You know how the Internet works, right? Of course you do: you’re a TechCrunch reader, a power user. You know what that “HTTP” means in your address bar (if you’re not using Chrome.) You know that behind the scenes, the Domain Name System translates your requests for domain names like techcrunch.com to numeric addresses like 76.74.254.121, and secure connections are encrypted by SSL. You know that web servers send HTML, the lingua franca of the Web, over the wires (or the air) to your computer, and that web developers write JavaScript to control what your browser does with it.
…Unless you’re actually a techie. In which case you probably already know that the above description — let’s call it the Classic Web — is increasingly completely false.
What follows is a little technical, but bear with me, I have a larger point. (Also, even if you’re not a techie yourself, you need to have some understanding of what today’s tech does, and how it does it, in order to make intelligent decisions.)
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Javascript Web app framework provider Sencha is today announcing the public beta launch of Sencha.io, its new HTML5 mobile cloud service. The service will allow Sencha app developers to build “shared experiences” in the browser, without having to write server code or manage hosting.
At launch, Sencha.io will provide a set of cloud services, including Sencha.io Data, Sencha.io Messages, Sencha.io Login and Sencha.io Development. Combined, the new services let developers use just a few lines of Javascript code to store data, send messages to users, listen for messages, deploy apps or login users via Facebook or Twitter. → Read More
Today, Strobe Inc. is launching a new platform that helps developers build HTML5-based Web applications for desktops, smartphones and tablets, and centrally manage them from a single interface.
The launch is a major leap forward in HTML5 app development. From one interface, teams can manage code (both test code and production code), configure the app’s deployment across platforms (Web, Android, iOS, etc.), add additional services (social, push notifications, authentication, etc.), and even track analytics within an easy-to-use dashboard.
In short, it’s a comprehensive platform that makes building apps with Web technologies, like HTML5 and JavaScript, not just possible, but easy, straightforward and fast. → Read More
Brendan Eich, creator of the JavaScript scripting language and chief technology officer at Mozilla, has joined the advisory board of Amsterdam, The Netherlands-based Ajax.org.
We recently wrote about Ajax.org’s introduction of Cloud9 IDE, a commercial, cloud-based development platform for JavaScript that incorporates HTML5, and supporting Python, Ruby and PHP.
Eich is known for his work on Netscape, where he started work in April 1995 and invented JavaScript. He then helped found Mozilla.org in early 1998, serving as chief architect, and later helped spin out the Mozilla Foundation. → Read More
Over the weekend, over 200 teams of developers met up to participate in Node.js Knockout, a 48 hour coding competition with one basic rule: you *had* to use node.js to build your app. The deadline was midnight on Sunday, which means that the finished applications are currently being subjected to the scrutiny of the expert panel of judges and – perhaps even more terrifying – the general public. The winning team walks away with a whole bundle of prizes, including an iPad for each member.
So what is node.js? Without getting super technical, it’s a framework for JavaScript that allows developers to easily write programs that run on the server, rather than in the browser like JavaScript normally does. Node’s design takes advantage of this fact by using a novel approach to I/O that allows a lot of users to access the program at the same time. If that whets your appetite, Simon Willison gets into some more technical details. Side note: if you like to build things (especially under arbitrary deadlines), using node.js or anything else, you should come show us what you’ve got at the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon on September 25-26 here in San Francisco.
Voting for the best application is open now through Thursday night at midnight, so head over and cast your vote. Here are our favorites: → Read More
Back in June, Google launched Sputnik, a suite of tools that runs over 5,000 tests to check a web browser’s JavaScript conformance. Last week, they made the tool a lot easier for anyone to use, with a version that works in the web browser. The results are interesting.
Notably, both the Opera and Safari web browsers beat Google’s own Chrome browser in the test. As you can see in the picture above, Opera is the clear leader, with only 78 failures (the closer to the center, the less errors). Safari came in second with 159 errors, with Chrome in third with 218 errors. Firefox is close behind with 259 errors, while Internet Explorer is the outlier with 463 errors. → Read More
jQuery is a Javascript library that is used in a large number of web applications and is popular amongst web application developers. It was launched in 2006 by John Resig, and immediately gained a large following due to its lightweight nature and design philosophy. jQuery allows developers to build Javascript web applications easily by abstracting many of the complexities and difficulties. A developer with knowledge of CSS selectors and HTML would easily find their way around jQuery and be able to implement Ajax queries, effects and other tasks with a few lines of code.
