Regular Expressions, Reverend Jim Ignatowski and You

Regular Expressions

I use regular expressions just often enough to have to totally re-learn them every time I need to use them. After a round of Google searches, reading over a few good regex sites (here’s one) and a bit of head scratching and code tinkering I end up with the code I need.

In this particular case I needed append a variable with punctuation in cases where the variable ended in an alphanumeric character. Regex to the rescue!

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<cfset variables.question = "what does the yellow light mean" />
<cfif ReFindNoCase("[a-zA-Z0-9]$", variables.question )>
     <cfset variables.question = variables.question & "?" />
</cfif>
<cfoutput> 
     #variables.question #
</cfoutput>

Reverend Jim Ignatowski

This has nothing to do with regular expressions, but it’s a classic moment from Taxi.

You

The next time you need some regex help you may want to check out http://www.regular-expressions.info. If you have any good regex tips or sites leave them in the comments below. As usual, spammers will be shot on site.

I’m Just Sayin’: Firebug Break Points Are Cool

http://getfirebug.com/doc/breakpoints/demo.html

Firefox Add-Ons

I’m into my first week at my new job and I’ve been spending some time getting my workstation setup.  This task includes getting Firefox installed and adding some key Add-Ons.  Here’s my list…

• Adblock Plus
  http://adblockplus.org/en/
  Blocks ads!  ‘Nuff said!

• CF Debug Copy
  http://cfdebugcopy.riaforge.org/
  The days of copying, pasting and reformatting ColdFusion queries are over.

• FaviconizeTab
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3780/
  Allows you to reduce the size of your tabs to just the icon.

• Firebug
  http://getfirebug.com/
  Firebug is a software developers best friend.  I also reccomend the ColdFire extension for Firebug ( http://getfirebug.com/wiki/index.php/Firebug_Extensions#ColdFire )

• FireFTP
  http://fireftp.mozdev.org/
  A decent FTP client that runs in Firefox!

• FireShot
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5648/
  Creates screenshots of your web pages.

• TinyMenu
  https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1455/
  Collapses the text menu row into a single icon that says ‘Menu’.  Fight toolbar bloat with this add-on.

Hopefully you will find some of these helpful.  Have I missed anything cool?  Please post your favorites in the comments section.  Cheers!

UPDATE
August 2nd, 2010

Two Firefox Add-Ons that every web software developer should have are The Firefox Accessibility Extension and Total Validator

CFUnited

It’s hard to believe, but this year’s CFUnited will be the last. I had a chance to attend CFUnited a few years ago and found it to be fun and inspiring.

I urge my fellow ColdFusion developers to take advantage of CFUnited this year (while it’s..sniff…still here).  As always the speaker and topic lineup is top notch.

The Strategy Pattern

I’ve read and coded my way through the first chapter of Head First Design Patterns and enjoyed working with the MiniDuckSimulator sample. The author(s) make a good case for favoring composition over inheritance. I look forward to understanding this concept on a deeper, actionable level as I continue onto Chapter 2. I’ve included some (but not all) of my code from Chapter 1…

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/* 
MiniDuckSimulator.java
creates a new instance of MallardDuck and ModelDuck 
and demonstrates the different behaviors of each
*/
public class MiniDuckSimulator{
	public static void main(String[] args){
 
		System.out.println("-- new MallardDuck instance...");		
 
		Duck mallard = new MallardDuck();
		mallard.performQuack();
		mallard.performFly();
 
		System.out.println("-- new ModelDuck instance...");		
 
		Duck model = new ModelDuck();
		model.performFly();
 
		//		now he can fly!
		model.setFlyBehavior(new FlyRocketPowered());
		model.performFly();	
	}
}

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/* 
MallardDuck.java
a duck that has wings and can quack
*/
public class MallardDuck extends Duck{
 
	//	constructor
	public MallardDuck(){
		quackBehavior = new Quack();
		flyBehavior = new FlyWithWings();
	}
}

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/* 
ModelDuck.java
a duck that cannot fly
*/
public class ModelDuck extends Duck{
 
	//	constructor
	public ModelDuck(){
		flyBehavior = new FlyNoWay();
		quackBehavior = new Quack();
	}
}

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/*
FlyBehavior.java
the interface!
*/
public interface FlyBehavior {
	public void fly();
}

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/*
FlyNoWay.java
implements FlyBehavior
*/
public class FlyNoWay implements FlyBehavior{
	public void fly(){
		System.out.println("I can't fly :(");
	}
}

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/*
FlyRocketPowered.java
implements FlyBehavior
*/
public class FlyRocketPowered implements FlyBehavior{
	public void fly(){
		System.out.println("I'm flying with a rocket");
	}
}

Diving Head First Into Head First Design Patterns

Over the last few days I’ve been sinking my teeth into Head First Design Patterns. I’m really enjoying both learning about Design Patterns as well as slinging some Java code.