jQuery Mobile and Metro UI Fashion Trends

Recently, I have worked quite a bit with jQuery Mobile. Started out by looking at it as one of several JavaScript UI libraries I evaluated for use with MoSync apps. Then used jQuery Mobile for labs exercises at a Mobile development course at KTH (student seemed happy about it). And this weekend I have been making a prototype of a new MoSync documentation web site, with the UI in jQuery Mobile.

What I like about jQuery Mobile is that it feels like a solid library that produces good looking UIs. Interaction can be a bit slow, but my impression is that this has improved  (purely subjective opinion, perhaps I feel it is faster because I like it more now ;)). Documentation is also useful once you have learned the basics.

So, regarding the remake of the MoSync documentation site, what would be more natural for a mobile tools company than to do the documentation site using a Mobile UI framework? We pulled out the existing documentation pages from the current Drupal site, and I then wrote a Ruby program that produces a jQuery Mobile site built from the documentation pages (I really like Ruby, very useful with powerful libraries :)).

What came to my mind during this process is how cool it would be with a Windows Phone theme for jQuery Mobile. I did not have to look for long until I found it.

Somehow, the iOS inspired themes many of the JavaScript UI libraries are using, feel a bit outdated. Microsoft may very well have set a new trend with Metro and the Windows Phone UI. And the Swedish gaming hardware site Sweclockers announced they are going for a Windows 8 inspired theme for their new web site.

Perhaps this is the start of a new trend, that the Web 4.0 (?) will be Metro inspired, both on desktop and mobile devices. After all, the fun thing with web technology is that you are not restricted to the look and feel provided by the OS. Remember years around 1995 - 2000 when web design took off? At that time, to say you would want a web site that looked like Windows or Mac OS would be seen as odd, to say the least.

Fashion goes in circles, today Native UI is hot on mobile devices, but I must say that Web UI is catching up. And I do not mean Web UIs that mimic Native UIs, but are inspired by them, like in the case with Metro styled web sites.

Web UIs will always have a head start in that they can adapt quickly to new needs and trends. As someone said about scifi author Roger Zelazny, "He may not be among the most heavyweight, but the more freely he can fly."

Det Sjunde Tornet

Niels Harrit is giving a seminar about the WTC 7 collapse in Stockholm.

Jag fick följande inbjudan från Niels Harrit per epost:

DET SJUNDE TORNET

- en fatal historia från nutiden

Föredrag

v/ Niels Harrit, lic.scient., lektor emeritus, Köbenhamns Universitet

Onsdag d. 13. februari, 18.45 – 22.00

ABF (Zeta-salen), Sveavägen 41, Stockholm

Inträde 180,- kr.

I de flesta människors medvetande var World Trade Center (WTC) två gigantiska torn, som rasade samman efter att blivit träffade av flygplan den 11 september 2001. Färre människor vet att centret i verkligheten bestod av sju byggnader runt ett torg. Den sjunde av dessa byggnader var hälften så hög som tvillingtornen men räckte trots allt nästan 200 m upp med sina 47 våningar och täckte en areal lite mindre än en fotbollsplan.

Ännu färre människor vet att denna byggnad störtade samman sent på eftermiddagen, sju timmar efter tornens kollaps. Byggnad 7 blev inte träffat av något flygplan.

Föredraget handlar om de tekniska och fysiska omständigheter som omger denna händelse, som får ses som det mest oväntade och oförklarliga raset i modern arkitekturs historia.

Första delen är en genomgång av den officiella förklaringen för raset, som den är framställd i en rapport av National Institute of Standards and Technology, september, 2008. Denne jämförs med några enkla observationer och Newtons lagar.

I andra delen presenteras en reviderad hypotes, som understöds av teknisk dokumentation ­– inkl de senaste rönen.

Det finns tid för diskussion.

Five reasons to love MoSync

Hi.

This is an unconventional job ad. And if you are just curious about MoSync, read on to get an inside view :)

MoSync is a company that makes mobile development tools. Cross-platform tools that support Android, iOS, Windows Phone, and other platforms. The MoSync SDK supports C/C++ and HTML/JavaScript. Other languages written in C/C++, like Lua and SmallBASIC, can also run in MoSync. Runtime libraries for the different platforms are written in C/C++, Objective-C, Java, and C#. And for the build tools we use Ruby. This makes MoSync a paradise for programmers that love programming languages.

I work at MoSync. My official title is "Dynamic Languages Specialist". I truly enjoy dynamic languages. I am also fond of C. The first language I learned was called ASTA, implemented in Simula, using a Swedish syntax (!). This was in 1982. The following years I learned COBOL, Simula, CS4 (associative database language), LOGO, Lisp, Prolog, Pascal, C, and Smalltalk. Over the years I have come to appreciate lots of different languages, like HyperTalk and Lingo (!), Erlang, Oz, Python, Ruby, Lua, and JavaScript.

Among the programming languages I have used, Lisp and Smalltalk stand out. They are truly amazing languages, based on self-referential and meta qualities, boot-strapping from within, much like this sculpture of a Lisp programmer by Nathan Sawaya. The divine qualities of these languages is why I have named my blog divineprogrammer ;)

MoSync is looking for people to join offices in Stockholm and Cluj. Perhaps you are one of them?

Here are five reasons to love working at MoSync.

1. You get to work on development tools. What could be more fun if you like programming than to develop programming tools? (That would be to design your own programming language ;)

2. As I said above, you get to work with lots of programming languages, both static and dynamic languages, and you can specialize in your favourites :)

3. Get get to work with competent people. Developers at MoSync are passionate programmers, and you can learn a lot from your colleagues. People who work here come from several different countries, we speak a lot of English, which is a good way to keep up your language skills if English is not your first language. Everyone is very friendly too :)

4. You get to learn something new almost every day. When fixing bugs and developing new features and libraries, you have to search the Internet for solutions (at least I have to ;), which is also a great way to discover work that others do. You can also participate in forums and help other people. You can chose if you want to focus on some deeply technical issues, or be more social. For me this differs from day to day. Sometimes I am social and and interact with people, sometimes I dig into some technical issue and work mostly by myself.

5. You get to play around with lots of different mobile devices :) Check out this video of the Stockholm office, showing last year's Christmas tree decorated with mobile devices :)

One last thing, make sure you visit the official MoSync job ad :)

Best regards, Mikael