All I don't know http://blog.derraab.com About Flash™, Flex™, software development and my computer. And JavaScript. Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:31:36 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Removing comments in CSS, HTML and ECMAScript (JavaScript) http://blog.derraab.com/2011/11/26/removing-comments-in-css-html-and-ecmascript-javascript/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/11/26/removing-comments-in-css-html-and-ecmascript-javascript/#comments Sat, 26 Nov 2011 18:31:36 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=767 Continue reading →]]> While working on an Adobe AIR based source code editor I was looking for an easy way to remove comments from different kind of source codes. What first seemed like an easy regular expression turned out to be much more complex because comment pre- and suffixes can also occur in string literals or regular expressions and our old friend Internet Explorer allows HTML conditional comments and JavaScript conditional compilation. Great.

First I had a look at YUICompressors source code and Google Page Speed but then I decided to port a script for removing JavaScript comments created by James Padolsey.

I just improved the recognition for regular expressions a little and since this code should work with all ECMAScript based source codes I named my class ECMAScriptParser instead of JavaScriptParser:

package de.superclass.parser
{
    /**
     * @author Markus Raab (superclass.de | blog.derRaab.com)
     */
    public class ECMAScriptParser
    {
        /**
         * Removes inline and block comments from an ECMAScript source string. 
         * 
         * This is a port of James Padolsey     with an slightly improved RegExp recognition.
         * @see: http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/removing-comments-in-javascript
         * 
         * @param ecmaScript        ECMAScript source string
         * @param removeCondComp    Optional (default=false) - Whether to remove Internet Explorers JavasScript conditional compilation comments or not.   
         * @return                    ECMAScript source string without comments
         */
        public static function removeComments( ecmaScript : String, removeCondComp : Boolean = false ) : String
        {
            var modeSingleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeDoubleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeRegExp            : Boolean = false;
            var modeBlockComment    : Boolean = false;
            var modeLineComment        : Boolean = false;
            var modeCondComp        : Boolean = false; 
 
            var vector : Vector.<String> = Vector.<String>( ( '__' + ecmaScript + '__' ).split( '' ) );
                vector.fixed = true;
 
            var c : int = vector.length;
 
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < c; i++ )
            {
                var string : String = vector[ i ];
 
                if ( modeRegExp )
                {
                    if ( string === '/' && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeRegExp = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeSingleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === "'" && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeSingleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeDoubleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === '"' && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeDoubleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeBlockComment )
                {
                    if ( string === '*' && vector[ i + 1 ] === '/' )
                    {
                        vector[ i + 1 ] = '';
                        modeBlockComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeLineComment)
                {
                    string = vector[ i + 1 ];
                    if ( string === '\n' || string === '\r' )
                    {
                        modeLineComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeCondComp )
                {
                    if ( vector[ i - 2 ] === '@' && vector[ i - 1 ] === '*' && string === '/' )
                    {
                        modeCondComp = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '"' )
                {
                    modeDoubleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === "'" )
                {
                    modeSingleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '/' )
                {
                    if ( ! removeCondComp && vector[ i + 1 ] === '*' && vector[ i + 2 ] === '@' )
                    {
                        modeCondComp = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    if ( vector[ i + 1 ] === '*' )
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
 
                        modeBlockComment = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    if ( vector[ i + 1 ] === '/' )
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
                        modeLineComment = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    for ( var k : int = i - 1; true; k-- )
                    {
                        string = vector[ k ];
                        if ( string !== ' ' )
                        {
                            if ( string === '=' )
                            {
                                modeRegExp = true;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            return vector.join( '' ).slice( 2, -2 );
        }
    }
}

Allright – CSS doesn’t allow inline or conditional comments so I removed this script functionality and created a CSSParser class:

package de.superclass.parser
{
    /**
     * @author Markus Raab (superclass.de | blog.derRaab.com)
     */
    public class CSSParser
    {
        /**
         * Removes comments from a CSS string. 
         * 
         * This is a shrinked port of James Padolseys script.
         * @see: http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/removing-comments-in-javascript
         * 
         * @param css                CSS string
         * @return                    CSS string without comments
         */
        public static function removeComments( css : String) : String
        {
            var modeSingleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeDoubleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeBlockComment    : Boolean = false;
 
            var vector : Vector.<String> = Vector.<String>( ( '__' + css + '__' ).split( '' ) );
                vector.fixed = true;
 
            var c : int = vector.length;
 
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < c; i++ )
            {
                var string : String = vector[ i ];
 
                if ( modeSingleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === "'" && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeSingleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeDoubleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === '"' && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeDoubleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeBlockComment )
                {
                    if ( string === '*' && vector[ i + 1 ] === '/' )
                    {
                        vector[ i + 1 ] = '';
                        modeBlockComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '"' )
                {
                    modeDoubleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === "'" )
                {
                    modeSingleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '/' )
                {
                    if ( vector[ i + 1 ] === '*' )
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
 
                        modeBlockComment = true;
                        continue;
                    }
                }
            }
            return vector.join( '' ).slice( 2, -2 );
        }
    }
}

