#caseofstudy

Finally had time to test the main two functions of my framework. Had to fix a few things but it took me a lot of time to understand the details on each error.

Now I have a namespace called M_CORE which will be the main namespace for everything inside the framework. 

The next step will be creating my ajax class and then the library retriever.

Here is a part of the code that shows how to create a class and then how to extend it.

var itemClass = M_CORE.Class.enhance({   init: function(what) {       console.log(what);    },

   someFunction: function(t) {        console.log(t);    } });

var item = itemClass.enhance({    init: function() {        alert('TEST');    } });

var i = new itemClass('Me'); var it = new item(); it.someFunction('DUDE!');

As you can see I created a new class named itemClass which is a prolongation of M_CORE.Class (The main class and class manager of my code), then I created a Item class extending the itemClass.

I was a little distracted lately, have a couple of things to do that kept me away from developing the framework, but in my mind I still worked a little bit on this.

Just finished the class module and the namespace creation function.

The class module is an adaptation of the code created by John Resig about Javascript inheritance. You can take a look at it here:

http://ejohn.org/blog/simple-javascript-inheritance/

The namespace creation and manipulation is a very simple function that checks for the existence of another namespace with the exact name and if so, we don’t re-write it, we just extend it. I used the Kenneth Truyers approach for this function and you can take a look at it here:

http://www.keneth-truyers.net/2013/04/27/javascript-namespaces-and-modules/

Now I’m working on the library management class. What I want to do with it is to load external and internal libraries to my framework. Allowing me to load just the exact piece of code that I need. I wanted to be very granular with this framework so I will create a basic taxonomy of functions and libraries to keep it in control. I wanted to be very extensible and at the same time I wanted to be a multipurpose framework.

The first step is done. Now I’m going to test it. Hope I had a QA team…

If you want to check the code and how it is going here is my Github

Research I mean. Found more cool stuff to add to my framework and as a matter of fact I’m learning a lot.

Even I've been using Javascript for over 10 years, I never considered myself as an expert, the proof of it is that while I’m researching for this project I found many things I didn't knew or never did think about.

I’m quite happy now because I’m doing something that I enjoy a lot: ‘learning’, learning while I'm doing, while I'm creating.

So here is couple of things I found:

http://www.webplatform.org/

https://www.udacity.com/ Inside this website there's a lot of courses, but the one I'm doing right now is the HTML 5 game development. It is a free course and is good. In there, I found a very interesting code about classes and inheritance for Javascript and I'm thinking on using it at least as a guide.

http://www.kenneth-truyers.net/2013/04/27/javascript-namespaces-and-modules/ NAMESPACES!!! Awesome. Here is an approach of namespace creation I like and yes I'm going to use it.

I already created my account on Github and created my repo. Have an skeleton there of the main code of my framework and is now officially a work in progress (Cheers for that, Arriba copas!).

Found a couple of white papers that looks like will help me in my efforts:

http://dailyjs.com/2010/02/25/djscript-part-1-structure/ This is a tutorial on how to create a framework so this is gonna be my guideline for most of the project. Looks like a great starting guide.

http://www.coolcoder.in/2014/03/everything-you-need-to-know-about.html This is a variable scope essentials

And at last but not least:

https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Introduction_to_Object-Oriented_JavaScript Object oriented javascript.

I wanted to start coding like a week ago but it wasn’t possible. Had many things to do and no too much idea where to begin.

Made my research and bench-marking and got kinda discouraged about all the things I don’t know about this field, about Javascript, but I kept maturing my idea, kept thinking about it and then I figured that it really doesn't matter I will learn, I will try and keep trying until I get what I want and it will be awesome. I’m not writing this framework for anyone else but me. Is kind of selfish and arrogant but yes at least the first version will be for me, then will see if I have input and feedback from other developers and then we’ll figure it out.

Thanks to the research I made and all the comes and goes I had, now I have a better understanding on how I want it and where to start ,and also have a couple of new ideas I would like to put on.

So it’s time to start.

Here is an outline of what I’m going to do for this first stage.

The ‘Core’: here I will code and manage classes, main settings, constants, namespaces, external libraries and error handling.

Namespaces: I will develop this framework in a namespace approach. Like .NET or like C++, but more my style. It will handle external libraries as well, like including jQuery or backbone.js.

Classes: want to create a class handler with at least the main classes features like inheritance and encapsulation. Things that javascript already does but not exactly the way I wanted. So we'll see.

Settings: don’t know yet, but I will come up with something for the settings part. The idea I have is to handle different settings for different environments but I’m not very clear on this.

Memory management: I would like to have a memory manager, like a garbage collector but I’m not sure if it’s going to be possible to have a standard one for all the flavors of the framework.

Error handling: here is an important part of my framework, I’m not the try - catch kind of guy but you need to handle errors. I’m thinking on a hipster way of handling errors so this is gonna be fun.

Well not that useful, I've been doing some research on framework creation and what I've found? A million things I just don’t know, a lot of information and so many things I’m not aware of,  so now I feel discouraged, discouraged instead of feeling more confident on what I’m about to do. So now I can say that I do have more knowledge of all the things I don’t know instead of having a guide on how to do things.

Well, the thing is: I made my mind, so I’ll do this even if I have no clue. I’ll learn by doing it and that’s gonna be great.

Today I’m starting to code. I’ll be working on classes and namespaces. I like that approach so I’ll start working with it, kinda old school but I fell comfortable with it.

Now that I’m decided and committed to this project is time to get some ideas, do some bench-marking and do some research.

I’ve been thinking about this framework as a new kind of framework more tied to the original Javascript syntax, without the need of using different notation or the need to learn new coding style, because I really want to reduce the learning curve and remember I want to reduce/eliminate ‘time’.