobortis magna, id ultrices lectus. Mauris eget sem elit. Aliquam ac luctus nunc, vitae auctor sem. Integer ut luctus elit. Donec ligula turpis, mattis facilisis felis non, mollis fermentum justo. Maecenas consequat vulputate elit. Vestibulum ullamcorper luctus quam at cursus. Morbi a magna placerat est elementum dictum sed vel nulla.

The post Effective Use of Whitespace in Minimal UI Design appeared first on EckoThemes.

Color Schemes

// This is an example of the 'Light' color scheme

function wp_get_time(){
    if(get_theme_mod('layout_use_custom_date_format', false)){
        the_date();
    }else{
        the_time('jS F Y ');
    }
}

// This is an example of the 'Dark' color scheme.

function wp_get_time(){
    if(get_theme_mod('layout_use_custom_date_format', false)){
        the_date();
    }else{
        the_time('jS F Y ');
    }
}

// This is an example of the 'High Contrast' color scheme.

function wp_get_time(){
    if(get_theme_mod('layout_use_custom_date_format', false)){
        the_date();
    }else{
        the_time('jS F Y ');
    }
}

Line Numbers

If you wish to display line numbers along with a Code block this an be enabled via the included options. Below is an example Code block using line numbers with the Dark color scheme.

const http = require('http');

const hostname = '127.0.0.1';
const port = 3000;

const server = http.createServer((req, res) => {
  res.statusCode = 200;
  res.setHeader('Content-Type', 'text/plain');
  res.end('Hello World\n');
});

server.listen(port, hostname, () => {
  console.log(`Server running at http://${hostname}:${port}/`);
});

Supported Languages

Below is a preview of some of the above languages being highlighted.

HTML / CSS

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
    <body>
        <h1>My First Heading</h1>
        <p>My first paragraph.</p>
    </body>
</html>

.wrapper{
    max-width: 1400px;
    width: 100%;
    @media (max-width: 1470px) {
        padding: 0 2.5%;
    }
}

Python

def openFile(path):
    file = open(path, "r")
    content = file.read()
    file.close()
    return content

Ruby

def self.consume_front(str, size)
    str[0..size] = ''
    str.lstrip!
end

Bash

ls -la /home

PHP

function ivy_get_time(){
    if(get_theme_mod('layout_use_custom_date_format', false)){
        the_date();
    }else{
        the_time('jS F Y ');
    }
}

The post Syntax Highlighter appeared first on EckoThemes.