Its description says it’s an iterator but it certainly is NOT a true iterator.

For example:

Let me know what you expect the code below to return.

var myVars = ['foo1', 'foo2', 'foo3'];

function containsValue(myValue, myCollection) {
	jQuery.each(myCollection, function(i, val) {
		if(val == myValue) {
			return true;
		}
	});
	return false;
}

$(document).ready(function() {
	console.log(containsValue('foo2', myVars));
});

Before I know better, I’d expect it to return true. Since myCollection DOES CONTAIN the value ‘foo2′. However the function containsValue WILL ALWAYS RETURN FALSE. That’s because when you return out of jQuery.each, it simply exits out of jQuery.each but not the containing function. In fact, whether you do anything in the callback function at all, jQuery.each ALWAYS RETURNS the collection you pass in.

e.g.

var returnedVar = jQuery.each(myVars, function(i, val) {});
console.log(returnedVar === myVars); // evaluates to true

In my opinion, jQuery.each acts more like a closure than an iterator. Sure you may use it as an iterator as long as you not returning anything. If you are just changing behaviors or collecting information, it will mimic an iterator. But you need to know, it really is not an iterator.

Personally I’m going to start to use Javascript’s native for..in statement instead of jQuery.each for Javascript collection variables. There is also an argument that jQuery.each may never perform faster than the native support for an iterator. Therefore below I will rewrite the function above using for..in.

function containsValueWithFor(myValue, myCollection) {
	for (index in myCollection) {
		if(myCollection[index] == myValue) {
			return true;
		}
	}
	return false;
}

console.log(containsValueWithFor('foo2', myVars)); // true

var myMap = {'lala':'foo1', '2':'foo2', 'b':'foo3'};

console.log(containsValueWithFor('foo2', myMap)); // true as well for an object/map

—>Example code<—

Benefits to you and the company from attending this event:
Keep up to date regarding the current technologies and development in the Java community.

Information that your co-workers / the company should be aware of:
Functional programming is making a big splash on the JVM. We really should come out of the traditional OO & imperative programming mindset and start think of solving programming challenges in a multi-paradigm fashion. We should upgrade from CVS to Git

Information that you learned that may have negative impacts to the company:
None

Would recommend this event / company presenting to someone else? Why?
Yes. The presenters have great knowledge about their topics. They always make me think harder and different about what I am doing at work.

Additional Comments or Suggestions:
I greatly enjoyed learning more about Scala, akka and functional programming thinking. The multi-paradigm session by Ted Neward opened my eyes. I took logic & functional programming courses in college and was super impressed by how concise and powerful those languages can be used to solve particular issues. Now many frameworks on the JVM prove that as Java programmers (who are innately OO & imperative), we may fully utilize the power of programming languages of other paradigms. This motivates me to explore a newer realm of programming.

I learned a lot from the Seven wastes of software development session e.g. communication is 38% tone, 7% words & 55% body languages. Therefore we should avoid plain emails for especially business rules discussion; converse with a coworker face to face is a much more effective way of communication. I think I don’t always do well in this area. Perhaps programmers are generally shy and introverted. I need to learn to open up more.

I also loved the Spock session although I feel Spock as a framework is yet completely mature for prime time. The fact it doesn’t have a version 1.x release somewhat speaks for this. (And it’s not yet in maven central repository.) I love its various features. But it’s still under heavy development phase as its community is actively adding more features to the framework. If we start using it now, we may need to upgrade our code dramatically later to get its full effects e.g. the @Unroll feature is going to change soon. However, I’m super excited to revisit it in a few months or so to see where it’s at. The fact that it’s a test framework great for both state testing & interaction testing (mocking) is awesome! It sounds like the mocking part of it is yet as mature as other mocking frameworks e.g. Mockito. For example, it doesn’t support partial mock/spy. This does not make me want to switch from Mockito to use it.

I will also use many of the new features of Groovy I learned since I just started using Groovy for testing. The SQL class Groovy has is extremely powerful and gave me many ideas as how I can utilize it to make testing more dynamic and more maintenance free.

It’s sad but better late than never.

The truth is, in my opinion, the fact that javascript test frameworks do not yet maturely work with many of the continuous integration software deters programmers from using them. What’s the point of unit testing if they don’t automatically get run? Based on my research, JSUnit is the only one that integrates with ANT innately. But JSUnit is more of an abandomware now so people are looking for alternatives.