Good. Lastly I extended the code to remove all comments within HTML source code, which can also contain JavaScript and of course CSS. This is the HTMLParser:

package de.superclass.parser
{
    /**
     * @author Markus Raab (superclass.de | blog.derRaab.com)
     */
    public class HTMLParser
    {
        /**
         * Removes all HTML, CSS and ECMAScript comments from a HTML string.
         * 
         * This is an extended port of James Padolseys script with an improved RegExp recognition.
         * @see: http://james.padolsey.com/javascript/removing-comments-in-javascript
         * 
         * @param html                        HTML string
         * @param removeHTMLCondComment        Optional (default=false) - Whether to remove Internet Explorers HTML conditional comments or not.
         * @param removeJSCondComp            Optional (default=false) - Whether to remove Internet Explorers JavasScript conditional compilation comments or not.
         * @return                            HTML string without comments
         */
        public static function removeComments( html : String, removeHTMLCondComment : Boolean = false, removeJSCondComp : Boolean = false ) : String
        {
            var modeSingleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeDoubleQuote        : Boolean = false;
            var modeRegExp            : Boolean = false;
            var modeBlockComment    : Boolean = false;
            var modeLineComment        : Boolean = false;
 
            var modeJSCondComp        : Boolean = false;
 
            var modeHTMLComment        : Boolean = false;
            var modeHTMLCondComment    : Boolean = false;
 
            var vector : Vector.<String> = Vector.<String>( ( '__' + html + '__' ).split( '' ) );
                vector.fixed = true;
 
            var c : int = vector.length;
 
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < c; i++ )
            {
                var string : String = vector[ i ];
 
                if ( modeRegExp )
                {
                    if ( string === '/' && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeRegExp = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeSingleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === "'" && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\' )
                    {
                        modeSingleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeDoubleQuote )
                {
                    if ( string === '"' && vector[ i - 1 ] !== '\\')
                    {
                        modeDoubleQuote = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeBlockComment )
                {
                    if ( string === '*' && vector[ i + 1 ] === '/')
                    {
                        vector[ i + 1 ] = '';
                        modeBlockComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeLineComment)
                {
                    string = vector[ i + 1 ];
                    if ( string === '\n' || string === '\r' )
                    {
                        modeLineComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeJSCondComp )
                {
                    if ( vector[ i - 2 ] === '@' && vector[ i - 1 ] === '*' && string === '/' )
                    {
                        modeJSCondComp = false;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeHTMLComment )
                {
                    // --> 
                    if ( string === '-' && vector[ i + 1 ] === '-' && vector[ i + 2 ] === '>' )
                    {
                        vector[ i + 1 ] = '';
                        vector[ i + 2 ] = '';
 
                        modeHTMLComment = false;
                    }
                    vector[ i ] = '';
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( modeHTMLCondComment )
                {
                    if ( string === 'i' && vector[ i + 1 ] === 'f' && vector[ i + 2 ] === ']' && vector[ i + 3 ] === '-' && vector[ i + 4 ] === '-' && vector[ i + 5 ] === '>' ) // if]--> 
                    {
                        modeHTMLCondComment = false;
                        i += 5;
                    }
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '<' && vector[ i + 1 ] === '!' && vector[ i + 2 ] === '-' && vector[ i + 3 ] === '-' ) // <!--
                {
                    if ( ! removeHTMLCondComment && vector[ i + 4 ] === '[' && vector[ i + 5 ] === 'i' && vector[ i + 6 ] === 'f' ) // <!--[if
                    {
                        modeHTMLCondComment = true;
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
                        modeHTMLComment = true;
                    }
                }
 
                if ( string === '"' )
                {
                    modeDoubleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === "'" )
                {
                    modeSingleQuote = true;
                    continue;
                }
 
                if ( string === '/' )
                {
                    if ( ! removeJSCondComp && vector[ i + 1 ] === '*' && vector[ i + 2 ] === '@' )
                    {
                        modeJSCondComp = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    if ( vector[ i + 1 ] === '*' )
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
 
                        modeBlockComment = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    if ( vector[ i + 1 ] === '/' )
                    {
                        vector[ i ] = '';
                        modeLineComment = true;
                        continue;
                    }
 
                    for ( var k : int = i - 1; true; k-- )
                    {
                        string = vector[ k ];
                        if ( string !== ' ' )
                        {
                            if ( string === '=' )
                            {
                                modeRegExp = true;
                            }
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            return vector.join( '' ).slice( 2, -2 );
        }
    }
}

Let me know if I made a mistake but it seems to work quite well. Or do you know a good library that already does this kind of optimizations?

Well, that’s it for now. Have fun coding!

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/11/26/removing-comments-in-css-html-and-ecmascript-javascript/feed/ 0 Adobe Tech Summit 2011 Berlin Notes http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/29/adobe-tech-summit-2011-berlin-notes/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/29/adobe-tech-summit-2011-berlin-notes/#comments Sat, 29 Oct 2011 17:25:31 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=749 Continue reading →]]> Currently I’m all day long busy learning more about JavaScript, webkit, iOS, web apps, browser differences and all the HTML 5 stuff while porting our SCORM based e-learning runtime. That kept me from following Adobe MAX and all the news regarding it so I took the opportunity to catch up a little bit by spending a whole day at Adobe Tech Summit 2011 Berlin (german). So here I’m simply sharing my notes:

CSS / HTML / JavaScript

Have a look at Adobe Edge at Adobe Labs. It seems to be a really helpful CSS/JavaScript animation tool and also a good research base for tweaks Adobe uses to be as cross browser as possible. If I understood Mark Enders right, Adobe Edge currently doesn’t use CSS transform for animations but for enabling hardware acceleration by just setting transformZ. If that works I’ll also use this approach.

Check out jQueryMobile and it’s virtual mouse events in particular. We had trouble with the onclick event on iOS so I need more information on that.

