» Archive for January, 2007
Browser choice?
Digging through the articles about the web browsers you can find a lot of opinions about which browser is better.
Opera users says: “My browser is faster, secure and easy customizable“,
Firefox users says: “My browser is more customizable, web services friendly, secure, and have open source code.“,
IE users says: “I’m using Internet Explorer” - forgive me, but I still can not find any benefits of using this browser. (I only run it when I have to check the pages).
Safari users says: “I have Mac and I’m using Safari” - I don’t have Mac so I can’t tell you more about this browser.
Let’s focus on the Opera and Firefox, and on which is better?
About the Opera:
- It is fast, very fast. If you are IE user you’ll probably see the difference. Opera is based on it’s own engine (not another Gecko clone) ,and have it’s own quality. I found that it is faster than Firefox while running lots of loops (in the same time) written in JavaScript.
- Have a mouse gestures (not extension needed) - however I never use that features.
- Mail client.
- Feed Reader - simple and the best, I didn’t find any extension for Firefox that could be better than this.
- Saving the last session - very useful.
- Easy customizable when it goes about profile files. (I use the same profiles for Opera installed on Windows XP and on Windows Vista (BETA), and everything is working great.)
- Fine download manager (sometimes not working properly).
- Widgets - nice, colored extension, something similar we will find in Windows Vista’s Sidebar. Useful for those who are using it :).
- Secure - Fraud protection, popup blocker, etc.
About the Firefox:
- Slowly start. Probably every Firefox user know about this “great” feature. I think, it is not very depended on the count of extensions.
- Very customizable. This have its good and bad sides. You can change almost everything and use those add-ons which you are really need. However, there are many extension and you will need a lots of time to find something suitable. After installation Firefox is very “empty”, have more than IE and less than Opera.
- Web services friendly. Yes! Especially when it goes about Google.
- Secure. But I trust more Opera.
- Profile files customization - same as in Opera.
- About the rest, well, depended on how you customize it and what extension will you choose.
So, Which is better? For the very regular user, the best will be the Opera. Install and browse, you don’t have to do anything else. But if you want play with customization and you are addicted to web services, toolbars etc, the best for you will be Gecko based browser.
I’m using Firefox and Opera when I’m online and offline while I’m checking the pages. Firefox have a very helpful webmaster extensions, Google toolbar and easy cooperate with Google services - notepad, gmail, etc. - so it is useful for such a thing).
As I said at the beginning of this post: I’m using IE only for testing the pages, not for regular browsing.
Of course if you are webmaster you’ll have to have them all on your disk…
Space Invaders!
My first contact with “Space Invaders” was about 6 years ago. It was an assembler version found in programmersheaven.com. I think this game is a grand grandmother of all space shooter games, look at the first release date - 1978. WOW! (four years older than me :)).
Couple of weeks ago I decided to create my own version of “Space Invaders”. The code was written by me but the sprites (aliens, UFO, laser gun) is taken from the original version. Everything is written in JavaScript, with the little (read big) help of Yahoo User Interface (same as the last two games).
I had the problem with Firefox, because instead of Opera and IE, in the Firefox the use of the processor while the game was running, was very big (maybe because that a lot of loops were running at the same time). So, I have to rebuild the first project and optimize it for the Firefox. However, still you can see some delay while aliens and UFO are moving (maybe it is some proof that the Gecko engine is slower than IE’s engine :/, no it can not be!). (If you have some time you can check which browser is faster, just turn on window.setInterval(); function (three or four different at the same time) with some loops (not infinite, you can change top and left attributes of some div elements).
This game also wasn’t tested in the Safari browser. Works fine in the latest version of Opera, Firefox, and IE.
Enjoy…
Puzzle!
Making games (even simple games) is a challenge. The creation process is not very difficult and may be fun of course if you know what you are doing (or writing). When I have a new idea I’m asking myself if I know how to do it. This is very important thing! I have to be sure if I know how to make the key elements of the code, before writing any line I must know the algorithm which will describe these elements. So I’m making a few tests, searching for solutions on the internet, in books, or trying to figure out by myself how to create it. And the last step is writing the code (hmm, someone could say that is the first step).
Today I want to present my new project based on YUI library and Flickr API. I think the title say everything - PUZZLE. Each photo which you can find by searching Flickr, is divided in sixteen pieces and placed on the square board. All pieces are randomly set and the last piece is empty. All you have to do, is to set the pieces in their correct places by swapping empty piece with near placed pieces.
The hardest thing while creating this game was figure out how to divide images into pieces using only JavaScript. CSS give us very helpful attribute called - “background-position“. If you have image with size, for example 640×480 pixels, and you want divide it into 16 squares you have to do something like this:
640 / 4 = 160;
480 / 4 = 120;
- .square1 { background-position: 0 0; }
- .square2 { background-position: 0 160px; }
- .square3 { background-position: 0 320px; }
- .square4 { background-position: 0 480px; } - the last square on the first line
- .square5 { background-position: 120 0; }
- .square6 { background-position: 120 160px; }
- .square7 { background-position: 120 320px; }
- .square8 { background-position: 120 480px; } - the last square on the second line
- .square9 { background-position: 240 0; }
- .square10 { background-position: 240 160px; }
- .square11 { background-position: 240 320px; }
- .square12 { background-position: 240 480px; } - the last square on the third line
- .square13 { background-position: 360 0; }
- .square14 { background-position: 360 160px; }
- .square15 { background-position: 360 320px; }
- .square16 { background-position: 360 480px; } - the last square on the fourth line
This technique works well on a small images (640×480 or less), you can use it also with the largest images, however the loading time will be longer (especially in IE).
Have a nice puzzling! 
Yetris
Welcome in the new year. I spent the last three days writing another web application based on YUI (Yahoo User Interface). This time I’d like to present a very old and class game - Tetris, but because I use libraries provided by Yahoo I called it Yetris!.
I used same ideas, algorithms (maybe I should call this engine) from the code which I wrote 5 years ago. Check my post from September 22nd (2006), I showed then a simple Tetris game written by me in assembly language. The new version is written in JavaScript.
This time I look deeper in YUI documentation especially in parts that concern animation, DOM and Event, what I’ve learned you can see by playing this game (A lot or not much? :))
You can find exactly three animations:
- Intro - brick image fade in, zooming text,
- Game Over - falling lines fade out,
- Yahoo YUI logo - zooming while mouse over.
I tested this game in 4 browsers (Opera, Firefox, IE 6, and IE 7) and works fine, however some unexpected things may occur. I will be grateful for any feedback about how this game works in Safari browser.
Have fun!