Category: Programming

Today I am focused on debugging a custom tree control which present hierarchical data created through AJAX calls, custom JavaScript, and jQuery. The data is built dynamically so state must be maintained such that if the user navigates away from the page and returns the exact same data is presented upon return. The collapsers must close only their related data without orphaning any nodes.

The presentation was prototyped as tables nested within tables eight levels deep. Yesterday this was corrected to be a single table with rows dynamically added and removed which broke the handlers. Before someone throws the word sematic out without thinking, a table is semantically correct in this situation. Time to get back to handling the handlers.

The question I hate hearing the most is "What’s a website where I can see your work?" Fortunately, I have not had to answer that question in a good long time. As a freelancing web application developer, I end up working on websites briefly and then move to the next project. When I move on, someone else comes in an continues to evolve the website so using that website as an example becomes a risk of misrepresenting my skills. Perhaps I made a site that had valid HTML and CSS and was Section 508 compliant. With 30 seconds and one incorrect tag, another developer could break all that work. Besides, once someone else modifies the site, it no longer represents my work anyway. That would be like the previous home owner coming back to my house with guests to demonstrate her tasteful choice of colors on the walls.

To complicate the ability to demonstrate my skills, most of the work I have done has been on proprietary systems with most of the functionality available to the company. For instance, I spent a year and a half working on a billing system. In no way could I show someone code samples from that project. I cannot even walk them through the client side of the project since I no longer have access to it and even if I did that would be revealing client confidential information. The front end of that website was a single marketing page and a login screen.

And never judge a developer by their own website. I would love my personal websites to represent me professionally, but frankly, I am too busy doing work for others.

I digress. This post was not intended to be a discussion of skills demonstration. Instead I came to exclaim with glee that I spent the morning ironing out some nasty problems in my current application project! Unfortunately, all the changes, no matter how significant, will only be seen by me. The output, the stuff on the screen, does not appear changed. So even my client cannot see what I have done. And this is why I like to work on my house myself…because sometimes, I like to point at something tangible and say, "I did that!"

I had a very unique string to replace throughout my application. Simple enough, instead of being text, it should be an image. I had the image code already written for a different image so I copied it, then went to search and replace the string but forgot to change the name of the image. I originally had 13 replacements across several files. Now I have to manually inspect 32 lines of code to make 13 corrections.

Remember, automated tools are a great way to make mistakes faster. And no, this has nothing to do with Sh*t Creek. That boat is totally about a Thursday deadline and a much needed miracle.