Just some links worth having a look at (again): Adobe Creative Cloud, Typekit, PhoneGap, The Expressive Web. Follow Paul Rouget and his work on the upcoming Mozilla Dev Tools and it’s really great features.

AIR / Flash / Flex

We all know Stage3D and hope to get it on devices soon, but for now we can look forward to Adobe Flex SDK 4.6 which includes a set of touch device components that will help to create touch AIR apps in almost no time. Native extensions for AIR 3.0 will also improve development for touch devices since we can then access every native device functionality. But for now we can at least develop hardware accelerated 2D stuff for the desktop using the Starling framework

Have fun coding!

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/29/adobe-tech-summit-2011-berlin-notes/feed/ 1 Ilias SCORM 2004 can’t read timestamp http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/05/ilias-scorm-2004-cant-read-timestamp/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/05/ilias-scorm-2004-cant-read-timestamp/#comments Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:12:13 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=738 Continue reading →]]> If you’re working with Ilias LMS you might run into this issue as well, so I’ll share this here.

We’re using SCORM 2004 with it’s cmi.comments_from_learner but it turned out that it wasn’t possible to read a previously set timestamp value during the next SCO visit. Did nobody ever read a timestamp again? Anyway, since we strongly needed this functionality I had to figure out where the problem was. After making definitely sure it wasn’t our mistake I downloaded a fresh copy of the latest stable Ilias version (4.1.7) and tried to investigate how this system works.

A timestamp value yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss.msZ was stored using MySQL datetime and therefore read back as yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss. Time zone designator and 2 digits accuracy are SCORM 2004 optional, but the missing ‘T’ separator killed the data conversion.

So let’s have a look at the related original JavaScript function:

function setItemValue (key, dest, source, destkey) 
{
    if (source && source.hasOwnProperty(key)) 
    {
        var d = source[key];
        var temp=d;
        if (!isNaN(parseFloat(d)) && !(/[A-Za-z]/.test(d))) {
            d = Number(d);
        } else if (d==="true") {
            d = true;
        } else if (d==="false") {
            d = false;
        }
        //special handling for titles - no conversion
        if (key == "title") {
            d=temp;
        }
        dest[destkey ? destkey : key] = d;
    }
}

And here is my temporary fix:

function setItemValue (key, dest, source, destkey)
{
    if (source && source.hasOwnProperty(key))
    {
        var d = String( source[key] );
 
        if ( destkey === "timestamp" )
        {
            // Fixed timestamp casting to NaN!
            // 26.09.2011 - derRaab - http://blog.derRaab.com
            //
            // a) No conversion
            // b) Ilias delivers date string without 'T': yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm:ss -> yyyy-mm-ddThh:mm:ss
            if ( d.length > 10 && d.charAt( 10 ) === " ")
            {
                d = d.split( " " ).join( "T" );
            }
        }
        else if ( key === "title" )
        {
            //special handling for titles - no conversion
        }
        else
        {
            // 26.09.2011 - derRaab - http://blog.derRaab.com
            // Use Number() instead of parseFloat()
            if (!isNaN(Number(d)) && !(/[A-Za-z]/.test(d)))
            {
                d = Number(d);
            }
            else if (d==="true")
            {
                d = true;
 
            } else if (d==="false")
            {
                d = false;
            }
        }
        dest[destkey ? destkey : key] = d;
    }
}

Please note that I replaced the use of parseFloat() with Number() – I’m investigating another problem with the cmi.location characterstring – but that’s fixed for now.

I reported these issues to the Ilias development team and they fixed at least the ‘T’ separator problem for Ilias 4.2.0:
http://www.ilias.de/mantis/view.php?id=7846
http://www.ilias.de/mantis/view.php?id=7847

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/10/05/ilias-scorm-2004-cant-read-timestamp/feed/ 0 JavaScript development – libraries and OOP coding conventions http://blog.derraab.com/2011/08/30/javascript-development-libraries-and-oop-coding-conventions/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/08/30/javascript-development-libraries-and-oop-coding-conventions/#comments Tue, 30 Aug 2011 15:38:29 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=700 Continue reading →]]> As I wrote earlier I’m currently porting our ActionScript framework to JavaScript, which basically means I’m diving into JavaScript from and ActionScript developers perspective. Of course I’m still at the beginning of becoming a good JavaScript developer, but I made some progress I’d like to share.

I’ll start right away recommending some core libraries:

  • Objs – Namespaces and class inheritance
  • PureMVC Objs – MVC framework (Objs port)
  • JS-Signals – Event / Messaging system
  • jQuery – Helps with core functionalities and cross browser issues

The existing ActionScript project is based on PureMVC so it was obvious to settle on the same horse, but it wasn’t easy to decide which PureMVC port! This is a fundamental decision because it also defines how to write OOP JavaScript.

Objs has a clean syntax (and documentation) and after developer M. Saunier Frédéric was kind enough to resolve my license problem I used his lightweight version with one little customization: I changed the constructor function name from initialize() to __construct() as it looks more appropriate to me and I already used some initialize() functions for different tasks.
Changed versions: customized puremvc-objs-2.0.js and customized objs-2.0.js.

ActionScript developers probably know Robert Penners AS-Signals but I never implemented it in one of my projects so now I use the concept with JS-Signals.

And of course I also use jQuery with it’s great developer community.

