Panel – Javascript libraries – putting the cross in cross-browser compatible
Web Directions South 2008, Sydney Convention Centre, September 25 1.40pm.
Session description
No longer are search engines the main contenders when you’re shopping for JavaScript solutions. For sophisticated, cross-browser effects which degrade gracefully and don’t impede accessibility, libraries are the new heavy weights. But which library do you want in your corner?
The crop of polished, opensource libraries bring a vast array of visual effects and functionality to leverage in your projects and we’ll introduce you to the power houses. We’ll run jQuery, the YUI, and Prototype up against pure Javascript in a tag team event that will challenge even the hardiest code warriors.
In this special 2 hour session local and international developers will run libraries through their paces giving you real world insights in to how a library can help you knockout the toughest scripting challenge.
Panelists
About Craig Sharkie
A degree in Fine Art may seem an odd stepping stone to a career in coding, but its a step that’s led Craig Sharkie on a journey lasting over 13 years. With tenure at the Australian operations of Ziff Davis, AOL and Yahoo!, Craig’s seen the Internet bubble, burst, and be reinvented, and at each turn his foundation in visualising the Web has stood him in good stead.
Focussing on accessible, extensible, and usable HTML and CSS solutions to both leading edge and legacy development issues, Craig continues to use the best of JavaScript to deliver interfaces that marry a user’s goals with corporate aims. From onclick to Unobtrusive Scripting, via the DOM and Ajax, he enjoys coding standards based solutions even more than championing them.
About Cameron Adams
Cameron Adams — The Man in Blue — melds a background in Computer Science with over eight years experience in graphic design to create a unique approach to interface design. Using the latest technologies, he likes to play in the intersection between design and code to produce innovative but usable sites and applications.
In addition to the projects he’s currently tinkering with, Cameron writes about the Internet and design in general on his well respected weblog, and has written several books ranging in topics from JavaScript, to CSS, and design. His latest publication — Simply JavaScript — takes a bottom-up, quirky-down approach to the basics of JavaScript coding.
About Earle Castledine
Sporting a Masters in Information Technology and a lifetime of experience on the Web of Hard Knocks, Earle Castledine’s interests span all that is computery. A Senior Systems Analyst and Javascript flàneur – he is equally happy in the muddy pits of .NET code as in the fluffy fields of client-side interaction development.
Having stuck with Javascript through the dark and dynamic times, he now recognises the Internet not as a lubricant for social change, but a vehicle for unleashing frivolous ECMAScript gadgets and time-wasting technologies.
About Jason Crane
Jason Crane is a self-confessed neophile. He also works on the web. His enthusiasm and passion for people and technology is a perpetual motion machine.
Jason has worked for a number of businesses (including his own!) in varying capacities ranging from networking, through to back and front-end engineering. When not wrangling Ruby on Rails, or playing devils advocate with his peers, Jason enjoys cooking and eating food with his wife and dog.
He doesn’t take himself too seriously, and he blames his love of speaking in the third person on his internet exposure.
About Ben Askins
Ben has been employed as a software developer in one form or another since leaving school in 1989. Not traditionally a web developer, he started dabbling with HTML and CSS about 6 years ago. Since 2006 he’s been freelancing as a software developer, focusing on implementing business applications using Ruby on Rails. Funnily enough, he knows very little about Javascript, so little in fact that he agreed to take part in this panel on the one condition that he could perform a Vulcan Mind Meld with The Man in Blue, to assimilate just a smidgeon of his vast vast knowledge.
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