YOW! Melbourne 2011 and that Crankshaft Presentation

Greetings from Melbourne! This week, I attended YOW! 2011, a conference for Australian developers featuring talks on web development, infrastructure and coding practices.

Opening remarks at YOW! 2011 in Melbourne

According to the YOW! conference organizers, approximately 500 people registered for this event. This wasn’t a surprise to me; Melbourne has a fantastic developer community and has always supported events such as these. Mitch Denny and I were witness to this when we co-founded the Melbourne .NET User Group back-in-the-day.

On day 1, I attended a number of excellent presentations. However, there was one presentation in-particular that was simply awesome. It was a presentation by Kasper Lund from Google talking about Crankshaft, the compilation infrastructure of V8 (Chrome’s JavaScript engine). FWIW, Kasper’s also a member of the Dart team.

Kasper Lund (Google) at YOW! 2011 in Melbourne

In his presentation, Kasper went into great detail about how Crankshaft optimizes JavaScript. It’s amazing to hear some of the things that Crankshaft does to tease out every possible drop of performance possible from JavaScript. Much of it involves runtime inspection of the code as it’s running and optimizing when it’s appropriate to do so. The big take-away for me was realizing that JIT compilers have a tough job; they have to walk a fine line between making JavaScript run super-fast without bogging down the environment.

After Kasper’s presentation, it felt like my brain had been through the spin cycle of a washing machine. This is a good thing. Many presentations today are way too shallow. I always prefer to “go deep” on something, struggle along the way, and then reformulate afterward.

Anyway, I found a video up on Vimeo of a talk Kasper gave about the V8 engine:

It’s worth a look in order to gain a better understanding how Google Chrome optimizes JavaScript.

Web Developers: Employed versus Unemployed

I can relate, having lived this in a previous life:

Picture found on Facebook.

IE9+WP7 Developer Boot Camp in Edmonton!

Creative Commons photo by Darren Kirby

Internet Explorer 9 and Windows Phone 7 are two Microsoft technologies that have taken a lot of people by surprise. People expected them to be mere incremental releases rather than what they were: complete re-thinks of their predecessors. IE9 brought serious web standards compliance and hardware acceleration to Internet Explorer, and WP7 was a complete from-the-ground-up reworking of the way we did phones. For many people, IE9 and WP7 are terra incognita – unknown territory – and we’d like to help you navigate it.

Join me and members of the Edmonton developer community on Tuesday, May 17th at the Art Gallery of Alberta - Ledcor Theatre (2 Sir Winston Churchill Sq.) for four awesome sessions on these two awesome technologies. Here’s the breakdown of the event and what we intend to cover:

A Lap Around Internet Explorer 9 and HTML5
A look at IE9’s support for the troika that collectively goes by the name “HTML5”: HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript. You’ll see how standards compliance and the resulting “same markup” will make life good for both developers and users and how that same markup runs faster on IE9 thanks to the newer, faster JavaScript engine and hardware acceleration.

Enhancing Pinned Sites with Internet Explorer 9
IE9’s “pinned sites” feature makes web apps feel more like desktop apps by letting users add website to the taskbar and start menu and let developers add custom context menus to pinned site icons, provide visual notifications on the task bar with icon overlays and even add custom buttons on the default thumbnail preview. This session will show you how to best use this feature and also cover IE9’s developer tools.

Windows Phone 7 Silverlight Recipes
You’ve read the introductory material and written “Hello World” on the Phone, and you’re now thinking of starting a bigger project. You’re now asking this question: “How do I do X on Windows Phone?”. This session is the answer. You’ll learn all the recipes for building blocks of applications, which you can use, modify and combine in your own Windows Phone 7 apps.

Windows Phone 7 XNA Kickstart
Haven’t you always wanted to write a videogame, but could never get started? This is your chance. This session will show you the basics of XNA, the game development framework for Windows Phone (and the Xbox 360 and Windows too!). You’ll get your feet wet writing 2D videogames, learn some game coding techniques and get you need to start you on your journey as a game developer.

Here’s where and when they’re taking place. Remember, they’re free – you just have to register!

REGISTER TODAY!