So this is how a “class” with applied coding conventions would look like:

/**
 * Created by derRaab(); - http://blog.derRaab.com
 */
( function () {
 
    /**
     * Namespace vars for minification (only necessary if used multiple times, but you get the idea how to save strings)
     */
    var nsCom = "com.",
        nsComDerraab = nsCom+ "derraab.",
        nsComDerraabExamples = nsComDerraab+ "examples.",
 
    /**
     * Final class
     */
    ExampleClass,
 
    /**
     * Temporary class prototype (separated because that helps with IDE code completion)
     */
    ExampleClassPrototype =
    {
        /**
         * Without leading underscore part of public API.
         *
         * @type {Boolean}
         * @private
         */
        publicVar : false,
 
        /**
         * With one leading underscore part of protected API,
         * Use it only in this and it's subclasses.
         *
         * @type {String}
         * @private
         */
        _protectedVar : "",
 
        /**
         * With two leading underscores use it only in this class!
         * @type {Number}
         * @private
         */
        __privateVar : 0,
 
        /**
         * <code>ExampleClass</code> constructor (called on instance creation!)
         *
         * @param {Number}    privateValue
         * @param {String}    protectedValue
         * @param {Boolean}    publicValue
         */
        __construct: function( privateValue, protectedValue, publicValue )
        {
            // Call to superclass constructor (See Objs documentation)
            // ExampleClass.$super.__construct.apply( this, arguments );
 
            this.__privateVar    = privateValue;
            this._protectedVar    = protectedValue;
            this.publicVar        = publicValue;
 
            // Use static values
            this.__privateVar = ExampleClass.DEFAULT_NUMBER;
        },
 
        /**
         * Without leading underscore part of public API.
         */
        publicMethod: function()
        {
        },
 
        /**
         * With one leading underscore part of protected API,
         * Use it only in this and it's subclasses.
         */
        _protectedMethod: function()
        {
        },
 
        /**
         * With two leading underscores use it only in this class!
         */
        __privateMethod: function()
        {
        }
    };
 
    /**
     * Let Objs create our "real" class (see Objs documentation for more details
     */
    ExampleClass = Objs( nsComDerraabExamples + "ExampleClass", ExampleClassPrototype );
 
    /**
     * Now add some "static" values
     */
    ExampleClass.DEFAULT_BOOLEAN = true;
    ExampleClass.DEFAULT_STRING = "georgeous";
    ExampleClass.DEFAULT_NUMBER = 1;
 
}());

This style is still evolving but I think this is kind of how I like to work.

I suggest you read my last post regarding JavaScript library development using ANT and YUICompressor which might help you with project setup and code compression.

And a word to JavaScript IDEs:

I bought WebStorm but it doesn’t integrate ANT. Luckily I earned a IntelliJ IDEA license earlier this year but I’m not absolutely happy with it. It uses a lot of system resources, needs to set up an Java project and so on. Any hints?

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/08/30/javascript-development-libraries-and-oop-coding-conventions/feed/ 0 JavaScript library development using ANT and YUICompressor http://blog.derraab.com/2011/07/07/javascript-library-development-using-ant-and-yuicompressor/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/07/07/javascript-library-development-using-ant-and-yuicompressor/#comments Thu, 07 Jul 2011 21:08:47 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=653 Continue reading →]]> Since I need to port a huge ActionScript project to JavaScript I see myself confronted with different practices of code organization, workspace structures and a lot more JavaScript specific stuff. I’m used to big, strongly typed ActionScript library development with hundreds of classes and interfaces but I’m not quite sure how to transfer my programming skills from ActionScript to JavaScript.

After reading loads of informations I think I created an reusable and understandable build process for my JavaScript project. I bet you’ve already read a lot about YUICompressor and ANT so here you’ll find just some brief informations.

This is my example workspace with file type src subfolders and even another subfolder within the js directory named like the JavaScript library it contains. All ANT files can be found in src/ant:
 

Now let’s have a look at system.properties. This file bundles the system specific settings and usually won’t need changes at all after your initial setup. Only YUI_COMPRESSOR_JAR and YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET will affect the build.xml. I still don’t know what’s the correct charset, but my encoding problems might be caused by the editor. I’ll figure that out later…

#
# SYSTEM PROPERTIES
#
 
# Version number separated for easy changes
YUI_COMPRESSOR_VERSION=2.4.6
 
# Absolut path to YUICompressor home directory
YUI_COMPRESSOR_HOME=/Users/you/.../YUICompressor/${YUI_COMPRESSOR_VERSION}
 
# Absolute path to JAR file (used in build.xml!)
YUI_COMPRESSOR_JAR=${YUI_COMPRESSOR_HOME}/build/yuicompressor-${YUI_COMPRESSOR_VERSION}.jar
 
# Charset used with YUICompressor - MAKE SURE THIS IS CORRECT FOR YOUR SYSTEM!!!
YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET=MacRoman
#YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET=UTF-8
#YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET=ANSI
#YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET=ISO-8859-1

The project.properties currently only contains the basic workspace structure.

