code/book 1.1: Great For the Confidence

It's nice to finish working on a project, to put it away for the day with a sense of accomplishment instead of one of frustration. These past three days, I've come away from working on Dashwar content in the notion that I had implemented all I desired. It's such a contrast from working on my other, bigger projects, where most days are ended due to a general feeling of fatigue, a hope that a good night's sleep and a bit of distance will present a bit of clarity or insight into the unyielding, ever-growing issues of the day.

It's strange, though. Regardless of  how I leave, whether in victory or defeat, I still feel the same yearning to get back to work. Instead of a thirst for revenge, a need to prove my domination over all that is code, I come back to Dashwar with an eagerness birthed from a sense of exploration. I've done this much so far, what else am I capable of?

Anyway, here's what great, new heights I've reached. Pretty modest, but I'm still pretty happy with my first efforts in JavaScript:

• Get User Info - The first thing I did was display the username, account type and score for the user.  Once I muddled my way through relearning how the DOM works (remember: firstChild), implementing the display was cake. Even displaying the profile image was easy.
• Display Games - Using the Headquarters XML file, I was able to get a list of all current games. I was able to make a scrollable list of games quickly, save for a view display problems. It seems that with all these elements with dynamically calculated dimensions, trying to refresh the scroll area when it isn't displayed isn't of much use (read: refresh when you show the front of the widget). Finding out why the thumb for the scrollbar wasn't showing up was most of my yesterday.
• Show Waiting Games - With a hit of F12 and a quick glance, I can see where my next turns need to be taken. Waiting games are highlighted in yellow and display the handy message icon that Weewar.com uses.

There are a few other, minor details (clicking a game name takes you to it, clicking your username brings up your profile, etc.), but the main points are there. Like I've said, I'm eager to get back to work on Dashwar, so I'll wrap this up with a little visual preview of the fruits of my labors.