ActiveState Community

Toolbox for front-end coders: HTML, CSS, JS

Posted by florentv on 2008-11-10 02:41
OS: All / Any

Hi all,

In a previous post, i offered an extended HTML-CSS Toolbox. I've been working on it lately, reorganizing it completely, using Abbreviations together with regular snippets at last, etc. And, for the sake of completedness, i thought that i'd add JavaScript ressources to this toolbox, so that it would cover the core client-side languages of the Web.

So here it is, with a new name, reorganized snippets, more documentation links, Abbreviations, etc.

I will gladly welcome your comments and suggestions. In particular, i need some help for the JavaScript part. My knowledge of JavaScript is quite limited (basics + occassionnal UI stuff with jQuery). So:
- Did i miss something on the documentation side?
- I didn't include any JS snippets, although i did create the folder in anticipation. What should/could i put in there?

In the future i hope to be able to refine this toolbox package, and maybe package it as an extension that will be available through the extension repository.

Versions:

  • 2009-04-14: Added a few snippets for HTML5, and %tabstop0 for many abbreviations. Plus some additions/improvements.
  • 2009-01-14: Reorganized the folders as per Nathan's suggestion. With time i found that it made more sense for me as well. There now are three base folders: Abbreviations, Docs and tools, Snippets; each contains one folder per language.
  • 2009-01-07: Updating to my latest (and hopefully slightly better) version.
  • 2008-11-20: Added some JS ressources.
  • 2008-11-19: Added a few JS scripts and quite a few links. Still need some input by JS coders. ;)
AttachmentSize
ClientSideLanguages-0.9.5.kpz161.42 KB
ClientSideLanguages-0.9.7.kpz167.96 KB

nathan | Mon, 2008-11-10 08:02

Very nice! The only thing I don't like about it is the way you categorized it, but this is more of a personal preference..

The way I would have done it:

Snippets
.. HTML
.. xHTML
.. CSS
.. Javascript

Tools
.. HTML
.. CSS

etc..

But like I said, this is more of a personal preference :)

florentv | Wed, 2008-11-19 13:49

I added some JS scripts (and links to scripts) to the package. These are fairly basic stuff for better DOM methods support, document ready event, etc. for the most part.

I still need input on:

1. The whole thing. Have you used it, found it useful, had to reorganize it or modify some snippets?

2. The organisation of folders/snippets. Does it look good for you? How would you do it?

3. The JS part specifically. What are the most useful scripts (preferably not tied to a specific library) for common tasks? (Aim for clarity and overall clarity of the script. A dropdown menu script that doesn't enable keyboard navigation isn't worth considering IMHO, for instance. A script that's not fully cross-browser is not that useful. Etc.)

florentv | Mon, 2009-04-13 15:40

I now use the interpolation shortcut [[%tabstop0]] a lot in the Abbreviations snippets (the main snippets generally don't use tabstops at all).

In some cases, it's a nice addition, e.g. one that enables you to write "li", hit Ctrl + T, then use the Tab key to move the cursor from <li>|</li> to <li></li>|.

In other cases, it's a bother. I have decided not to put a [[%tabstop0]] after the closing tag of most block-level elements (div, table, etc.), because you're liquely to want to create an empty line inside the element, and then hit Tab to indent the content. A [[%tabstop0]] placed after </div> or after </tr> would disrupt this.

I'm not sure if using [[%tabstop0]] for HTML abbreviations is a good thing altogether. We'll see how it goes.