Dev Unplugged: HTML5 Contest for Web Developers

For a past few days, there’s been a mysterious hashtag that’s been floating around on Twitter; #devunplugged. There were a lot tweets from the @IE Twitter account cited this hashtag but folks couldn’t find out why. Well, earlier today, Carter Rabasa and the contest organizers took the wraps off a very cool contest for web developers. That’s right! It’s a contest for web developers to build HTML5 apps! From the site’s description:

We believe that HTML5 and related technologies, in conjunction with faster and faster browsers, finally give developers the tools they need to create experiences that are just as vivid, interactive and high-fidelity as what you have come to expect from native applications without the need for plug-ins. We want to see what you can do unplugged. Push HTML5 to its limits and compete for over $40,000 in prizes. The Grand Prize winner will receive $9,000 in cash and a fully-loaded trip with a Golden Ticket to the Future of Web Apps Conference in Las Vegas on June 27th.

If you ever needed an excuse to crank out an HTML5 application that showcases some your web developer awesome-ness, this is it!

The Prizes

The contest organizers have landed on a really impressive set of 9 featured prizes and 9 honourable mentions. The prizes include:

• $40,000 in total prizes including $9,000 for the Grand Prize.
• Front page exposure on theFWA.com and beautyoftheweb.com
• Cool hardware: laptops and slates from Alienware, HP and ASUS
• An all-expense paid trip to the Future of Web Apps Las Vegas with “golden ticket” VIP access
• …and more!

At this point, you might be asking yourself, “OK, so how do I participate?” That’s simple. For the Dev Unplugged contest, there are two categories: Games and Music.

Category: Games

Everyone loves games. Online, we’re witnessing an explosion of fun and creative HTML5-based games. Don’t believe me? Go check out Make Awesome Web, which (among other things) has a few of examples worth checking out. Much of the momentum behind HTML5-based gaming can be attributed to the amazing JavaScript frameworks/libraries – like EaselJS – that are available to make the process of building these games much simpler.

Here’s the description on this category from the contest organizers:

Ready to unleash the next great tower defense game? Has your passion for side-scrolling platform games subsided not one bit since the days of Ninja Gaiden? We’re not looking for the most complicated game, but we are definitely looking for games that are fun and addictive.

And if that wasn’t enough to get you excited, here’s a news flash: Mike Mignola, the creator of Hellboy, has opened-up up a treasure trove of content for developers to use to create their HTML5 game! Smashing bad guys is way more fun when it’s with the Right Hand of Doom, right?

Simple enough. Got an idea for a fun HTML5-based game? Build one and submit it. In other words, GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS (with HTML5!).

Category: Music

When I’m not playing games, I’ve often listening to music. And while – in certain instances – there’s no accounting for taste, I think we can all agree that music provides the rhythm for everyone’s lives.

Ok, so maybe you’re more of a music lover. Do you sometimes stare hypnotized for 30 minutes at the music visualizations in your music player? Have an idea for creating an unbelievable HTML5 website for your band? Have you invented a new instrument that’s perfect for the web? Now’s your chance to show everyone what it means to experience music on the web.

And we’ve teamed-up with AWOLNATION and Ra Ra Riot to provide you with their most popular cuts to get started!

Inspiring stuff, indeed! Time to crank up the creative juices and share your passion for musical artists!

Also, don’t forget to check out the rules for the Dev Unplugged contest. There’s a PDF-based copy of the official rules for Dev Unplugged contest is here. That stated, for submissions, the organizers provided some high-level rules in a manner that web developers will appreciate:

1. No Plugins: The submission must stick to HTML/CSS/JS on the client-side (no restrictions on the server-side)
2. Same Markup: The submission has to work across IE9 RC, Chrome Beta and Firefox Beta.
3. Making the Web Native: The submission must be amazing! We will be keeping an eye out for submissions that push the envelope and blur the line between a web app and a native app.

HTML5 Resources

The good news is that there is a ton of resources and/or sites to help inspire or guide you through the process of building an HTML5 application for the Dev Unplugged contest. That stated, I’ve decided to include a few here to help get you started.

First things first, when it comes to Internet Explorer 9, you really should check out the Internet Explorer 9 Guide for Developers. It’s a fantastic resource to review what’s new for web developers.