#
# PROJECT PROPERTIES
#
 
# Workspace root relative to build.xml
WORKSPACE_ROOT=../..
 
# Main binary directory
BIN_DIR=${WORKSPACE_ROOT}/bin
 
# JavaScript bin directory
BIN_JS_DIR=${BIN_DIR}/js
 
# Main source directory
SRC_DIR=${WORKSPACE_ROOT}/src
 
# JavaScript source directory
SRC_JS_DIR=${SRC_DIR}/js

Finally there is the main build.xml. I was trying hard to write an understandable documentation. Just follow these steps (also found more detailed within the file):

  1. Replace the default library name and prefix with your’s.
  2. Add your source files.
  3. Choose your browser and html file (works at least with Mac OS X).
  4. Run the ANT task called YOUR_LIBRARY_PREFIX_run().
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project name="JavaScript Project Tasks" basedir=".">
 
    <!--
        Created without much experience ;) by derRaab(); - http://blog.derRaab.com
    -->
 
    <!-- Load external properties -->
    <property file="project.properties" />
    <property file="system.properties" />
 
    <!--
        _createWorkspace() - Creates the basic workspace structure..
    -->
    <target name="_createWorkspace()" description="Creates the basic workspace structure.">
        <mkdir dir="${BIN_CSS_DIR}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${BIN_JS_DIR}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${SRC_JS_DIR}"/>
        <mkdir dir="${SRC_CSS_DIR}"/>
    </target>
 
    <!--
        __openBrowser( browserName, targetFile ) - Opens a browser with a specific file.
 
        This might be Mac OS X specific, so please refer to
        http://www.darronschall.com/weblog/2007/12/launching-firefox-from-ant-on-osx.cfm
        for further informations.
 
        @param browserName        e.g. 'Firefox', 'Safari', 'Chrome'
        @param targetFile        e.g. 'path/to/index.html'
    -->
    <target name="__openBrowser()" description="Utility task - Opens a browser with a specific file.">
        <echo message="__openBrowser( ${browserName}, ${targetFile} )" />
        <exec executable="open" spawn="yes">
            <arg line="-a ${browserName}" />
            <arg line="${targetFile}" />
        </exec>
    </target>
 
    <!--
        _concatenate( inputFileListID, inputFileSetID, outputFile ) - Concatenates a FileSet into one fresh file.
 
        @param inputFileListID
        @param inputFileSetID
        @param outputFile        e.g. 'path/to/file/name.ext'
    -->
    <target name="__concatenate()" description="Utility task - Concatenates a FileSet into one fresh file.">
        <echo message="_concatenate( ${inputFileSetID}, ${outputFile} )" />
        <delete file="${outputFile}"/>
        <concat destfile="${outputFile}" fixlastline="yes">
            <filelist refid="${inputFileListID}"/>
            <fileset refid="${inputFileSetID}"/>
        </concat>
    </target>
 
    <!--
        _yuiCompress( workDir, inputFile, outputFile ) - Compresses a single JavaScript file into one fresh file within the same directory.
 
        @param workDir            e.g. 'path/to/file'
        @param inputFile        e.g. 'name.js'
        @param outputFile        e.g. 'name.min.js'
    -->
    <target name="__compress()" description="Utility task - Compresses a single JavaScript file into one fresh file within the same directory.">
        <echo message="_yuiCompress( ${workDir}, ${inputFile}, ${outputFile} )" />
        <delete file="${workDir}/${outputFile}"/>
        <apply dest="${workDir}" executable="java" verbose="true">
            <fileset dir="${workDir}">
                <include name="${inputFile}" />
            </fileset>
            <arg line="-jar" />
            <arg path="${YUI_COMPRESSOR_JAR}" />    
            <arg value="--charset" />
            <arg value="${YUI_COMPRESSOR_CHARSET}" />
            <arg value="-o" />
            <targetfile />
            <mapper type="glob" from="${inputFile}" to="${outputFile}" />
        </apply>
    </target>
 
    <!--
 
        SETTING UP YOUR BUILD PROCESS:
 
        1.    Recognise the default name ('library') and prefix ('LIBRARY_JS') in this default build.xml 
        1.    Choose a unique name and prefix for your library.
        2.    Use your editor's case sensitive replace all functionality to change the default values
            ('library'->'yourLibrary' and 'LIBRARY_JS_'->'YOUR_LIBRARY_JS_')
            NOTE: You can add multiple libraries to one build.xml
        3.    Add a version number (see ...VERSION) if needed.
        4.    Add files to your file list (see ...FILE_LIST) - OR! add a bunch of files to your file set (see ...FILE_SET)
        5.    Choose your browser (see ...RUN_BROWSER_NAME)
        6    Choose your run file (see ...RUN_FILE_NAME)
 
    -->
 
    <!--
        ...NAME                    Library name used in file system
        ...VERSION                Optional library version suffix e.g. '-1.2.6' or ''
        ...BIN_FILE_DIR            Library binary folder e.g. 'bin/js'
        ...BIN_FILE_NAME        Full file name of concatenated file
        ...BIN_MIN_FILE_NAME    Full file name of minimized file (must be different!)
        ...SRC_DIR                Library source folder e.g. 'src/js/library'
        ...RUN_BROWSER_NAME        Your test browser of choice (Mac OS X only?) e.g. 'Firefox', 'Safari', 'Chrome' 
        ...RUN_FILE_NAME        Your test file e.g. 'index.html' 
    -->
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_NAME" value="library"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_VERSION" value=""/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_BIN_DIR" value="${BIN_JS_DIR}"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_BIN_FILE_NAME" value="${LIBRARY_JS_NAME}${LIBRARY_JS_VERSION}.js"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_BIN_MIN_FILE_NAME" value="${LIBRARY_JS_NAME}${LIBRARY_JS_VERSION}.min.js"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_SRC_DIR" value="${SRC_JS_DIR}/${LIBRARY_JS_NAME}"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_RUN_BROWSER_NAME" value="Safari"/>
    <property name="LIBRARY_JS_RUN_FILE_NAME" value="index.html"/>
 
    <!--
        ...FILE_LIST    File list used within _concatenate()
        ...FILE_SET        File set used within _concatenate()
 
