Greetings!
My name is Michael James Watt. I am a mature (ok, chronologically) individual with a somewhat eclectic range of interests. Among these is a love for coding in various languages, though I also spend lots of time reading (SF/Fantasy mostly), internet gaming (huge classic EQ fan) and enjoying music (mainly 60s – 90s stuff). My passive interests have slowly been morphing into active ones. I hope to produce a novel some day and I’m a sometime NANOWRIMO participant. For many years I have been struggling to learn the guitar. Persistence pays off, and for the past couple of years now I don’t throw up when I play. My love of coding is beginning to push me into adjacent areas, I have written a small app for Windows Phone called Hidden Pass and one for Android called Media Query Results. Now I’m starting a blog about coding.
What about this blog? I want this blog to be somewhat focused but I don’t want to be slavish about it. The primary thrust will be about client – server coding with particular emphasis on JavaScript and it’s extension into new arenas that has produced so many new and free(!) libraries. Thus you will certainly find on this blog articles related to node.js, regular JavaScript/HTML and HMTL5/JavaScript games. However, you may also find pieces reviewing books (not just technical books, but Fantasy/Sci-Fi as well) and musical albums or artists.
So for the foreseeable future, this blog is going to be mostly about JavaScript. I had always liked JavaScript, but like most everyone else I guess, I had always pigeon-holed it in my mind as a language with a limited role. I considered it a remarkably powerful language (albeit somewhat loose and dirty) that was well suited for it’s designed purpose: manipulation of DOM objects and content within a web page. Recently I have become aware of the resurgence of JavaScript and how it is broadening to become much more than a client-side browser language. I believe it is destined to play an increasing important role in Internet communication and content, and quite possibly even in OS components.
My decision to create a blog was influenced by multiple factors, but the overriding reason was to give me a place to focus and crystallize my learning about new (and some old) JavaScript-related technologies. This forces me to be more thorough than I might ordinarily be and also provides an “archive of learning” where I can go back and revisit things if they grow fuzzy over time. However, I will probably use this blog and the site that encompasses it as a springboard to launch links that point to other endeavors and maybe some advertising links if I think that the linked content might be of any benefit to the reader.
Writing this blog also allows me to do some good for others out in the world. I don’t promise that all content will be in depth – often it will be introductory in nature, but in these cases I will also include links to places where more in-depth knowledge can be pursued. I also do not promise that the blog articles will be error-free, but I will attempt to correct any outright errors that come to my attention. I hope you find the articles herein to be interesting and useful in your own lives.