Raimund Meyer's personal blog

JavaScript clone object

Since I did not easily find a good all browser, all kinds of object cloning funtion on the net, here's my one

function cloneObject (obj)
{
  if ( !obj )
  {
    return null;
  }

  // check for function, RegExp, and Date objects, and non-object types
  if ( typeof obj != 'object' || obj instanceof Function || obj instanceof RegExp || obj instanceof Date)
  {
    newObj = obj; // just copy reference to it
  }
  else
  {
    var newObj = (obj instanceof Array) ? [] : {};
    for ( var n in obj )
    {
      var node = obj[n];
      if ( typeof node == 'object' )
      {
        newObj[n] = cloneObject(node);
      }
      else
      {
        newObj[n] = node;
      }
    }
  }

  return newObj;
};

var x = {a: 1, b : "OK", c : /test$/, d: [1,2], e : {a:'OK'}, f: function(arg){alert(arg)}};
var y = cloneObject(x);

alert(typeof y.a +': '+y.a);
alert(typeof y.b +': '+y.b);
alert('RegExp: ' +'true: '+y.c.test("test") + ' false: '+y.c.test("testx"));
alert('Array: ' + y.d.join(' joinedWith '));
alert('Object: ' + y.e.a);

y.f('Function: OK');

function myClass(a, b)
{
  this.prop = 'Custom Class method call: OK';
}

myClass.prototype.func = function()
{
  alert(this.prop)
}

var t = new myClass();
tClone = cloneObject(t);

tClone.func();
alert('instanceof myClass: ' + (tClone instanceof myClass)); //unfortunately this does not work

Javascript class inheritance

I always believed there was no such thing as class inheritance in Javascript. As I'm just working on a rather large Javascript application I thought I might well use a derived class an discovered that there is really a way to do it.

function a()
{
	
}

a.prototype.propA = 'Hello';

a.prototype.methodA = function()
{
	this.thisPropA = 'World';
}

function b()
{
	a.apply(this, arguments);
  this.methodA();
	this.thisPropB = 'works!'
}

b.prototype = new a();
b.prototype.propB = 'It';
b.prototype.method2 = function()
{
	alert(this.thisPropA + ' ' + this.propA + ' ' + this.propB + ' ' + this.thisPropB)
}


o = new b();
o.method2();

To inherit from one class, you have to assign an instance of it to the protopype of the derived class. It seems not very explicit, but it works as expected. To call the parent constructor you have to use its apply() method to execute it in the this-context of the derived class.

JavaScript Array sort function for umlauts and numbers

Array.prototype.jsCoreSort = Array.prototype.sort;
Array.prototype.sort = function(comparisonFunction)
{
	if(typeof comparisonFunction != 'function')
	{
		comparisonFunction = function(a, b){
			if (typeof parseInt(a,10) == 'number' && typeof parseInt(b,10) == 'number')
			{
				return parseInt(a,10)-parseInt(b,10);
			}
			else 
			{
				if (typeof a != 'string') a = a.toString();
				var r = function (str){
					str = str.toLowerCase();
					str = str.replstrce(/ä/g,"a");
					str = str.replstrce(/ö/g,"o");
					str = str.replstrce(/ü/g,"u");
					str = str.replstrce(/ß/g,"s");
					
					return str;
				}
				a = r(a);
			
				if (typeof b != 'string') b = b.toString();
				b = r(b);
			
				return(a==b)?0:(a>b)?1:-1;
			}
		}
	}
	this.jsCoreSort(comparisonFunction);
}

Thanks to http://www.brain4.de/programmierecke/js/arraySort.php for the comparison function

Compiz Fusion and two monitors

If you have two monitors on a nvidia card and want to enable desktop effects, use TwinView and not Xinerama!

Open images in Photoshop in Linux with wine

I'm glad that it's possible using Photoshop in Linux, but the lack of desktop integration is so irritating. Placing this script in /usr/bin as photoshop makes it possible to open images with double click or context menu

#!/bin/sh
wine "C:\Programme\Adobe\Photoshop CS\Photoshop.exe"  "`winepath -w $*`"

And don't forget to make it executable:

chmod +x /usr/bin/photoshop

Use Xinha instead of HTMLArea in Serendipity

Just installed Serendipity and saw, omg, they use HTMLArea. Of course I instantly uploaded Xinha in the very htmlarea folder and voilà, works like a charm. Very content with backward compatibility