        Important:
 
        1.    YUICompressor will use the ...FILE_LIST first and ...FILE_SET afterwards!
            So you can first assign a special file order and then additionally add a bunch of unordered files
        2.    Avoid duplicates since YUICompresser doesn't check if a file was already added!
        3.    It's a good approach to only use one of them and leave the other one empty.
    -->
    <filelist id="LIBRARY_JS_FILE_LIST" dir="${LIBRARY_JS_SRC_DIR}">
        <file name="core.js"/>
        <file name="more.js"/>
        <file name="evenmore.js"/>
    </filelist>
    <fileset id="LIBRARY_JS_FILE_SET" dir="${LIBRARY_JS_SRC_DIR}">
        <exclude name="**/*.*"/><!-- by default file set is not used! -->
        <!--<include name="**/*.js"/> this is how you add all js files-->
    </fileset>
 
    <!--
        ..._createWorkspace()    - Creates the library source dir.
        ..._concatenate()        - Concatenates the library.
        ..._compress()            - Compresses the library.
        ..._openBrowser()        - Open's the index.html in your preferred browser.
        ..._run()                - Compresses the library and open's the index.html in your preferred browser.
    -->
    <target name="LIBRARY_JS_createWorkspace()" depends="_createWorkspace()">
        <mkdir dir="${LIBRARY_JS_SRC_DIR}"/>
    </target>
    <target name="LIBRARY_JS_concatenate()" depends="LIBRARY_JS_createWorkspace()">
        <antcall target="__concatenate()">
            <param name="inputFileListID" value="LIBRARY_JS_FILE_LIST"/>
            <param name="inputFileSetID" value="LIBRARY_JS_FILE_SET"/>
            <param name="outputFile" value="${LIBRARY_JS_BIN_DIR}/${LIBRARY_JS_BIN_FILE_NAME}"/>
        </antcall>
    </target>
    <target name="LIBRARY_JS_compress()" depends="LIBRARY_JS_concatenate()">
        <antcall target="__compress()">
            <param name="workDir" value="${LIBRARY_JS_BIN_DIR}"/>
            <param name="inputFile" value="${LIBRARY_JS_BIN_FILE_NAME}"/>
            <param name="outputFile" value="${LIBRARY_JS_BIN_MIN_FILE_NAME}"/>
        </antcall>
    </target>
    <target name="LIBRARY_JS_openBrowser()">
        <antcall target="__openBrowser()">
            <param name="browserName" value="${LIBRARY_JS_RUN_BROWSER_NAME}"/>
            <param name="targetFile" value="${basedir}/${BIN_DIR}/${LIBRARY_JS_RUN_FILE_NAME}"/>
        </antcall>
    </target>
    <target name="LIBRARY_JS_run()">
        <antcall target="LIBRARY_JS_compress()"/>
        <antcall target="LIBRARY_JS_openBrowser()"/>
    </target>
 
</project>

Notice that it’s possible to have multiple libraries within a single build.xml. Simply use different prefixes!

In the end I found most of the core informations at http://www.samaxes.com and http://www.darronschall.com/weblog. Thank you guys! And of course the ANT and YUICompressor manuals accessible through Google ;) .

And now I have two question:

  • Will you tell me your preferred editor?
  • Will you give me a hint according to code organization?

Please.

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/07/07/javascript-library-development-using-ant-and-yuicompressor/feed/ 9 Adobe AIR 2.7: Faster App Performance on iOS http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/15/adobe-air-2-7-faster-app-performance-on-ios/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/15/adobe-air-2-7-faster-app-performance-on-ios/#comments Wed, 15 Jun 2011 08:02:12 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=641 Continue reading →]]> Get a big performance boost on iOS using Adobe AIR 2.7 SDK!

Adobe’s current release version includes a number of feature enhancements:

  • Install AIR Runtime to SD (Android)
  • Improved performance on iOS
  • Media Measurement
  • Acoustic Echo Cancellation (Desktop only)
  • Enhanced HTMLLoader API
  • Interpreter Mode for iOS

Read full details here: http://blogs.adobe.com/flashruntimereleases/2011/06/14/air-2-7-runtimes-and-sdk-are-now-available/

See the performance:

Don’t know where to start? This guide is still valid: iOS development with AIR 2.6 using FDT and my new friend ANT

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/15/adobe-air-2-7-faster-app-performance-on-ios/feed/ 0 Flex compiler – application descriptor: invalid application identifier http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/08/flex-compiler-application-descriptor-invalid-application-identifier/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/08/flex-compiler-application-descriptor-invalid-application-identifier/#comments Wed, 08 Jun 2011 14:26:40 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=631 Continue reading →]]> Whenever your Flex compiler prompts
“application descriptor: invalid application identifier“,
you might check your application description XML file. Your application ID might contain underscores (in my case) or other invalid characters. Since I found a hint to the solution only at koali.com.au, I think it’s a good idea to reblog it.

Quote from Adobe livedocs:

id – An identifier string unique to the application, known as the application ID. The attribute value is restricted to the following characters:

  • 0-9
  • a-z
  • A-Z
  • . (dot)
  • - (hyphen)

The value must contain between 1 to 212 characters. This element is required.

The id string typically uses a dot-separated hierarchy, in alignment with a reversed DNS domain address, a Java package or class name, or an OS X Universal Type Identifier. The DNS-like form is not enforced, and AIR does not create any association between the name and actual DNS domains.

