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Archive for the 'gotchas' Category
12Sep08 Class is Class, and Instance, Instance, and never the twain shall meet
eating crow gotchas programming ruby Uncategorized
2 Comments

More about methods, it’s inspired/spurred by a comment on methods, public_methods, and private_methods by Pit Captain. It also corrects some misconceptions I had (and may have (wrongly) given others).

I’ve added a new category, “eating crow” for this and any other postings where I step back and re-evaluate my posts. This is to keep me honest, and, if y’all would, please feel free to tell me when it’s time to “eat crow”.
Continue reading ‘Class is Class, and Instance, Instance, and never the twain shall meet’

05Sep08 A “grue”some look at Statemachine and Treetop
games gotchas ruby
4 Comments

In this blog entry, dear reader, we examine the statemachine and treetop gems via an old standby, a Zork imitation.  And, despite the title, you won’t find a grue.

$ ruby adventure.rb
This is the beginning. Like all tales, there's a beginning, a middle and an
end....

Paths lead n.

What do you want to do?
n

This is a path in the forest, it looks fairly well travelled.  You see a
clearing to the east

Paths lead w, n, e, s.

What do you want to do?
e

This is a clearing.  You can actually see the sky here.  Compared to the deep
dark forest, it seems a relief. A path can be seen to the west.

Paths lead w, n, e, s.

You see the following: letter.

What do you want to do?
get letter

Ok, you pick up the letter.

What do you want to do?
w

This is a path in the forest, it looks fairly well travelled.  You see a
clearing to the east

Paths lead w, n, e, s.

What do you want to do?
w

You're lost in the depths of the forest.  You're not sure where you are, nor how
to get out of there.

Paths lead w, n, e, s.

What do you want to do?
quit

Continue reading ‘A “grue”some look at Statemachine and Treetop’

29Aug08 CSS tooltips using CSS Sprites
css gotchas Uncategorized web design
2 Comments
Thought Bubbles!

Thought Bubbles!

For a project I’m currently working on I wanted to make some “bubble” tooltips.  In order to cut down on the size/number of images, I’m using css sprites.  A quick google reveals that nobody else has (at least on the first page) put together tooltips using sprites.  The technique will work with any sort of image, so you needn’t use the “bubbles”.  So, here’s how I did it, with the caveats/gotchas. Continue reading ‘CSS tooltips using CSS Sprites’

28Aug08 CSS “width” gotcha
css gotchas web web design
0 Comments

I found out something interesting today.  Per the W3C, the total “width” that a block element uses is:

If ‘left’ or ‘right’ are given as ‘auto’, their computed value is 0. The following constraints must hold between the other properties:

‘margin-left’ + ‘border-left-width’ + ‘padding-left’ + ‘width’ + ‘padding-right’ + ‘border-right-width’ + ‘margin-right’ = width of containing block

This made life interesting while working on a css sprite (more on that next).  I kept wondering why it bled into the next sprite….

I had thought it was the total width of the element.  Foolish me.  Now I know and……

26Aug08 Why my code is broken….. (break my code redux)
gotchas programming ruby
0 Comments

Yesterday, I posted an article entitled Break my code, please, wherein I posted a very fragile piece of code, with the challenge to find ways in which to break it.

What follows is a discussion of the code and why it is bad/fragile/easily broken…..

Continue reading ‘Why my code is broken….. (break my code redux)’

25Aug08 Break my code, please
gotchas programming ruby
1 Comment

There’s a number of things we can should take into account when writing code — boundary cases, etc., that can make or break a programme.  Yes, testing is important, but I think that developing good defensive programming practices is even more important.  That said; I present the following, fragile, code.  Just about every line has a case where it can fail.  Can you break my code?  I’ll post some test cases which cause it to fail later.

And for those looking for the next installment of O_RLY?, it’s coming soon; I’ve been embroiled in a hideous move.

Continue reading ‘Break my code, please’

19Aug08 autotest reminder (or why did it go boom?)
gotchas rails ruby tips
0 Comments

autotest / zentest are really useful tools.  However, it’s important to remember to run migrations for the test database — otherwise your tests will fail (miserably!)

I’ve found the following to be helpful for using autotest:

  • Getting started with Autotest – Continuous Testing
  • Autotest RSpec Notifications for Ubuntu « My Pragmatig life
13Aug08 The trouble with injection
gotchas tips
2 Comments

Ruby’s injection is very useful, but if you don’t remember one key fact, you’ll shoot yourself in the foot.

Continue reading ‘The trouble with injection’

 
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