First and foremost I'm a writer. If you enjoy reading, my tales are here along with other stuff like programming.
If web design or programming presses your buttons, there are examples at this site that you are free to borrow -- (since you probably will anyway if they interest you). I don't care if you give me credit for my stuff, but please give the other programmers credit for their ideas. My programming language of choice is JavaScript because it doesn't have to be pre-compiled, the syntax is fairly simple (once you get used to it), and the structure is limited only by your imagination. If you're like me, a working example is worth chapters of theory. So, here's a simple example.
Tired of getting spammed after robots extract your e-mail addy from your website? (Remember, not all bots respect your META tags, particularly if they spider for spammers.) The bot locates the 'mailto:' command and reads the e-mail addy that follows it. One of Javascript's strong points is string manipulation. So here's a function that gives you control of the e-mail information and assembles it elsewhere:
function noSpam(eMailTo, eMailSubject) {
var mailer ='mailto:';
var subj = '?subject=';
var tail = '@youraddy.com';
eMailTo = mailer + eMailTo + tail;
eMailSubject = subj + eMailSubject;
window.location = eMailTo + eMailSubject;
}
Ideally, you place this function in a separate file with the 'js' extension (i.e. 'myJavaScriptFunctions.js') and upload it to your server. The advantage of having the @info in one file is that if your email addy changes, you simply update it in the 'js' file. Note: You do not place beginning or ending <script> tags in files with a 'js' extension. You can now call this or any function in the 'js' file from your webpages by inserting the following code between your <head></head> tags:
<script language="javascript" src="myJavaScriptFunctions.js"></script>
If the 'js' file is located in another directory, you need to include the relative path to it. Then wherever you have a 'mailto:' command on your webpage you substitute a variation of the following code:
<a href="javascript:noSpam('smoke','Hi! The Sun is up!')">Send Mail!</a>
Note the single quotation marks enclosing 'smoke' and 'Hi The Sun is up!'. They match the single quotation marks that enclose the other parts of the email construct. There is a 'working' example in the code for this page if these examples aren't clear. Another string manipulation example is the function 'tableTop' which is used to construct the top row of this table. The function could have been written much more economically if Netscrape could properly handle 'document.write' style commands, but such is not the case. In order to get the background to display similarly in both NS and Internet Explorer, you need different code for each browser. Instead of writing a conditional JS branch in each table cell, you write the entire 'tableTop' using JavaScript. The function writes appropriate HTML code snippets for NS4+, IE4+ and 'other' browsers by extracting information from two arrays.
Anyway, you get the idea. If you're interested in Chess or Writer's Resources, I have excellent links to good sources.
Just got a new digital camera. Ok Nat, here are some of those pics I promised. Looks like I'd better double my workout *smile* Oh yeah, figured out how to work the images. Like me sandals? -- June 25th 2002
The color resolution is better out of direct sunlight