Rob Wilkerson

Recent Blog Comments By Rob Wilkerson

• David Stamm On Styling Form Elements

  Posted on Dec 11, 2007 at 11:41 AM

  Oh, I beg to differ. Mostly I just wanted to use that phrase, but I do take a more moderate stance on this particular issue. The bottom line for me is this: I just need to know - at a glance - that it's a form field. If that one condition is met, then styling is fine. That 1px border does not... read more »

• Antialiased Text Is Not All That

  Posted on Oct 1, 2007 at 9:22 AM

  I've become a big Mac guy, but I have to admit an emphatic preference for MS's clear type. Like you, I find the Mac anti-aliasing too fuzzy-looking more often than I'd like. I understand their reasoning (the article by Joel is a good read), but don't happen to agree with it.... read more »

• Code Assertively

  Posted on Sep 18, 2007 at 3:10 PM

  For me, at least, the precision argument is most applicable for "non-static" structures. Form, URL, etc. are just there and they're reserved. They exist, are well known and are few in number. I don't think precision is lost because they are reserved words with very specific meanings. For user de... read more »

• Code Assertively

  Posted on Sep 18, 2007 at 10:06 AM

  No offense taken. We're just having a pleasant discussion here. You didn't present your opinion in any inflammatory manner (actually, you went out of your way to avoid doing so) so I didn't take it as such. :-) As for when isDefined() is appropriate. I tend to use cfparam for most things myself ... read more »

• Code Assertively

  Posted on Sep 18, 2007 at 9:41 AM

  I think you're putting a lot of pressure on structKeyExists() to perform. I also think this may not be the best example. isDefined() is appropriate in many cases, although in your example structKeyExists() is more...precise. For my tastes, the latter is better in this specific instance because of... read more »

• Project HUGE: Max Squat Is Watching Over Me

  Posted on Sep 16, 2007 at 7:58 AM

  Man, I have to tell you that I was really embarrassed and self-conscious when they asked me to be the model for that figurine, but hearing that it's helping someone reach their own fitness goals makes it all worth it. :-) Good luck and all the best, Max... read more »

• My First ColdFusion XML / XSLT Example

  Posted on Sep 7, 2007 at 11:41 AM

  XSLT is convoluted as hell, but immensely useful in a pinch. And powerful as hell. I wrote a mini-feed reader a while back that I wanted to support RDF, RSS2 and Atom 1.0 feed formats, but I didn't want to write 3 separate parsers. I used XSLT to convert all formats into RSS2 (only the elements... read more »

• Using BODY ID As A Back To Top Page Anchor

  Posted on Jul 11, 2007 at 1:18 PM

  More to the point, is it adjusting the scroll value or is it reloading the entire page and you end up at the top of the page by default. I thought it was doing a complete reload (albeit from cache in many cases).... read more »

• Using BODY ID As A Back To Top Page Anchor

  Posted on Jul 11, 2007 at 12:43 PM

  Great tip. I didn't know you could do that, but it's so much more elegant.... read more »

• Having Trouble Getting Back On The Coding Horse

  Posted on Jul 9, 2007 at 10:49 AM

  I'm right there with you, man. I reached burn out about a month ago and haven't even touched any side projects. The only outside work I've been doing is to solve specific problems and/or annoyances within my own systems. I just can't bring myself to do much else.... read more »

• Lenny And Bo, ColdFusion Programmers (Vol. 18)

  Posted on Jun 13, 2007 at 11:40 AM

  Finally, a comic I can relate to...... read more »

• Learning ColdFusion 8: All Hail The New ++ Operator

  Posted on Jun 3, 2007 at 1:33 PM

  But a bit of a clumsy implementation of it, IMO...... read more »

• Learning ColdFusion 8: All Hail The New ++ Operator

  Posted on Jun 1, 2007 at 8:03 AM

  That's the one. It's a crowd pleaser in JS and I've been doing a lot of <gasp!> PHP lately which allows me to get my fix. :-)... read more »

• Learning ColdFusion 8: All Hail The New ++ Operator

  Posted on Jun 1, 2007 at 7:53 AM

  Good stuff, but I'm still holding my most raucous applause for ternary operators when/if they get introduced. :-)... read more »

• It Goes From God To Ben Forta To Us

  Posted on May 16, 2007 at 12:11 PM

  Outstanding Real Genius reset, but where does the laundromat fit in?... read more »

• Ask Ben: Truncating The Event Titles In A Calendar Display

  Posted on May 7, 2007 at 4:32 PM

  I'm not sure I like this approach. First, as Ben mentioned, the hover pseudo-class would bounce the display all over the place - even when the user is just trying to move the cursor from point A to point B. Batty, indeed. Second, using this approach without the pseudo-class would arbitrarily tru... read more »

• Finally Bought Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged

  Posted on May 7, 2007 at 3:25 PM

  I first picked up The Fountainhead as an architecture student in the late 80's/early 90's. Great book. Especially if you like and understand the principles of modern design. I've since read most of her other work (Anthem, We the Living, etc.), but none approaches the genius of The Fountainhead to... read more »

• Force ColdFusion Server To Recompile A ColdFusion Template

  Posted on May 3, 2007 at 8:48 AM

  Trusted cache is simply a setting that tells the CF server that, if the template is cached, to use the cached version. Period. Otherwise, the timestamp (and maybe other properties?) are checked to determine whether to serve the cached version or recompile. It's a useful setting in production. A ... read more »

• And On The Seventh Row, MOD Created 1, And It Was Good

  Posted on Apr 30, 2007 at 9:32 AM

  Another handy use: creating a specific number of columns. I use this all the time since I find myself creating "sets" of checkboxes. If I have 11 checkboxes it's easier to read if they're laid out so that there are 2 rows of 4 and one row of 3. To do that, I usually give the parent element a pre-... read more »

• Lenny And Bo, ColdFusion Programmers (Vol. 8)

  Posted on Apr 20, 2007 at 12:25 PM

  Well, most have been entertaining, but I can't help but notice a common theme... :-)... read more »