For examples that leverage HTML5, make sure to check out Make Awesome Web. It’s… well, awesome! Also, there’s some foundational stuff like the HTML5 Boilerplate and, to take it a step further, Initializr. From the site: “Initializr will generate for you a clean customizable template based on Boilerplate with just what you need to start.”

HTML5 Resources: Games

For most HTML5 games, you’ll typically leverage the HTML5 canvas element, HTML5 audio, and any number of JavaScript libraries. Here are a few worth checking out:

• Canvas Demos - Applications, games, tools and tutorials for the HTML5 canvas element
• EaselJS - JavaScript library for working with the HTML5 canvas element
• gury - HTML5 canvas utility library
• Raphaël - JavaScript library that helps you work with vector graphics
• Rocket Engine - HTML5 and JavaScript game engine
• Impact - HTML5 canvas and JavaScript game engine
• Crafty - JavaScript game engine
• LimeJS - HTML5 game framework
• jsGameSoup – JavaScript game library (with HTML5)
• gameQuery – JavaScript game engine with jQuery
• … and many more!

I would also strongly recommend that you listen to Grant Skinner’s interview on .NET Rocks! for some background on building games with HTML5. During this interview, Grant also provides some details in things to consider and watch out for when building HTML5 games.

HTML5 Resources: Music

Video and audio to the max, eh? And, a little use of the HTML5 canvas tag may not hurt too. Oh, and CSS. For visually-appealing HTML5 applications that highlight musical artists, there’s a lot to consider. Here are a few sites and resources worth checking out:

• Font Squirrel - for all your font-y goodness
• Modernizr - JavaScript library that facilitates feature detection and simplifies (in some respects) your mark-up and styles
• jPlayer - HTML5 audio & video for jQuery
• SublimeVideo - HTML5 video player
• MediaElement.js - HTML5 video player and audio player with Flash and Silverlight shims
• audiolib.js - Audio tools library for JavaScript
• … and many more!

Looking for books? If you’re just getting started, I’d highly recommend Introducing HTML5 by Bruce Lawson and Remy Sharp. It’s excellent. Otherwise, check out titles like HTML5 for Web Designers, CSS3 for Web Designers, and many others.

IMPORTANT! You will have until May 8, 2011, 11:59 PM Eastern to submit your entry for the Dev Unplugged contest. Here are some of the key dates:

• Submit your App idea: March 1 to May 8
• View entries in the Gallery: April 5 to May
• Top 40 Finalist Gallery update: May 12-22
• View the winners: on or around May 23

You can learn more about Dev Unplugged at www.beautyoftheweb.com/dev/unplugged. Also, don’t forget to follow the fine folks from the IE team on Twitter (@IE) and the #devunplugged hashtag for the latest information and updates about the contest.

A (Quick) Web Developer's View of Oxite

With weather conditions being what they are here in Calgary, I decided to spend some time playing around with Oxite, a blog engine written using ASP.NET MVC.

Oxite is well suited for Web developers wanting understand out how to leverage some of the capabilities of ASP.NET MVC. However, it needs work. That stated, here’s a quick view of what I like (and what I dislike) about Oxite:

What I Like About Oxite

• Reference implementation supports XHTML and CSS
• Built on ASP.NET MVC
• Incorporates jQuery and ASP.NET AJAX (yet to be used extensively)
• Background service infrastructure (i.e. trackbacks)
• Pluggable architecture
• Clean database schema

What I Dislike About Oxite

• Many missing features - particularly in the UI
• Very low code coverage (i.e. 13% in Oxite framework)
• Code analysis reveals many rule violations
• No service endpoints to build upon
• No documentation in source code
• Utilizes LINQ to SQL
• Update: The reference implementation is messy and needs to be cleaned up.

It should be noted that this is the initial release of Oxite and one should assume that the code will tighten up a great deal over the coming months.

It’s way too early to tell whether or not Oxite will become as popular as other .NET blogging engines like dasBlog. Time will tell. Nevertheless, I wouldn’t take your eye off this project. It’s already being used by our MIX site and I anticipate it won’t be very long until you see it incorporated elsewhere.