Learning Curve

So, for the last seven days or so, I've been fully immersed in the world of javascript and the document object model. PHP seems like a distant memory and I've got the urge to use as many periods in one line of code as I can. Over the past few days I've finished our rich text editor (screenshot) (I can't stand typing WYSIWYG all the time) and a basic menu class for IP.Dynamic.

I must admit, prior to this intense javascript workout, my use of javascript was basic. I used it to test form fields, throw a bit of DHTML around the screen, basic text handling and the odd bit of trickery-pokery with cookies. I had flirted with DOM programming but never really into it. It's definitely been a great experience and I can see many ways in which to offload some low-key server side processing to client side processing (stuff that degrades nicely and doesn't require javascript turned on). That's not to say that I'm going to go DHTML mad, but there are some instances where it can be used to good effect.

It's been very handy having my newly acquired PC laptop next to me as the amount of inconsistency and bugs between browsers is shocking. With that in mind, here's my list of "Things I've learnt this week".

• IE6 has a lot of browser bugs. My favourite is where select boxes and other widgets show over a DIV when the div is shown. This is interesting as there's nothing that says "cool" like a drop down box mysteriously floating over your menu. Thanks to Joe King's idea of adding an iFrame inbetween the widgets and the DIV as a shunt overcame that. Phew.
• Mozilla crashes a lot when your programming is more DIM than DOM.
• Programming for Opera is much like a real opera. You don't really understand the language but you get the gist of it and it's never really over until the fat lady sings.
• Mozilla crashes a lot just (important enough to mention twice)
• If Mozilla implements document.all, the world is in trouble.
• If Konqueror or Opera introduce their own DOM based execCommand model, I'll cry.
• Javascript loves hiding bugs. parseint() fails, parseInt() works. Hurrah!
• 2100 lines of javascript code for a single RTE takes a long time to write
• Microsoft's javascript debugger doesn't make any sense
• Mozilla's javascript console is the best thing since - well, Mozilla.
• If you leave Mozilla's javascript console open whilst browsing the web, it fills up with errors and warnings pretty fast.
• I'm expecting a lot of bug reports from the RTE; such as "It uses <br> not <br />!" and "Why not use PX font sizes?" all of which will gleefully be filed under "Don't talk to me, talk to them!".

So there you have it. I'm off to PHP.net to see if I can remember how to code in it.