More informations about the descriptor file:
http://livedocs.adobe.com/flex/3/html/help.html?content=dg_part_4_1.html

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/08/flex-compiler-application-descriptor-invalid-application-identifier/feed/ 0 Safari Flash Player detection problems with ClickToFlash http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/06/safari-flash-player-detection-problems-with-clicktoflash/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/06/safari-flash-player-detection-problems-with-clicktoflash/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:52:39 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=609 Continue reading →]]> I really like the concept of blocking Flash, mainly because I don’t see these unwanted, crappy developed Flash adds sucking performance, but also because it’s a nice way to recognise Flash parts in websites. You’ll have your own reasons.

Safari is, except for testing purposes, my browser of choice, but I was having trouble on different websites accessing Flash content because the Flash plugin was not detected correctly. Since I had to update the Flash Player on my system again, I decided to figure out what the problem is.

According to Playerversion.com an older Flash Player version – MAC 10,0,45,0 – was found first, then the display switched to my installed Flash version – MAC 10,3,181,14 (Debug player).

I used the Flash Player Uninstaller but Flash Player version MAC 10,0,45,0 was still displayed in Safari.

After some research I figured out that ClickToFlash doesn’t display the correct Flash Player version and therefore doesn’t work in all Flash detection scripts. Just check Safari - Help - Installed Plugins and search for "Flash" and you’ll see that ClickToFlash simulates somehow an outdated Flash Player version (seems to be hardcoded).

So until ClickToFlash will be updated displaying the correct installed Flash Player version I’ll use AdBlock For Safari. More Flash but less problems – hopefully. :)

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/06/06/safari-flash-player-detection-problems-with-clicktoflash/feed/ 0 Linked List Performance Test using Getter or Interface http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/21/linked-list-performance-test-using-getter-or-interface/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/21/linked-list-performance-test-using-getter-or-interface/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2011 13:30:52 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=596 Continue reading →]]> Another test regarding linked lists. Since I heavily use interfaces within the frameworks I’m working on I tried to define interfaces for my linked list items. I would love to use an abstract interface but with the full linked list speed. Seems not possible. If you create an interface you need to use at least one getter function which kills performance.

I compared execution time using this code:

package
{
    import flash.utils.getTimer;
    import flash.events.Event;
    import flash.display.Sprite;
 
    public final class LinkedListPerformanceCheck extends Sprite
    {
        private var _firstItemWithPublicVar : ItemWithPublicVar;
        private var _firstFinalItemWithPublicVar : FinalItemWithPublicVar;
        private var _firstItemWithGetter : ItemWithGetter;
        private var _firstFinalItemWithGetter : FinalItemWithGetter;
        private var _firstIItemWithGetter : IItemWithGetter;
        private var _firstIFinalItemWithGetter : IFinalItemWithGetter;
 
        private var _c : int;
        private var _i : int;
 
        public function LinkedListPerformanceCheck()
        {
            loaderInfo.addEventListener( Event.COMPLETE, run );
        }
 
        private function run( event : Event ) : void
        {
            _c = 5000000;
            _i = 0;
            addEventListener( Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame );
        }
 
        private function onEnterFrame( event : Event ) : void
        {
            switch( _i++ )
            {
                case 0 : createItemWithPublicVarTest(); break;
                case 1 : createFinalItemWithPublicVarTest(); break;
                case 2 : createItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 3 : createFinalItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 4 : createImplementedIItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 5 : createImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 6 : break; // wait
                case 7 : break; // wait
                case 8 : break; // wait
                case 9 : break; // wait
                case 10 : runItemWithPublicVarTest(); break;
                case 11 : runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest(); break;
                case 12 : runItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 13 : runFinalItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 14 : runImplementedIItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 15 : runImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest(); break;
                case 16 : runItemWithPublicVarTest(); break; // again - just to make sure...
                case 17 : runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest(); break; // again - just to make sure...
                default: removeEventListener( Event.ENTER_FRAME, onEnterFrame );
            }
        }
 
        private function createItemWithPublicVarTest() : void
        {
            var item : ItemWithPublicVar = _firstItemWithPublicVar = new ItemWithPublicVar();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new ItemWithPublicVar(); }
        }
 
        private function runItemWithPublicVarTest() : void
        {
            var item : ItemWithPublicVar = _firstItemWithPublicVar;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runItemWithPublicVarTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
 
        private function createFinalItemWithPublicVarTest() : void
        {
            var item : FinalItemWithPublicVar = _firstFinalItemWithPublicVar = new FinalItemWithPublicVar();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new FinalItemWithPublicVar(); }
        }
 
        private function runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest() : void
        {
            var item : FinalItemWithPublicVar = _firstFinalItemWithPublicVar;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
 
        private function createItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : ItemWithGetter = _firstItemWithGetter = new ItemWithGetter();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new ItemWithGetter(); }
        }
 
        private function runItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : ItemWithGetter = _firstItemWithGetter;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runItemWithGetterTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
 
        private function createFinalItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : FinalItemWithGetter = _firstFinalItemWithGetter = new FinalItemWithGetter();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new FinalItemWithGetter(); }
        }
 
        private function runFinalItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : FinalItemWithGetter = _firstFinalItemWithGetter;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runFinalItemWithGetterTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
 
        private function createImplementedIItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : IItemWithGetter = _firstIItemWithGetter = new ImplementedIItemWithGetter();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new ImplementedIItemWithGetter(); }
        }
 
        private function runImplementedIItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : IItemWithGetter = _firstIItemWithGetter;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runImplementedIItemWithGetterTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
 
