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Giving a talk on Monday, June 18 on  CoffeeScript and Dart  that will mostly be a code-along. For CoffeeScript, make sure you can run coffee from a command line: node, download here:  http://nodejs.org/ npm, now included in node CoffeeScript, use the CoffeeScript with Node and npm instructions (basically one line, but...) Some kind of programmer's text editor. I'll be using jEdit, but I'd recommend VIM or TextMate as they both have great CoffeeScript integration. For Dart, install the Dart editor, which is an IDE with a browser (Dartium). Dart editor, download here:  http://www.dartlang.org/docs/editor/getting-started/ Unpack the archive someplace and run the program from there.

Just agreed to a talk on Monday, June 18 for UpFront KC . Here is a quick summary: JavaScript as Assembly – Exploring CoffeeScript & Dart JavaScript can be both awesome and terrible. We’ll talk about the history of generating JavaScript and then work through some quick exercises in two languages that can produce JavaScript as output: CoffeeScript and Dart. Then, we’ll compare the two and look where they are headed. This is an interactive talk, so plan to bring a laptop and code along. At the end, you'll at least have run a bit of CoffeeScript and Dart. You don’t have to be an experienced developer, as we’ll keep it super-high level. About your presenter: By day, David Mitchell is a mild mannered Group Technical Director at VML , where he is more likely to review JavaScript code than write it. By night, David is a polygot programmer, exploring languages like JavaScript, Smalltalk, and Lisp. David has presented nationally and at regional conferences and has

I've tweeted several times about my misgivings on the Apple iPad. Still not getting an iPad (I'm a h8r), but Gruber's got a point against my main beef (the closed platform) http://bit.ly/a0vO6j Apr 02 2010 No scripting/coding on the iPhone was pad enough. But the iPad could have been great 4 kids to learn 2 code. Too bad. http://bit.ly/ayKHYM Jan 31st if I had an iPad rather than a real computer as a kid, I’d never be a programmer today -- Alex Payne http://al3x.net/2010/01/28/ipad.html Jan 29th I'd prefer an open platform. I think the changes to section 3.2.2 of the developer agreement are a small step in the right direction, and  I'd like to see more openness. From Boy Genius : Apple has again tweaked section 3.2.2 of the agreement, adding in a loophole which will allow them to approve certain interpretive code tools. The old section 3.2.2 read like this:  No interpreted code may be downloaded or used in an Application except for code that is interpreted a

The site is still showing ICC4 info, but the countdown clock has been updated to a new date! Looks like I need to free up a spring day for some hacking! While browsing the site, found a picture of me presenting Seaside at ICC4. The book in the picture is Learning Programming with Robots. I think I was answering a question about Alice.

Thanks to castilho: http://castilho.biz/blog/2009/11/05/ruby-on-rails-ubuntu-9-10-karmic-koala/

The original Refactoring book by Martin Fowler had a big impact on how I thought about writing software. I’d used the refactoring tools in Smalltalk, but the book changed the way I thought about refactoring and gave names to many new refactorings. This Ruby edition of the book is highly anticipated. I received my copy at a drawing in our local Ruby user’s group. Part of the deal was you had to write a review (you are reading it) in exchange for the book. Nearly everyone at the meeting wanted a crack at the book. The authors suggest that if you have the original work, you probably shouldn’t purchase this new edition. I don’t agree. There is plenty of new content with around 20 new refactorings and a few new code smells to make the difference worthwhile. There is a tremendous amount of thoughtful Ruby code snippets inserted throughout the text. In fact, this is one of those books that is great for everyone on a team to have a copy. It is the kind of book that can be used to raise t