Released pyramid_assetgen package.
I’ve released a Python package called pyramid_assetgen that helps integrate Tav’s Assetgen static build tool with the Pyramid web application development framework. As the docs say:
Using it allows you to code in languages (like CoffeeScript and SASS) that compile to JavaScript and CSS, swapping between a refresh-the-page-to-see-changes development environment and an optimal HTTP caching production setup — without ever having to change any of the code in your Pyramid application.
Filter by Proximity, Sort by Most Recent
This post is about a user interface pattern, a common use case for it and an example implementation. The pattern is adding an extra dimension to a timeline. The use case is showing results that are both recent and nearby. The example implementation uses a slider widget and an adequate-result-volume algorithm.
When you have 1000 messages and you want to prioritise the best 50 to display, sort is the most common pattern. If the user is interested in the latest messages, sort by most recent. If they want to see the messages other users found interesting, sort by a metric like views or rating. However, the web is increasingly about real time data. Developers are processing streams and modelling tubes instead of tables. It rarely makes sense to display real time data in any order apart from most recent. So, what do you do when you want to prioritise by another dimension, like proximity or rating?
Catching Up
I haven’t posted in a fair while. Partly because I’ve been busy with work. Partly because I’ve been working on weblayer.
The office has been busy on http://openideo.com and its offshoots. I’ve been managing the redesign and redevelopment of a major NGO’s websites and working on a financial startup on top of the usual load of proposals and whatnot.
weblayer is firmly in the Quixotic tradition. Yet another WSGI framework in a world of WSGI frameworks. So why do it? Well, proposals and whatnot are good so far as they go but a developer has to keep his hand in.
