Design Patterns

The Mudbug Media programming team regularly meets for “study hall” sessions in which we review important programming techniques and practices. Recently, we discussed the classic Design Patterns approach to software engineering. Design patterns are flexible templates for solving common problems in software design.

Many patterns are easily implemented thanks to standard code libraries, such as the JavaScript library jQuery, which we use frequently. The lazy initialization pattern, for example, is standard via jQuery’s $(document).ready() function—it delays the process of running the enclosed code until necessary. The observer pattern is made trivial thanks to .bind(), allowing objects to be notified automatically of changes in state. And the .each() method implements the iterator pattern, accessing every element of an aggregate object in turn.

Insightful Elements

How many times have you tried to Google every known element in time to Tom Lehrer’s “Elements Song” only to have your noble (gasses) effort derailed because Google wasn’t anticipating what you were going to type in next?  Well, your atomic wait is over.  Google Insight now knows what you are thinking before you do, and they’ve got the elements to prove it.

Marketing Physics

We’ve been keeping a sharp eye on the internet this week, scouring our browsers for any interesting tidbit, scrap of information, update, addition or new bit of code that we could pass along to you, loyal reader.  This week’s selection ranges from a TED talk about how lessons learned in the physics lab can apply to marketing tactics to Gmail updates and an awesome list of Photoshop files sure to mesmerize any designer.

After you enjoy all of these awesome links, Tweet, write on our wall or leave a comment below to let us know what you think.

Typography T-shirts

We’ve got typography inspired t-shirts, SEO blogs, the always-exciting field of qualitative web analytics and new jQuery animations to share with you this week.

Facebook and Foursquare

This week’s Link Roundup has a little bit of everything, from a demand for iPad font choices to the effects Facebook Places has had on Foursquare.

We want to know what you think.  Tweet, write on our wall or leave a comment below.