A new commercial company called appendTo has launched recently with the goal of providing commercial support, training and development solutions exclusively around jQuery. The company was founded by members of the jQuery development team, and is lead by co-founder and CEO Mike Hostetler, who is both a jQuery core team member and previously a freelance developer/consultant. John Resig is not involved or affiliated with the company, and is employed by Mozilla as a developer. → Read More
Nearly all of the time I dedicate to work and personal life on my computer is spent inside a browser, so speed and using software that ‘just works’ are very essential to me. As a Windows user, I currently use both Firefox and Google Chrome, but unless I really need a certain extension lacking on Google’s browser I’ll use Chrome as much as I can and avoid opening the many tabs I usually need to fire up in Firefox. I don’t even look at all the tests comparing the speed of all the browsers anymore. I tried all the latest versions of all the familiar browsers on my machine, and Google Chrome – which yesterday got an even speedier beta version – just makes my browsing experience more of a delight than an annoyance, even if it only feels faster.
Even so, it’s safe to say its adoption rate can hardly be deemed staggering, which is why Google puts so much effort into promoting the software program on its own (vast) advertising network. (The fact that Google Chrome is lacking a Mac-compatible version doesn’t help). Today, Google is launching another initiative that is meant to drive more awareness for the JavaScript processing speed of its browser and the V8 engine it runs on, in the hopes that it will lure more users into trying it out and subsequently sticking with it. → Read More
Are you a Mac user with Google Chrome envy? You really shouldn’t be, especially now that the latest builds of WebKit use a ridiculously fast Javascript engine called SquirrelFish Extreme. The new engine, conveniently shortened to SFE, is actually faster than Chrome Javascript engine, V8. (It’s actually faster than the version of V8 currently floating around SVN, which is faster than the version that’s found in Chrome.) Faster, more efficient Javascript processing improves the performance of Javascript-heavy Web sites like Gmail. In fact, name me one site that doesn’t use a lot of Javascript these days. (Drudge is the only example I can think of.) For the uninitiated, these nightly builds of WebKit represent the bleeding edge in WebKit development. WebKit is the name of the rendering engine found in Safari and Google Chrome. By downloading a nightly build, your local version of Safari launches using the latest version WebKit. It’s sort of like driving your car to work with a brand new engine every day. Builds are available for both Mac and Windows, but I figured Windows folks wouldn’t be as excited. No, these nightly builds of WebKit don’t have that fancy multi-process architecture the Google Chrome has, but the improved Javascript performance is more than worth quick download. She’s quite fast. Promise. → Read More
Jacob Seidelin is fast becoming the Ben Heckendorn of Javascript games. You may remember that in early April, Seidelin programmed all of Super Mario Bros. into 14 Kb of Javascript code. This month, he’s tackled Super Mario Kart in about 11 Kb of code. It’s not the full game, however. “So far, it’s just racing. No weapons or any of that fancy stuff. At the moment, you can choose from 3 different drivers (Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach) and 2 different maps (Mushroom Cup Round 1 and 2). There is no lap count, no timer and no finish. You can just race around forever and try to beat the others (it’s not hard, especially if cut a few corners). The AI is rather crude, but seems to work ok for the time being. There is (simple) collision detection against the boundaries of the map and the colored “blocking” blocks, but not against the karts, so you can’t crash into the other drivers. Drive safely, anyway!” But hey, it’s Javascript. Very cool, nonetheless. Check out Seidelin’s blog post here, which links to the game. via Ajaxian → Read More
This evening, I came home and loaded up Drudge Report. I found an interesting article on Google and how they’re about to challenge Microsoft even farther with offline web applications. Upon discovering the name Google Gears, I promptly typed “gears.google.com” into Firefox. Sure enough, a Mac OS X beta of Google Gears is available and of course, I downloaded it. So what is Google Gears? It’s an open-source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using JavaScript APIs. What that means is that you’ll be able to use Google’s Writely word processor offline and online, making it a direct competitor with Microsoft Office. This is huge stuff and Google is really going to stick it to Microsoft this year. Can Google overtake the biggest software company of the 1990s? Maybe. We’ll see soon enough. Google Gears [Google] → Read More