        private function createImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : IFinalItemWithGetter = _firstIFinalItemWithGetter = new ImplementedIFinalItemWithGetter();
            for ( var i : int = 0; i < _c; i++ ) { item = item.next = new ImplementedIFinalItemWithGetter(); }
        }
 
        private function runImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest() : void
        {
            var item : IFinalItemWithGetter = _firstIFinalItemWithGetter;
            var startTime : int = getTimer();
            while( item ){ item = item.next; }
            var duration : int = getTimer() - startTime;
            trace("LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest( " +duration + " )");
        }
    }
}
 
class ItemWithPublicVar { public var next : ItemWithPublicVar; }
 
final class FinalItemWithPublicVar { public var next : FinalItemWithPublicVar; }
 
class ItemWithGetter
{
    private var _next : ItemWithGetter;
    public function get next() : ItemWithGetter { return _next; }
    public function set next( value : ItemWithGetter ) : void { _next = value; }
}
 
final class FinalItemWithGetter
{
    private var _next : FinalItemWithGetter;
    public function get next() : FinalItemWithGetter { return _next; }
    public function set next( value : FinalItemWithGetter ) : void { _next = value; }
}
 
interface IItemWithGetter
{
    function get next() : IItemWithGetter;
    function set next( value : IItemWithGetter ) : void;
}
 
class ImplementedIItemWithGetter implements IItemWithGetter
{
    private var _next : IItemWithGetter;
    public function get next() : IItemWithGetter { return _next; }
    public function set next( value : IItemWithGetter ) : void { _next = value; }
}
 
interface IFinalItemWithGetter
{
    function get next() : IFinalItemWithGetter;
    function set next( value : IFinalItemWithGetter ) : void;
}
 
final class ImplementedIFinalItemWithGetter implements IFinalItemWithGetter
{
    private var _next : IFinalItemWithGetter;
    public function get next() : IFinalItemWithGetter { return _next; }
    public function set next( value : IFinalItemWithGetter ) : void { _next = value; }
}

Result:

LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runItemWithPublicVarTest( 86 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest( 88 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runItemWithGetterTest( 1247 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runFinalItemWithGetterTest( 1148 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runImplementedIItemWithGetterTest( 1161 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runImplementedIFinalItemWithGetterTest( 1160 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runItemWithPublicVarTest( 64 )
LinkedListPerformanceCheck.runFinalItemWithPublicVarTest( 62 )

Using public variables instead of getter functions is much faster. To make sure memory allocation doesn’t kill performance I repeated the public variables test at the end. Even faster.

Is there a way to define Interfaces for public variables?

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/21/linked-list-performance-test-using-getter-or-interface/feed/ 0 FFK11 – beyond tellerrand notes http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/08/ffk11-beyond-tellerrand-notes/ http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/08/ffk11-beyond-tellerrand-notes/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2011 22:03:46 +0000 derRaab http://blog.derraab.com/?p=578 Continue reading →]]> I’m still not sure if “beyond tellerrand” is a subtitle or will become the new brand for the one and only Flashforum conference here in germany. Sascha Wolter and Marc Thiele did a great job as always and even I never went to another conference, FFK seems still to be a special one. Again I was lucky listening to some really cool stuff.

Interestingly most of my last year notes are still up to date, which doesn’t help if you don’t keep them in mind. So I think it’s a good idea to read my own notes from time to time. ;)

That’s what I became aware of this time:

AIR 2.6

  • Lee Brimelow mentioned AIR 2.6 on iOS is faster than on Android! Yeah.
  • Adobe is working hard on increasing performance near to native code.
  • Installing a runtime seems to be annoying for Android users, so Adobe is thinking about compiling for Android like for iOS. Which might bring some extra performance as well.
  • I asked Lee Brimelow about AIR on Windows Phone 7 and he said something like “Adobe is currently not working on that and it would be a lot of work”. Well, of course Microsoft is not interested having AIR on their system, but it would be a really important platform for all of us. So in my opinion Adobe at least has a small team checking out what’s possible. What do you think about Windows Phone 7 and AIR support?

Flex Builder 4.5

  • You can get Flex SDK 4.5 already, but there’s also a way to join the private pre-release program to get early access to Flex Builder 4.5. Just visit http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/flexprerelease. They are working on some useful stuff and it might be a good idea to test some of the new features.
  • Deepa Supramaniam mentioned spark MXML skins have performance issues on mobile devices. That’s why they created pure ActionScript spark skins for mobile applications. Hopefully, within the private beta Flex SDKs, we’ll find some great improvements: http://www.riagora.com/2011/03/preview-of-flex-on-ios/.

NUI

  • Wolfgang Henseler (Talk I missed at FFK10) opened my mind according NUI.
  • Don’t think of apps on mobile devices but of services allowing you reaching your goal faster than a website.
  • Think about providing services, combining them, rethinking them.
  • Use less design and let objects provide their functionalities (e.g. tap on image to get some options).
  • My brain is very busy with that NUI thing. E. g. he mentioned the Siri iPhone app. It’s not about how it looks like (not so cool) but how it works! Combining lots of possibilities with a really easy interface (speech) . He was also talking about “in body technology” (sensors and stuff like that.) and http://www.tedmed.com/
  • After Dennis Ippels Kinect (OpenKinect / http://www.primesense.com/) introduction I finally know something about the magic behind this device as well.

Molehill

Additional useful links:

]]> http://blog.derraab.com/2011/04/08/ffk11-beyond-tellerrand-notes/feed/ 3