Saturday, 19th July 2008
php: rfc: closures (via) I never thought I’d see the day, but a patch adding closures to PHP has been both proposed and accepted! Looks like a solid implementation—the syntax is similar to JavaScript but makes explicit which variables are to be captured. As with much of PHP, values are copied in to the closure by default but you can use an ampersand to specify JavaScript-style pass-by-reference instead.
Simple Top-Down Parsing in Python. Eye-opening tutorial on building a recursive descent parser for Python, in Python that uses top-down operator precedence.
The Truth about Web Navigation. Jeremy Zawodny on regular users understanding the browser address bar: “They don’t. And they never will.” Then they’re going to get phished, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do to help them.
HeatMapAPI (via) Cool (or should that be hot?) API for adding heat maps to any Google Maps application.
We’re added some iCal views to BBC Programmes. BBC /programmes is one of the most exciting public facing parts of the BBC’s online offerings.
Jinja2 Final aka Jinjavitus Released. The Jinja template engine now has auto-escaping as an optional feature, disabled by default. Worth considering as an almost drop-in replacement for Django’s template language if features such as macros and compilation to Python code appeal to you.