Tag Archives: Programming

A Javascript stacktrace in any browser

{Topic: [Javascript], Comments: 63}

UPDATE: You’ll want to check out the updated post with new code, tests, and compatibility.

Chances are that if you’ve done any significant Javascript work, you’ve run into a situation where part of the debugging process could be much improved if you just had the function call stack.

I’m going to give you some ways of doing this with and without the popular Firebug extension and have some examples of their uses.

Without Firebug and friends? Using IE?

Sometimes s**t only happens in other browsers. Here’s how to create/log your own stack trace. Put this code in an accessible place in your Javascript file(s) and call the printStackTrace() function inside any function.

I’m going to give you some ways of doing this with and without the popular Firebug extension and have some examples of their uses.

Without Firebug and friends? Using IE?

Sometimes s**t only happens in other browsers. Here’s how to create/log your own stack trace. Put this code in an accessible place in your Javascript file(s) and call the printStackTrace() function inside any function. Continue reading →

grep is a beautiful tool

{Topic: [Bash,Tools], Comments: 70}

Global Regular Expression Print is a staple of every command-line user’s toolbox. As with find, it derives a lot of power from being combined with other tools and can increase your productivity significantly.

Following is a simple tutorial that will help you realize the power of this simple and most useful command. If you are on Windows and haven’t already, download and install Cygwin. If you are also new to regular expressions (regex), here is a great regular expressions reference to get you started.

Tutorial

Suppose we want to search for duplicate functions in all of our JavaScript files. Let’s start basic and work up to it. This technique can be used to search for a TON of duplicate items like:

  • Duplicate HTML IDs
  • Check how many times a CSS class is used
  • Duplicate java classes
  • many, many more…

Continue reading →

Find is a beautiful tool

{Topic: [Bash,Productivity], Comments: 103}

I have blogged before that knowledge of command-line tools is essential to take the next step in programming productivity. I think it would be useful to provide simple tutorials for these powerful tools, starting with find. I hope you agree, and would appreciate your feedback via the contact page or in the comments.

Tutorial

If you’re on Windows, I would recommend installing Cygwin to bring the power of a real shell to your OS. Let us start with a simple example and build upon it Continue reading →

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