BTW, $ is a valid first character for a javascript variable (hence the popularity of $() and _() as library base function names) -- so why strip them out?

I've started rethinking about this lately since in many cases I still end up with an anti-DRY approach when I write forms that I want to validate both with JS and on the server side. Lately, I'm thinking using the server back-end and the jQuery metadata plugin to drop metadata necessary for the jQuery metadata plugin right into the DOM could get me most of the way there -- but it doesn't solve the duplication of logic problem. Code generation seems to do the trick here. Perhaps there's a niche for a metalanguage that could be used for calculations/validation callbacks that could be used by JS/PHP/Whatever?

I agree that my example is a pretty awful way to calculate sales tax (only 2 states? repeating the multiplication in the interest of not repeating code? wtf indeed.) but it's only there because it was the first thing I came up with when thinking of conditional math.

Anyway. What I would have done is store the sales tax information in an associative array (ideally stored in a database, but even in a hard-coded include would be okay for starters), and to have the PHP emit the same array's contents in Javascript format for the client side. It's not tricky, and it'd be much more efficient for both.

If you later need more intelligent logic (e.g. due to sales tax which varies by type of good - which does exist in many states - or some sort of progressive sales tax which varies by purchase price) then you'd need to update the logic on both sides, but as long as the logic is just a simple multiplication I don't see the problem with just replicating the parameters instead of the logic.

Also, TECHNICALLY that code isn't a polyglot - it's php code which can generate code in both php and Javascript. On the Javascript side it's not running the same code, it's running code which was generated by a trivial "code generation" engine.

So how nerdy was the proposal? Did public key encryption, binary code, or concentration play any part?

My dad grew up in Detroit, and my mom in Grosse Pointe, just across Alter Road; we wandered around Detroit a bit last year, and both of them said that this was the first time in their lives when they could say Detroit looked like it was doing better than the previous time they were there.

I find it somewhere between depressing and infuriating how out-of-touch the metafilter thread is. Nothing that will guarantee Detroit's demise - and from there Michigan - faster than willful denial of the good things that are actually happening. Yes, life has been rough for 30 years, but that's no excuse for pooping on anything good that's happening.

Sigh.

keep those trades coming!

I know we haven't officially met, but SXSW would be a good opportunity, right?

I'm still working out my schedule and will let you know if I find anything really special. The list is so long... :)

So instead of the hotel, i'm gonna go the riskier "Rent an apartment from someone" route. The new place i plan on staying is just a bit off of South Congress road, so grabbing the bus or cab to go a few miles north should be super easy! Couch is available in the living room.

Woodward at S. Congess The streetname will feel like home.

Stupid UI makes me cry. I plan on attending a bunch to do with User Interfaces, games, and every party that sounds cool. So far, there is only 2 clones required to achieve this.

Also, everyone seems to be hyping Tacos.