QUnit + CI topics

• jQuery tests under CI
• Syn instead of Selenium?
• QUnit and automated browser tools

>> Run my test suite <<

QUnit simple example:

HTML:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
	<title>Test Suite</title>
	<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js"></script>
	<link rel="stylesheet" href="http://code.jquery.com/qunit/git/qunit.css" type="text/css" media="screen" />
	<script type="text/javascript" src="http://code.jquery.com/qunit/git/qunit.js"></script>
	<!-- Your source files go here -->
	<script type="text/javascript" src="functions.js"></script>

	<!-- Your tests files go here -->
	<script type="text/javascript" src="isEvenTest.js"></script>
	<script type="text/javascript" src="startsWithTest.js"></script>

</head>
<body>
	<h1 id="qunit-header">QUnit example</h1>
	<h2 id="qunit-banner"></h2>
	<div id="qunit-testrunner-toolbar"></div>
	<h2 id="qunit-userAgent"></h2>
	<ol id="qunit-tests"></ol>

	<!-- Any HTML you may require for your tests to work properly -->
	<div id="qunit-fixture">test markup, will be hidden</div>
</body>
</html>

Source javascript file:

function isEven(val) {
	return val % 2 === 0;
}

function startsWith(data, startsWithStr) {
	data = jQuery.trim(data);
	startsWithStr = jQuery.trim(startsWithStr);
	if(data) {
		return data.toUpperCase().lastIndexOf(startsWithStr.toUpperCase(), 0) === 0;
	} else if(data === startsWithStr) {
		return true;
	} else {
		return false;
	}
}

Sample test file:

$(document).ready(function(){

	module("startsWithTest");

	test('startsWith', function() { 
		ok(startsWith("ll-925", "ll-"), 'Starts with ll-'); 
		ok(!startsWith("ll-925", "xl-"), 'Does not start with xl-'); 
		ok(!startsWith("", "xx-"), 'Does not start with xx-'); 
		ok(startsWith(" xx-sdgj ", "xx-"), 'Trimming test: starts with xx-'); 
		ok(startsWith(" xx-sdgj", " xx- "), 'Trimming test 2: starts with xx-'); 
		ok(startsWith("", " "), 'Empty string starts with empty string'); 
		ok(startsWith("Mn-u59", "mN-"), 'Non case sensitive test'); 
//		raises(startsWith(foo, " "), 'Undefined test 1');  // undefined is obviously not considered a normal exception
	}) 

});

>> git repo for the source <<

Additional resources:

• QUnit tutorials
• API documentation

My father and his girlfriend’s family visited Gui Lin about a month ago.

Although the scenery was exceptional like you’d expect but his experience was far from it. Gui Lin is a cyclone for tourist traps. He shared some of his bad experience and they were so jaw dropping, I have to blog about them.

The Taxi
There is no meter on any of the taxi in that city. You bargain the price prior to your ride with the taxi driver and then s/he takes you to your destination. See a problem with this particular arrangement or lack of governmental enforcement of honesty? Well, he’s experienced it.

On the way back from a previous trip, my father inquired the average cab fare from his hotel to the dock for his next day’s cruise. The driver indicated around 60 rmb. The next morning, a different taxi driver wanted 80 rmb for the ride. My father did not give in since he thought the fare should be 60 rmb. The taxi driver instead of not agreeing to the ride, took the 60 rmb and dropped them off at a different dock than their actual desired destination. It took them a while to figure out they were at the WRONG dock since they were unfamiliar with the area. They were late for their cruise and had to spend additional fare in order to travel to the correct dock.

The Bamboo Raft Ride
A bamboo raft takes you down the stream of the river slowly by its current. My father had arranged a taxi to pick them up at the end of the trip. Although the price of the ride was advertised to include food, they provided inedible dishes on the raft so they could market other dishes for extra cost. There were various vendors who stationed at different locations down the stream. Some claimed the fish dishes were prepared with fish freshly caught in the river earlier in the morning. They charged a lot for them. My father and his girlfriend’s family did not purchase any. They were later dropped off at a dock in which they thought was the end of the trip. However, after a half hour wait for the taxi, my father called the taxi driver he paid for. The taxi driver informed my dad that he was dropped at the wrong location. The raft people dropped them off way prior to the end of the trip. My father was once more duped for exercising his right of not purchasing overpriced marketed tourist goods.

Gui Lin has been on my list of must visit places for a long time. Based on my dad’s accounts, I think I’m going to wait a little longer for that wish.